by Riley Pine
Nikolai lets go of my hand, but it doesn’t fall. My fingers twitch against his skin again, and I hear a sharp intake of breath.
“X?” He draws out his servant’s name.
“Really, Sire,” X says, the slightest admonishment in his voice, “I thought you had more faith in me than that.”
My eyes flutter open, and Nikolai’s head is turned toward the man who hopefully saved us both. I gasp as my sluggish lungs gulp at the air while my heartbeat feels like it’s increasing at an exponential rate.
Both of their heads snap toward mine. X stares at me with a satisfied grin on his face despite a split lower lip. It’s the first genuine smile I’ve seen from him, and I can’t help but feel the slightest bit victorious. I vowed to make the man smile, and I did, even if I had to nearly die to do it.
Nikolai still holds me, his eyes wide and red rimmed.
I regain movement in my other arm and cradle his face in my palms.
“I love you, Nikolai,” I say, my thumb swiping at a remaining tear on his cheek. “The money was never—”
But his lips are on mine before I get a chance to explain, and that’s when I realize that I don’t have to. He trusts that my love is real, and it is. God, it is. He pulls me closer, deepening the kiss as my lips part for him. My limbs are still weak, but he holds me so tight I know I won’t fall.
“Sire,” X interrupts. “We don’t have much time. The drug was supposed to last longer. Perhaps I measured incorrectly in my haste. We must get Miss Kate to the hospital.”
Nikolai pulls away. “But I thought—” he stammers. “I thought she was okay,” he says to X and then turns back to me. “You cannot leave me again,” he says.
I shake my head. “This is all X’s doing,” I say. “I trust I will be okay soon. But my sister. My grandmother.” A tear escapes. “I need to get to them.”
In the distance the cellar door grinds open again.
“I will explain everything in the car, Sire,” X says, an edge in his voice I do not like. “But we are out of time!”
“I can’t walk,” I whisper, fear lacing my words. If Adele was happy to find me dead, what will she do if she finds me still alive?
Nikolai stands with me still in his arms, and I wrap mine tight around his neck.
“We cannot exit the cell without being seen,” he says.
X raises a brow. “Of course we can, Your Highness. Just not through the door.”
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Nikolai
X PRESSES A moss-covered stone on the dungeon wall, and it sinks back like a button on a keyboard.
“This palace is full of surprises.” He turns with a wink. “Designed that one myself.”
Of course I’ve wondered about X’s background story. He is so tight-lipped that it is possible to believe he is anything or anyone. When I came of age he was assigned as my personal bodyguard and soon became my most trusted friend and adviser. I have given him free rein to indulge in any number of curious hobbies from Kenjutsu Japanese swordsmanship to breeding poison dart frogs. But it appears secret passages have also been a keen interest, for I thought I knew them all, and I have just been proved wrong.
“It’s a tight squeeze, but it will bring us out at the Gates of Victory,” X says.
“And from there we can proceed to the back entrance,” I say, unable to believe Kate is still alive in my arms. That this nightmare has turned into a dream.
“The guards in the back keep were sent a flagon of ale from you tonight, as thanks for their service.”
“I ordered no such thing,” I tell him.
X arches a brow. “I did. And saw it dosed with six seeds of the Evernight Poppy before delivery. The men should be dreaming of busty Edenvale milkmaids this very moment.” He glances back at us. “Miss Kate here, however, consumed one entire blossom. She should have been out for at least twenty-four hours. I do wonder about that kiss, though...” He trails off.
“What about the kiss?” I ask.
X shakes his head. “Even I don’t believe in such tales,” he says. “True love’s kiss being more powerful than poison? There just is no logical explanation for her early rousing.”
I open my mouth to respond, but Kate interrupts me.
“I’ve never heard of an Evernight Poppy,” she murmurs, rubbing my bicep and attempting to shift her body in my arms.
“Of course not,” X snaps. “No one outside of a nomadic tribe of Kazakhstani master poison makers knows of the flower’s existence.” His mouth quirks. “Except me.”
Kate attempts to lower herself and take a step but immediately crumples. I sweep her off her feet once more.
“What’s happening to me?” Her eyes cloud over with fright. “Why won’t my legs work?”
“You were mostly dead. Intermittent paralysis is an unfortunate side effect from the poison.”
Kate moans.
“Damn it, X, for how long?” I snarl, hating Kate’s fear. She moans again, this time more breathless. “For how fucking long?”
The voices in the corridor grow louder. Whoever is coming for Kate’s supposed dead body is almost here.
X beckons me forward and we slip into the secret passage. He pulls a crank and the door slides effortlessly closed. “Not long,” he says at last.
“Then why do you look unsettled?” I rumble. The idea of Kate suffering another second more has me in agony.
We wind through the complex twisting labyrinth that X has built through the ancient walls. The corridor is pitch-black except for the powerful flashlight beam that X shines from his wristwatch.
“There is another side effect,” he says in a tight voice.
Kate writhes in my arms. “Oh, God,” she breathes in a husky whisper unlike any I’ve ever heard. “Oh, my Jesus God.”
I freeze, unwilling to take another step until X fills me in on every last fucking detail.
X sucks in an audible breath. “Unbridled sexual desire is the other effect.”
“I need you inside me or I’ll die.” Kate licks the side of my neck while sliding her hand to cup my bulge. “Feed me that gorgeous royal prick, Your Highness. Inch by majestic inch.”
“This side effect, Sire... It won’t abate on its own,” X says grimly. “It’s the poison attacking the part of her brain that controls pleasure.”
“I need it so bad,” Kate moans. “It hurts. It hurts to want this badly.”
My eyes widen. “What do I do?” My cock is granite hard the instant Kate’s palm caresses it through my pants. We need to escape, but Kate’s sensual moans are making me mad with roaring lust, and soon others will hear her pleas on the other side of the wall.
X turns to regard me in full. His normally inscrutable expression is even harder to read than ever before. “The only cure for this side effect is for someone to bring her to orgasm.”
Kate
“X,” I growl. “You said I would feel things more keenly in my sleep state.” I writhe in Nikolai’s arms as we slide through the narrow corridor. “I’m not asleep anymore, and I can’t turn it off!” I cry. “The pain is going to kill me!”
I thrash and grind against my prince’s hands. “Touch me, Nikolai. God, please, touch me!”
“My apologies, Miss,” X says as he leads the way. “The sharp awareness of your senses—of your needs—it is more intense when you wake. And you woke early. You still have much of the drug in your system. Sire, you must pleasure her at once.”
“Kate,” he says. “I need to know it’s not just the drug. I need to be sure that after everything that’s happened, you still truly want me like this.”
His tortured eyes bore into me, and for one short moment, everything is clear.
“I love you, Nikolai. Of course I still want you like this.”
“Very well,” he says.
My prince
repositions me in his arms so that one of his hands is now underneath my dress where I’m wearing nothing at all. A finger grazes my clit and I nearly black out as I scream from the sensation.
“Silence is of the utmost importance,” X says, reminding me of our predicament...and that Nikolai and I have an audience.
“Fuck you, X,” Nikolai hisses. “You saved her only to torture her?”
We come to a screeching halt, and Nikolai’s finger slips inside me. I buck and moan. Nikolai kisses me, no doubt to quiet me, and I’m ravenous for him, teeth gnashing and tongues swirling. I nip at his bottom lip and draw blood, the copper tang filling my taste buds.
A stone door slides open, and we burst into a stairwell and then up and out into the night air.
“Hang in there, Pet. I’m going to take care of you.”
But I can’t even answer him. I am an animal, biting and scratching in his arms as X flings open the door to the Rolls and Nikolai practically throws me inside. I lie sprawled on my back when he climbs in and kneels beside me. He glances up to the open window where X climbs into the driver’s seat.
“Drive!” Nikolai yells, and I feel the car lurch forward.
Tears stream. “Now, Nikolai! Fuck. I need you now!”
“As you wish, my lady,” he says with a wicked grin.
He shoves my dress up past my hips, spreads my legs wide and plunges two fingers inside me. I cry out in such exquisite agony I think I may burst at the seams. His face disappears between my legs as his tongue assists his fingers, lapping the length of my folds and swirling around my aching clit.
I tear at my hair and writhe along the seat of the Rolls.
“Don’t stop! Oh, my God, Nikolai. Don’t you fucking stop!” I growl and moan and buck into his face.
And he doesn’t stop. He is relentless in his savage feast—lips, tongue, teeth working me to the brink of insanity while his fingers pump inside me.
One of his fingers hits the spot, and his tongue sends me straight over the edge.
I cry out my prince’s name as fresh tears stain my cheeks. The relief is overwhelming.
His head collapses between my knees, and for several long moments, no one says a thing.
The car rolls to a stop and X announces our arrival through the still-open divider. “The Royal Hospital of Edenvale,” he says. “Shall I give you two a minute?” he asks, not even trying to hide his amusement.
Neither Nikolai nor I say a word. I’m not even sure I’ve retained the ability to speak.
“And, Miss,” X adds. “Congratulations. You’re cured.”
I wiggle my toes and note that I am no longer paralyzed or in sex-starved agony. It would appear that X is correct on all accounts.
“Nikolai?” I say softly when I find my voice again.
He finally lifts his head. His hair is wild and his eyes glazed over.
“Are you truly okay?” he asks.
I push myself to a sitting position and slide my dress back down.
“I’m okay,” I assure him. “Thank you.”
He runs a hand through his black hair, and I note the weariness in his gray eyes. It finally hits me that I’m not the only one who’s endured today.
“I want to make sure you’re okay,” I say. “But—I have to get inside. My sister must be worried sick, and my grandmother...” My voice catches on the word. “She’s the reason we needed the money. This was never about deceiving you, Nikolai. Only about saving my family. I should have told you.” Tears prick at the backs of my eyes once again.
“Don’t worry about me,” Nikolai says. “I understand. And I never should have doubted you.” His eyes are so tender and full of love. “Whatever you need, Pet. And I’m coming with you.”
He reaches for my hand, and I see that the knuckle is split on his own.
“Did you really punch X?” I ask.
His gaze grows dark and all too somber for a moment. “I thought you were dead.”
The door opens to my right, and X stands there extending a hand.
“I’ve a salve for the wound when we get back to the palace, Your Highness.” X grins at us, patting his bloodied lip with a silk handkerchief. He closes the door after Nikolai and I exit the vehicle. I marvel at my ability to stand after being paralyzed minutes ago. Then I catch sight of myself in the tinted window of the Rolls and gasp.
Dirt streaks my face, and my hair? I look as if I’ve been living in the forest like a wild animal.
“You’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen,” Nikolai whispers in my ear.
I decide not to chide him for lying because time is everything.
“I have to get in there,” I say.
Nikolai laces his fingers through mine. “Let’s go.”
X leads us inside the main entrance, and it only takes seconds for the gawks and whispers to begin. Before we even make it to the information desk, a camera flashes violently in my face.
“Look!” the paparazzo cries. “It’s Prince Nikolai and his latest conquest! How about a quote, Your Highness? Who’s the flavor du jour?”
In a flurry of movement, Nikolai has the man by the throat and shoved up against a wall.
“Be careful with your words,” he hisses through gritted teeth as the man drops his camera to the floor, his face turning blue.
My eyes widen, and X leans in close, whispering in my ear. “I taught him that.”
Before I have time to react, Nikolai lets the man go and is by my side again. In seconds, we’ve obtained my grandmother’s room number. We bypass the elevator and race up the stairs to the fourth floor and stop short just outside her room.
Standing in front of the door are the queen and three guards, Christian and Catriona Wurtzer, and Brother Benedict.
“I almost trusted your little charade,” the queen says with a self-satisfied grin. “But imagine my confusion when the prince failed to show up to dinner and I tracked the Rolls to the hospital. Surely X wasn’t going to dispose of Miss Winter here.” She raises a brow. “I suppose I’ll have to take care of the disposal myself.”
“What the hell is this, Adele?” Nikolai growls.
The queen simply nods in our direction. “Arrest them all for treason.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Nikolai
ONE OF ADELE’S thuggish goons lunges at Kate. But before the oversize gorilla with the neck tattoos can set a single finger on my love’s skin, I lay him out with a swift uppercut to the underside of his mean jaw.
“Oof.” He hits the floor like a sack of rotten potatoes and doesn’t move again.
“That’s going to be one hell of a migraine when he comes around,” X says with approval, rolling the henchman over with his toe. “Well-played, Sire.”
“Who’s next?” I roar at the remaining guards. They forget what blood pulses through my veins, that of generations of fierce warriors and plunderers. I am descended from a long and noble line of men and women who got and secured what they wanted by any means necessary. I call on them now to aid me in this hour of dire need. My gut tells me that Nightgardin is using her as their puppet, but I don’t have the proof to make an accusation now. Better to wait and watch. For now, the threat is neutralized. She is going down, and Kate will be protected.
Adele snaps her fingers. Sven and Sval, giant twins who reportedly did time in a Siberian prison as hit men for the Russian mafia, swagger forward, cracking their scarred knuckles.
“Want to tag team, X?” I call out. “A little fun for old times’ sake?”
“Only if we challenge ourselves to taking these amateurs in under ten seconds.” My bodyguard’s wager enrages the twins.
“We amateurs eat little worms like you for breakfast.” Sven opens his mouth to reveal a row of gold-plated teeth.
“Scared, pretty boy?” Sval jeers.
“I am
, actually.” I yawn. “Scared that by the time X and I finish with you, there will be nothing left to interrogate.”
Sven slowly blinks. “But the queen—”
“Is not heir to the throne.” I draw myself to my full height. “And is acting without a signed decree from the royal liege and is therefore in breach of the law. She doesn’t have a leg to stand on legally with this attempt at a coup. Treason is being committed here, but it’s not by me. With whom do you want to align loyalties, gentlemen?”
“Catriona is not with heir, either!” Christian says, stepping forward, his sister’s upper arm in his grasp. “I mean, she’s not carrying your heir. She made the mistake of confiding her and the queen’s little scheme to me. My sister actually thought I’d be party to her own treason to further Rosegate’s interests alongside Adele’s bigger and more diabolical ambitions. But it’s not your child she carries, Nikolai. She has said so herself.”
Catriona wrenches from her brother’s grasp and slaps him across the face. “You spoiled everything for me. Everything! The queen will make you pay. All of you!”
“I will ruin you,” Adele says to my friend, her voice as threatening as the hiss of an adder.
“So be it,” Christian says. “But you will not ruin the prince.” He turns to me. “I’m so sorry, Your Highness. I will never doubt you again.” Then he grabs Catriona’s arm again and hauls her away.
“Well,” I say, eyeing the queen. “That solves the problem of my upcoming nuptials, X. Wouldn’t you agree?”
X steps beside me, removing a deadly-looking blade with a jewel-encrusted handle from his black boot. He uses it to casually clean his nails. We are in a hospital, after all, and do wish to remain civil.
“Don’t be fools, my good men,” I order Adele’s remaining brutes. “I am prepared to be reasonable based on the fact you have a combined IQ that is smaller than today’s date, but if you come one step closer to Kate, you will be dead.” I’ll resurrect Edenvale’s old beheading customs and do the deed myself.