I watched Scarlett drift off to sleep, fully sated and peaceful for the first time in ages. Our families had been friends for years, and I’d seen firsthand, the transformation from the beautiful young lady to the troubled woman lying next to me. It was pure torture watching her grow up over the past few years. The captivating girl had turned into a sensual woman, but while she was maturing, I couldn’t touch her the way I’d wanted. I’d kept my distance because I never thought I would be able to claim her as mine. At thirty-nine years old, I was old enough to be her father. Things were different now, though. I was going to be king, and very quickly, I might add. She might never have looked at me the same way I looked at her, but it didn’t matter because she was mine.

Did I purchase her through some antiquated dowry?

Hell yes, and I’d do it again in a second.

I hadn’t always been obsessed with Scarlett, but the past three years had proven to be difficult, as she’d started to look more like a woman and less like the spirited child I’d watched grow up. Her full lush figure called to me, and graced my dreams more often than I wanted to admit. She’d also taken the hard path of numbing pain with drugs and alcohol, letting anyone touch her body just to make her feel loved for a moment. I knew all about that.

Especially since I’d taken a similar path after both my parents died.

It had taken my uncle kicking my ass into shape to get me back on the straight and narrow, but I’d been sober for a long time now, and fully planned to stay that way. Scarlett would never have to feel the way that her dad made her because I wasn’t letting her go again.

Her father was an idiot, doting on his oldest daughter, forgetting about Scarlett until she proved useful. Not that Ava took advantage of her father’s attention—she didn’t—but it was never easy for them to show as a unified family, even when society events called for it. Scarlett did get points for never shirking her duty as a royal. It didn’t matter to me if she showed up sober; at least she showed up. That was better than I’d been able to do for a long time. I, myself, had shown up for many events blitzed out of my mind, much to my uncle’s dismay.

All that would change for Scarlett.

It had for me.

I climbed from the bed and padded barefoot across the bedroom to my desk that was tucked away in a corner, careful not to wake Scarlett. My hands shook slightly as I pulled opened the drawer and looked inside. The paperwork had all been drawn up. When my Uncle Henry passed away, I would be the King of Warington. As it was, I was the reigning Prince Regent, but it had never occurred to me that I might actually be king one day, until a few years ago. My cousin, and one of my closest friends, died in a freak military training accident, leaving the throne to me since I was the closest living relative. Even though my uncle had raised me, I never dreamed that I would actually be the one to take the throne after him.

My eyes drifted over to the beautiful sleeping girl in my bed and my cock twitched. All of this was for her, because without the crown, I would never have a shot in hell with her. God, she was so fucking young, but it didn’t stop me from wanting her. It wouldn’t be easy taming Scarlett. Just the idea of making her behave made cum leak from my cock. The girl was kind of kinky and I had a feeling she might like the punishment when she screwed up, which pleased me a lot more than it should.

We would marry first thing tomorrow, retrieve her things from Carleigh Palace, and settle back down at Brixton Falls as soon as possible. Hopefully my bride wasn’t the kind of woman to hope for a lavish wedding because, at the moment, we didn’t have time to spare for that kind of thing. Eventually, I would give her that, if it was what she wanted, but for now, I desperately needed a wife. I hoped she would understand and forgive the urgency.

I finally headed back across the room and settled down next to her. Sleep used to come easy to me, but now that the troubles of a nation rested squarely on my shoulders, it seemed to elude me at every step. For hours, I watched Scarlett sleep. I was obsessed—a besotted fool—but it didn’t matter. She was mine, and no amount of fighting would change that once we were married. Both Warington and Carleigh were modern countries, but when it came to marriage and lineage, tradition won out. We would be expected to have children soon, and that idea was enough to make me hard again. Scarlett’s breathing changed and I glanced down to see her staring up at me. I wondered if she could read the filthy thoughts running through my mind.

“Did you sleep at all?” she asked in a sleepy voice.

“Some,” I lied. “You should get up soon so we can go see the priest though.”

She sat up, tucking the sheet around her tightly. “This is a horrible idea. I’m not wife—or queen—material. I’m going to fuck something up.” She pressed her lips together, forming a hard line, before continuing. “You should pick someone else; anyone else,” she hurried on. “Why not Ava? She’s my older sister. She’d be much better suited to be queen.”

“You’re adorable when you ramble.” I ran my fingers down the side of her face and over her full lips, fighting back a smile. “Has it ever occurred to you that I don’t want Ava? If I did, I would’ve paid her dowry, not yours. I told you last night; I get what I want.” Her mouth parted and she sucked in a breath. “I’m going to have fun taming you, Princess.”

Her eyes narrowed and her brow furrowed. “Good luck trying, Lord Carrick.”

I climbed out of bed and leaned down to kiss her forehead. “I’ll make sure the priest is ready. There’s a dress in the closet for you. Don’t take too long getting ready,” I warned. “If you do, there’ll be a punishment.”

She shivered at my words. “We aren’t getting married today, or any time soon, so you can spank the hell out of me all you want.”

I raised an eyebrow. “I’m sorry, Princess, but you don’t really have a choice.”

The indignant expression she wore on her beautiful face made me want to laugh. It was like she didn’t know if she wanted to fight or fuck. Her eyes roamed my body as I stretched in front of her, landing on my semi-hard cock.

“We don’t have time for that now. But later...” I grinned. “We’ll have plenty of time later, after we’re married.”

She screeched and tossed a pillow at me, hitting the door behind me as I walked into the bathroom.

Oh yeah, this was going to be fun.

Scarlett wasn’t in the castle.

I’d searched every inch of it myself. The girl had run off to God only knows where, after I’d specifically told her to get ready for our wedding ceremony. It was a good thing the palace PR hadn’t announced our marriage yet, or this would be a complete embarrassment, and a press nightmare.

I ran a frustrated hand down my face, trying to fight back the panic rising in my chest. Where in the hell had she run off to? It’s not like she had an easy way to get off the castle grounds. I dialed the number her father had given me again—the third time in half an hour—and it went directly to voicemail.

Again.

Fine.

I’ll just send another text.

---

Get your ass back to the castle now.

---

I paced in front of the door as I tried to think about where a twenty-year-old woman would go hide. The obvious place was with friends, but that didn’t help, seeing as I didn’t have any of their numbers. Not to mention they might give her more drugs. I really didn’t need to try to hide that from the press, on top of her actually being at the castle already. My head ached as I considered the plethora of ways this could go incredibly bad. William had been out searching everywhere I could think of while I stayed at the palace to see if she came back. Neither of us were having much luck. My phone chimed in my hand and I about dropped it in my haste to see who was texting me. Please, please let it be Scarlett.

---

I’ll be back when I’m good and ready. Don’t get your panties in a wad, Lord T.

---

That’s it. I was going to spank her as soon as she walked in the door. Put her over my knee and turn her ass a lovely shade of pink as I punished the hell out of her for running. It didn’t matter to me who watched. The girl needed to learn some respect. Fuck the staff; I’d make her realize who the boss was and she wouldn’t defy me again. My fingers flew over the screen.

---

Now. Don’t make me come look for you.

---

The door to my office opened and standing in front of me was the girl in question. My mouth dropped open in shock as she smirked back at me. She had to have been coming up the driveway when she returned my text, maybe even in the fucking castle already.

“Where in the hell have you been?” I demanded, attempting to rein in my temper.

She grinned, and held up her hands, which were full of bags. “You can’t really expect a girl to get married in last night’s underwear, can you? Calm down, Trudeau. I just needed a wedding dress and some panties. I didn’t like the one you’d picked out. The last thing I want to do is get married in some ugly dress.”

I stared at her in shock, my mouth opening and closing like a fish. A little giggle escaped her.

“And you didn’t think to tell me that?” I asked through clenched teeth.

Scarlett shrugged and put the bags back over her arms.

“Can we hold off on this whole wedding thing until tomorrow? I’m wiped from shopping all day.”

I continued to stare at her, my eyes narrowing into little slits as I contemplated the best way to handle the spirited woman in front of me.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

I closed my eyes and counted to ten. She obviously didn’t realize the importance of this ceremony. Or she just didn’t care, which was highly possible. But it was up to me to make sure it happened; otherwise we would be in even more of a shit storm than we already were.

“You do realize there were tons of people looking for you all day, right? And your mother and father were panicking that you’ve gone missing.”

“Oh please, the only thing the King and Step-Queen are worried about is paying back my dowry if I kicked off before you married me. That woman is not my mother, by the way, and I’d appreciate it if you didn’t make the mistake of calling her that again.” She rolled her eyes. “Obviously you didn’t call Ava because she was the one I was with all afternoon.”

“You were with your sister?” I asked slowly. “All day?”

God, my blood pressure was rising each second she stood in front of me, calmly relaying her activities from the day.

“Yes, I was with Ava all day.” She raised an eyebrow. “If you don’t believe me, call her.”

My hands clenched into fists.

“Bedroom. Now.”

She raised an eyebrow. “You know, Lord T, politeness goes a long way.”

“Now,” I said, my voice an icy calm. Seriously, this girl was going to give me a heart attack. She was trying to kill me. My chair hit the credenza behind me as I stood up and stalked around the desk. Scarlett bit down on her full bottom lip.

“Let me guess, am I getting a spanking?” she taunted.

That was fucking it.

I grabbed her hand and yanked her over to the desk. She squeaked in surprise as I pushed her chest down over the hard wood, and flipped her dress up over her ass.

“Yes, you are getting a fucking spanking, for how you acted,” I said through gritted teeth. If she wanted a punishment, I’d make sure it was one she would remember. “Did you not think to tell any of the staff where you were going? Or me, for that matter?”

My hand slapped down on her firm cheek, turning her skin a nice rosy pink. Her sharp cry did little to alleviate the worry I’d felt and did more to make my cock pay attention to that breathy sound.

“I was worried about you,” I said, punctuating my statement by another slap on the other side.

“More like, you were worried about your investment,” she said, glaring at me from over her shoulder.

Another slap, and she moaned low in her throat this time. My cock stirred in my pants, but I needed to get my point across before I let him come out to play.

“You’re not new to this whole royalty thing, right?” I asked sarcastically. “You know that you need a guard when you go outside the castle grounds. You also knew that I was going to be incredibly pissed off when I found out that you had left.” I gently rubbed my hand up and down over her ass. She nodded and her eyes were glazed over with lust as she looked back over her shoulder. “Is this what you wanted, Scarlett? For me to be pissed off at you? Panicked at the thought that something might have happened to you? Because I don’t like it one fucking bit.”

She bit down on her bottom lip as her eyes met mine. “Are you going to fuck me?”

My hand shook as I ran it up the column of her spine. Her back was mostly exposed in her sundress, and it made me happy to see her arch against the warmth of my hand.

“Is that what you want?” I asked, my voice low and husky.

She nodded again and pushed her ass further into my hand.

“Say it, Scarlett. I won’t do anything unless I hear you say the words.”

She stood up next to me and slid the straps of her dress down over her shoulders slowly, never breaking eye contact. The fabric fell silently to the floor, leaving her standing in only her heels. I rubbed a hand over my cock through my pants, and stared at her expectantly.

“Yes, Carrick. I want you to fuck me.”

It took me only seconds to lay her out on the desk. I dropped down to my knees and buried my face in her pussy without warning. Her hands tugged at my long dark hair, strands between her fingers and pure ecstasy written on her face, as I licked and sucked at her core. I moaned as her taste hit my tongue. If we continued like this, I would never let her leave the bedroom, considering this was the second time in twenty-four hours that I’d lost control. I unbuttoned my slacks and fisted my cock as I continued to punish her in the best way possible. High-pitched moans bounced off the walls of the office, and I hoped that none of the staff came to investigate the sounds.

I couldn’t take it anymore. Her body arched off the desk, and I took the opportunity to stand up and position myself at her entrance. She cried out when I slid my throbbing cock into her, pinning her hands over her head with one hand and gripping her throat in the other.

“Are you going to follow instructions now, little girl?”

Her lips fell open in a silent scream and I plunged my tongue inside, exploring her mouth with mine and leaving her breathless. She tasted of red wine, strawberries, and something completely original that I’d started to recognize simply as her. I groaned as I heard the cloth of my shirt start to rip under her fingernails digging into my back. The punishing rhythm of my thrusts and her heels digging into my back were driving me closer to the edge. I reached down between us and thrummed her clit with my fingers because I sure as fuck wasn’t going to come before her.

She screamed my name, and I pinned my hips against hers as her release hit. I pressed my forehead to her chest and clenched my jaw as I came harder than I ever had in my life. My entire body shook and I felt my release down to my toes. Scarlett ran her hands through my sweat-dampened hair, a small smile playing on her bruised lips. I kissed her once more, gently this time, well-aware of the fact that I’d abused her enough. She snuggled into my chest as I picked her up and settled her onto my lap, in one of the huge leather club chairs.

Without even trying, this girl was changing my entire world. I brushed her hair back from her shoulder and kissed her salty skin. I just knew Princess Scarlett Elizabeth Marion was going to be big trouble because I had a feeling there was so much more going on between us than fantastic sex.