So, that’s who was at this thing with us. Real, famous royalty. And there we were in stolen gowns, with fake invitations, looking like we had no idea how we’d even ended up there.
“I’m, uh, I’m going to go find us some drinks, okay?”
I nodded, my spirits sinking by the second. “Yeah, sure.”
“Maybe we’ll…” Vi frowned behind her mask. “This could be a quick night out.”
I laughed nervously. “Yeah, might be."
“One drink, okay?”
I nodded as she squeezed my hand and then disappeared into the crowd.
I turned and looked around the huge ballroom, taking in all the finery and fully realizing how out of place I was here. Yeah, one drink, and then we were going to floor it back to my familiar basement, switch into comfy PJs, and watch some dumb romance movies or something.
The crowd suddenly parted in front of me, and when I looked up, I just froze.
There he was.
There, across the room, sitting up on a smalls stage in a golden throne, was King Rian himself. I felt the heat explode through me, my skin tingling and my breath catching as I looked at him.
God he was beautiful. And suddenly, all of my dirty little daydreams and nighttime fantasies of the last week came rushing back. I blushed, remembering every sordid detail of my fever-dreams — him touching me, and kissing me, and tearing my clothes off. And here he was — my fantasy come real, sitting across the room from me.
A beautiful girl in a gorgeous, flowing purple gown that looked like it was made by fucking fairies stepped up towards him, and I felt something inside of me tighten. I felt my lips purse together, my eyes narrowing, and this bitter feeling wash over me as he shook her hand.
Good lord, what was I, jealous? This man was a King for crying out loud. And one that was throwing a ball to choose a queen. Of course he was talking to beautiful women far more elegant than me. And suddenly, I had to remind myself that this man was my fantasy, not my freaking boyfriend of anything.
I blushed, cringing at my own silliness. And I was about to turn away, when suddenly, he looked up.
Whoa.
His piercing blue eyes looked right past her, right over the whole crowd, and hit me like a bolt of lightning through the heart. I froze, heat flashing through me, unable to look away from him even if I’d wanted to. And I didn’t. In that moment, I never wanted to look away from those eyes.
King Rian suddenly stood, and the gasp caught in my throat. His eyes stayed locked on mine, and he started to move, walking down the stairs of his stage, the crowd parting in front of him as he walked right for me.
It felt like I was frozen to the spot under that heated gaze — my legs unable to move, my heart beating a million miles an hour in my chest, and my skin buzzing with a sort of static charge. My breath came heavy, the heat pooling inside of me as my fantasy walked, well, right out of fantasy and right towards me.
And then, of course, I panicked. Suddenly, all I knew was that I was a fraud. I was a phony, and he knew it. This wasn’t my fantasy man coming over to sweep me off my feet. This was the very powerful King himself storming over to demand how I’d broken into his ball.
I turned, and I ran.
I ran blindly, fear and adrenaline pounding through my veins as I bolted from the ballroom. I made the first right, pelting down a darkened hallway before darting down another, and then another. I wasn’t thinking, at all. My only thought was that I was about to get caught, and if I could only escape him, and hide out before finding Vi, I could maybe make it out before—
I rounded a corner and gasped as I came up hard against a big, locked wooden door.
Shit.
“Stop.”
I gasped softly, freezing at the sound of his deep, dark, masculine voice right behind me in the darkened hallway.
“You.”
Hjs voice softened, and I panted, my whole body buzzing with a mix of fear and excitement. Slowly, biting my lip, I turned.
There he was. King Rian, mere steps away from me. I swallowed, my face burning hot as he took a step closer.
“Me?” I whispered hoarsely.
“You,” King Rian growled lowly. He moved even closer, and I felt my pulse quicken, my tongue darting out to wet my lips.
“What’s your name, beautiful?” he said softly, coming to a stop right in front of me.
“Why?” My father’s defiance came snapping out of me before I could stop myself. And for a second, I wanted to just melt through the floor right there, but slowly, a smile crept over Rian’s perfect lips.
A very hungry, very captivating, very panty-melting smile.
“Why?” he growled, his blue eyes flashing fire into mine. He moved right into me, and I gasped as I took a step back and found myself pressed against the locked door.
“Because I want to know how it sounds with the word Queen in front of it.”
He leaned in, everything froze, and he kissed me.
And the whole world exploded.
He kissed me deeply, fiercely, melting into me until I lost track of everything else. His hands slid up my sides, holding me by the hips as he groaned into the kiss, his mouth claiming mine until my head was spinning.
This wasn’t fantasy, this was real, and I never ever wanted it to stop.
I kissed him right back with everything I had. If this was a dream, or a trick before he had me arrested for breaking into his party, then so be it. But I’d be damned if I wasn’t going to lose every part of me in that kiss first.
Slowly, he pulled away, both of us panting and breathless, our eyes locked and our cheeks flushed. I could feel the lingering bruising heat of the kiss still tingling through my lips.
“Where the hell have you been?” Rian growled quietly, his hand coming up to cup my jaw as his eyes searched mine through my mask.
“When?” I breathed, swallowing thickly.
His held mine, and he leaned in again.
“For the entirety of my life.”
Our lips crushed together again, and right then, I knew I was lost.
Beautifully, agonizingly lost.
Chapter 4
Rian
She tasted like heaven and moaned like hell when I kissed her against that door. Fuck did I want her.
I was addicted to those soft, pouty lips in one second. Fuck, I wanted them on my lips always. I wanted her lips gasping in pleasure. I wanted them wrapped tight around my cock as I pumped my cum across her tongue.
I wanted everything about her too — not just to claim her. Not just to fuck her against the wall like a demon until she screamed my name and scratched her desire into my back. No, I wanted all of the entirety of her. Whoever she was, she was mine.
“Where the hell have you been?” I groaned incredulously as I managed to pull away from her. My hand cupped her face, her big green eyes blazing into mine from beneath her golden mask.
“When?” God damn, her voice was like silk across my ears. Like a little spark of flame that ignited something inside of me. Her voice made my blood run hot, and my cock ache against the confines of my suit pants.
“For the entirety of my life.” I let my lips crash into hers again, sating the desire to taste her again, and to feel those moans vibrate through my mouth. I kissed her again, and anything else in the world fell away. None of it mattered. Not the ball, not the pressure to find a bride. Not the strains of being King, and running a whole kingdom. Not the scars of my past — my parents’ death, my time in the service, or the attempted coup that’d left scars across my country and real scars across my skin.
That part had never made the papers.
The attempted bombing and the plot behind it had been the showcase those years before, when I was a new king. I’d kept it hidden, but I knew I shared something deep with my good friend Xavier and his wife, Lola. Xavier’s own ex-wife, Shana, had been part of that plot to bring down our country and hurt children. So had Lola’s father, Lord Abington.
So had one of
my oldest and most trusted advisors — a man who’d all but raised me when my parents died. William had been family to me, up until the part where he’d stolen into my room the night the plot to blow up the children’s hospital was supposed to go through and tried to murder me. His knife had sliced me deep in the dark, and I’d managed to throw him off of me — half awake, half conscious from blood loss.
I barely remembered it, but I knew that after he’d fled, it was Tomilson of all people who’d chased him down the hallways of my castle and killed him, earning himself a permanent limp in the process.
Bu like I said, all of that faded away. For the first time in years, my mind went blank, and my thoughts focused on one thing and one thing only.
Her.
My mystery girl, panting against me with her back to my throne room door and the taste of her lips on mine as she pulled away breathlessly.
“You— this is crazy,” she panted.
“Who are you?” I growled fiercely, my blood roaring in my ears as I inhaled the scent of her.
“No one,” she whispered.
“I find that impossible to believe.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because you’re the most captivating woman I’ve ever met.”
She looked away, her face burning red and her lip catching between her teeth.
“You think that’s a line.”
Her eyes darted back to mine, piercing me to my core.
“Isn’t it?” she said quietly.
“I don’t use lines.”
“That also sounds like one.”
I grinned. This was a sort of fire I never saw in a woman. The women who met me, especially at things like that damn ball, tittered and tumbled over me. They twisted themselves into trying to be whatever they thought I wanted them to be, which was nothing I wanted. And yet standing right there in front of me was possibly the last honest girl in Bandiff.
No one had ever talked to me like this, and damn was it refreshing.
“You know who I am.”
She blushed. “Obviously. I mean, even if you were wearing a mask I’d know who you were.”
She blushed the instant she said it, looking away.
“What?”
“Nothing, that was…” She shook her head. “I should go.”
“The hell you should,” I growled.
She grinned shyly, biting her lip.
“Am I not free to go?”
“Not in the slightest,” I purred, the hunger rising in me as I shook my head. She grinned at me, this smile that burned right into me. My hands tightened on her, pinning her to the door as I groaned and leaned in to kiss her again.
“Tell me who you are,” I breathed against her lips.
“I can’t,” she whispered heatedly, whimpering as my lips brushed hers.
“I’m the King, I could command you to tell me.”
“You’re the King, you could do whatever you want—”
Her mouth snapped shut, her eyes going wide as the flush crept quickly over her cheeks.
And my cock throbbed.
“Oh now what were you about to say?”
“I—” She quickly shook her head. “I should be going.”
“Why do I doubt that?”
My hand slid around her waist, and when she instantly rolled her hips against me and pulled close, the fire roared inside.
She wanted me. And not in that throwing herself at me way that most women did that was such a turn off. She wanted me and didn’t want me to know that she wanted me, and fucking hell did that turn me on. It set me aflame, and I growled as I crushed my lips to hers again.
My hand fumbled in the dark for the little panel next to the door, and she pulled away from me in shock as I beeped in the code on the hidden access panel. The door unlocked with a sharp click behind her.
“What in the world…”
“In here,” I growled, taking her hand and pulling her after me into the pitch black room.
“Where’s here?” There was nervousness in her voice, but she followed willingly — eagerly, you might say. I closed the door behind us, and instantly, we were plunged into total darkness.
She gasped as I pulled up behind her, and when my lips found her neck, she whimpered into the darkness.
“Your Highness…” she said softly, sinking into me as I kissed my way up the soft skin of her neck. My hands slid up her sides, teasing over every rib, and just missing the side swell of her breast.
“Here is where we won’t be disturbed.”
I knew the room by heart, so when I reached out in the darkness to the wall, my hand found the switch I knew was there. Instantly, low, dim light glowed around the floor at the edges of the cavernous room.
My mystery girl gasped as she realized we were standing in my throne room.
“Your Highness,” she turned, her eyes searching mine. “I— this is incredible.”
I smiled. “I’m glad you think—”
“But I’m…”
She looked away, her lip catching in her teeth.
“What is it, angel?”
She turned to look at me. “I’m not that girl,” she said quietly.
It hit me like a ton of bricks, knocking me out of it for a second before my eyes focused on her and my brow furrowed.
“You still think these are all lines,” I whispered quietly.
“We just met,” she whispered back. “And here you’ve got me alone in your throne room.”
“Because I don’t want what’s out there,” I growled. “I only want you, and I don’t want anything out there,” I waved my hand at the door we’d just come through. “I don’t want any of that to interrupt us.”
“Exactly,” she said quietly.
I shook my head. “You’ve got this wrong. You’re not that girl? Fucking good. I’m not that man. You read the papers I assume? Tabloids?”
She nodded.
“With all the shit they write about me, have you ever once seen something about me taking princesses off alone into dark throne rooms to have my way with them? Have you ever once even seen a piece about who I’m dating?”
She shook her head. “No.”
“Because I don’t. Because with running a country, I don’t have the time for frivolous women, or dating, or any of that noise. But you…” I swore under my breath as I pulled her close. “Fuck, Princess. You? I saw you and something fucking shattered in me.”
“I’m not a princess.”
“I don’t care who you are,” I hissed. “I just know that I want you. I know what I felt for you the second I saw you back there in that ballroom.”
Her cheeks flushed pink, her eyes searching mine.
“And I know you felt it too,” I said quietly. “I might not know you, but I know from that kiss that you’re not the kind of girl who does this. And I know damn well from that kiss that you felt what I felt back there.
“I don’t know,” she whispered.
“Yes you do,” I groaned, pulling her close. “Look me in the eye, angel. Look me in the eye and tell me I’m wrong. Tell me you didn’t feel it too.”
“I—”
“Tell me,” I groaned, my lips brushing hers. “Tell me you don’t still feel it.”
“I can’t do that,” she gasped quietly.
“And why’s that?”
“Because it would be a lie.”
This time, she kissed me. She kissed me, and my whole fucking world shattered around me.
Chapter 5
Rian
We fell into each other, tumbling across the dark room. She clung to me, moaning into my kiss as my strong hands lifted her up and into me. She gasped as I pushed her into the soft plush seat of my throne — all gilded gold and sumptuous red velvet. A throne fit for a king. Or a queen.
For my queen.
I kissed her fiercely as she sank back into the big chair, her arms still around my neck as I leaned over her, attacking her lips with mine.
“Tell me your fucking name,?
?? I groaned, losing myself in her.
“I can’t do that,” she whispered.
“I could command you.”
“You could always torture it out of me,” she teased breathlessly.
“Careful, angel,” I growled heatedly. “I might do just that.”
My mystery girl whimpered.
“That what you’re after, gorgeous? Me to tie you up and make you scream until you give in?”
“I—”
Her breath and her words caught in her throat, and her cheeks went red. She looked up into my eyes, her big green ones wide and full of heat.
“Maybe.”
“Maybe, or yes?” I groaned.
“Yes,” she whispered.
I groaned as I crushed my mouth to hers, my hands flying to my throat. Maybe she thought I was kidding, or teasing. I wasn’t, and it was time to see if this gorgeous, temping little angel was truly willing to submit to me.
I yanked my tie off, pulling it from my collar as I suddenly pushed her hands up above her head. She gasped wildly, panting, her breasts heaving against her thin gown. I growled at the sight of her hard little pebbled nipples pushing at the thin silk — a teasing, tempting little promise of what I’d soon be running my tongue over.
The silk neck-tie looped around her wrists and then around one of the gilded, golden, ornamental crowns atop my throne. She gasped as I pulled it tight, binding her wrist up above her head like that, tying her to my throne.
“Spread your legs,” I growled.
She moaned, panting heavily as she raked her teeth over her bottom lip.
“Oh God,” she whispered.
“Since you’re refusing to do names, you can just call me King, angel.”
“Yes, King,” she whispered heatedly, moaning quietly as I moved into her, my lips brushing hers.
Maybe I liked it like that. Maybe my crazy mystery girl was everything I’d been looking for. That she wasn’t giving in, or telling me her name was driving me crazy, but also wild. Igniting my blood, burning me fiercely.
That defiance to a man like me who never saw defiance had me on edge like I’d never been. It had my skin tingling, and my muscles clenching with the need to claim, tame, and devour.