CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Nikolai
MY COCK SHEATHES itself inside Kate, her intimate muscles clenching my length, and a single word hits like a punch to the soul. Home. I have traveled the world, set foot on every continent, skied sky-kissing alpine slopes, explored tiger-filled jungles and indulged in exclusive VIP sex clubs in most major cities, yet I’ve always felt adrift, empty, as if I live my life surrounded by an invisible moat.
Kate might never have set a single stiletto beyond our small kingdom’s borders, but when we lock gazes, it is as if the whole fucking universe is in her eyes.
She is my home.
I withdraw, take my hard cock in one hand and press the tip to her clit, stroking her hot wet center in a slow, hip-grinding circle. This realization makes me dizzy. I knew she’d attracted me, then entranced me. But this feeling requires me to get out a thesaurus, search for superlatives. And yet it might be simple. So goddamn simple.
Her lips part as her pupils dilate.
“Good, Pet?” My voice is husky with emotion. I want to make her come so hard that the memory of the pleasure imprints on her skin, engraves in her bones.
“Amazing, but...” She trails off, lowering her lids.
I smooth a strand of fiery hair from her cheek. “No secrets between us. No barriers. I am here, raw, skin to skin. I demand no less from you.”
“I need you back inside me.”
The urgency lacing her plea is almost my undoing. “Your wish is my command, m’lady.”
I hike her off her feet and position her slender thighs around my hips. She tries to wiggle lower, but I hold her firmly as I begin my trek toward the waterfall.
“Please. Nikolai. In me. Now.”
I intend to bury myself in her so deep that I no longer know where she ends and I begin. But first she needs her surprise.
We pass under the fall, and the intense pounding rush is nothing to the thundering pulse of my blood in my ears.
Inside the cave there is a small crack in the ceiling, and a shaft of perfect buttery sunlight sparkles over the crystal walls.
Kate gasps. “What is this magical place?”
I bury my face in her porcelain neck and breathe in her essence, the faint hint of Chanel No. 5. “The Grotto of Diamonds,” I rumble. “Stunning, isn’t it?”
Her chest heaves against me.
“Absolutely breathtaking,” she says.
I cup her chin, refuse to let her grow demure, to be shy. “Wasn’t talking about the grotto.”
With a pump, I am back inside. Fucking Christ. My ass muscles clench. She feels softer than spun silk, tight, wet and perfect. As much as I want to lose myself in a series of punishing, dominating thrusts, this is for her. This day. This trip. This moment. So I take the time to ensure every stroke glides over her clit in the slow, steady rhythm that she craves. When I settle her ass against a smooth rock, she hisses with pleasure.
“There’s a hot spring running down the wall here,” I rasp.
She hums. “This feels amazing.” The warm water seeps between her legs, splashing my own thighs.
She arches with pleasure like a naughty kitten and I slide the final inch. Fuck. Her pussy milks me in micropulses. Savage pleasure claws my chest. She is so close already. My darling Kate is responsive as hell. But I won’t find my release until she gets hers.
I dip over her sensitive nipple and trace the rosy bud with the flat of my tongue while I enter her over and over, deeper and deeper. Her nails claw my back helplessly. Those micropulses become quakes.
“Watch me, Pet. Watch us. Watch your sweet pussy take all that I have to give.”
We stare through the crystalline water, hypnotized at the erotic sight of my thick root working through her pink entrance. It’s the most goddamn beautiful sight that has ever existed.
“This is where I belong,” I say. “In you. Giving you everything you deserve.”
“I love watching you take me,” she gasps.
“Love watching you get it.”
Then her dizzy gasp turns to a small cry. “It’s so good. It’s too much. I’m coming.”
“And who is giving it to you?”
“Nikolai.”
As she breathes my name I shoot inside her, my own groan losing itself in her mouth as I taste the ecstasy on her tongue.
We spend the day like this. Lovemaking in the Grotto of Diamonds. Nibbling Nutella sandwiches. Sharing funny stories about our childhoods. Each moment is the best one of my life.
When at last I fly us home, she falls asleep in her seat, too satiated to fear the helicopter, and among the night sky, I tell the stars my secrets, the truth that’s burning a hole in my heart. The one that I am not yet ready to confess to her face.
For now, the truth lies in the sky above—and buried deep within my long-darkened soul.
Kate
I feel his fingertips softly caress my face, and I stir in my seat. I’m vaguely aware of my surroundings—a helicopter, I think—but I don’t want to leave the dream, one where Nikolai tells me he loves me.
“We’re home, Pet. Time to wake.”
His voice is soft in my ear, and my body betrays me as my eyes flutter open, exiting the fairy tale I so long to stay in. Because of course he never spoke those words, and I’m not the princess who gets her happily ever after. Yet after this day, I can’t help but hope for the possibility that one day I will be.
The propeller blades are still, and Nikolai no longer wears his helmet. I reach a hand to my own head and find that neither do I.
“Wow,” I say. “I was really out. What time is it?” It’s only then that I realize the setting sun—that I remember Maddie spending the day at the hospital with Gran.
“It’s nearly six,” he says. “Is everything okay?”
I fling off my seat belt and fidget with the door. “I’m sorry. Today was—it was everything, but I’m late. It’s a family thing. I—I have to go.”
I must sound as frantic as I feel because he rushes from the helicopter and around to my side, helping me out.
“Whatever you need. Where do you have to go? I’ll take you there myself.”
We race from the helipad where I expect to see X waiting with the Rolls-Royce, but instead I find two guards along with Queen Adele. Christian Wurtzer. And a young woman I recognize from the covers of various magazines—Catriona Wurtzer. She stands with a self-satisfied grin plastered on her face and one hand distinctively rubbing her flat belly.
“What is all this?” Nikolai asks, more annoyed than concerned.
Christian’s jaw is tight, and I can tell he is using monumental restraint. Whatever is going on, this man looks at Nikolai like he wants to tear his throat out.
The queen purses her lips and narrows her eyes at me. “Come now, Nikolai. Really. Dallying with the hired help. I’d like to know how she plans to earn double her fee for getting you down the aisle if she can’t keep her legs crossed in your presence.” She sets her cold gaze on me. “And you.” The queen raises her brows. “I know I told you to earn his trust, but I had no idea you’d seduce him, as well. I guess that is one way to go about it.”
Her lips part into a satisfied, victorious grin.
“Double fee? What the fuck is this about a double fee?” Nikolai asks.
The world seems to spin around me. I might be sick.
Christian’s jaw ticks. Catriona stifles a laugh. And when I look at Nikolai, the light in his eyes snuffs out as I watch his gaze cool and then turn completely to ice.
“Double your fee?” he repeats, his tone achingly bitter.
“The contract,” I say, but it comes out as a strangled sob. “You have the copy. The money wasn’t a secret.” But he told me he hadn’t read it, which means I let the lie of omission stand. I let myself believe that what he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him. I let myself believe that we could beat the queen at her own game, but I never really stood a chance. Did I?
“I trusted you,” he says. “But I guess that was just part of your job too. I didn’t think I needed a contract to prove to me that you weren’t like every other woman who’s schemed to get in my bed. If it wasn’t meant to be kept from me, then why not say something?” he asks, his words biting and bitter. “Is this why you challenged me? Why you were so confident you’d succeed? Because you were allied with the person who despises me most?”
He steps toward me, his face inches from mine, but I don’t for one second think he will kiss me, not with his teeth clenched. Or that vein in his neck throbbing with the hot anger rising from his body.
“Was. Any. Of. It. Real?”
Each word stabs me like a poisoned dagger.
“Nikolai, you know it was real,” I say, but how can he trust me now when the queen speaks the truth? She didn’t request my help. She demanded it, under veiled threats. I was her ally. I had no choice but to comply. And even though I gained his trust, I never really gave him mine. Or I’d have been brave enough to tell him everything.
I knew I was falling for him today, and the possibility of us made me think I wasn’t afraid of her anymore—that I could tell Nikolai about Gran. About why I needed to succeed even if it meant breaking my own heart.
She played me. She played him. And now she is going to win.
“Money,” he says, his voice so distant I almost don’t believe it’s the same man who woke me moments ago. “That’s what you really hoped to gain. Wasn’t it?”
I shake my head, refusing to believe things can change with one utterance from the queen. “You know that’s not true. She made me agree. I had no choice. I should have told you everything, but that doesn’t mean—”
“Stop,” he says. “Just stop. Why would you say anything if seducing me could earn you double your fee?” His eyes flash to the queen and back to me. “Do you want to know why I refuse to marry?” he asks, but he doesn’t wait for an answer. “Because the last woman I asked to be my queen was willing to accept my hand even though she loved another. All because she thought the title more important than all else. Now she is gone, my brother banished, and I right back where I started, fooling myself that any woman could see past the facade.”
He takes another step closer to me, and I flinch. I do not know this Nikolai. This is not my prince.
“I told you. I will. Not. Marry.”
Laughter bubbles from the queen’s lips, and she claps her hands slowly.
“Lovely speech. Really. Lovely. But here is the thing. It was only a matter of time before your—dalliances—got you into trouble. Thankfully, the countless times you’ve dallied with the baroness seem to have worked in your favor.” Her lips curled into a malicious grin. “Catriona is pregnant with your heir. You will marry and secure an alliance with Rosegate...or lose the throne.”
Nikolai’s eyes widen as his gaze meets that of his former lover, and then falls to where her hand rests on her belly.
My tears fall hot and fast because I know now we never had a chance—Nikolai and I. The queen had said she would find his match and that I would support it. Benedict searching for a loophole was nothing more than a distraction. This was always going to end.
“Take her away until I decide what to do with her,” the queen says.
And before I can comprehend that she means me, both of her guards appear at my sides, my arms firm in their grip.
“What are you doing?” I cry.
“Your Highness,” Christian starts. “You never said anything about locking her up!”
But the queen waves him off.
“Take. Her. Away,” she says again, and the guards start dragging me toward a car at the edge of the grounds.
“Nikolai!” I call. “Listen to me. You know it was never about the money. I know you do.”
But he doesn’t respond as the guards pull me farther and farther from him.
I want to cry out again, but for whom? Nikolai stands there, dumbfounded and shattered. I have no ally.
As I collapse into the back of the car, my eyes blur with tears—so much so that it takes me several seconds to get my bearings.
A minibar. A bottle of cognac. And when I look up, the window between me and the driver lowers.
“To the dungeon, then, Miss?” the driver asks, and I dare to let myself hope.
“X?”