CHAPTER TWO
Sebastianos
“Why the hell are we here again?”
I scowled at my assistant and friend, pissed that Nathanael had brought us to this damn dump. With only three more days left in America, being in some dive Chinese restaurant turned bar wasn’t exactly how I wanted to spend my time.
He tapped the bar/restaurant’s logo. “Green Dragon… get it?”
Even though I was still mildly annoyed, yeah, I got it. Nathanael and I had been friends since before we were allowed to wear pants, both of us running through the palace gardens back home, wearing knee shorts, fighting fake dragons with paper swords.
Home was Cassia, a small monarchy that members of my family had ruled for over two hundred years. As the king’s nephew, I should have been third in line to the throne behind his adorable daughter, my cousin, our Crown Princess Penelope, but when my father passed away unexpectedly, I was thrust into the power position of being second in line.
“You’re an idiot.”
Nathanael smiled and popped a peanut in his mouth, grinning and chewing openmouthed while glancing over my shoulder toward the bar.
“I’m a genius, and you know it.” He winked at someone behind me. “Stop acting like you’re a hundred years old and live a little. That cute girl at the bar keeps looking your way.”
I ignored him, even though the memory of the pretty brunette made my cock twitch with interest. But dammit, I didn’t have time to play, especially in a place so shady.
“Anything from home the past couple of days?”
It was Nathanael’s turn to scowl. “Seriously? Are you seriously not going to have any fun? We only have a few days of incognito left.” When I just stared at him, a subtle reminder that he was on my payroll, he rolled his eyes. “No, nothing that sounds like a genuine threat.”
I nodded, relieved. “Good.”
After recently retiring from the military, I would soon be taking up a new official post beyond just being the dashing Duke of Becktonas. When I returned to Cassia, I would be the official Lord Protector. I was still figuring out what the hell a Lord Protector really was or did, but from what I could gather, I would serve as head of state and council to Princess Penelope.
Although “protector” brought to mind security, I wouldn’t serve as her bodyguard. We had secret service teams assigned for royal protection. My role meant that it was now essentially my full-time job to see the young princess grow to assume the throne when she turned twenty-five. Just a few, short nineteen years from now.
“The dark-haired one is waving.”
I mentally scanned both women, although the one with the lighter hair was the one who caught my attention. “They both have dark hair.”
Nate looked at them more closely, not bothering to be inconspicuous. “Sorry, Your Grace. I meant the black-haired one is waving.”
I took a long drink of my beer, which was surprisingly good for such a place. “You know, I can still fire you, right?”
He popped another peanut, his smile growing wider. “Please do. Save me from this monotony. You were more fun when we played with swords.”
He wasn’t wrong.
Even though our monarchy was small, the expectations placed on me to prepare for the unwanted possibility of one day being king had been brutal, and over time, it felt like all fun and spontaneity had been schooled out of me. Maybe I did need to have a little fun before I returned to the rigors of my new role.
And that sweet little brunette at the bar would do quite nicely.
I’d noticed her right away. In fact, she’d nearly made me miss the step that led down from the bathroom hallway. At the time, I blamed the beer I’d been nursing. But even now, thinking of the way those eyes met mine, the promise in that lush mouth… yeah, she’d caught my attention, which wasn’t an easy feat.
“I like the brunette.”
“Then go get the brunette,” Nate said, the challenge in his voice obvious. “I’ll take the other two.”
I laughed. “Have fun. Text me in five minutes, which is about how long you’d last.”
Nate snorted, not offended in the least. His father was a baron with a modest amount of influence and wealth. Not enough to live inside the palace walls with the royal family, but just enough to have his son raised, and now work, among them.
Nate knew better than to challenge me, but that didn’t mean he didn’t. Being brothers at heart and at arms had forged our close relationship. We’d joined the Cassian Army together when we were eighteen, and though royalty, we’d trained with the men in the ranks and slept in the same barracks.
In the military, we both learned how to fight and did it well. And even when we tried to kill each other for any tournament wins, we always had each other’s backs.
“Go on.” He looked over my shoulder again. Then he frowned. “Watch out, someone is encroaching on your territory.”
That got my attention. More pissed off than I had any right to be, I turned and spotted two assholes approaching the women.
Every cell in my body stiffened as the brunette’s eyes met mine, just before one of the dudes stepped directly in front of her.
Help, her expression seemed to say.
I was on my feet in the next instant, barely hearing Nate ask me what I was doing. Three days left of freedom. Three days left to make my own agenda. While I was used to my days being scheduled for me, that ended right now. At least for tonight.
The two men had encroached on the women’s space, blocking them both from my view as I approached.
“Come on, sweetheart. Just one drink.”
“No, thank you,” came from one of the women while, “Fuck off, asswipe,” came from another. The third voice said, “Don’t make me kick your ass.”
I had no proof as to which said what, but I somehow knew that the sweet little brunette had been the kick-ass one. It just made me want her more.
“Ready for that dance?” I asked from behind the two men, causing all conversation in front of me to drop.
At six-six, I was nearly a head taller than the tallest of the two, and when they whirled to face me, it was amusing when they were faced with my chest.
I watched the two swallow, then their heads craned up, but I didn’t have eyes for either of them. It was her. Pale green eyes took up an extraordinary amount of her face. Cupid doll lips that were full, the bottom only slightly fuller than the top. And dimples. Damn, I loved dimples, and hers were two little indentations right on the apples of her cheeks.
She was beautiful and sexy, even in the oddly casual clothes she’d chosen for the club.
I glanced down at her shirt. Was that a llama?
In front of me, one of the two drunks must have had his ballsack descend a little bit because he got up the nerve to say, “Hey.”
I looked at them in turn. “It’s time for you to go.”
For a moment, I thought they might put up a fight, and for a moment, I wished that they would. The shorter of the two looked at his friend then up to me. “Hey, don’t want no trouble.”
“Then I suggest you leave.”
They looked at each other and fled.
The girl with the black hair and tiny dress slapped her thigh, laughing up at me. “That was priceless.”
The tiny blonde in an equally tiny red dress blinked up at me. She was more than a little wasted. “You’re really big.”
The girl with the long brunette waves falling around her shoulders blushed, her cheeks glowing a very pretty pink, highlighting the dimples even more. Then, she smiled. The simple action went straight to my cock. “Thank you.”
I already recognized her voice, and realized she was indeed the kick-ass one, just as I’d thought. Her tone was soft, but it held enough strength to project over the music blaring through the speakers. She took a deep breath, and horny male that I was, my eyes dropped to her chest.
Over a sweet pair of tits was the llama I spotted earlier. The t-shirt was paired with running shorts and shoes. Had her coming here been a last-minute decision?
“Are you a llama fan?”
It wasn’t my best line if I was being honest, but I was so dumbfounded at the fact that this petite stunner had come to a nightclub in gym clothes and a cartoon llama on her shirt that all thoughts of being smooth flew out the window.
She looked down, and I caught the look of panic as she looked back up. Beside her, the dark-haired one snickered. “I told you that you should have just borrowed something of mine.”
The brunette gave her friend a gentle elbow in the ribs, but she didn’t look away from me. “Yes. Llamas have the cutest faces.” She sipped what appeared to be a fountain drink from her plastic cup. “Are you a fan too?”
Her question threw me off guard, and her friends were doing their best to hide their laughter.
“Of llamas?” I could hardly believe the direction the conversation was going. Why were we talking about llamas?
“Yes.”
I frowned, looking back at Nate who was still in the booth, as if he could help me.
“I’ll be perfectly honest here,” I said, grinning now that the game was afoot. “I’ve never had the honor of meeting a llama. But I like your shirt. My name is Seb.”
Hoping I’d just maneuvered us around the strangest topic of conversation ever, I relaxed a bit when she shook my hand. Her handshake was just like her… soft yet strong. The connection of our hands was extraordinary, like the connection of two batteries in parallel, and I felt the energy surge straight to my balls.
“I’m, um… Ana,” she said and looked at her friend, who frowned in return, then shrugged. “And you’re missing out, Seb. Llamas are amazing.”
Her dark-haired friend blew out a breath and laughed again. “She spent a summer in Peru and thinks she’s a llama expert now.”
Ana elbowed her friend again. I could tell immediately that they were close. She was closer to the dark-haired girl than the blonde.
“This is Jennifer,” she offered, and I shook the woman’s hand. “And Sela.” The blonde stumbled forward, and I caught her shoulders, pressing her back onto the stool. Yeah… the girl was drunk. Or it could have been the “fuck me” heels. Or both.
As I was settling Sela, Jennifer pushed herself even farther into Ana’s personal space to get closer to me, and I tensed. I wasn’t interested in her, but as I considered her possessive stance, I realized that Jennifer wasn’t interested in me, either. If I were placing bets, I’d say she was more interested in being a good wingwoman.
“My bestie here wants to have a one-night stand,” she blurted out, and Ana’s hand flew to her friend’s mouth as her eyes widened in horror.
“Jenn, shut up!” She pinched her friend’s arm and turned to me. “Ignore her.”
This had certainly taken a fantastic turn, and I motioned for the bartender to get another round. Jennifer and Sela ordered a fruity rum drink while Ana ordered something with vodka. I leaned over the bar and told the guy to make everything weak, especially the blonde’s.
By the time I’d ordered, Jennifer had moved out of range of Ana’s reach. She waved at someone, and when I turned, I saw Nate waving back. I lifted an “aren’t you coming to help me, asshole?” brow at him. He just grinned and lifted his glass to his mouth.
I wondered if I ever took the throne if I could bring back corporal punishment, possibly beheadings.
Jennifer moved beside me. “I’m serious, Seb,” Jennifer said again, louder now. “She needs a hookup tonight because she’s been celibate for almost a year. She needs to go out with a bang!”
The woman laughed at her own joke, but Ana looked like she wanted to kill her friend with her straw. Her cheeks pinkened even more, and much more interestingly, she didn’t deny it.
I scanned my memory, trying to bring up what “with a bang” meant in America. Although my native language was Greek, I was fluent in English as well as German, French, Latin, and Italian. I also spoke some Albanian, Dari, and Turkish and was working on learning more Russian.
While I spoke and wrote fluently in English, the idioms were sometimes lost on me. And I hoped that what I thought “go out with a bang” meant wasn’t true.
“Is it true?” I asked, searching Ana’s face for the truth.
She swallowed before answering, and I could see the internal battle going on beneath those strikingly pale green eyes. And there was also confusion. “Is what true?”
“That you want to go out with a bang?” I frowned and moved closer to her, lifting her chin so that she was forced to meet my eyes. “Does that mean you want to end your life?”
She looked startled, which gave me immediate relief. Her next words were the truth. “No… that doesn’t mean that at all.”
Beside us, the blonde laughed. “You aren’t from around here, are you?”
Jennifer laughed too. “In this particular situation, going out with a bang means to fuck. Have sex.” She lifted a finger, pointing it at her friend, who was giving her the ultimate stink eye. “Coitus.”
Ana planted a palm across her red face, seriously mortified now. “I’m going to kill you.”
Jennifer only shrugged. “Well, just clearing up a misunderstanding. Would you rather he think you were suicidal or horny?”
I couldn’t hold back my own laugh. I knew what horny was. Hell, I knew what horny felt like. I was absolutely feeling it now.
Ana took in a long, deep breath, clearly trying to muster some sort of calm. She lifted her chin, her cheeks still pink, and met my eyes. “In truth, ‘going out with a bang’ means that you want to close one chapter of your life in a good or exciting way.” Damn, her voice was sexy. “And I’m leaving the country in a couple days.”
“Two sleeps!” Jennifer stuck two fingers in my face for emphasis, and I found myself smiling. “Squeaks is leaving me in two sleeps.”
If it were possible, Ana looked even more horrified and shot her friend a dirty look.
“Squeaks?” I asked. I had to. The name was enough, but Ana’s reaction was unmistakable.
Lucky for me, Jennifer was far more intoxicated than Ana and filled me in.
“Squeaks is short for Pipsqueak because my best friend here is so adorable and small,” she said. “And she needs to get laid before she leaves town. And before her sugar house dries up and goes all moldy.”
I frowned at that. Sugar house?
“Sorry…” I scratched the stubble on my chin. “I’m obviously not from around here.”
“Where are you from? Your accent is adorable. Is it Spanish? It almost sounds like you’re from New Zealand, though. I can’t place it.” Jennifer was leaning on the bar, but before I could answer, Ana put her fingers to my mouth.
“No,” she said, and she was so close now that I could smell the fresh scent of her. Some floral shampoo that made me want to bury my face in her hair. “Don’t.”
I smiled and playfully bit the tip of her finger before she could pull it away. “You don’t want to know where I’m from?”
Ana, obviously braver now, shook her head. “No…” She licked that full bottom lip, and I swore my dick swayed with the movement. “If we end up, um…” Her cheeks pinkened again.
“Going out with a bang,” I supplied.
She laughed, and I thought I might do almost anything to hear the sound again. “Yes. That. And if we do, I really don’t want to know anything about you. Just a pleasant memory before my new chapter begins. No offense, Seb.”
No offense was actually taken, though this was a first. Women in Cassia and most of the European continent went to extreme lengths to know as much as they could about me in hopes of a repeat invitation to spend the night in my bed. And here Ana from San Diego didn’t want to know a single detail. Interesting.
“None taken,” I replied. I looked back at the small dance floor and noticed it was all but empty. “Care to dance?”
I held my hand out in a silent challenge, knowing just from the way she’d dressed that she hadn’t expected to dance tonight, even if she’d been interested in… I smiled… coitus.
Ana, with her shiny mahogany hair falling down to the middle of her back and a smattering of freckles across the bridge of her nose, studied me a moment with those hypnotically pale eyes. If I had to guess, she was questioning herself as to whether or not she had the nerve.
“Love to,” she finally said, and I tried not to look too pleased. But damn, I was happy she said yes.
The song was up-tempo enough that it wasn’t awkward, but it definitely had enough rhythm that we were close and swaying into each other, and it took all my willpower not to pull her closer to me.
She smelled delicious, the floral mixing with something like vanilla and cotton candy, and it was all I could do not to sniff the top of her adorable head. If I could have reached her head.
Jennifer was right. Ana was definitely small — maybe five-foot-and-a-little-change. Not much more than that. Squeaks was an adorably appropriate nickname for her.
I shot Nate a warning look and pointedly glanced over to the other women. He knew what he had to do as a wingman. He didn’t give me much attitude about walking over to keep Ana’s friends company, either, as I suspected he’d noticed both Jennifer and Sela’s pretty faces and curves.
Ana and I danced. We danced and laughed at how badly we danced at times. I got just enough of a feel of her body against mine to know that I wanted to know her more. Much more. When we were finished dancing, she grabbed my hand and pulled me back toward the bar. Jennifer noticed and raised an eyebrow at our joined hands.
Ana gave her a shrug while Nate ordered shots.
“Should we play a few rounds of Thalosia?” Nate asked, pulling his lucky dice from his pocket. He never went anywhere without them.
The blank stares from the women prompted me to explain. “We roll a die and have to act accordingly. It’s an army game we learned living in the barracks, named after some general or something.”
I explained the rules while grabbing a tall glass and dumping one of the shots in it. Rolling a one meant no play and the dice was passed to the next person. A two meant we added another shot to the glass and passed the dice. A three meant the player had to drink the glass. A four meant the players all had to yell “Thalosia” and point to the ground — the last one to do so drank the glass. Rolling a five required another roll. If another five was rolled, the player could make anyone drink. A six was no play, and the die was passed.
“I think I have it,” Jennifer said with a nod as she set a shot in front of Ana, then the rest of us. “You start, handsome.”
She was talking to Nate, who I swore blushed. Amateur.
Nate rolled a two, so he added his shot to the glass and passed the die to Jennifer. She rolled a four, prompting Nate, Sela, and me to yell “Thalosia” and point at the ground. Jennifer recovered the quickest, and while she didn’t quite say the word right, she did point to the ground before Ana even registered what happened.
“I have to take a double shot, don’t I?”
We all nodded, and I saw her eye the glass warily.
“Bottoms up, Squeaks,” Jennifer cheered, and Ana took the shot like a champ, wiping her mouth on the back of her arm when she was finished.
“Gross,” she said as she shuddered at the taste of whatever Nate had just bought. She smiled then, and it felt like the room lit up from her stool. She was a little shy and nervous, but Little Ana Pipsqueak was coming out of her shell, and I was determined to help her go out with a bang. Maybe several times.
Before this could go on much further, I pulled Ana aside and leaned down to whisper in her ear. “Before you drink too much, I need a sober answer.”
She pulled back, and pale green eyes blinked up at me. “Answer to what?”
“Is it your wish to sleep with me tonight?”
She swallowed but lifted her chin, her hands moving to my forearms. “Yes. I would like that very much.”
I grinned, happier with her answer than I had any right to be. “Then let’s continue to play.”
We only did three more rounds, with Jennifer losing two and Nate losing one. Sela had taken off with some guy she clearly already knew. It was starting to get late, and I saw Ana check her phone. Nate was checking his phone too, frowning.
Shit.
“What’s going on?” I asked Nate, and instead of answering, he handed me his phone. I relaxed a little when I saw it was nothing urgent, just the Italian army asking us to visit and work through a scheduled training.
“Confirm it,” I told Nate, handing the phone back. “Let’s see if we can go there before heading home.”
Nate grinned. “Give yourself another week’s reprieve?”
I nodded. My friend knew me well.
“Well,” I said to Ana, who was looking at me curiously. “What do you say? Call it a night or head back to my hotel?”
I was being blunt, and we both knew it, but I wanted to give her one last chance to say no.
Jennifer giggled beside her and gave Ana a giant hug before motioning to Nate. “Share a taxi?” she said, and Nate glanced over at me. I nodded, and he took Jennifer’s hand, and within moments, they were gone.
Soon, Ana and I were standing face to face.
“Your call,” I said as I paid the tab. Now that she was alone, I wanted to make sure this was what she wanted without the pressure of her friends making the decision for her. “I can put you in a taxi and have you home in ten minutes if that’s what you want. Just say so.”
Ana was playing with the corner of a paper napkin on the bar in front of her.
“Not that I owe you any sort of explanation, but I’ve never done something like this,” she said quietly, and I waited. When she looked at me to contribute to the conversation, I gave a guilty shrug.
“Single guy in the military for fourteen years,” I said. “It’s happened a time or two.”
Or twenty. I had fun in my twenties, I couldn’t deny it.
She didn’t seem judgmental, though, and just nodded. She was thinking things through.
“Is it weird?” she asked. “Just getting naked with a stranger?”
Her question caught me off guard, and I laughed. “Weird? No.” I rolled a lock of her hair around my finger, watching the light play off the strands. “Not if there’s plenty of chemistry.”
She seemed unsure, so to satisfy both of our curiosities, I leaned forward and grasped her chin between my thumb and forefinger before placing my lips on hers. And while I’d planned to give her a slow kiss, the damn thing almost immediately took on a life of its own.
Tongue and teeth and lips collided, and I was soon drowning in her taste, the feel of her pressed against me. My hands found her hair, pulling her head back to give me better access while her fingers fisted in my shirt.
The music changed, a reminder that we weren’t alone.
Very slowly I lifted my head and looked down into her lovely face. Her full lips were glistening and puffy now from mine.
“Chemistry.” I would have said more, but it was like my erection consumed all of my blood flow and my head couldn’t put more words out there.
“Wow. Yes, chemistry.” The words were barely a breath. Then she grinned. “How far away is your hotel?”