by Malone, Nana
In some darkened corner of my brain, an alarm bell rang. It tried to warn me of the danger she posed. She had the power to hurt me. If and when I had to walk away from her, I’d be shredded.
Stop. Love her now. Be here now.
I knew I was trapped in a web of her making. That extricating myself would be painful. But I didn’t care. As she ran her fingers through my hair, all I could think about were those hands and where I wanted them. How much I wanted her to be mine, if even just for now.
Zia arched into me. The curves of her full breasts pressed into my chest. I slid my hands under her cotton T-shirt. When my thumbs came into contact with the soft flesh of her belly, we both hissed. She was so petite, but so full.
I slid my hands up her satin skin, pausing when my hands were full of her flesh. “Fuck. You fit my big hands so well. I’ve had so many dreams about fucking these gorgeous tits. Jesus Zia.” I tried to be gentle. I did. I hoped I was gentle enough, but I was lost. Her tits were filling my hands, and I couldn’t be trusted with my own sanity at the moment.
I watched her carefully as I skimmed her soft flesh, but I let my hands continue to travel upward, pushing her T-shirt over her head.
The fabric fluttered to the ground without a sound, and I turned my full attention back to her exposed flesh. Shit. She was stacked. “God, you’re so fucking perfect.” Her full breasts pushed against my palms, and I desperately tried to swallow around the sudden mouthful of sawdust.
I wanted to take time to savor.
I bent my knees and dipped my head, making sure our gazes met as I silently asked for permission. When she nodded, I exhaled the breath I’d been holding and kissed her softly.
Zia arched her back in silent offering.
Shit. Perfection. So lush. So full. Taking advantage of her arched form, I hovered my mouth over a puckered bud for a moment. She shivered in my arms.
Pressing my lips over her skin, I molded them to the raised peak and tugged. Holy shit. Her hands tightened on my shoulders and her thighs clamped around my hips. I suckled her gently. Her answering moan was low and throaty, and I tugged harder, trying to taste every rich flavor of her skin.
“Theo,” she gasped.
What kind of spell had she woven around me? I’d never wanted anyone like this. Never wanted to consume someone. Never wanted to make my life forfeit for just one more minute with someone.
Right about now, I’d give Zia Barnes anything she wanted, and I wasn’t even inside her yet. I’d never been this connected to another human being before. It was like I could feel what she was feeling.
The unsated craving now thundered like a crescendo in my skull, and so did the gnawing longing to make her mine. As badly as I burned for her right now, I would be happy to hold her all night, doing nothing more interesting than playing with her hair.
Zia reached for me, and I could only watch as her delicate fingers tugged at my T-shirt. As she leaned in close, her sweet, citrus scent commingled with mine.
She slid her hands under my shirt, and my muscles spasmed as she worked it up over my pecs. Lightly, she skimmed my shoulders as she slipped it off over my head. At the contact of skin on skin, my cock jerked against the fly of my jeans, urging, begging me to bury myself in her and get lost.
Heat flared in her eyes as my cock nudged her belly. She reached for my jeans, and I bit back a curse. “God, Zia, you’re killing me.”
I had to get control, and quick, before I did something else stupid. Gently, I eased her hands away from the buttons of my jeans, before I tugged violently at them myself. I wasn’t wearing boxers, so the only barrier between us was lace.
I was far gentler with her skirt and that flimsy scrap of material she called a thong. I groaned as I cupped the generous curves of her ass. “Ease your legs open a little, baby.”
When she complied, I cursed as her wet heat slid against the tip of my straining cock. Fuck. I was going to come. That was it. I was going to lose my shit and come all over her before I ever got to know the joy of sinking into her slick tightness.
I needed her closer. I needed her desperate. With a groan, I shifted us to the fountain. After midnight the water was turned off. I sat her on the ledge and she leaned back as I dragged down the skirt she’d tossed on, leaving only that lacy piece of fabric between me and her.
I kissed her slowly, sliding my tongue against hers, teasing her until she mewled and writhed against me. I slid the lace aside and shuddered when the sensitive tip sank inside her slick depths for just a moment.
Yes. Christ. Had anything ever felt so good?
No dipshit, because you’re bare.
Bare.
So good. So soft.
Bare and hot and slick and fuck me… no condom.
I forced myself to still and find those two working brain cells and put those motherfuckers to work. “Zia,” I ground out through clenched teeth. “No condom.”
Her head was thrown back and her inner walls were clamping around me in little miniature squeezes, coaxing me to misbehave.
You want to. Just do it. Sink in and fuck her until neither of you can walk or talk.
I fought the devil on my shoulder with every ounce of will power I had left. She wasn’t helping me with those micromovements though. My resolve was weakening. I could feel it slipping away.
“Zia. C’mon. Let’s go back. I’m losing control here.” My voice was low, guttural. I sounded every bit the caveman.
She shook her head. “Birth control.” Her breath came out in short puffs. “On. It.” Her nails scored down my back, to my ass, pulling me further inside.
I swallowed hard. “Christ. Zia.” Think jackass, think. “Zia, been tested recently.” God, I couldn’t even string sentences together. “Never done this.”
Her legs locked behind me and I slid in another inch. My damn eyes crossed. “Fuck.”
“Me neither. Never trusted anyone.”
Even in my burning state, I understood what she was saying. This was a big deal. “Christ. Zia, maybe…”
“I want this.” She licked her lips. “Feels… so…” Her eyes fluttered closed again when I tried to pull back incrementally. “Yes, God, right there, Theo.”
Fuck. I was going to lose it. I wasn’t going to make it. “Are you sure?” My question was more of a plea.
She lifted her head and nodded. “Yes. I’m sure. I need you like this.”
She didn’t have to ask me twice. I snapped my hips back and drove them forward, sinking into her to the hilt.
Her head snapped up and her eyes went wide. “Theo!”
I let my hands freely roam from her ass, to her flat, firm waist, to the generous handfuls of her breasts. I lightly circled the tip with my thumb, and Zia clamped her thighs around me tighter, trying to draw me closer.
Dipping my head as I bent her backward, I grazed first one nipple with my stubble and then the other. I followed up with my tongue and with playful tugs with my teeth.
“Theo, Jesus.”
As I feasted on her nipples, I whispered, “You taste like heaven.”
She answered with a rotation of her hips, and my cock jerked again, insistently desperate for her heat. I slid a hand between us, searching for her center. I growled her name as I found her clit and stroked. “So, fucking wet.”
She bucked as I drew circular patterns with my thumb. My other hand gripped her ass, holding her firmly. My finger dipped down the seam of flesh. When I found her pucker, I pushed against the tight bundle of nerves.
Her chants of, “Oh my god. Oh my god,” drove me on. I slowly slid my finger past the tight ring of muscle again. I buried my lips in her neck. With each gentle slide and retreat of my finger, I whispered to her. How good she felt. How I couldn’t wait to taste her. How much I never wanted to leave her slick heat.
Even though she dug her nails into my shoulders and softly whimpered, I took my time. Never mind that I was on the verge of spontaneously combusting. I kept up the slow, lazy retreat and entry.
I smiled against her. “You like this, my sweet angel?"
She gave a little frustrated growl, and I chuckled. “Yes, faster, Theo.”
I dragged my head back to watch her as I stroked deep. Her gaze fluttered open and met mine, not wavering.
Fuck. Oh, fuck. Oh, fuck. Not once did she take her eyes off of mine. As I loved her, she milked me slowly, then again, and I bit back a strangled choke. I was in trouble. Would she always do this to me? “So good. Oh, Fuck.”
Still, she didn’t take her gaze off of mine. Instead, she sheathed me before smiling. That simple, confident smile had an orgasm chasing partway up my spine.
Hell, if that didn’t wreak havoc with my self-control. I pulled nearly all the way out. Her rocking motions caused her sex to rub against the tip of my cock, and I had to clench my jaw to ward off the orgasm.
I shuddered. “I don’t know what you’re doing to me.”
Her smile was like a moonbeam. “Only the same thing you’re doing to me.”
With slow, tilting motions of my hips, I slid in to the hilt again with slow, aching precision. She moaned and threw her head back while I gritted my teeth and cursed. “Fuck.” Bliss.
Taking advantage of her exposed flesh, I nipped at the column of her neck, even as I drove forward. On my retreat, she milked me with the tight sheath of her core. She dug her nails deep, scoring tracks of fire into my upper back and shoulders.
As she moaned my name, I knew the danger. This would never be enough. I would need this like a drug. I would crave it. She was already under my skin.
“Theo, I—”
Reaching between us, I resumed stroking her clit with my thumb in slow circles, even as I picked up the pace. “Christ, you feel so good. You want to come for me sweet girl? You want to show me how much you love this?”
Her body clamped down tighter around my aching cock as I drove her higher and higher. With a shuddering breath, her legs tightened around me, and her delicate fingers twined into my hair, pulling me close.
She whispered my name, and her body clamped tight around mine.
I could feel her, careening for the cliff. She pushed herself up from the fountain, trying to get closer to me. Trying to get more. Her head fell back, her whispered words were less and less coherent.
I kept up my pace, refusing to let the lightning catch my spine. I was going to ride this out for her. I wanted her to come around me. I needed to feel it.
The moment the cord she held onto snapped, her body clamped down hard around mine. Tight. Wet. Hot. Sexy and sin and beautiful woman.
I ground my teeth together. The tingle in my spine morphed into molten fire, and I couldn’t hold back. “Zia.”
The explosion of pleasure rocketed up my spine and threatened to snap it in two. All I could do was hold on as I sank past her tightness as deep into her womb as I could go.
I loved her so much. How the hell was I ever going to let her go? I dropped my forehead to hers and kissed her softly. “C’mon, let’s take this show back to my bed. You can take a quick nap, and then I plan on doing this again.”
“Wow, you two sure are enthusiastic. I’ll give you a perfect ten for ingenuity.”
Jesus Christ, we’d both been caught with our literal pants down.
16
Zia…
Ariel was pissed.
Beyond pissed, I think. I'd never seen her so quiet. Her green eyes were sparkling as she sat in the suite Theo and I were sharing with her arms crossed, glowering at me. She’d already told him to make himself scarce. When he looked like he might refuse, she took out her guns.
He got the hint.
I had no idea what to say. There was a part of me that sort of felt like I'd disappointed my mother.
But she's not your mother. She's your boss. And she’d caught me shagging my boyfriend in the Rose Garden like a couple of teenagers.
And as much as I respected her, she couldn't be a hypocrite. After all, she'd married the man she was sent to protect. Did she somehow have a different set of rules for the rest of us?
"So, what do you think I should do with you?"
I inhaled deeply. "Ariel, look, I'm sorry, but my relationship has nothing to do with my ability to do my job."
"So, you think your relationship has nothing to do with it?"
"It doesn't. Theo and I are figuring it out, but I can still watch his back."
"Oh, yeah? Is that why you wanted to jump up and kill Timothy Arlington tonight?"
I frowned. "I did not." I totally did.
"Look, when you took this assignment, I told you how difficult emotional entanglements would be. I couldn't very well tell you not to screw your client since it seems to be an epidemic around here, but I told you what would happen. That sometimes you’d make choices that weren't good for the job."
She had told me that.
"Yes, but the choices I made—"
She put up her hand. "No. When you took your client to your old apartment, an unsecured location, so you could have a little alone time with your new boyfriend, that was a mistake."
"Yes, but—"
She shook her head. "And then you and I had a conversation about how that was a mistake and how you weren't going to make any more mistakes like that. And then, fully exposed, you decided to take him to pound town in the middle of the Rose Garden?"
"The palace is secure," I muttered stubbornly, even though I knew better.
The hand that she'd had up now pointed a finger at me. "Do you have any idea how long I was standing there watching you two? With the 'Oh, Theos', and the 'Oh my God, you feel so good’?"
Heat suffused my face. Shit. "No, ma'am."
She grinned then. "If ‘ma'am’ weren’t so terrible a form of address, I'd appreciate it because it shows that you completely understand the gravity of the situation."
"It's not what it seemed like. I thought the palace was secured and I—"
“So, you're forgetting how, not so long ago, Ian bombed the Cabana on the beach? Still on palace grounds?"
"No, of course not." A friend of Prince Tristan's from his childhood had tried to kill him. We all knew exactly how confusing and frustrating it was. Ariel had almost died. The prince had almost died. And Ian... God, he'd been given access to the castle. Seen as one of the team. "Yes, I remember. Of course."
Ariel nodded. "And you remember how we're not sure who on the Royal Guard we can actually trust?"
I swallowed hard. I could see where this was going. "Yes, I understand that."
"Good, because that means you understand why the king, Sebastian Winston, assigned us as King's Knights. It’s because he can trust us to get the job done, to not fuck up on our watch."
I swallowed again. Oh, fuck. I was so screwed.
"Yes, I understand."
"Okay, good. So you understand that Theo Coleman was your charge. You are meant to protect him, and you understand all the dangers he could be facing."
I nodded. "Yes, I understand."
"And you still chose to bone him in public where anyone could have come along and caught the two of you. Do you understand how difficult it is to train a King's Knight?"
I shook my head. "No, I don't."
"Of course, you don’t. Because while you have been military trained and would have been a great Royal Guard, as a Knight, you need to understand the nuances of the royal family."
"I understand. I messed up. It's just been so complicated, and—" I stopped myself. There was nothing I could really say because she was right. As much as I wanted Theo, there were a million other places to make love to him. A million other secure places. And as much as I wanted him, I was supposed to protect him. And Ariel had gotten my gun, which meant anyone could have gotten my gun. She'd been silent as a church mouse. She could have been an assassin hell-bent on killing him. And we didn't know who was after him. Not to mention his
stupid father was the Queen Mother's brother. If he had been involved, he would have full access to the palace, and he could have killed him. I hadn't seen all the risks until just now. I was an idiot, and I was about to be fired. "Ariel, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to fall in love with him, but I did, and—"
She sighed. "Zia, you're a good agent. You're a good Knight. You throw yourself heart and soul into everything that you do. Not necessarily in the safest manner, but you're all-in. And as an agent, I love that. Good for you on finding love, because I know how difficult that can be. But we talked about this. I warned you about it, and still you didn't listen. You put him at risk."
"I know, and I'm so sorry. I understand where you're coming from, and I'll turn in my badge in the morning."
She frowned. "What do you mean?"
I lifted my brows. "You're not firing me?"
She coughed a laugh. "What?"
"Firing me, because basically, if you’d been an assassin, I'd be dead and so would Theo. I know he's not technically a billionaire, but he is still technically Sebastian's cousin. I fucked up."
She really laughed then. "If I fired everyone who fucked up, I don't think I'd have any agents left. Not to mention, I'd have to kill Penny. Ooh, and I'd have to kill the king himself. Oh, yes, and let’s not forget Prince Lucas. I would have to definitely kill him. Oh, and I’d have to kill myself. Oh God, there would be a special kind of death for Prince Tristan."
I frowned. "I don't understand."
"Oh, sweetheart, I'm not firing you. I don't fire people who screw up. I teach them a lesson, and either they learn, or they fire themselves. It’s truly excellent people management."
My stomach turned. "Um, what are you going to do to punish me?"
"I don't want you to see this as punishment. I want you to see this as an opportunity."
"This doesn't sound good."
She grinned, looking every bit the redheaded pixie mermaid as her namesake.
"You are no longer assigned to Theo. I'm going to put Trace on him full-time. You will no longer be staying with him. If you want to date him, great. Have at it. Bang that pseudo-billionaire all you want. But you will be assigned full-time to Derrick Arlington."