by Katee Robert
Their Second Chance
A Thalania Dynasty Novella
Katee Robert
Copyright © 2019 by Katee Robert
All rights reserved.
Cover art by Oliviaprodesigns
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Created with Vellum
To Tessa Bailey and Alexa Riley
Also by Katee Robert
The Island of Ys
Book 1: His Forbidden Desire
* * *
The Thalanian Dynasty Series (MMF)
Book 1: Theirs for the Night
Book 2: Forever Theirs
Book 3: Theirs Ever After
Book 4: Their Second Chance
* * *
The Kings Series
Book 1: The Last King
Book 2: The Fearless King
* * *
The Hidden Sins Series
Book 1: The Devil’s Daughter
Book 2: The Hunting Grounds
Book 3: The Surviving Girls
* * *
The Make Me Series
Book 1: Make Me Want
Book 2: Make Me Crave
Book 3: Make Me Yours
Book 4: Make Me Need
* * *
The O’Malley Series
Book 1: The Marriage Contract
Book 2: The Wedding Pact
Book 3: An Indecent Proposal
Book 4: Forbidden Promises
Book 5: Undercover Attraction
Book 6: The Bastard’s Bargain
* * *
The Hot in Hollywood Series
Book 1: Ties that Bind
Book 2: Animal Attraction
* * *
The Foolproof Love Series
Book 1: A Foolproof Love
Book 2: Fool Me Once
Book 3: A Fool for You
* * *
Out of Uniform Series
Book 1: In Bed with Mr. Wrong
Book 1.5: His to Keep
Book 2: Falling for His Best Friend
Book 3: His Lover to Protect
Book 3.5: His to Take
* * *
Serve Series
Book 1: Mistaken by Fate
Book 2: Betting on Fate
Book 3: Protecting Fate
* * *
Come Undone Series
Book 1: Wrong Bed, Right Guy
Book 2: Chasing Mrs. Right
Book 3: Two Wrongs, One Right
Book 3.5: Seducing Mr. Right
* * *
Other Books
Seducing the Bridesmaid
Meeting His Match
Prom Queen
The Siren’s Curse
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
1
Noemi Huxley walked into her suite in the Thalanian palace and took a deep breath. It was her first time being back here in nearly two years, first time being back since she took over as Head of Family, and the first time being back since her father had been tried and convicted of treason. This weekend mattered so much, it made her a little sick to her stomach. Every eye would be on her during this event, the King’s younger brother’s wedding, and she couldn’t afford to make a misstep.
She walked a slow circuit around the room, but the motion did nothing to quell her rising restlessness. She wasn’t part of the wedding party, and she wouldn’t be attending the private events leading up to the wedding itself. The only reason she was here a full three days early lay in the fact that the prince’s fiancée was a Huxley, albeit a distant cousin. The bride’s father had passed away years ago and, as it was her right, she’d requested the Head of the Family to walk her down the aisle.
Noemi would walk her down the aisle.
She stopped short and ran her hand down her silk sheath dress. There had never been a Lady Huxley. Since the beginning of the family line, the title had always passed to a male heir.
Until Noemi.
A knock on the door brought her back to the present. She couldn’t afford to be distracted now, not with the eyes of every noble in Thalania on her. The King and his Consorts had taken a risk overriding centuries of tradition and backing her claim to the Huxley Family, and she’d be damned before she did something to endanger the position. Mooning about would only result in missteps.
She hurried to the door and opened it, only to stop short as a shadow fell across her entire body. She knew that shadow, knew it intimately down to her very soul. Noemi looked up, up, up to the familiar brutal face of the one man she’d hoped to avoid during her visit to the palace. She should have known she’d never be so lucky. “Isaac.”
“Lady Huxley.”
The cut stung, just as she imagined it was meant to. A reminder. A reminder of the intimacy they no longer shared, of the choice she’d been forced to make two years ago, and of all that she’d sacrificed, even if she’d gained the things she’d thought she always wanted.
She drew herself up, a laughable thing to do. Even though she was nearly six feet tall, Isaac Kozlov towered over her in both height and breadth. He filled the doorway and then some, and in any other place he would have to duck to walk through.
Wait, why would he be walking through at all? He wasn’t here for her, no matter that he stood at her door. She’d burned that bridge two years ago when she’d chosen duty over something that might have been love.
No, Noemi. You can lie to him if you need to, but you must never lie to yourself. It was love.
Was being the operative word.
She lifted her chin, all too aware that she gave herself away with that one movement but unable to help herself. “Can I help you, Mr. Kozlov?”
Now it was his turn to hesitate. “We need to go over the plan for your protective detail.”
She blinked. “The palace has enough security that the nobles don’t need individual protective details. That’s the whole point of being in the palace.”
“I have my orders.” His rough features took on the stubborn set she knew so well. There would be no moving him.
She could stand here and argue until they were both blue in the face and ready to throw things, or she could let him in and deal with this behind closed doors—and away from curious ears. Her irritation rose in time with the beat of her heart, but he had her cornered and they both knew she’d rather die than make a scene.
She stepped back, letting belligerence snap from every movement. “Come in, then.” She didn’t wait for him, choosing instead to march into the main living area and pour herself a strong drink. It might not be quite noon yet, but if she was going to have to deal with her ex less than an hour after she arrived, she was more than entitled to the brandy. All the brandy.
Isaac walked into the room and gave it a cursory look. Nothing had changed since the last time he was here, when he’d bent her over… No, she couldn’t take that walk down memory lane. It simply hurt too much.
Noemi perched on the single chair, ceding the couch to him. Let him dwell on what they’d done the last time he’d occupied that exact seat. Not that she’d get a reaction f
rom Isaac. He’d always had a superior poker face, and today was no exception. He sank onto the couch, his massive body taking up two-thirds of it, and met her gaze directly. Those blue eyes held absolutely nothing. No tenderness, no desire, certainly no love. It was just business, and hell if that didn’t hurt just as much as she deserved.
Isaac leaned forward and braced his elbows on his thighs. “The Consort has made personal security arrangements for a few key individuals, and you are at the top of the list. As such, I’ve been assigned to you.”
No need to ask which Consort Isaac meant. Only one of the Royal Triad had taken over as head of security. I’m going to kick your ass for this, Galen. Except she couldn’t, because throwing a fit about Isaac being assigned to her meant admitting they’d ever been more than acquaintances. “Assign me someone else.”
“Believe me, I tried. I don’t want to be in this position any more than you want me here, but Galen has his schedule and he’s not budging.”
There it was, the tiniest of cracks in his armor. If Noemi was a better person, she’d ignore it and go on pretending they were nothing more than almost-strangers. She wasn’t a better person. Not when it came to Isaac. “Would you like me to apologize for the choice I made? Would that do a damn bit of difference?”
“You know it wouldn’t.” He looked away.
Her gaze dropped to the roping scar that spanned his thick neck, testament to his time moving in worlds far darker than hers. Death had brushed by Isaac far too often for her liking, and she could count the resulting marks on his big body. She had counted them, tracing the scars with her mouth, reassuring herself that he was here, he was safe, he was hers.
No longer.
Frustration boiled up inside her, a toxic mix that would do them no good if she let it loose. She could throw things and scream until she was breathless, and Isaac would stand there, a mountain to her storm, unmovable to the very last. It wouldn’t change the past, just like it wouldn’t change the future. Their paths were set in stone, taking them on routes that wouldn’t converge again.
Except for this weekend.
Noemi pushed to her feet and strode to the side table to refill her drink. With her back turned, she could feel his gaze on her, tracing her bare shoulders, down her back, over the curve of her ass, and settling on her legs. If she turned around, he’d mask his expression again, but for this one moment, she knew without a shadow of a doubt that he was looking at her like he used to. As if she was the sexiest woman he’d ever seen and he might die if he didn’t have her in his arms.
God, she missed him.
She didn’t quite have herself under control as she turned around. “We might as well get on with going over security, then.”
“There have been threats made. We think they’re the usual sort of thing that pops up during this kind of event, but we’re doing our due diligence in the meantime.”
“I’m surprised you didn’t just trace the IP addresses and take care of it immediately.” In addition to being deadly in a number of ways, Isaac was also downright magical with computers. She’d never seen anything like it, but in the time when he served as head of security, he’d completely revamped the palace camera system and stopped any number of threats before they could actually become threats.
His blue eyes flashed, a temper there that she’d always been so adept at provoking. “They were rerouted too many times to trace. Whoever it was knew what they were doing.” Isaac stood slowly, towering over her despite the coffee table between them, and a thrill went through her. He lowered dark brows. “This is a serious threat, Noemi. Don’t be an idiot just because I’m the one delivering the news.”
She closed her eyes and embraced the anger his words brought. Better to be furious than to address the gaping hole in her heart that only seemed to widen the longer they stood in the same room and didn’t touch. The constant reminder of what she’d sacrificed for her Family’s greater good. A fight, she could handle. In fact, she embraced it. “Excuse me?”
“You always do this. You’re so damn smart, and no one could possibly have thought of those same solutions. Well, we have. We’ve done our due diligence and then some, and whoever is making these threats is either a hacker with too much time on their hands, or an actual threat. We are treating it like the latter.” He ran a hand over his close-cropped dark hair, impatience and exasperation telegraphing every move. “You are smart, Noemi, but I think we can both agree that you’re not the smartest person in the room when it comes to this. You haven’t been back in the palace in damn near two years, and we’ve made changes to how things operate since then, which means you require a damn babysitter. I’m just the unlucky bastard who pulled the short straw.”
She downed her drink. “Tell Galen to assign someone else.”
“I tried. He’s made up his mind.”
Yeah, she just bet he did. Whether that order came from him directly or one of the other two in the Royal Triad, it didn’t matter. They were misguided in their meddling. She and Isaac were ancient history, and if she moved through every day since she left him with a broken shard in her heart… if it twisted painfully late at night when she lay alone in her too-big bed… if some days she actually hated her Family for requiring her to give up so much for them…
It didn’t matter.
It couldn’t matter.
But just because she’d made the choice didn’t mean she had to passively take whatever misguided matchmaking efforts her monarch and his two Consorts attempted without complaint.
Noemi set her glass down carefully. Throwing things would undermine her point, and she couldn’t afford that. She smoothed her dress and checked her hair in the mirror hanging on the wall. Perfect, as always. Once upon a time, she’d known how to let her hair down and get rumpled, but the safety for that had passed along with her relationship with Isaac.
She headed for the door, pointedly ignoring the giant of a man taking up too much space.
Naturally, it couldn’t be that easy. Isaac stepped in front of her and held out a hand to stop her, but she wasn’t in the mood to be stopped. She kept moving until his big hand pressed against the center of her chest.
“If you can’t be bothered to put together a convincing argument, then I’ll have to do it.” Maybe if she kept her fury flaring hot, she wouldn’t lose herself in how good it felt to have his rough palm dragging over her sternum, his fingers branching up to her collarbone and barely brushing the top curves of her breasts. He had to feel her heart racing beneath his touch, but she’d be damned before she relented first. “Get out of my way, Isaac.”
“You think you can just walk in there and start yelling, and everyone will bend over backwards to give you what you want?” He laughed harshly. “You know better.”
Yeah, she did, but that wouldn’t stop her. Getting a dressing down by Galen was better than dealing with this. Anything was better than dealing with this. She lifted her chin. “If you’re not going to rip this dress in half, then get your fucking hands off me, Isaac.”
He didn’t hesitate. One second she stood there, sure he’d laugh in her face, and then next her dress was floating to the ground in silken shreds.
2
Isaac Kozlov had no goddamn sense when it came to Noemi. None. If he had, he wouldn’t have let Galen steamroll him into this security detail, and he sure as fuck wouldn’t have ripped off her dress, his body stepping to the gauntlet she’d thrown before his mind had a chance to catch up.
Noemi stood there, naked but for a pair of fuck-me red panties, staring him down as if daring him to take this further. She looked good. Better than good. Isaac had hundreds of memories of her imprinted on his brain, but none of them stood up to the real thing. She’d gained some muscle definition since he’d seen her last, her lean body toned and tight as if preparing for battle. He dragged his gaze over her, from her classy nude heels to those tease of panties, to her high breasts peaked with rosy pink nipples, and got caught on her red, red lips. “Fuck, Noemi.”
/>
“Stop staring and do something about it.”
It was always like this with her. She might present the perfect princess persona to the public, but in private she was just as savage as he was. Just as demanding, just as willing to step to the line and throw the first strike.
He should walk.
She’d made her choice, and Isaac had his pride.
But Noemi reached up and pulled her hair out of its band, letting the golden strands cascade around her shoulders, and he was lost. He moved toward her, and she met him in the middle, just like she always had. Noemi climbed him like a tree and wrapped her long legs around his waist, her mouth already seeking his by the time he grabbed her hips to steady her. She bit his bottom lip hard enough to make him groan and then her tongue was there, stroking his, tasting like the peppermints she always kept stashed in her army of purses.
It struck him then that this was happening. For the first time in over two years, he had Noemi Huxley in his arms, writhing and making little desperate noises against his mouth as if she couldn’t wait to sink onto his cock. It would be the easiest thing in the world to undo his jeans and slide into her, the best kind of homecoming he sure as fuck didn’t deserve.
She didn’t deserve it, either.
He turned without breaking their kiss, unable to stand even that much distance when he already knew how this would end. Isaac went to his knees in front of the couch, his height meaning that she could sit on the cushions and be lined up perfectly with the ridge of his cock. He thrust against her, grinding down in a motion designed to make her lose her fucking mind.