by Bella Grant
He chuckled. “There is an event tonight. A charity dinner for the refugee camps in South Africa. I find that I’m not much in the mood for fancy dinners and political speeches.” His hand slid up her thigh, reveling in the heat of her skin. “Maybe we should call it a night. Turn in early?” His voice dipped lower, and he kissed the top of her head.
After a soft sigh, completely forced and fake, she nodded. “I suppose… If that’s what you want.”
He pinched her leg. “Naughty girl.” He laughed and pulled his hand from beneath her gown to pat her leg. “Go get in bed. I’ll be right there.”
She looked up at him with wide eyes and a genuine smile. She might anger him to no end and have a temper as strong as his own, but when it came time for them to slide into bed, she was as soft and pliable as anything he could hope for.
“Don’t be too long,” she whispered. She pressed a quick kiss to his lips before hopping off the couch and sauntering back to the bedroom. He watched her hips sway beneath the satin material of her nightgown, and if his cock hadn’t already been hard from her sitting beside him, it would have been at complete attention then.
ISABELLA
Standing beside the bed, Isabella watched the door for him to come to her. There was no reason she could think of that she would need him so badly after having such a horrible afternoon. He’d done it again—brushed her aside and assumed she was nothing more than a simple woman. Yet, she waited for him, standing fully nude and waiting for his touch. She may fail him and shame him in every other aspect, but in the bedroom he was pleased with her.
When he stepped into the bedroom, she felt his heated gaze burn a trail of desire over her skin. He finished unbuttoning his shirt and removed it as he made his way to her. After the shirt was gone, his pants were next, and he took little time shedding those. By the time he reached her, he was gloriously naked, just like her.
He cupped her shoulders, pulling her to him and wrapping his arms around her. The warmth of his embrace almost surprised her. She had expected him to be rough, unyielding, as he was most nights with her. She loved it when he took her hard and showed her how wonderful it was to be under his power. His large hands moved over her chilled skin, down the length of her back and to the curve of her backside, where he cupped her rounded cheeks. Like most of his actions in the bedroom, his grip on her was possessive.
“What took you so long? I was getting cold,” she whispered against his neck.
“Don’t worry about that, Bella. You’ll be warm in a moment.” The use of her nickname sent a shiver through her. The way he said it, with an undertone of lust and need, made her pulse quicken.
His lips found hers in a crushing kiss. His hands dove into her hair, tugging lightly until her mouth was angled to his specification. Without letting her go, he backed her up to the wall, never breaking the kiss. Pressed against the wall, she let out a sigh when he finally broke the kiss to move his attention elsewhere. He brushed his lips over her collarbone, licked a trail up to her earlobe and nibbled her there as well. Each new touch, each new sensation, sent a tingle of desire through her body.
“Lift your leg for me, Bella.” He cupped her ass as she wrapped her right leg around his waist. He growled softly as he positioned his long erection at her entrance. His eyes met hers, and with one swift motion, he plunged into her. She yelped from the sudden fullness. Standing made his cock fill her in a new way. Given his height, she wasn’t sure the position would work, and when he withdrew slightly, she thought she had been right. But without taking his eyes off hers, he plowed into her again.
“Oh!” She grasped his shoulders to keep her balance and felt the length of him being dragged out again.
He plunged into her again, deep and hard. Shudders of pleasure worked through her body. She turned her head, moaning as he continued his deep invasion of her body. Isabella could feel every ripple of pleasure he gave her, and each time he pulled free, she would crave the next drive forward.
She arched her back, trying to take more of his cock, her chest out. He took one nipple into his mouth, flicking it with his tongue and suckling it hard. “Oh, God!” Her nails dug into his flesh as he continued to drive into her harder. She felt the wall behind her chafing against her naked skin, but it only added to the wonderful sensations of his too-big cock plunging into her.
His mouth found hers again, and his lips covered her with more passion than before. His teeth nipped at her lower lip, and he growled into her mouth as he broke the kiss. “Dammit. What you’ve done to me, woman…” He drove into her again harder.
“You aren’t exactly innocent either,” she retorted and lifted her leg a bit higher, enjoying his expression tighten and his eyes roll from the new sensation she created.
“Such a brat.” He pinched her hip, and she laughed. He slowed his thrusts, dragging his cock out of her and pushing back into her inch by delicious inch. It was enough to make her eyes cross.
“Please, Antonio. Don’t hold back. Please.” Her mouth dried from gasping for air. She slid her mouth along his jaw, nipping at his throat. He growled again, much louder, and plunged into her hard. Her eyes crossed. His hands slid behind her, cupping her ass and lifting her up off the ground. Still pressed against the wall and up in the air, she had no way of moving and was completely at his mercy as he drove into her again and again.
“You do things to me, too, Antonio,” she whispered into his ear. His cock swelled inside her as he drove into her faster and harder. The only sounds in the room were those of their flesh bouncing off of one another and the sultry moans of their pleasure mingling together as one.
Crossing her ankles behind his back, she pushed off the wall and toward him, taking every inch of him and reveling in the power of the man fucking her. He growled his pleasure and nibbled on the soft flesh behind her ear. “Come for me, Bella. Come hard for me,” he ordered.
Unable to hold back, she screamed as the ripples of her orgasm roared through her. She dug her hands into his shoulders as her orgasm ran through her, tightening every fiber in her body. Her vision blurred from the intensity of her orgasm. The room looked to be in a fog and Antonio was the only thing she could see clearly. She called his name over and over again as he dragged out her release with each stroke of his cock until he claimed his own orgasm.
His body slammed into hers, his hold on her ass so tight she wondered if she would bruise. Yet through his roughness, she could feel in her very soul that in his arms, she was the safest she would ever be.
His breath was labored as it mingled with her own, his chest rising and falling against hers as they tried to reclaim control over their bodies.
He smoothed her hair away from her face and placed kisses along her cheeks and on her lips. “Bella,” he whispered against her lips. “You are perfect.”
She froze at his words, holding her breath as he pulled back enough so she could see his face. He was smiling at her. His hands worked over her face, still smoothing away her hair. He’d said she was perfect. The perfect wife, obediently spreading her legs for him when he asked. The perfect lover. The perfect whore.
He withdrew from her and held her until her feet were steady on the ground. She remained quiet as he studied her with a worried expression. He pressed a gentle kiss to her lips. “Bella?”
“I think I’ll shower before bed,” she whispered. It was all she could think of to get away from him for a moment. He didn’t try to stop her, and she was grateful. As she closed the bathroom door, she kept her head down so he wouldn’t see the tears starting to fall from her eyes.
ANTONIO
He would never understand her. She grew more impossible by the day. Their lovemaking the night before had been the closest he had come to telling her that he loved her. Which he did. It was a revelation he’d come to over breakfast.
He’d spent most of the night watching his wife sleep in their bed. After her shower, she had slipped between the sheets and drifted off to sleep before he could even offer her a gla
ss of wine. It hadn’t even been ten o’clock, and she was dead to the world.
At first, he was concerned for her health, and then he was angry that she hadn’t told him she wasn’t feeling well. That emotion rolled into the next, and then the next, until he found himself wound so tight he needed to take a shower himself just to get his muscles to ease enough for him to sleep.
He sat at the breakfast table alone because his wife had departed while he was still dressing, announcing she had a meeting with the college advisor. She wanted to cancel her application in person, she had explained. He didn’t really believe her, and it didn’t matter. He’d already sent a message to the school advisor, telling her to send the bill for whatever coursework his wife wanted to enroll in and he would have the tuition paid for right away.
There were some perks of being a prince. Being able to get the admissions councilor out of bed for a discussion before the crack of dawn was one of them. As he talked with the councilor at half-past four that morning, he realized there was very little he wouldn’t do for Isabella. There really was nothing he wouldn’t do to put a smile—a genuine, heart-felt smile—on her lips.
When he finally allowed himself to admit he loved the woman, no matter how crazy she made him, he also allowed himself to understand that he had loved her since the moment he saw her walk into her brother’s office wearing that ridiculously inappropriate bikini. It hadn’t been the clothing—or lack thereof, as the case had been—but the way she defiantly refused to change. It hadn’t taken him long to get her to see his way of things, but it was the strength in her that made him want to rip off the slip of fabric, have his way with her, and carry her off.
“Your Highness.” Julian interrupted his thoughts.
Antonio swept his gaze from his plate of untouched fruit and eggs to where Julian stood with several papers gripped between his fingers. “What is it?” Antonio scrubbed his face with his hands. Having had too little sleep and too many worries, he was on the edge of a very bad mood.
“Karen Vega has been found.”
“Spit it out, man. What happened?” Antonio leaned back in his chair.
“She was found several clicks from the original house, badly beaten and left for dead in a ditch. She hadn’t been moved as we originally thought. She escaped.”
“Has she been taken to a hospital? Have her parents been notified? What about the media—who is handling the media?” Antonio shot out his questions as Julian shook his head.
“There are other pressing matters, Your Highness. When she was questioned last night, she admitted to having a relationship with a man from your wife’s country.”
The hairs on the back of Antonio’s neck stood up at the mention of Isabella. “That’s not a crime. Why do you say it like that?”
“The man is Claudio. He’s involved with Libertad. A lower-ranking member, but he set her up for the taking.”
“Tell me the rest, Julian. Stop stalling.” Antonio clenched his fists. Julian had never hedged a subject before, but he obviously didn’t want to say what he needed to say.
Julian sighed and handed the papers he was holding to Antonio. “The man Claudio is brother to your wife’s friend, Elisabeth.”
Antonio’s eyes ran rapidly over the papers before him which listed the events his security believed Claudio was involved in. For several years, he had played the loyal soldier to Tobago while working with the Libertad to take down his government.
“I want this man captured. I want to speak with King Renaldo immediately, and I want my wife brought back here right away. No excuses, and no matter how much she fights. I don’t care if you have to haul her ass over your shoulder, I want her back in these rooms now.” Antonio’s fist landed on the table, rattling the plate and spilling his coffee. “Go!” he barked at Julian, who turned and scurried from the room with much more haste in his step.
ISABELLA
“He did what?” Isabella sat across the desk from JoAnna at the UIC campus, completely blown away by the information.
“Your husband called me this morning.” The woman repeated herself with a less than enthusiastic smile. “Quite early, in fact, to tell me to send the bill for your tuition to him. Once we have chosen your classes, I will forward the information to the email he gave me.”
He hadn’t said a word to her about his change of mind—although she hadn’t given him much of an opportunity that morning, having dashed out quickly before he could stop her to inspect her schedule.
“I’m sorry if he disturbed you this morning,” Isabella said with an apologetic smile. From the tired eyes of the councilor and the early hour they met, she assumed he had called her even earlier. Or maybe it had been after she went to sleep the night before.
After taking her shower and tucking herself into bed, he had come in and sat with her for a little while. She could hear his breathing and the shifting of his body every now and then, but he hadn’t spoken to her. As upset as she managed to get herself, she still found his presence in the room comforting. An odd feeling, she thought, considering it was her relationship with him that worried her the most.
Their squabbles had become less frequent, and she often caught him watching her while she sat across the room reading or when she was trying to listen to whatever speech he had dragged her to for the evening. His hand often found her knee, resting gently on her leg. A simple act to some, but one that sent a gentle shiver through her each time. It was as if her body was made for his touch. Every time they were in contact, her body would relax and soon after, she would have the urge to have him kiss her, hug her, take her. It was becoming unsettling, just how much she enjoyed a simple brush of his hand across her jaw or a quick peck of his lips on her cheek.
If there was any hope of them having a relationship made of more than simple pleasantries, she needed to become more educated, more elegant, and a lot less of a spoiled brat.
She knew she’d been seen as a spoiled brat since she was young. When she had asked for something, she was given it with very little resistance. The few times her father had tried to tell her no, tears were easily conjured and he completely caved. It was the only weapon she had. The man couldn’t abide tears. However, the older she grew, the more she understood how little worth he saw in her. Instead of fighting against it and proving him wrong, she simply stayed out of sight. What they’d all perceived as her lounging on the beach had actually been strict studying.
It wasn’t a surprise to her at all that she had managed to test out of several math courses and English compositions as well. She’d studied those two subjects at great length. Science wasn’t as strong for Isabella, but she had no desire to go through a science track.
“Have you decided where you’d like to focus your studies? Because of your high test scores, you’ve been given credits for two algebra courses as well as composition courses.”
Isabella opened the course catalogue to the page she’d earmarked. “I’d like to study economics.” She placed the open catalogue on the desk. Antonio had the country’s security completely under control. She wanted to be of some assistance to him, and to do that, being able to contribute regarding their economy and fundraising efforts would be the best choice.
“Excellent. The summer session is about to begin, but your husband mentioned he would prefer you wait until fall. Is that something you’ve discussed with him?”
He hadn’t discussed anything with her. As usual, he jumped in and took control. Well, this was her life, not his, and she would do what she felt was the right thing.
“I don’t see any reason to wait. Maybe just one class for the summer session. It’s been a while since I was in a classroom setting.” She smiled weakly. She’d never been in a classroom setting. Her father had hired tutors for her until he threw in the towel and changed her educational course to cover more “practical” subjects such as beauty and fashion.
JoAnna eyed her cautiously with her fingers hovering over the keys, as though she wasn’t really sure what to do.
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“It will be fine, I assure you. I’ll talk with my husband as soon as I get back. It’s not an issue.” Isabella waved hand over her desk, trying to get her to move along. She had a meeting on the other side of town in an hour, and she needed to be on time—and be alone. Ditching her security detail would be more difficult than usual, and she needed to get going.
“Very well.” After scanning the courses, she smiled. “How about you start with a general education class, something a little light before you dig deep into the bowels of economics? There is a history class that will require a lot of reading—is that suitable?”
“Oh yes, perfect. I believe we will be doing some traveling in the next few months, and reading will definitely be something I’ll have time for.”
Having that settled, she checked her phone for any messages from Claudio. He had arrived in town the previous night for a surprise visit to Elisabeth and asked if they could meet for lunch. There was more information he wanted to give her and wanted to do it in person. That suited her fine, as she hadn’t seen him in many years.
“I think I can handle the rest if you need to be elsewhere. I’m sure your life is scheduled to the second.” The smile on JoAnna’s face appeared genuine, as though she really did understand and sympathized.
“Thank you, I do have to be across town soon. If you need anything at all, please call me or email me at the address I put on the application.” Isabella stood from her chair. “Thank you for all you’ve done with getting the application pushed through so quickly and setting up my classes. I will repay you by making sure my husband keeps his phone turned off until the sun has at least begun to rise.”
JoAnna laughed and nodded. “That would be greatly appreciated. Although I truly didn’t mind. It’s not very often I hear from a husband of one of my adult students, and it’s almost never that I hear from one who wants to be involved.”