Jessica Quincy had not just won the competition, she’d done something he hadn’t thought possible, she’d won his heart.
It was time to ask her to stay for good. Time to ask her to be mine.
CHAPTER NINE
Her hand in Ballasare’s, Jessica walked away from the car toward what looked like the ruins of an old castle. At first she thought he was taking her to the remnants of the building, but instead he led her down a small path to a garden nature had mostly reclaimed.
“I waited to bring you here because this place is important to me, and I have something to tell you,” he said.
She looked around, unsure what she was supposed to comment on and finally said, “It’s lovely, Ballasare, thank you. I have something I need to tell you, too.”
He led her to a stone in the middle of rampant tangles of vines. “Let me say my piece first. My brothers and I found this stone. We call it the Dare Stone. When we were young we imagined it gave us the strength of all the past princes of our island. Now it is a place to talk away from prying ears. No one outside of my brothers and me know about this place, but I want you to.” He lifted her hand and kissed the back of it. “If we are ever in danger and separated, this is where I want you to come. Either I will meet you, or if I’m not able, one of my brothers will.”
“Danger?” A chill went down Jessica’s spine. She studied his face. He wasn’t joking. “Who would we be in danger from?”
Ballasare sat against the large stone and pulled Jessica forward, between his legs. Her eyes were level with his. “I have something I want to ask you, but before I do there is a story I must tell you. It is one of two brothers who were each given worthless islands. Land without value. Not a reward, but a mockery.” He went on to tell her how Rubare Collina had fought off pirates to keep theirs. “My ancestors had a different problem. They fought against the bareness of the land and starvation of their people. Where our Collina cousins rose from violence to rule, my side of the family reached out to struggling peasants on the mainland and promised them a better life if they worked hard. Together they had tilled the land, grown their own food, and survived even when famine hit Europe. Generations later, those who had come from the mainland felt deeply invested in Rubare Virgina. They pledged their lives to protect my royal family and became powerful in their own right. Their influence spread to Rubare Collina until both islands were under their protection.” He pulled her closer against his chest. “Over time they began to consider themselves the keepers of our laws. They became watchdogs who saw themselves equal to those they protected. Above us, in fact. That is why some of our oldest laws are still enforced even when it comes to the royal family. The Arcano is a hidden army that strikes even against its own people. Those who take them on do not live long. We have lived in peace with them until recently.”
It sounded too horrific to be real, but the sadness in his eyes convinced her it was. “What happened?”
“Two things. Rubare Collina began to eradicate their Arcano, which made ours nervous. People have died on both sides of their war.”
“And?”
“And I chose an American woman. My father says they don’t approve. They’ve told him to forbid me to marry you. Two days ago he told them to go to hell.”
Jessica let out a shaky breath. “I can’t imagine they took that well.”
“They did not. I’m telling you this because I have fallen madly, selfishly in love with you. I want you here in my life, in my bed, by my side. I didn’t know my life was missing anything until you came into it. I wish I could simply abdicate my crown and take you far away from here where you would be safe, but my family is here. My place is here, doing whatever I need to do to keep them safe.”
“Of course,” Jessica said as she tried to wrap her mind around all he’d said. He’s in love with me? Selfishly in love with me?
He’s in love with me.
He’s fucking in love with me.
Me.
“I don’t know how bad things will get because we have never taken on the Arcano. Ours might prove more reasonable because we have had a better relationship with them, or they could try to kill us in our sleep.”
Jessica gasped.
He kissed her forehead. “The right thing to do would be to send you away. I brought you here with a lie, I should send you home with the truth.”
Jessica wrapped her arms around him. “I don’t want to go home.” You don’t get to say you love me and send me away.
He rested his chin on the top of her head. “You may not be safe here.”
She laughed without humor. “Have you watched the news from my country? There is danger everywhere.”
“Brave little Jessica.”
Not so brave. I still haven’t told you the truth.
“Do you love me?” he asked.
“I do,” she answered without hesitation. Theirs had been a wild, fast ride but she couldn’t imagine her life without him.
“Will you marry me?”
Oh, God.
Oh, God.
Oh, God.
Jessica raised her eyes to his and took a deep fortifying breath. “On one condition.”
He frowned, clearly not expecting that. “Yes?”
“One: we never lie to each other again. Two: you promise not to get killed, and three: if you don’t want to marry me after I tell you something you just say it. Don’t pretty it up. Don’t think you’ll hurt my feelings. If it’s a deal breaker, I want to know right away.”
He cupped her face between his hands. “That’s not one condition. For someone who is so good at math, you don’t add well.”
“I make my own rules,” she said in a tight voice as she gathered her courage.
“I know, and that’s one of the many things I love about you. What is it that you think would change my mind about marrying you?”
Breathing heavily, she said, “Keep in mind you just told me someone could kill me in my sleep, and that didn’t change my mind about being with you.”
Ballasare leaned closer until his face was just inches away from hers. “Woman, just say it.”
“I’m not a virgin,” she blurted out then closed her eyes.
His hands tightened slightly on her face then gentled. “Look at me.”
She half opened one eye to peek at him. “I tried to tell you, but there was never a good time.”
“Jessica.” He said her name as a command.
“It’s just that you were so perfect. So big, and gorgeous, and sexy. I knew I should have told you right away, but then you started introducing me to your family, and they were wonderful, too. And you were so good to me.” She opened both eyes and tried to read the expression in his.
“What do you mean you’re not a virgin? What about your blog? Was it all a lie?”
“No. It was true. I was a virgin. And then I slept with someone, and then I wasn’t anymore. That’s how it works. But I didn’t post that.”
“Who? Who were you with?”
“Some guy once. Just once. It was awkward and awful. And afterward he told me he was married. So, I’m a doubly awful person, right? I’ve been with someone, and he had a wife.”
Ballasare looked into her eyes for a long moment then gave her a long, tender kiss that brought tears to her eyes. Was he saying goodbye?
When he finally lifted his head a slow smile spread across his face. “I don’t care.”
“You don’t?”
He kissed her again, running his hands possessively through her hair as he did. “If you told me you loved him—today, now—that would be a deal breaker, and maybe that would make a difference to how I feel about you. I’d like to hunt that man down and feed him my fist for hurting you, but outside of that, it changes nothing. So, I’ll ask you again, Jessica Quincy, will you marry me?”
“Fuck, yes,” she said and threw her arms around his neck. Their kiss was deep and that of two lovers coming home to each other. It left them both gasping and shaking.
A s
low, lusty smile spread across his face. “You’re not a virgin.”
“We’ve covered that.” Her own smile was so wide it almost hurt. He doesn’t care. I didn’t lose after all.
“And I’m already going against the Arcano by marrying you.”
“Yes?”
With a hand on either side of her waist he lifted her up and threw her over his shoulder. “We don’t have to wait for our wedding night.” The tone was one she’d heard from him before. He was pleased with himself.
Dangling over his back as he strode from the garden, Jessica laughed and would have hugged him had that been possible. She had no idea where he was taking her, but every cell in her body was clamoring for him. The joy could not be contained. “I love you, Prince Ballasare Stephan Demande.”
He slapped her ass playfully. “Hang on, you’re about to love me more.”
Ballasare could have taken Jessica to a hotel or to his own palace, but he wanted to have her away from prying eyes. She would rule beside him with her head held high.
He strode through the opening of the castle ruins. The shell of the building stood solid and would allow them privacy. It had been a long time since he’d been in the main hall, but if he remembered correctly—oh, yes, there it is.
The stone throne.
He would have his queen there.
Stopping just before the throne, he lowered her ever so slowly back to her feet. There was no need to rush and the feel of her sliding down the front of him was enough to have him painfully hard and ready.
He removed his shirt and sat on the throne. He patted one of his thighs. “Right here, Jessica.”
Her lips parted in anticipation, and she didn’t hesitate as she climbed up to straddle him. The width of the chair allowed her knees to spread as she settled herself on him.
He cupped her face roughly, so full of love for her he was not sure he could be gentle. Virgin or not she deserved the best of what he could bring. “You will be my wife and on Virgina that is forever. If there is any doubt in you, tell me now.”
Her eyes misted. “If you truly love me, forever is too short of a time.”
He ran a thumb across her parted lips. “I didn’t think love like this was possible for me, but you are the answer to every question I didn’t know enough to ask. We will be formally married, but in mind we are one from this day forward. You are my family now. No one comes before you.”
She kissed him then, and he lost himself in the feel of her lips on his. Her hands caressed his chest and gripped his shoulders as he deepened the kiss. He made short work of removing her shirt and bra, eager to feel her bare skin against his.
Her breasts filled his hands as perfectly as he’d known they would. He leisurely circled them with his thumbs, teasing their hard nubs, all while kissing her. He used his expertise to excite her until she was writhing on his lap and moaning into his mouth.
One of her delicious hands slid down between them and began to caress his cock through the material of his trousers. His hands slid around, down her back, beneath the waistband of her pants and silk panties to grip her ass. God, she is heaven.
He kissed his way down her neck, taking time to worship all of her. He didn’t want to miss an inch. Kissing her collarbone made him even hungrier for those beautiful breasts of hers. He lifted her forward on him, replacing her hand with the heat of her crotch. She began rubbing against him while he took one of her breasts into his mouth.
He would spend the rest of his life telling her she was beautiful, but right then, he wanted to show her. He used his tongue and teeth to tease her even further. She felt so damn good that slowing down wasn’t easy, but he held himself tightly in check.
“Stand up,” he ordered, his voice hoarse.
She rose to her feet before him, bare chested and bold. “I want to see you.”
Without looking away, she removed the rest of her clothing and stood before him.
He stood and removed his own pants, allowing his fully excited cock to spring up between them. “You are fucking perfect,” he said.
Her eyes fell to his cock, and she murmured, “So are you.”
He dug a hand into the hair on the back of her head and hauled her against him. Impatiently he propped one of her legs up on the stone seat of the throne, spreading her wide for him. He sought her clit first with his hand, loving how wet she was. He rubbed her rhythmically until her clit was pulsing and hard for him, then he sank back onto the throne and bent to taste her.
She grasped at his back and shuddered. He savored her, adored her, then added his finger to the mix. He teased her folds, inserted a finger, and began to pump in and out while flicking his tongue back and forth over her clit.
He felt her orgasm rise within her. She tensed, cried out his name, and came while his finger continued to thrust. Only then was it his turn.
He lifted her above his eager cock and lowered her slowly down onto him. So wet. So tight. He almost came from the pleasure of it but again delayed his pleasure for hers. She kissed him wildly while he raised and lowered her on him. When he thought nothing would ever feel better than being deeply buried within her, she found her footing on the throne and began to meet his thrusts with those of her own.
It was a wild mating that took on a life of its own until he could no longer sit and let her set the pace. Holding her to him, he stood and moved until she was braced against the stone wall beside the throne. He fucked her then with a wildness he had no control over. She clawed at him, calling out his name again and again as he pounded into her. The taste of her kiss mingled with the taste of her sex on his lips, and when he came it was with an intensity unlike any he’d experienced. She swore in his ear as a second orgasm rocked through her.
Shaken, spent, and still buried within her, he laughed. “I could have saved us time and made this your first challenge.
“Could that ego of yours get any bigger?” she asked breathlessly with a sated smile on her face. She tightened her arms around his neck and pulled his face down to hers. “Not that I mind big.”
He laughed again and gave her perfect round ass a swat. That’s all it took for his cock to leap to life again within her. He shifted so she was better braced against the wall and began to move in and out of her, slowly, deeply until her eyes glazed with excitement again. “Tell me to fuck you. I want to hear you say it.”
“Fuck me, Ballasare.”
He thrust deeply into her.
“Say it again.”
“Fuck me.”
“Fuck me with that big cock.”
She laughed “I can’t say that.”
He held himself still inside her but teased her nipples with his mouth and hands. He kissed her neck, ran his hands over her legs, and gripped her ass. She shifted her sex against him impatiently but he continued his onslaught until she was gasping for breath. Then he whispered in her ear, “Say it.”
“Fuck me with that big cock,” she whispered, and he thrust upward into her. She went wild in his arms. “Fuck me hard. Get that big cock up there inside me. Do it. Cock me hard. Harder.”
He would have laughed if she didn’t feel so fucking good in his arms, going up and down on his cock. She wasn’t like any woman he’d ever been with, but she didn’t have to be. She was perfect just the way she was.
EPILOGUE
In what would be called the most rushed wedding in the history of Rubare Virgina, Jessica Quincy became Princess Jessica Demande a few days later. No one, not her parents who flew in for the ceremony, nor any of the royal family, seemed surprised. The knowing looks seemed to imply they all thought Ballasare had decided he could wait no longer to have her.
Neither Jessica nor Ballasare corrected them.
“Princess Jessica,” Simone said from beside her in a long limo. “You can say no. Simply because Ballasare has an idea doesn’t mean you must go along with it.”
“I know.”
They pulled up to the front of a large business building in the heart of the city. “
I will wait in the car for you.”
“There’s no need.”
Simone shook her head. “One day you will be queen. There is no need for you to work.”
Jessica leaned over and hugged Simone. “Ballasare says accounting has never been his family’s strong suit. He’s never pleased with how the reports are organized. He needs someone with a love of numbers and an understanding of what he likes. I can be that person.”
“A working princess. Are we to become Rubare Collina? Queen Reanna says she enjoys working. What is wrong with your generation? Don’t you want children?”
Jessica stepped out of the limo and smiled when she saw Ballasare waiting at the door of the building. Waiting for me. She turned and kissed Simone on the cheek. “I do want children, but I also want this. I want to be a good wife, a good mother, a good queen, but I need more. I need to be me, and Ballasare understands that.”
With him I am never ashamed of who I am. She thought about how easily his people had accepted her, possibly because Ballasare had given them little choice. The more she saw the responsibilities he’d been born into, from preparing himself to one day rule Rubare Virgina to ensuring that all of his people benefited from their island’s natural resources, the more she understood that he needed the confidence she’d once confused with arrogance. He wasn’t afforded the luxury of soul-searching for who he wanted to be. He had been handed an identity at birth. His duty was to be the strong ruler his people needed. It left little room for individuality, but Ballasare had another side to him.
The side he shares with me.
The Ballasare she knew gave children piggy back rides, laughed more than he frowned, and listened more than Jessica would have thought any prince would. He also tended to take her seriously even when she wasn’t. It was fun to see how far she could take their private jokes before he caught on. She smiled in anticipation of the one she had planned for that day.
Ballasare greeted Simone with a kiss to the cheek. “Will you be joining us?” he asked his aunt just before he gave Jessica a light kiss on the cheek as well.