“Why?” she says, her head recoiling back.
“Because although you’re the most beautiful princess in the history of this palace or any other, you’re much better suited to be my queen.”
I can see her pupils dilating in real time and I lean in and give her a very possessive kiss in front of the whole world. People are starting to recognize us now, and the more people, and the sooner, they recognize she’s mine the better.
I pull her in close and after a long, deep, passionate kiss we come up for air.
I turn and look back at the palace and I catch one of the infantry soldiers in the Queen’s Guard, in his full-dress uniform consisting of a red tunic and a bearskin hat, quickly looking away.
I can’t help but snarl at the sight of catching the infantryman sneaking a peek at me claiming my woman.
I feel rage thinking he must be imaging himself in my shoes, with my luck as I’ve got the prettiest woman there is.
I march right over there and get right next to his ear.
“You’ve got a job to do, and your job is not to be looking at my woman…not now and not ever. I respect the country too much to make an example out of you right now, but if you try it again you better know I’ll put my national pride aside and make an example out of you in front of the entire world. Eyes off my woman. Grunt if you understand, if not I’ll make you grunt as you double over in pain.”
The guardsman grunts immediately and I turn to go. I was facing away from the crowd and my body language was still as I stood in front of him. Because of this neither he, nor the country, has to save face or incur a black eye, either figuratively or literally.
Personally, I don’t care what the world thinks about me. I’ll come to blows over my woman without question. As a man it’s my job to protect her honor just as that guardsman is to protect the country's. He should know better, and now he does. He’s a young man and I’ll give him one chance, but I sure hope he learned his lesson…for everyone’s sake.
“What did you say to him?” she asks as I return, taking her hand and scooping her up in my arms to the oohs and ahhs of some Japanese tourists.
“The same thing I’m showing the world right now. That your mine and only mine,” I say, carrying her like the caveman I’ve become.
And if it weren’t for my needing to wait for a reply for the call I made when we arrived, this caveman would be carrying her back to his man cave right now to claim her primal style.
But not yet. Patience is a virtue and no matter how much I’ve already displayed, I have to endure more. More aching pain in my balls that demand to release every drop of seed they have prepared for her and only her, inside her.
But my pain is nothing compared to the pain I will inflict on any man trying to physically, mentally, verbally, or emotionally abuse any woman, especially mine.
I’m proud of my woman’s toughness. She just let that whole incident slide like water under the bridge, but not me. If that guardsman thought I was here to try to get him to laugh like all the other tourists, well…he quickly learned when it comes to her and my protectiveness of her that’s no laughing matter. Not. One. Fucking. Bit.
I see the tourists gathering around our car, which is perfect.
I easily turn and just walk away from them, carrying her to our next spot on our day as tourists together exploring my city with fresh eyes, even though I’ve been here my entire life and she’s lived here a good deal of hers.
The world is different when you see it through someone else’s eyes, or when your eyes take on a whole new perspective because you know you’ve found the one.
And I can’t wait until “the one” and I have our first child, so I can see the world all over again how it’s meant to be seen…with the freshness and enthusiasm of a newborn life that we created together.
CHAPTER 10
Ella
My big boxing brute with the brains to match carries me for a good twenty minutes without so much as breathing heavy or acting like he’s carrying anything at all.
It’s one thing to get a taxi, it’s another to rent one of those carriages or even take the red hop on hop off tourist buses…and it’s completely something else to be carried by the most desirable man in all of London, and in my opinion the world.
As we enter a building I witness the opulent decadence before I see the display announcing we are indeed inside of Claridge’s.
“Two for tea, please,” he says, upping the English tradition of afternoon tea to a whole other level.
We’re quickly seated inside their absolutely lovely tearoom. The tablecloth is crisp and white and Oliver opts for a rich Oolong, while I decide to go for the “refreshingly complex Claridge’s Blend.”
Minutes later our vertical striped cups and pot, in white and a mint green, arrive. One sip and I can’t help but quickly motion for the waiter to request a slice of their Tainori chocolate mousse to pair it with.
Moments later I discover the chocolate mousse is to die for and it’s easy to see why the long list of visitors to the hotel which also occupies the building has been frequented by the likes of Queen Victoria, Winston Churchill, Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant.
Even though the place is absolutely spectacular and fit for a queen, the real reason I feel like royalty is because of him.
He watches me with a curious smile as I can’t help but feel like a kid in a candy store, albeit I’m a woman and this “candy store” is packed with some of the finest desserts I’ve ever seen. Yes, I am checking out the other tables without one ounce of shame.
“How are things going for you Stateside?” Oliver asks.
“Good. I just graduated a few months back and I’m working my first job so I’m still kind of getting my feet underneath me.”
“But you like it?”
“It’s…good. It’s nice to be back, but sometimes I have a bit of an identity crisis being that I have both American and English citizenship.”
“The countries are very similar and yet worlds apart at the same time, aren’t they?”
“Definitely. There’s something very British, or even global, about ‘making it in America.’ Success in the U.K. is without a doubt something to be extremely proud of and quite an achievement in and of itself too.”
“Absolutely. I’ve built my life on that principle, success in the U.K., where I’m proudly from. It’s served me well,” he agrees.
“I’m with you, but there’s something I remember hearing Lee Child say a while ago.”
“You’ve read the Jack Reacher series?”
“Who hasn’t?”
He raises his eyebrows in agreement yet again.
“Lee mentioned that he remembers listening to a radio broadcast as a child and the gist of it was a moment where the Beatles had ‘made it in America.’ He was inspired by that and it ultimately led him to New York to try and do the same.”
“And make it he did.”
“Without question. But the heart of the matter is his Jack Reacher character. He often says in a very straightforward manner that the character is a knight errant, and that character worked extremely well in Europe years ago when there were swaths of unexplored land, forests, and things of that nature. But Europe has been pretty well settled at this point.”
“While our friends across the pond still offer that Wild West, rugged, open space that allows Child’s character to play out more like the Wild West hero Shane, who rides into town, saves the day, and then rides off into the sunset.”
“Exactly! How did you know that?” I ask.
“Michael Connelly mentioned once that Reacher is basically Shane, and it made a lot of sense to me.”
“You read quite a bit, don’t you?”
“Best way to learn in my opinion, whether those ‘lessons’ are presented as fiction or non…it doesn’t really matter, and to be honest reading between the lines and figuring them out yourself, as fiction lends itself, is my preferred way.”
“So can you…read me?”
“I can
, and I know it’s even easier to read me,” he says, as he takes a drink of his tea, not a sip but a proper drink, never taking his eyes from mine.
“You know what I want and what I want is you. But I want you here, in London. I think it’s better, safer, and more easily paired with weekend trips, or longer, to the South of Spain, Morocco, Italy, Scandinavia…heck even back to New York.”
“But what if I want to make it in America?”
“Why not do both?”
“How?”
“An online business might be one way.”
“I have tinkered with selling things through Etsy and driving traffic via Pinterest, but I didn’t get it to work.”
“It’s tough, no doubt, but I know you can do it. You’re determined and sassy and I like that about you.”
“You think I’m sassy?”
“You haven’t been too much today, but I think that’s just because we haven’t seen each other in so long and you’re being polite.”
I can’t help but smile.
“You could set up a Shopify site and order samples from Aliexpress and give that a go.”
“But I would need to devote more time to it, and money for the samples.”
“I’m happy to help with that and that ties into what this conversation is really about.”
“Making money, or making it in other countries?”
“Us. It all starts and ends with us and how we set this up for the both of us to win long term.”
“What makes you think there is an us long term?” I say, squinting slightly.
“Like I said…sassy.”
I can’t help but laugh, but I am serious.
“You’re the one for me, Ella. That may sound crazy right now or way too fast, but I can guarantee you it’s not. This has been building for four long years and I can’t wait any longer. You are mine. There is no other way.”
“What if that’s not what I want?”
“It is. I can see it in your eyes.”
“Are you sure?”
“Completely. And I’m also sure about you. I want you more than anything and I won’t stop until I have you, and not just for one night.”
The cup that was at my lips freezes.
“This isn’t just a sexual desire, it’s so much more. I know you and I know your family, and I know the kind of person you are. The only thing about your family is the fact that your dad up and left. That really upset me. If that hadn’t happened we would of had this conversation four years ago and we’d already have a couple of kids by now.”
“What about your boxing career? Would that have been the same?”
“I don’t even care. That was just rage that took me from a good amateur boxer into the best. It was all that anger of losing you, and so suddenly, especially after I’d just found you. It was like getting hit in the gut and then punched right in the mouth.”
“Come again?”
“When I saw you at your going away party you were so damn beautiful it knocked the wind right out of me. I couldn’t even think or speak and I literally had to sit down and take deep breaths I was so blown away.”
“You’re exaggerating.”
“I swear. And then it occurred to me that the whole reason the party was even happening was because your dad had decided he wanted to go back to New York. What’s wrong with London? He could have made just as much money here, especially then when the pound was so strong. Hell he could be making fifty percent more.”
“That’s the problem,” I say, exhaling hard as I set my cup on the saucer. “I didn’t want to bring this up because of my dad’s pride, because of our family pride.” I breathe out again. “The truth is my dad didn’t decide to up and leave. He was downsized and had no choice. He had a family of four to feed and his best option at the time was to go back to New York to do that.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know.”
“It’s okay. Nobody knows by design. Plus he was able to get Ethan in at the same time via some sort of combo deal. It seemed incredibly lucky at the time as they needed a junior analyst and a senior level member so when they both got offers they couldn’t pass it up, especially considering my dad was just let go and his severance package was severely lacking.”
“He’s a fighter, just like you.”
“Just like you,” I retort. “You’re the fighter and that’s what tells me that this can work, that it will work…that we’ll work it out no matter what.”
“Because I’m a boxer?”
“No, because I just threw a few what ifs at you, and it wasn’t meant to be childish test or something like that, but no matter what I said you just kept coming, kept giving me your best shots…and by shots I mean you were finding a way to break through the potential walls I was putting out there that could cause problems for us.”
“That’s exactly what I promise to do. Always.”
“Always sounds nice, and I completely believe you, but I only have until the first of the year to be in the city and then I have to fly home and get back to how things were.”
“You don’t. Give them your two-week notice if you have to. Even better just tell them you’re done and you’re staying here with me. Tell them the truth. Tell them you’ve basically been kidnapped by a dangerous man who refuses to let you go and you’re scared for your safety and your family’s.”
“Speaking of my family, what about my brother?”
“I’ll take care of that.”
“You think it’s going to be easy? You know how he is.”
“Walls, remember? He’s going to put another one up without a doubt. But it doesn’t matter if he builds it with bricks, concrete, steel, molten lava, or anything else because I don’t care. I’ll bust right through it every time if you’re what’s on the other side.”
“You sure you’re prepared to risk your friendship with my brother?”
“I’m prepared to risk everything, just you wait and see.”
CHAPTER 11
Oliver
An hour later we’re walking out the back entrance to Claridge’s where our driver is waiting.
Not fifteen minutes later we arrive at the London Eye, and after buying our tickets and slipping an envelope to the operator I excuse myself to use the toilet.
Checking my phone I duck behind the toilets and send the message that I’m in position.
Seconds later I meet Lucie face to face for the first time. She delivers exactly as promised, wishes me luck, with my promise in return to let her know how things go…even though I already know.
Call it cocky. Call it arrogant. Call it confidence.
Personally I call it drive and determination, the determination to go after what you want most in this life and not taking no for an answer until you get it.
I nod at the London Eye operator and we get in our private ovoidal capsule as it slows at the bottom, but never fully stops allowing the rotation to continue smoothly.
“Wow,” Ella says. There goes my chest swelling with pride again. “What is this?”
“This is what they call Cupid’s Capsule, and this is ours.”
I move to where our Pommery Brut Royal Champagne is on ice, pouring us each a flute.
“Cheers,” I say as I hand her hers.
“Cheers,” she says.
“To you. To us. To the future which will always be brighter now.”
“Your life is already shining very bright so that means a lot to me. Thank you,” she says.
We clink glasses and I take a sip, before lowering my flute and tasting what I want more than anything…her lips.
CHAPTER 12
Ella
I feel lightheaded as he kisses me, my whole body feels like I’m floating thanks to his lips, the champagne, and the slow-moving capsule as we ascend.
His lips are both firm and gentle at the same time, hungry and passionate yet caring and worshiping.
I feel his hand take my flute as he sets both down on the wooden oval bench in the middle of the capsule, q
uickly coming back to me.
We’d tried to kiss earlier, and were interrupted. Then we were able to kiss on multiple occasions, but there were people around.
No more. Not this time. No one in the world can get to us inside our huge bubble that’s only going higher and away from prying eyes.
He pulls me in close, holding me protectively. My lips part allowing his tongue to slide through and he swirls it in my mouth, tasting me as my entire body melts into his.
U.K. Boxing Day: An Older Man Younger Woman Romance (A Man Who Knows What He Wants Book 91) Page 6