by Bella Grant
“Please!” The woman’s shrill scream was cut short by the slamming of a van door. Isabella cursed to herself and felt tears burn her eyes. She was such a coward! If Raphael had been there, he would have charged forward and saved the woman.
Two men were gone, having disappeared into the van with the screaming girl, while the third jogged around the front and jumped into the driver’s side. The van started up with a low rumble before it sprang to life. Isabella did the only thing she could think to do. She snapped photos of the van as it began to roll toward her. She ducked further behind the dumpster but held her phone above her, hitting the photo button repeatedly until the van had returned to the main street and was gone.
When she could no longer see it, she leaned back against the brick wall and let out the breath she’d been holding. Her sandaled foot slipped on the wet pavement beneath her and she stumbled forward, scraping her knee on the ground and hitting her forehead on the edge of the dumpster.
“Serves me right,” she grumbled. She picked herself up and wiped off what dirt she could. Looking at her watch, Isabella realized she had only twenty minutes to get back to the estate and into her bedroom before Antonio realized she was missing.
Twenty minutes might have been enough time if she had known where she was and if her legs weren’t cemented to the ground in fear.
ANTONIO
The morning could have gone better. Their wedding night could have gone a hell of a lot better. Antonio paced in front of his desk, going over and over the conversations he’d had with his wife—if the word ‘conversation’ could even be used to describe them. He congratulated himself on not yelling at her, but he had still lost his temper. He’d locked his bride in their bedroom on their wedding night!
Her father and brother didn’t seem surprised at all that Isabella wouldn’t be joining them for breakfast. He had hoped in the weeks before their wedding that she would have come to accept her role as his wife, but she had spent them trying to get out of the obligation. Since that had not worked, she was now turning her manipulations on him.
Did Isabella honestly think that she could withhold sex from him until he gave into what she wanted? The girl clearly did not understand what their relationship would be like, and as soon as she showed up, he was going to set the ground rules. And then he was going bend her over the bed and sink his cock into her tight, hot pussy. Just thinking about her round ass in the air, waiting for his penetration, made his cock painfully lustful.
“Sir! We’ve found her.”
Antonio stopped mid-step and looked at his guard with curiosity. “Found who, Julian?” He looked at his watch. She was late. “My wife?”
Julian blanched and nodded silently.
“Wasn’t she on the grounds?” When he’d told her not to leave the estate, he’d put two of his guards in charge of keeping an eye on her, knowing full well she’d try to walk right out the front gate. She didn’t fully understand the dangers on his island, and he hadn’t taken the time to discuss them. Overall, crime was low, but recently there had been a gang of men stirring up trouble in the city.
“No. She got out.”
“Got out?” Antonio took a deep breath. “We are talking about my wife, Julian, and not one of the pet dogs?”
“Yes, sir. Princess Isabella must have seen Jose and myself following her. She disappeared into one of the garden houses, and when she didn’t come out shortly after, we went in, but she was gone.”
“She was gone. But now she’s back.”
“Yes, sir. Jose found her. She was in the city, walking toward the marketplace when he found her.”
“Toward the marketplace?” Antonio shook his head and waved his hand. “Never mind, I’ll ask her. Where is she now?”
“She ran up to your rooms, Your Highness.”
“Ran.” Antonio laughed. “Because she’s late, and she directly disobeyed me.”
The guard bowed as Antonio walked past him and headed toward their rooms. He took the stairs two at a time, beginning to conjure up the list of things he was going to say to Isabella just as soon as he had her bare-assed and apologetic.
When he flung open the doors, he expected to find her standing prim as you please, waiting for him with a smirk of satisfaction, but what he found was something completely different. Her forehead had a gash on the side. The bleeding had stopped and had been minimal, but he could see the dried blood well enough to know she took a hard hit. The capri pants she wore didn’t hide the two-inch round scrape on her knee, and her eyes were red and puffy. She’d been crying, and looked very much on the verge of doing it again.
“What the hell happened to you?” He hadn’t meant to shout at her. He wanted to flog his guards. They’d let her slip away, and she’d injured herself in the process. “Were you attacked?” The worst images began to invade his mind as she ran to him and threw herself into his arms.
She nearly knocked him backward with the force. Her body was trembling, making all of his anger toward her dissipate. “You have to do something. I wanted to, but I was scared. So scared. But you have an army… You can do something.” She yanked on the lapels of his jacket.
“Okay, okay… Hold on, Isabella.” He ran his hands down her face, wiping the tears away and cupping her chin. “First thing’s first. Let’s look at this gash.” He tried to walk her to the bathroom, but she tugged away from him.
“No! You have to do something right now!” She pointed to the doors. “Call your guards. I tried telling those fools, but they were too busy trying to get me back here to save their asses—”
“Isabella! Calm down.” She was beyond making any sense at all, but one thing he understood clearly. She was terrified. “Slow down and start at the beginning. And once you’re done telling me everything, we’ll get you cleaned up.”
She began to pace in front of him as though she was thinking of where exactly to start. “I left the compound.” She grimaced at that confession but waved it away. “I went into the city, to the marketplace, but I got turned around and ended up walking down some alleyway.” He listened as she told him what she saw and how she knew that she needed to do something. His heart nearly stopped when she told him she had tried to think of a way to stop the men.
“You have pictures of the van?” He forced his voice to remain even in tone, but his heart was pounding in his chest. His mind battled with itself between anger for her disobedience and her disregard for safety and terror over what could have happened if those men had seen her lurking behind the dumpster.
“Yes, on my phone. I was able to get a good one of the man driving, too, when they drove toward me.” She took a steadying breath and rushed to her purse, digging around until she found her device. “Here.” She thrust the phone into his hands and walked away, hugging herself around the middle, and returned to her pacing.
Antonio flipped through the pictures on her phone, and the blood drained from his face. She truly had witnessed a kidnapping. He recognized the driver but didn’t comment. At the moment, he needed to relax her, to make sure she understood she was now safe.
He tucked her phone into the breast pocket of his suit and put a hand up to still the protest already forming on her lips. “I need to get the photos off of it, then you may have it back.”
She nodded and nibbled on the nail of her thumb. The wide-eyed innocence was back in her features, and his anger softened. Of course she would sneak out of the grounds. He had told her not to, and he was quickly learning that Isabella sought out the forbidden.
“What are you going to do? Shouldn’t we round up your army and go find her?”
“We?” His eyebrows shot up. The woman still wanted to put herself in harm’s way. Although the sentiment touched him—that she would show such concern for someone she didn’t know—he knew she wasn’t equipped to handle going after kidnappers. “No. We are going to Chicago as planned. I will get these photos to those who need them, and they will go after her. Right now, we are going to go into the bathroom and
take a look at that gash on your forehead.”
He didn’t wait for her to be compliant but grabbed her hand and pulled her to the washroom. “But you have to find her soon. They might kill her!” she insisted, trying to yank her hand free of his grasp.
If he was correct about the driver, that woman wouldn’t be killed. “Then I suggest you start obeying me right away. The sooner we get you cleaned up, the sooner I will get my men to start tracking down the kidnappers.”
Her eyes narrowed at him as her fear finally faded and anger replaced it. “Every second you waste here with me is putting her life in danger. I can clean myself. Contrary to what you believe of me, I am not a child.” Her right foot stomping on the marble flooring countered her words, but he didn’t point it out.
Keeping his eyes fixed on her, he pulled out his own phone. “Wash the cut,” he instructed as he looked at his phone’s screen. He heard her huff, but she turned the water on in the sink. He sent the message he needed to send and put the phone back in his pocket next to hers. “Someone will be up here shortly to take the images from your phone. Let me see…” He pushed her hands away from her forehead. She’d washed the dried blood away, and he could make out the actual damage. “You won’t need stitches, but it’s probably going to bruise as it heals. What did you hit your head on?”
“The edge of the dumpster.”
“I’ll call the physician on staff. Have you had a tetanus shot?”
“A what? No. I don’t think so. I haven’t had a shot since I was a child.” She examined her forehead.
He looked at her with concern. “Have you seen a doctor since you were a child?”
“Of course I have. Last year I came down with a bout of bronchitis. I needed to see the doctor to get medicine.”
“But for a regular physical?”
“Can you please just do what you’re going to do? I’d like to shower while your men look for the van. You’ll cancel our trip?”
He raised his eyebrows. “Why would I do that?”
She turned to face him. “Obviously, we have more important things to do now. We must find that woman and be sure she’s safe.”
“Isabella, we are still going to Chicago. I have a busy schedule there, and you and I need to spend some time getting to know each other a little better as well. My men will handle this situation. You and I aren’t needed.”
“Surely—”
“And—” He cut her off, stepping beside her and leaning down until only a breath stood between them. “You will never again tell me what I am to do. The instructions go one way here. I give them, you obey them.”
“How can you think—”
“And don’t for a moment think I have forgotten that you completely disobeyed me by running off into the city. We will deal with all of these things in Chicago. First thing’s first. Take your shower. I will inform the pilot we are leaving in thirty minutes.”
“I need more time—”
“Thirty minutes, Isabella. Dressed or not, you’ll be on the plane.” He left her to see to her shower. He put a call through to the royal physician to meet them on the plane. He could administer the tetanus shot before takeoff.
His wife’s temperament would take some getting used to. One moment she was skittish, the next, she looked as though she wanted to battle him. The only thing he knew for sure was that when she hugged him, when he had her in his arms, he felt more than content. If only he could keep her from blowing up at him for any length of time, they would get along much better.
ISABELLA
Her husband hated her, that much was evident. Isabella sat in the plush seat of the plane while he stood at the front, speaking with a small group of men. Her arm still hurt from the shot he’d made her accept from the old coot of a physician. She tried to get out of it, but he whispered in her ear that she could either let the doctor give her the shot in her arm, or he would flip her over his knee and lift her skirts so he could administer the shot to her ass—after he warmed it up with his hand.
When she was a little girl, she imagined her husband would shower her with gifts and love. That she would only need to ask and what she wanted would appear before her, much like her father did for her as she grew older. Antonio was not that man. He was all about rules and policy. His rules. He truly expected her to follow his instructions and not do as she wished. She knew very well that it was customary for the prince to rule the princess, but it really was a formality. Not reality. She recalled two friends of hers—as well as a cousin—who married into royalty, and they were given free reign. They didn’t answer to anyone, least of all their husbands.
Her brother was much the same as Antonio, but she had thought him a fluke. A man who’d been forced into adulthood at too early an age. She never dreamed she’d find his near duplicate as a husband.
That woman she witnessed being taken began to seep into her mind. She wondered how she was faring. Was she hurt? Was she frightened? Of course she was frightened!
“You’re biting your nail again.” Antonio’s deep voice interrupted her thoughts as he took the seat beside her. She looked down at her hand and realized she had been chewing on her thumbnail again, a nervous habit from childhood that she couldn’t break. She tucked her hands beneath her legs and looked out the window.
“Are you still mad because I made you get a shot?” He leaned closer to her to whisper his question. She would have found it easier to remain angry with him if he didn’t sound so playful at that moment. Didn’t he understand how much she worried about the kidnapped woman and how guilty she felt because she didn’t stop it from happening?
“No. I’m worried about that girl.” She turned halfway in her seat to face him. His suit jacket had been discarded, and he wasn’t wearing a tie. His dark hair looked as though he’d run his fingers through it a dozen times, giving him a boyish look. “I should have stopped them. I should have saved her.”
He lifted his finger to her face, trailing her jaw with his fingertip. “If you had intervened, my men would be searching for two lost women instead of one.” She looked into his eyes, expecting to see more chastising there. Instead, he looked at her with a softness that wiped away her irritation. “You risked enough getting those pictures of the van, and those will be the reason my men find her.”
“They will find her, won’t they? Before those men hurt her?” She swallowed, leaning into his touch and finding the warmth of his hand comforting.
“My men are the best trained in my country. They will get to her.”
“That’s not the promise I want,” she whispered.
“You can’t always have what you want, Isabella.” He cupped her chin and leaned closer to her. She could smell his aftershave, and her eyes instinctively moved to his lips, that dark lips she wanted on hers. “But sometimes you can.” As though he read her mind, he covered her mouth with his. She parted her lips, letting his tongue sweep her mouth and dance with her own. His hand moved to her neck, squeezing her throat lightly as he deepened the kiss. But suddenly, he broke all contact with her. “You are too tense. Come with me.”
She looked around the plane to see if they were being watched. No one paid them any mind. He took her hand gently, lacing his fingers with hers, and tugged her behind him. They made their way to the very back of the plane and a single door.
He pushed the door open and pulled her into a bedroom. Small, but a bedroom nonetheless. A bed took up most of the room, with a writing desk in the corner. “I travel to Europe quite often,” he explained as he shut and locked the door.
Not sure what to do, she sat on the bed. He stood in front of her with his hands in his pockets. “I’m not sure what to do with you, wife.” She looked up at him. The seriousness in his eyes had returned, and she braced herself for a lecture. “I promised myself I would deal with your disobedience as soon as we landed in Chicago. But we aren’t there yet.” He brushed a lock of hair from her shoulder, running his fingertip over her neck and to the strap of her dress. He hooked his fin
ger into the strap and dragged it over her shoulder and down her arm, pulling the neckline of her dress down with it. Her breast popped free of the built-in cup, exposed to his sight. And his touch.
“My disobedience—” Her argument was cut off with his fingers pinching her nipple. The burn spread through her breast and moved lower, dampening her panties with the simple touch.
“Ah, so that’s how I silence you.” He chuckled quietly and pressed his knee between hers, shoving them open. “Lean back for me, wife. I have need of your body.” He sunk down to his knees before her, releasing her nipple and gripping her thighs.
She moved her feet wider, watching his every move as he pushed the hem of her dress up her hips. As she leaned back onto her elbows, he pushed the dress further, exposing her panties. “I think, for this vacation, you won’t wear any panties at all.” He lowered his face and took a deep breath. “Fuck, you smell so good, Isabella.” He slid his hands beneath her bottom and yanked down the panties, helping her maneuver her legs until they were completely off. She didn’t know what to say when he tucked them into his pocket, but words weren’t necessary when she was so wet.
“I want to have full access to this pretty pussy of yours at all times. No panties, unless you’ve asked permission.” His thumbs worked their way up her folds, brushing only momentarily across her clit. “Do you understand, Isabella?”
Understand? His words were floating around her mind, muddling up her thoughts. One part of her wanted to tell him to go to hell with his rules and demand why he was allowed to curse while she wasn’t. But the other part of her didn’t want him to stop touching her. “Yes, Antonio,” she said finally when she realized he wasn’t going to continue until she responded.
“Very good.” He smiled at her, and her heart swelled at the sight. It wasn’t just a polite or forced smile, it was one of full, genuine approval and pleasure. He spread her lower lips and blew slowly over her clit. She moaned, throwing her head back, and wanted to push him closer to her but knew that would probably backfire.