by Brill Harper
“Some days I can scarcely believe it myself, lamb.”
She shoots me a look that’s meant to chastise but instead stirs my blood.
I don’t know why she gasped at me earlier, if she didn’t recognize me. I don’t think I’ll ask her just yet. She’s…well, she’s certainly bundled up tight, this one. Even her clothes. Her blouse goes up her neck to her chin, and she’s holding her sweater together in one hand like the wind might blow it off her. “Why did you leave your convent?”
“I would have been a horrible nun.”
Thank fuck. “But why did you leave?”
A smile, small and secret, changes her face completely. “I held a baby.”
My mouth goes dry. It’s like I can see right into her soul, the woman she hides, the woman she really is. And deep inside me, something awakens and roars. Mine. “A baby?”
She shakes her head a little, as if to clear a fog or talk herself out of something. “It’s silly really.”
My hand covers hers before I know I’ve done it. “Tell me.”
“I’d never held one before. I don’t know how to describe it, but I knew I could never choose a life that didn’t allow for me to have one of my own. It was like this bone-deep knowing that I wanted to be a mother. I tried to push it away, but it was just so powerful. I knew I’d never be able to take the vows with my whole heart after that. It’s ridiculous, really, since I have no more of a chance of having one now than I did as a nun.”
“Why is that?” I ask, holding her hand more firmly. I can see her, in my bed, nursing my child in her arms. I can see it like it’s a memory it’s so strong.
“I grew up in a convent orphanage. I spent my adult years until recently in preparation for a life in that same convent. I don’t really understand the world of dating and marriage, and I have no idea how to get from the life I’m living to the one that I want.” She stops and looks out the window, but I see her wipe away a tear she’s trying to hide from me. “I can’t believe I’m telling you this. You must be so bored.”
I gently cup her face and bring her gaze back to mine. Those sweet, wet eyes take me back to that day when I was ten and knew I was to care for her. I guess that never went away.
I’m not a man who questions my impulses or spends time examining why I feel a certain way or why I want something that I covet. I have no intention of changing that now.
I push the intercom. “Get the jet ready. We’re going home early.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
There are questions in her eyes.
“I’m not bored, lamb. In fact, you’ve inspired me.”
“I see. If you’ll just have your driver turn around, I can take the subway home, and you can get on your way.”
“I have a different idea, Violet. You come to Kentigen with me.” When I said we were going home, I meant she was coming home too. It’s probably too early to tell her that.
“I can’t go to Kentigen with you. I have a …” The despair that crosses her face nearly undoes me.
I want to kiss her worries away. Promise her a new life. Fix everything that hurts. I’ve never been so inspired. But I know I will have to temper myself until she is used to me. Until she trusts me.
And then all bets are fucking off.
“What can’t you leave behind?”
“I have a …job. And an apartment. And…”
“Do you have a cat?”
She shakes her head. Confused. “No. Why?”
“Plants? Something in that apartment that needs you to care for it?”
She shudders on a breath. “No.”
“Come with me to Kentigen. I will give you as many children as you desire to care for.” She gasps, so I keep talking to prevent her arguments. “If your work at the museum is so important, I assure you there are artifacts and history needing preservation in my country that you can devote yourself to. Or charities. Or gardening. Anything you wish is yours.”
“Markellan, what are you talking about? I can’t go to Kentigen with you. This is ludicrous. You don’t even know me.” She pauses. “Did you say children? Do you want me to come back and be a nanny? I’m afraid that while I love children, I don’t have much experience with them.”
“I did say children. As many as you want.” Her brow furrows. “I don’t need a nanny yet. I need a wife.”
“Are you saying…”
“Violet, I know no other way than to be blunt. I sense in you a woman who longs to breakout. A woman who’s lived a quiet life, a careful life, but hungers for more. I can give it to you. All that you desire. Come home with me. Be my bride, my princess. I will fill your belly full of royal babies, and you will never be lonely again.”
“You’re crazy. Please take me home. To my home. Or just…let me out. Here is fine.”
I push down my irritation. Not at her. At myself. My mother would skin me alive if she saw how I was bungling this.
“I don’t mean to frighten you. And I think if you search your heart right now, it’s not me you’re afraid of, but yourself.”
I pull my phone out and dial my second guard, Con, putting him on speaker phone. “Con, you are from this moment on attached to Violet. You are to protect her as you would me and make sure she gets what she needs and goes where she wants, even if it is in direct opposition with my wishes.”
“Yes, sir.”
I disconnect and turn to her. “You are a free woman and have a guard at your disposal. He will answer any questions you have and make any arrangements you need for life outside the palace walls whenever and wherever you wish to go.”
“I don’t understand why you want me to come home with you. Why you want to help me…with babies. I…I know you must have women pushing each other down to be with you. Is this some kind of game? Find the homeliest woman you can and—”
“Be very careful with the words you use to describe my princess,” I growl.
“Markellan, this is insane. I’m not the woman you want to be your princess. Surely you must see that. I have no social standing, and I’m horribly awkward and shy. I’m also afraid of almost everything. I’m too much of a coward to join you on this adventure. Or any adventure, really.”
“How can you think yourself a coward? You left the only life you knew to go after the life you really want.”
She looks down at her lap as if she is ashamed. “But I didn’t. I left the only life I knew and made one for myself that is very similar to the one I had, just with fewer wimples.”
I pick up her hand, kiss it. “Don’t you believe in fate at all? We met twenty years ago by chance in the very same place we found each other today. You have carried my most prized childhood possession with you since that day. I’m usually a man who pays little attention to coincidence, but even I can’t deny there is something between us. Can you? Can you really walk away without even looking to see what might happen?”
“I think you are mistaking your very sweet, sincere desire to be my knight in shining armor with fated romance. You probably just feel responsible for me, like you did when we were children. But I’m not the kind of woman who is made for the kind of passion you require—”
I don’t let her finish. With a low growl deep in my throat, I fist my hands in her hair and yank her head back, my tongue penetrating deep when she opens her mouth in a surprised gasp.
Chapter Four
Violet
He buries his hands in my hair, kissing me.
Me! Me who’s never been kissed by anyone. And these are not starter kisses. Oh no, not at all.
Slow deep kisses, his mouth gliding, slipping and sliding over mine.
I hear my inner-spinster howling in protest, and I ignore her. How many women get their first kiss in a limo with a prince?
He slants his mouth firmly over mine, plundering, nibbling, sucking. Invading. The man doesn’t simply kiss—he’s making love to my mouth, making it feel all hot and swollen.
I’m going to be outraged. Any minute now.
His hands drop from my hair to my breasts, moving possessively, cupping and plumping them. His thumbs glide over my nipples, making them feel sharp and achy with want.
I don’t know what I’m doing, so I grab a fistful of his suit jacket and just hold on. Let him plunder. Let him drag me into this dark passion. I’m drowning in him, in his scent and masculine power. Please, don’t anyone throw me a life preserver. Places low in my belly clench. I ache around the emptiness between my legs. My skin is hot, my blood heating it as it boils and rushes swiftly through my veins.
And then he stops, resting his forehead against mine, his breathing shallow and fast. “Tell me again how passionless you are, my little lamb.”
I bring my fingertips to my now tender lips. “I don’t…how…what did you do to me?”
With gentleness, he pushes a lock of hair off my face. “I think I just woke you up. How do you feel?”
“I don’t know. Markellan, this is…”
“Don’t tell me it’s crazy. You’ve already said that.” He brings my hand back up and kisses it again. “In Kentigen, we have a custom similar to what you would call a honeymoon here, but it happens before the wedding.”
I’m not following at all, but he keeps talking.
“The groom has one week to prove himself to the bride. If he can pleasure her enough, take care of all her needs, and show her his capacity to be a husband, she will grant the marriage. Give me a week. In the palace. Let me prove my worth to you. And if at the end of our honeymoon, you choose to return to your country, I will make sure you are well taken care of.”
My heart nearly stops when I take in everything he just said, which I admit is taking longer than usual because I’m still befuddled from that kiss. “You want to get married? To me?”
“You want to have a baby. I’m offering to put mine inside you. And yes, I would prefer we marry. But if you find me lacking…”
He trails off when I snort.
“You want to get pregnant. You said it was worth leaving the convent for.”
“I kind of assumed I would use a sperm bank when I could afford it.”
He growls under his breath. I think I hear something about nobody else’s sperm gets in my body, but I can’t be sure I’m hearing anything right this evening. I’m probably dreaming. Or in a coma.
How sad is it that my life is so much more exciting when I’m comatose?
“So, let me just run this down so when I tell my new therapist, the one I’m going to hire tomorrow, about the crazy dream I had, I get all the details right. After a childhood encounter twenty years ago, you think that running into each other again today means we are somehow destined to be together, despite the fact that you are a prince and I am almost-a-nun and have no worldly experience whatsoever. You want to take me to your palace and get me pregnant, and if after our ‘honeymoon’ I want to return home, you’ll let me go, even if I’m pregnant with your baby. If I choose to stay, you want to marry me and take me away from my lonely life of solitude and frozen dinners, making me a princess.”
He sits back, amused with me for some reason. “First of all, I have no doubts that you will stay and become my princess. I don’t think I’ll need a full week. And second, there is no ‘if.’ I guarantee, I will impregnate you in a week, of that I am also very sure.”
“You’re very arrogant.”
“Perhaps. I intend to fill you with my body so many times and in so many positions you may not walk for days, but you will get pregnant.”
I swallow. Hard. I don’t even think I know what any of that means.
“Have I shocked you?”
“Yes.”
“Good. I’ve just barely begun. I don’t want you agreeing to something you don’t understand the terms to. So I’ll tell you more.” Possessive fire burns in his gaze. “I’m very sexually aggressive and dominant to the bone, my little lamb. And that is exactly what you want. What you need.”
I gasp, indignation rushing into me, but words don’t surface. Things I should say like, no or that’s not true, are stuck in my throat. I’m not sure they are true. I don’t know what I want or what I need. But I’m convinced Markellan knows. That somehow he sees into my soul and can reach right into it. He’s overwhelming, and I want to be overwhelmed.
“I’m a big man, Violet. Everywhere, but I know how to use my body to make you tremble and moan and cry out my name in pleasure. I know how to make you beg for my cock, and when I give it to you, when we’re both so needy we’ll die if I don’t fuck you, I will make you come more times than is advisable. Every inch of my cock was made for your pleasure, and it will touch you in places you only dreamed of. And when you are boneless and sated and nearly unconscious, I will come inside you. I will come long and hard and so deep that when I fill you with my hot seed, I will coat your insides, lamb.”
I can’t speak. I don’t have any words. Nothing that can be said after his words anyway. I don’t know if I’m in shock or just waiting to wake up. And he doesn’t even look winded after saying all that. I can barely suck in a breath. It’s like my lungs have collapsed on no available air. I’ve never been spoken to like that. With such frank sexuality. I’ve never even been looked at with sexual interest before and now I’m…what am I?
Shocked? Yes. But more. Intrigued? That isn’t a strong enough word. Scared? Oh, yes. That too.
The car stops.
“We’re at the airport. My jet is ready. Anything you need, we can acquire in Kentigen. I promise if you choose to return, I will make sure you and the child are taken care of. You needn’t worry about losing your job or your apartment. What do you say?”
His glittering gaze challenges me, dares me. Reminds me that he somehow knows the things I’ve never said aloud, my secret fantasies, the ones hidden deep inside my heart. Desires I didn’t think would ever be fulfilled. And here is my chance.
I stare at him in silence, feeling utterly torn. There are a thousand reasons why I absolutely cannot get on that plane with him.
Dare I do something so impulsive? So crazy? So unlike me? On the other hand, dare I go back to my life the way it is? The apartment with not even a plant in it that needs me? A life barren of anything important?
If this were a dream, which it still might be, I might let him take me. Show me the passion I’ve never experienced. Never dared to want. Be the focus of his unrelenting sensual energy. I rub the coin in my hand. Can I face myself in the mirror if I don’t take this Cinderella chance?
“Be brave, Violet. Trust me.”
I look into his eyes, so dark, fringed by even darker lashes. There’s something else in his eyes. Something I hadn’t seen earlier. A vulnerability.
Oh, I’m probably one of the many women in this world who fall for that look. The urge to be needed is strong.The idea that somehow I have something he needs is like a drug.
This is the strangest coma ever.
“All right, I’ll go with you.”
Chapter Five
Markellan
I asked Tara, Princess Tara my sister, to keep our arrival low key. I should have known that was a mistake.
Tara can’t resist tormenting me, and as we climb out of the helicopter, I see she has the entire household assembled in some sort of formal reception line. My bride is staring agog at the castle and the line of servants and royal guard all in uniform.
I’ll admit it’s good to be home. As soon as my feet touch the lawn, something peaceful steals over me. I’m on my turf now—literally. Violet doesn’t stand a chance.
I give my sister a dirty look and go right to our mother, kissing each cheek. “My Queen.” She raises one brow at me and I know I will have some serious explaining to do.
While I was distracted, Tara made a move on Violet. Damn it. She’s ushering her into the house like they are best friends, and Violet looks back at me with wide, nervous eyes. Oh hell. Tara is and always has been, my trouble-making older sister. She thinks she’s hilarious when she gets in my business, and I can see sh
e plans to get as much information as she can out of poor Violet.
I catch up to them in the parlor where tea has been set out.
“You must be famished. Here, let me get a plate for you.” Tara doesn’t let her answer, just goes about stacking sandwiches and cake on the plate as if I maybe hadn’t fed the girl on the plane.
Who does she think I am? Of course I looked after Violet. I will always look after Violet.
Tara is pouring tea and babbling. “You can’t imagine my surprise when my sweet brother asked me to get some clothes and necessities for you. He’s never brought a woman home before, so you’ll have to excuse me if I get too excited. I always wanted a sister.”
“Tara—”
She doesn’t even look at me. “Pieter says that the two of you met as children. How romantic.” She continues babbling until she wears Violet down, who surprises us all by telling us a story about the monastery.
Good. I’m glad she’s coming out of her shell. Though my mother appears to wonder what I’ve gotten myself into dragging a nun from another country home.
“When I am queen,” my sister begins.
Hell. She’s been spouting that line since she could talk and it’s always something outrageous.
“I don’t understand,” Violet says, looking at me. “The heir is your sister?”
My mother smiles and puts down her tea. “Our culture is matrilineal. My kingdom reverts to my eldest daughter. Darling, how much did you not explain to Violet about our culture?”
I’m about to speak when Tara gets a dangerous, absolutely giddy look in her eye. “Come, Violet. I shall show you to your room and get you a bath drawn while I tell you absolutely everything you need to know about our country.”
“I think I can handle it, Tara.”
“Oh, no, brother. I insist. It will be my absolute pleasure to tell her everything.”
The only reason I don’t stop her is Violet seems drawn to my bubbly sister. I think she needs a female friend, even if it is the brattiest woman in the world. I just hope she doesn’t run screaming away when she finds out all I’ve neglected to tell her about our culture.