My feet hurt. The thing was my feet always hurt. I was not destined for royal life. All I wanted desperately were my tennis shoes. But apparently, queens didn’t wear tennis shoes. I was going to talk to Sebastian about that because that was one stupid-ass rule. How about what you are doing, breaking all the other rules?

Yes, there was that, but I tried. I really did. I wanted to be what he needed in a queen while hanging on to as much of myself as possible. It wasn’t always easy.

As a matter of fact, my darling husband, the protector of my heart, was about to be royally pissed-off at me. He’d finally told me to get answers out of Robert in a sanctioned interrogation. But there hadn’t been much time to get any answers from him between the family meeting and the coronation, so I’d been trying to talk to him in transport.

“Robert, now is the time to tell me everything you know. When we walk into the judgment room, they’ll set the dates for your trial. There will be no walking away then. No time for pleas. So now is the time to talk.”

I needed to get some information out of him. Sebastian and Lucas were counting on me. Speaking of my husband, he was likely standing in the judgement box at that very moment, waiting for me. The judgement box was located just inside the courtroom and was where the reigning monarch could sit in on the major cases. He attended court from time to time, especially when the crimes involved his citizens.

“You can stop this. You’re the queen.”

I shook my head. “Nope. Only you can stop this. You have the letter from Michael. I’ve given you everything you’ve asked for. It’s time to tell me something useful, or a jury of your peers will seal your fate.”

The guards in charge of Robert nodded to me as I passed by. We’d arrived at the front of the courthouse, and they frowned as they bypassed the front entrance and instead headed for the side. Why were we going that way?

Robert shook his head. “Things weren’t supposed to go this far. This was not how my story was supposed to end. I’m a prince.”

“You could have been family, but you made bad choices, Robert. Tell me the truth now. It’s the last major decision you’ll be able to make for yourself. Do the right thing.”

The guards pulled him to the side entrance so it wouldn’t be a media circus with him walking through the front door. I followed along behind them until we reached the entrance, and we slid into the main courthouse. Once the doors were pushed open, I had to walk in front of him because as queen, no one was supposed to walk in front of me. Which was another stupid rule I planned to have a talk with Sebastian about. When I located my husband in the courtroom, his brows snapped down, and I could see his jaw muscles work. He was pissed. It was fine. He’d get over it. He could be as pissed as he wanted because it was too late now.

Behind me, there were two guards, and then two more, and then the final four holding Robert. I took two steps forward to sit in main gallery instead of sitting with my husband. But then I heard groaning, and someone shouted, “Fuck, stop him. Stop it. Stop it.”

I whipped around, and it was like one of those movies where everything was in slow-motion pandemonium. I whipped my head back around to make sure Sebastian was covered. His guards were on him like glue, forcing him down and shuffling him out the back.

I saw one of the hall guards heading my way. Tom, his name was? Something like that. But I wasn’t going down without a fight.

I ran. Not away from the fight, but into it. And I could only watch in sheer, stark terror as Robert sank to the ground, blood spurting out of his neck and his gut. “No. No. No.” I ignored the guards as they tried to block Robert from the onlookers. One of them took off after whoever had wielded the knife, and I fell onto Robert, my hands desperately trying to stem the bleeding. I applied pressure and glared at him. “You do not get to die on me. Not today.”

Somebody reached for me and put a hand on my shoulder. I grabbed it and twisted, lifting and popping it right off my shoulder., Then I put both hands back on Robert’s gut, trying to stop the bleeding. “Somebody call an ambulance. We need a doctor.”

It felt like an eternity. I was shouting orders. I was screaming. I knew it was a futile effort, but I had to try. Robert was the only one who could give us real answers.

Someone had stabbed him and just like that, my hands were covered in blood. And the one person who could help us, who could give us the answers we needed, lay dying in my arms.

From the far corner of the room, I watched my wife sleep. Thankfully, she was just sleeping. It could have been much, much worse. She could have been killed or seriously hurt. Anything could have happened to her.

With a rustle of the sheets, she rolled over and gave me a soft smile. “Sebastian?”

I shook unable to speak.

“You want to talk about it?”

I shook my head.

“You want to make love before we talk? I for one would really like that.”

Fuck, I wanted to. But I still couldn’t form any words that wouldn’t come out with a roar. I was too angry. Too terrified.

She pushed the sheets off, sauntering over in her midriff-baring tank and short shorts. She pressed a quick kiss to my forehead. “Okay, I’m going to grab a shower. Maybe you want to join me.” She continued on to the bathroom, and I heard the shower turn on.

I might have been frozen in my fear, but I still couldn’t help but turn to watch her walk away. Even with makeup smudges under eyes and her hair a wild tangle of curls, I wanted her.

I’d spent those harrowing moments at the courthouse not knowing if she’d be okay or not. I had almost lost her. Almost been doomed to a life of desolation and loneliness. In the blink of an eye, my queen, my Len, could have been gone.

All because she wanted to reclaim part of herself.

If I had trusted her, if she’d been open with me, could I have done more to keep her safe? A need to do some serious violence was still coursing through me. I needed to let the tension out before I could talk to her.

But I was also furious with her. How could she not tell me that she planned to accompany Robert’s transport team to the courthouse? The deal was that she talk to him. Convince him to talk. Not something like this. How could she keep putting herself in harm's way? It was like she had a death wish. Or didn’t care that I'd be shredded if something happened to her.

After all that, she was standing in front of me asking me to fuck her before we talked? Shit. I was so fucked up. But I needed her too. There was no way I was turning her down. I prayed I had the control she needed from me.

I followed her into the shower, ripping off my clothes with jerky stiff movements. When I opened the glass door and stepped inside, she didn’t even look surprised. In fact, she looked like she’d expected me to follow.

"Turn around." My voice still held the gravel of emotions unspoken.

She complied with no resistance, bracing herself against the wall, the shower spray soaking her hair. Water sluiced down her arched back, and her ass canted upward as if on offer from the gods.

With one swift step forward, my cock twitched against her, and I adjusted my hips so that I nudged her cleft.

My name came out of her mouth on a whisper, and she pushed back against me. I didn’t need the lube I kept in the shower. She was wet, slick for me as if she'd been waiting for me.

She moved her hips back a little further and my dick slid into her silken depths easily.

Home. Fuck.

Reaching around her body, my hand sliding down her taught belly, I slid my fingers into her slick folds, seeking her clit. When I found it, I pressed gently and rubbed circles with a slow, well-practiced precision.

"Oh, Sebastian. OhmyGod. OhmyGod. OhmyGod."

Her inner walls milked me tight as the blissful spread of my orgasm started in my toes, and I leaned into the release, desperate for it. Desperate to bond with her as always. But the more I chased the orgasm, the more elusive it became.

Gritting my teeth, I sank into her hard enough to make her gasp, and my fingers dug into her flesh, pinning her in place. I ripped another orgasm from her, never yielding on my motions over her clit.

"Oh God. Please Sebastian, I can’t take any more."

"Yes, you can," I growled through clenched teeth. She’d terrified me, and she was telling me she couldn’t take any more orgasms? Like hell I’d accept that. "Give me another one." But even as I insisted on pulling another one from her, I felt nothing. I knew there was no release waiting for me on the other side. The orgasm I'd been chasing had dissipated into thin air.

You almost lost her.

Closing my eyes tight, I pictured her smiling face as she danced around the living room. I thought about the way she chewed on her bottom lip when she was painting and the way she voraciously attacked food. And the fact that there was still almost always paint on her somewhere.

The problem was that thinking about all the reasons I loved her only made me harder, made me throb more. Made my skin tighter. Fuck. I forced myself to pull out, even as my cock protested.

“Sebastian,” she begged.

I dropped my forehead to her shoulder and kissed her. "Yes, Len?" The endearment slid off my tongue with ease. I reached over and grabbed the lube. It looked like I would be needing it after all. I wanted all of her tonight. Needed all of her. I had to find some way to erase the memory of what happened earlier in the courtroom.

Gently, I pressed a lube-slicked finger between the seam of her ass, rubbing it over the tight pucker and pressing slightly. She gasped at first, then moaned my name as my finger slid past the tight ring of muscle.

I was barely able to tear the words out of my throat. But I would rather die than hurt her. "You okay?"

Penny nodded even as her eyes fluttered closed. Neither of us spoke. Only the sound of the water hitting the tiles and our panting filled the silence. I readied her gently, taking my time, adding one finger, then another, stretching her. I was careful with her, even though I was way past the point of desperation.

“I need all of you tonight. After what happened—” Fuck, I couldn’t even say it to her. I just needed to feel like she was real. Like she was all mine. Lining my cock up to her now-slick asshole, I pressed. She tensed, and I stilled. The last thing I wanted to do was hurt her. When she turned her head to face me again, she bit her lip. The look of need in her eyes softened some of the hard edges driving me on, and I kissed her lips.

When she relaxed, her body softened, and the head of my cock slid in easily.

Fuuuck, that was good. Too good.

Reaching around her, I held on to her breast with one hand and stimulated her clit with the other. The tight grip of her ass on my dick hurtled me toward that release that I chased. But the deeper I sank into her, the harder the demons rode my back, taunting me.

She could have died.

I gritted my teeth and held her close. In the distant echo of my mind, I heard her chanting my name over and over and over again as I slowly fucked her ass. My body surged into hers, taking her, claiming her.

Her orgasm slammed through her, and I grunted when her body fisted around me like a vise, spasming around me over and over again as she rode the wave. Penny went limp in my hands. But my hard-on still raged, throbbing and aching and wanting more. With long, measured strokes I fucked her ass, barely keeping hold of the slippery grip I had on my control.

Her voice was soft when she called my name on a moan. "Sebastian. I love you. I love you." She repeated it over and over and over again, bonding me to her with her words until the control slipped right out of my hands.

With a grunt, I fisted one hand in her hair and intertwined the fingers of my other hand with hers on the wall.

She lowered our joined hands to her clit and we stroked together. I followed her lead happily and reveled in the slickness coating both of our fingers. She came again, her body sagging against the wall. And finally, I followed suit, my cock pulsing and expanding with each shot of my release deep inside her.