Peasants and Kings

by Emma Slate

  Only Hadrian could be the one to break free from it. I could be there to support him. I could prove to him I wasn’t going anywhere, but that was all.

  “You have no sense of self-preservation,” he stated, his gaze flinty. “You’re leaving the moment the storm clears, and that’s final.”

  He marched to the balcony doors and placed his hand on the glass. His back was to me and his shoulders were tight with tension.

  He was right. I didn’t have any sense of self-preservation.

  There had never been anyone in my past that elicited even a fraction of emotion that I felt for Hadrian.

  I set my glass of brandy down on the bedside table, and with a boldness I didn’t expect, I trekked across the bedroom floor to stand behind him. I brushed a kiss across the middle of his back and then pressed my cheek to his skin.

  He tensed and then shuddered.

  “You need me,” I whispered.

  “No,” he lied.

  “Well, I need you.”

  I thought he’d shrug me off, not wanting me to touch him, but he suddenly turned around to face me. He cradled my face in his hands. “Say it,” he commanded. “Say it now or get out and never come back.”

  I swallowed, tears brimming in my eyes. I’d been fighting it since the moment I met him, the magnetic pull I didn’t understand. The pull I thought was only lust.

  But it was more.

  So much more.

  More than anything I’d ever felt in my entire life. Hadrian was my reason for being on Earth.

  “I’m yours, Hadrian,” I whispered, my throat tight with emotion.

  “I’m not a normal man,” he said, his voice so low I had trouble hearing him over the sound of the storm through the glass. “I can’t promise you normal.”

  “What are you promising me then, Hadrian?” I asked, my heart thundering in my ears.

  “The world, Sterling. I’m promising you the world.”

  His words lay at my feet, like a prize a warrior would offer his queen after a battle hard won.

  Silence reigned between us.

  “I don’t want the world, Hadrian,” I finally said, continuing to hold his stare. “I just want you.”

  He claimed my mouth.

  I wrapped my arms around his neck, trying to get closer, trying to burrow into him. It would be different, this time.

  His phone rang, pulling us out of the moment. Hadrian answered it.

  “Patrick?” His lusty gaze remained on me while he listened to his head of security. “Aye. All right. I’ll deal with it tomorrow morning.”

  He hung up and stared at the fireplace for a moment.

  “Hadrian?” I prodded.

  “Patrick found the intruder.”

  “In this storm? How?” I asked in shock.

  “The infrared cameras picked up a foreign vessel in the outcrop on the other side of the island.”

  “Infrared cameras? Oh sure.” I shook my head. “How did he get past your state-of-the-art security system? How did he manage to get here undetected?”

  “I’ll find out tomorrow morning when I question him,” he said, clenching his jaw. “But he’s clearly a professional, otherwise he wouldn’t have gotten as far as he did.”

  “How are you going to—are you going to hurt him?”

  “Hurt him?” His tone was arctic. “I’m going to kill him.”

  My breath hitched.

  His expression hardened at the sound. “Are you sure you know what you’re signing up for by choosing to be with me?”

  I was silent.

  “Sterling? Answer me,” he commanded. “Answer me before I take you to bed.”

  “I don’t know, Hadrian,” I said softly, looking up at him through the sweep of my lashes. “All I know is that I want to be with you—and I’ll sort out the rest as it comes.”

  He slowly untied the belt from around my waist and pushed open the robe, guiding it off me, and then urged me to the bed.

  When I was naked and splayed out, he climbed onto the bed and placed a kiss at my navel. Then his lips dipped lower. Pleasure kindled between my legs as he feasted on me.

  He grasped my hips and held me to him while his tongue danced and teased. My fingers sank into his hair, and I gave into everything I was feeling.

  The rough whiskers on his jaw were their own form of torture. I was overly sensitive and when he swiped his tongue across the bundle of nerves between my legs, I erupted around him.

  It was the fastest I’d ever come, my body primed for pleasure. Maybe I had a bit of blood lust of my own.

  His eyes never left mine as he got up off the bed, only long enough to shed his boxers.

  “Why are you so beautiful?” I asked, my gaze hungrily raking over him.

  His lips curled in gratification at my question. “I was going to ask you the same thing.”

  He palmed his erection which seemed to grow even larger and then he crawled on top of me. My legs fell open in eager welcome and he thrust into me with one smooth, hard drive.

  My body took all of him.

  He stared into my eyes while he slowly drove in and out of me, never breaking contact. His hands wandered but his gaze did not. I felt him everywhere on my skin. Every touch was a burn, irrevocably branding me as his.

  Hadrian angled his pelvis and ground against me with ruthless determination. His fingers played with my nipples, his lips kissed the side of my neck.

  I grasped him to me, wanting us to come together.

  “I’m close,” I whispered.

  Hadrian’s thrust ceased as his mouth took mine in a ravenous kiss. I was just about to beg him to move again when he withdrew.

  “What? What are you doing?” I cried out.

  He grinned. “I want to try something else.”

  “Something else?” I repeated. “What do you want—”

  He gently rolled me over so I was on my belly, and then he grabbed a pillow to nestle it under me, so my butt was angled in the air.

  I realized what he wanted.

  Apprehension coated my throat. “I’ve never done this before.”

  “We’ll go slow. You say stop, we stop. Aye?”

  I nodded. Nerves dampened my ardor.

  Hadrian’s chest covered my back, his face coming to rest in the crook where my shoulder met my neck. “Trust me,” he whispered.

  I nodded again and then lay my cheek flush to the bed and closed my eyes. The bedside drawer opened and closed. I looked up just in time to see Hadrian unscrewing a lid on a jar of coconut oil. He scooped out a dollop and settled it between his hands before putting them on me.

  “Relax,” he said.

  “It’s hard to relax when I don’t know what’s coming,” I quipped.

  His strong hands started at my neck and worked their way down. He kneaded the muscles of my shoulders and back, and every once in a while, he’d stop to place a kiss on my skin.

  Lulled by his sensual, caressing touch, my eyes drifted shut and they didn’t open—not even when he spread my cheeks.

  He dribbled more oil onto my skin, letting it fall into crevices and creases. Every once in a while, he touched his finger to a place that had never been touched for pleasure before.

  Hadrian nibbled on my shoulder as his finger gently eased into me. I tensed immediately, not liking the pinch of discomfort, my untried body learning to make room.

  “Easy,” he whispered, gently easing his finger in and out of me.

  I squirmed against his touch, not sure if I was trying to get away or wanting him to go deeper.

  He withdrew completely and I feared he was going to replace his finger with something much larger, but he surprised me when he settled down next to me on his back.

  “Come here,” he ordered gruffly.

  I removed the pillow from underneath me and tossed it to the floor before climbing Hadrian to straddle his body. I was still slick with want and oil and I grasped his erection and eased down on top of him.

  “Kiss me,” he co
mmanded.

  I leaned over and pressed my lips to his. While my body was drugged with pleasure and full of him, he slid his finger in me again. But something about this angle made it easier and excitement bloomed. So much so that I felt myself working him in deeper.

  I was being filled in two places, and though it was only a small introduction of what could be, my mind went wild with fantasies.

  Closing my eyes, I rode out the storm, clenching around his finger and erection. I gasped when Hadrian suddenly sat up with me still in his lap, his mouth drenching my neck and shoulders in kisses as he continued to undulate inside me.

  With a moan of surrender, he finally came, grasping me tightly for a moment and then releasing me so that he could gently collapse against the pillows. I fell on top of his chest, my breathing erratic and scattered.

  He swept away my hair and rested his hand on the back of my neck, urging me to look at him.

  “Are you all right?” he asked, his eyes clear and intense.

  “Yeah. Are you? I didn’t hurt you?” I asked, my fingers drifting to his bandage.

  “Hurt me?” he asked with a wry grin.

  I rolled my eyes at his arrogance. It was clearly back, as though no vulnerability had passed between us.

  “Did you enjoy it?” he asked baldly. “What I did to you?” His hand coasted over my hip to rest at the small of my back.

  My cheeks flamed and I cleared my throat. “I think you know I enjoyed it.”

  He let out a laugh and leaned forward to brush his lips across mine. “I have a pretty good feeling you’ll enjoy something much larger.”

  Embarrassment made me bury my head against his neck.

  “Sterling,” he said softly. “Look at me.”

  His tone and the use of my name had me pulling back to stare at him.

  “You shouldn’t ever be self-conscious with me. Nothing is off limits. Pleasure is pleasure and if you want something, ask for it. Aye?”

  I nodded.

  After he got up and washed his hands, he came back to bed and I snuggled up against him. His arm draped around me and his fingers stroked my spine.

  “So, where does all of this leave us, Hadrian? I’m still a Rex girl and there is a contract between us.”

  “Damn the contract.”

  “I don’t like the idea of being financially dependent on you.”

  “I guess that means you haven’t bothered to check the bank account The Rex set up for you.”

  I looked up and propped my chin on his chest. “What do you mean?”

  “The million dollars has been sitting in your account since the night you agreed to come to the island.”

  “What? The night we discussed the contract, you offered me a hundred thousand dollars for accepting. Why did you change the amount?” I asked in shock.

  “I never had plans to keep you here if you didn’t want to be. I didn’t want the money to be the reason you stayed.”

  I stared at him in sudden understanding. “You wanted me to choose you, regardless of the money.”

  “Aye. And besides, a million dollars is pocket change to me. It was never about the money…for either of us.”

  I pressed my face to his chest again, loving the warm skin beneath my cheek. “Who is Ramsey’s father?” I asked, changing the subject.

  “Why do you want to know?”

  “Because you said after you went back to Dornoch to talk to him your life was never the same again.”

  Hadrian paused for a moment, his hand tangling in my hair. “Ramsey’s father was the man who taught me everything I needed to know about how to navigate the criminal underground.”

  My mind whirled with Hadrian’s unveiling. “You’re a criminal.”

  “Aye.”

  “What kind of…”

  He stopped his tender love strokes and then gripped a handful of hair and gently forced my gaze to meet his. “It’s better if you don’t know.”

  I swallowed. “You’re a criminal and a killer.”

  His expression hardened. “Now are you afraid of me?”

  I paused before answering, brushing my hand across his chest. “No. I don’t think I am,” I admitted.

  “Liar.”

  I glared in anger. “I’m not a liar.”

  “Then you like danger?”

  “Hardly.”

  “Then why are you staying with me?”

  I placed my hand on his heart. Not to push him away, but so I could assure myself that he wasn’t a figment of my imagination that I’d dreamed up. That this man—this broken criminal—really wanted me.

  “There’s something special between us, and I want time to explore it,” I said.

  “That might be the most honest thing you’ve ever said to me.”

  There were still so many things left unsaid. The past I hadn’t shared, and wishes for the future I desired.

  But for the moment, I didn’t need anything else except this time in his arms and the drums of our hearts beating as one.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  We fell asleep sometime around dawn. I woke up again and found Hadrian standing over me, about to brush a kiss across my cheek.

  I peered up at him. I’d taken out my contacts the night before, knowing my eyes would be gritty in the morning from lack of sleep.

  “Your eyes,” he whispered.

  “Weird, right?” I asked.

  “No, not weird. Unique. Like you.”

  “Don’t get used to it. I prefer the contacts. Where are you going so early this morning?”

  “To question the intruder.”

  Adrenaline pumped into my bloodstream and I was instantly alert and rolled onto my back, hiking the comforter up to cover myself.

  A lot had transpired between us during the night. Hadrian was now dressed, his masculine form concealed. His expression was blank, and his eyes were clear.

  “When I get back, we’re going to talk,” he said.

  “Talk,” I repeated. “About what? Didn’t we talk last night?”

  “There are still some things that need to be dealt with.”

  “Such as?”

  “Your employment status with The Rex, for one.”

  “And?”

  “Later. We’ll talk later.”

  He leaned over the bed again and settled his lips on mine. He tasted minty and fresh, and I wondered how long he’d been awake—or if he’d even slept at all.

  Hadrian pulled back, taking his warmth with him. The sensual haze remained.

  “I’m afraid to leave you,” he admitted.

  “Why?”

  His gaze was steady. “Don’t come to your senses, please.”

  I frowned. “It’s too early for word play.”

  “You’re going to start thinking,” he stated. “As soon as I’m gone, you’ll start reevaluating everything.”

  I took a moment to study him. “Are you reevaluating everything?”

  Hadrian stilled. “Damn right I am.” My heart fell, until he continued, “I’m a selfish prick who should put you on the helicopter right now, but I can’t bring myself to do it.”

  I beamed at him.

  “Why are you grinning at me?” he asked.

  “Some things are worth the risk, Hadrian.”

  “Your life isn’t something I can risk.” He cradled my head and kissed me hard. “Don’t come to your senses,” he said again when he pulled away. “I’ll be back in a few hours. We’ll talk about everything then.”

  I nodded and Hadrian released me and then stalked from the bedroom. The drapes were pulled back from the balcony doors and even though the sky was gray, it seemed like the storm had passed. I thought about going back to sleep, but my mind had kicked into gear.

  I got out of bed and threw on a pair of navy-blue silk pajamas and then I went into the bathroom and put in my contacts. I slid on my slippers and then padded my way out into the hallway and down to the kitchen.

  Ingrid was perched at the counter, sitting with her hands wrap
ped around a mug of coffee. It was still hot, and steam curled up around her faintly creased face. She looked pensive and didn’t move when I came in. Only when I stood in her line of sight did she finally look up.

  “Eden—er, Sterling,” she corrected. Her face was awash with horror. “How are you? Hadrian told me about…I can’t believe—”

  I placed my hand on her arm to stop her stumbling speech. “I’m fine. We’re fine.” I went to the cabinet to retrieve a mug. “When did you learn my real name?”

  “This morning. Hadrian explained who you are. Your Rex affiliation.”

  I thought about being embarrassed, but then I realized it was useless. We’d met how we’d met, and there was no use lamenting the fact that you couldn’t change your history.

  Your past didn’t have to define your future.

  “Sterling,” she murmured.

  “Hmm?”

  “It suits you. Your name. You’re definitely not an Eden.”

  “It doesn’t alter your perception of me, does it?” I asked boldly.

  “No.”

  I studied her for a moment and when I detected sincerity, I nodded.

  “You don’t seem shaken,” she mused. “If it were me, I’d be hiding in the broom closet.”

  “I was terrified last night,” I admitted. “But I’ve had some time to process.”

  Not to mention I was a bit distracted by Hadrian’s honesty about his past.

  Ingrid stared at me. “This has never happened before. No one has ever come to the island and attempted…You should leave.”

  I arched a brow. “Is this coming from you? Or from him?”

  “Me.”

  “I can’t leave him,” I said softly. “I won’t abandon him.”

  My heart felt like it was breaking inside my chest, cracking open to reveal all the feelings I’d tried to shove down inside of myself since my mother had died.

  “You told me he needs me,” I said to her. “Well, as it turns out, I need him. I just didn’t know it.”

  “So, you’re staying?” she asked with unconcealed hope.

  Her tone gave me pause, and that’s when I realized I wouldn’t just be choosing to stay with Hadrian. I was choosing Ingrid, too. And her family, the island, and this secluded life.

  My throat was suddenly tight with emotion I hadn’t expected.