Royally Mine: 22 All-New Bad Boy Romance Novellas

by Susan Stoker

  Instead of dumping it in my hands, this time I drizzled the oil on her. I drew a thin line with it from one nipple to the other and watched the syrup-like stuff roll down the curves of her perfect tits.

  She sighed when my large hands were on her, and it was the sweetest sound. I massaged and kneaded, letting her slick skin slip through my fingers. I brushed my knuckles over her hard nipples and swirled my fingertips on them. Shit, I was turned on. Sweating in my dress shirt and aching all over for her.

  Her voice was breathless. “That feels so good.”

  “You’re telling me.” I squeezed her tits and loved watching the skin slide through my grip.

  She moaned against the side of her arm, and the watch flashed green, telling me like a stoplight that it was time to go again. I raked my curled fingers down her body, scraping against the oiled flesh and giving her a new sensation.

  “Oh,” she gasped.

  Her mouth dropped open and her breath cut off as I kept going, sliding two thick fingers against her pussy. She was hot and wet. I stirred her clit, and clenched my teeth to hold in a groan as she responded to my hand on her. Her glistening body contrasted against the black straps and blindfold, and was a thing of beauty. I wanted to climb on the table with her. It was built for at least two people, so it could handle me—

  No, fuck it! I wasn’t going to take her here like this. She had gorgeous blue eyes, and I wanted to see them when we were together. My mama didn’t raise me to be a pimp, but I’d become one anyway. So, I at least wanted to have some class when it came to this. With Courtney, I wanted to do it right.

  I had one hand on her tit and the other teasing her clit, and what the fuck had I done to make this shit happen? Had I just wanted it so bad and long enough to make the universe hand it to me?

  The muscles of her arms strained and she moaned when I sank my middle finger inside her. She was hot as fire, and squeezed down. Her pussy clenched at my finger, so tight it got hard to see straight. Listening to her enjoy it was going to get me off if I wasn’t real fucking careful.

  All the rubbing I’d done on her had set the stage, and her heart rate jumped up as I thrust my finger in and out of her pretty pink pussy. “Fuck, you’re sexy, Court. So fucking sexy.”

  Her moan walked a line between pleasure and a sob. I moved faster with both hands. The one not fucking her, glided over her shiny skin, pinching and pulling at her nipples and fumbling from one tit to the other.

  Her pulse roared to one-twenty, and I recognized all the signals from last time. She was so responsive. It made me feel powerful getting her to come again so soon.

  “Oh, shit!” Her moans shifted in pitch, climbing until she gave me another gasp that could’ve been a scream, and her body locked up.

  “Yeah, that’s it,” I said. “Fuck, yeah.”

  She bowed up from the table, and her pussy pulsed on my finger, flexing with the waves of her orgasm. My dick jerked like it needed to match her tempo. I sucked in air through my clenched teeth. It was unreal, this threat of coming in my pants when I was a grown ass man. Proof of how amazing she was.

  Whatever control I had disappeared faster than a client after he’d paid.

  I sank a knee on the table and hauled my big body up onto it until I was kneeling between her parted legs. Didn’t give her any time to recover. I scooped my hands under her ass and lifted, lowering my head until my mouth was on her.

  Maybe I startled the scream out of her, or she was still really sensitive, because my tongue on her clit made her shout my name. I closed my eyes and savored her.

  Fuck my job. Fuck this club right now. I was going to make her come again, and my mouth was the best way to do it since I’d taken my cock out of the playbook. The faint strawberry taste from the oil on her skin was good. The bottle was worth every motherfucking penny.

  “Holy shit,” she groaned. Her legs trembled, and it got worse every time I licked her. Or maybe better. She definitely seemed to like it. And me? I fucking loved it. She was lush and soft. Her squirming made me feel like a king. I had absolute rule over her body.

  When I made her come this time, her heart rate got all the way to one-forty. It probably wasn’t comfortable for her in this position since her chin was stabbing her in the chest and most of her weight was on her shoulder blades.

  I lowered her to the tabletop and ran my hands over her oiled skin while she flinched with aftershocks from her orgasm. I grinned at her involuntary contractions and listened to the straps go taut as she fought them.

  It burst out of her in a panic. “Fuck me.”

  Jesus. I leaned over, put my hands on the leather on either side of her head, and slowly lowered in until I could kiss her. I stayed up on my arms though, not wanting to crush her. I mumbled it against her damp lips. “Wasn’t what we agreed on.”

  “Let’s renegotiate, then.”

  I laughed and slid my tongue inside her mouth, tasting her. It was probably better if she didn’t say anything else. I was too close to caving. As we kissed, I tugged the blindfold up until it rested on her forehead. Her eyes fluttered open, and… when she looked at me? It was like she was seeing me for the first time.

  Court was staring at me the way I’d always hoped she would. My chest grew six inches bigger.

  “No new negotiations,” I said. Could she hear the stumble in my voice? I cleared my throat, playing it off like the way she was staring in my eyes wasn’t getting to me. “Once a deal’s made, it’s done. Club rules.”

  “Don’t you know the owner?” she teased, but sounded half-serious.

  I had to move fast. Every second the two of us were on this table, it got way more dangerous. I unlatched her wrists and the sound of Velcro tearing open filled the room. Unleashing her from the table was both good and bad. As I sat back on my heels, she climbed onto me and threw her arms around my shoulders.

  It felt good holding her. Felt even better the way she was rubbing her body against my dick through my pants. We kissed like that for a long time. When her lips moved from my mouth, they trailed along my jaw and she trembled.

  “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

  What the hell was she talking about? “Sorry for—”

  “Not coming here sooner.” She babbled it out, her voice breaking and her eyes getting wet with tears. “For staying with Tariq so long, for not seeing what we—”

  “Shhh,” I said, trying to soothe. “Don’t do that. Shit happens for a reason. I could’ve stopped being a pussy and come at you like I wanted to, you know.” I squeezed her to me. “But if I had, we wouldn’t have had this, and… damn. I liked how it worked out.”

  She smiled and blinked back her tears, clinging to me. For such a small woman, she was mighty.

  And she was finally mine.

  Chapter Six

  Julius

  Courtney tried to get a hand down my pants, but I caught her wrist and stopped her. I was gonna go off too fast, and I didn’t want her getting ideas I was a two-pump chump. Usually I was great at holding off, but after all we’d done on the table, and the seven years of wanting her, it made me a stick of dynamite. I needed to get my shit back together.

  I told her I’d give her the rest of the tour, but it took forever to get her dressed. My fault. She was distracting as hell in a bra and underwear just as she was naked, and it was hard for her to get clothes on when my hands were always in the way.

  When it was done, I trudged over to the chair and put my earpiece back in.

  She ran her fingers through her hair, trying to straighten it and maybe make it so it looked like we hadn’t been fucking around in the room. Not that anyone would care. Most of my employees would probably tell me it was about damn time I hooked up.

  “When are you going to collect on your end of the deal?” Her eyes were bright and sexy.

  “I want to tonight, but I gotta work. Tomorrow night too.” The club wasn’t open during the week unless I made special arrangements. “Sunday.” I unrolled my sleeves and buttoned
the cuffs. “You don’t have an early class on Monday, right?”

  She was going back to school to earn her masters in finance. On top of all the other awesome things about her, Court was book smart.

  “No class on Monday at all,” she said.

  Good. We’d stay in bed all day, wearing each other out.

  I radioed to Deiondre I was back online and to send the cleaning crew through room two.

  His laugh sounded dumb through the electronics. “Audition went that good, huh?”

  “Shut the fuck up, man,” I snapped. “Wasn’t an audition, her and me, we’re—” Courtney paused. Hearing only my side of the conversation, she knew what I was about to say, and seemed real fucking interested in the label I was going to put on us. I shot her a grin, challenging her to say otherwise. “We’re together.”

  How could she say it wasn’t true? Her perfume was on my clothes and the taste of her was still in my mouth. No argument from her. Her pink, full lips turned up into that smile I loved.

  We went out the door and into the hallway, and something small and soft wrapped around my hand. It was her hand, and her fingers moved until they were linked with mine. Fuck, this simple gesture was going to make me stumble. I was high off of her, like nothing could fucking stop me.

  “Through that door,” I pointed to the black one at the end of the hallway, “that’s the payment room. It’s boring in there, so we’ll skip it.”

  I didn’t take her there for a whole bunch of reasons, and one of them was I didn’t want her seeing that side of this place. Joseph, the guy who’d built the club, said the magic stopped in that room. Reality set in for the clients that the fantasy was over, and it was stupid, but no way in fucking hell did I want my fantasy with Courtney to end. Ever.

  We went up the narrow stairs to the second floor, her leading the way. I wanted her to go as far as she liked, rather than me in front, feeling like I was dragging her deeper into my club. I’d been in charge in the room when she was on the table, but now the roles were reversed.

  “Left is my office,” I said.

  She dropped my hand, turned left to go in, and I watched her look around. There wasn’t much to this room. A small couch faced my desk in the center, and the bank of screens the cameras fed into, was on the wall behind it. My office was windowless. Joseph had tried to make it look classy to match the rest of the place, but it didn’t feel sexy.

  It felt like business.

  “This is where I run things. When we get busy,” I said, being a shitty tour guide, “someone else helps watch the feeds.”

  She turned to face me and licked her lips. She was nervous?

  “What?” I asked.

  “Can I, uh… help?”

  “Stay and watch?” Jesus, she wanted to sit beside me while this place was operating? I pictured it. It turned me on all over again, and I’d just gotten my dick to cooperate. “You wanna?”

  Her shoulders lifted. “I’m… interested in seeing it.”

  “Never done that before,” I said. “But I can swing it. I know the owner.”

  Her small laugh sounded so good. She walked to the desk, trailed her fingers over the wood, and turned away to look at the bank of screens. In room two, a woman rolled a cleaning cart up to the table.

  Court’s shoulders tightened and her voice was hesitant. “Why didn’t you tell me about this place? Are you… embarrassed?”

  Oh, fuck. I swallowed hard. “Nah, it’s not that.”

  “Because I’m not going to judge you, Julius.”

  She’d given me back my watch, and if I’d still had the app running, the screen would be red. My pulse kicked hard. “I know you wouldn’t.”

  She turned to face me. Even confused, she was still so fucking beautiful. Her blue eyes peered up. “Then, why’d you keep it from me?”

  If we had a chance at long-term, I needed to come clean with her about everything. I sucked in a deep breath and prayed I wasn’t going to fuck this all up. I wanted to do the right thing. Better late than never, right? “I don’t want secrets between us no more.”

  I put one foot in front of the other and made my way to her. She didn’t move as I lifted my hand and set it on her cheek, but her pupils got big and she tensed. She sensed whatever I was about to say was gonna be serious.

  I got it out quick, like it’d be less painful that way, which was stupid. It was going to hurt her no matter what. “Tariq came here.”

  She jolted. “When? After the divorce?”

  I opened my dumb mouth, but nothing came out, and her eyes turned hard. She stepped backward, out of my hold.

  Her tone was razor-sharp. “When?”

  She thought it was just one time, because that was probably all her self-preservation would let her. Spared her the worst of it. Tariq had cheated and lied to her for years, and he’d forced me to do it too, but no more. I was fucking done.

  “Courtney.” I wanted to soften the blow, but couldn’t. “He was a regular.”

  She gasped like I’d tackled her, and she threw her arms over her chest. It was defensive. Trying to protect herself from the terrible shit I’d hidden.

  I’d never felt so miserable in my goddamn life. It hurt like a motherfucker watching her suffer. “I’m so fucking sorry. I didn’t run this place when he first came around—”

  “A regular,” she spat at me. Fire was in her eyes, and they burned hotter as she put it all together. “Wait a goddamn minute. He was coming here before you took over?” Her face twisted with horror. “Tariq was fucking girls at this club for years… and you knew about it?”

  My mouth was bone dry. My throat closed up, but I pushed the word out anyway. It was quiet and guilty as hell. “Yeah.” My arms weighed a million pounds, dragging my shoulders down. “I wanted to tell you, I fucking swear, but Tariq… He was on the list before I found out.”

  Joseph had a strict policy about clients’ identities staying secret—and me? I followed rules. So many years of football made it impossible not to. I put order and loyalty on top of everything else. I did what the boss said, right up until I got to be the boss.

  It wasn’t an excuse, and she wasn’t having it, either. Courtney’s face was still stuck on horror. “How the fuck could you not tell me?”

  “He made me promise and he was supposed to be my boy.” It sounded even worse saying it out loud. “It fucking killed me, knowing. I told him every goddamn time how he was fucking everything up, but he wouldn’t listen. Jesus, I’m so sorry.”

  Her face crumbled, and panic gripped me. I was supposed to be her friend and I’d betrayed her. And, shit, I was gonna lose her over this.

  “Keeping my mouth shut about Tariq was the biggest mistake I ever made,” I said.

  She pulled her shoulders back, trying to look strong. “You’re right. And getting on the table downstairs was mine.”

  It would have stung less if she’d slapped me. I stood motherfucking paralyzed as she pushed past me and stormed toward the door. She was almost through it when I snapped back into action. “Wait. Please, Court.”

  She didn’t.

  I chased after her, my big footsteps booming on the stairs as we went down. She was moving so fast, it was almost a sprint, and then it was. She hit the door to the front lounge and barreled through it.

  I pushed the button on my comm pack. “D, where you at?”

  He didn’t get a chance to answer because Courtney pushed open the door to the security entrance and ran face-first into his chest. She bounced off of him and rolled right, moving toward the door to the street.

  Deiondre got one look at my face and went for the door, beating her to it. He threw his black ass in front of it, stopping her, but like I’d taught him, he kept his tone friendly, no matter the situation. “Hold up a sec, girl.”

  “Get the fuck outta my way.”

  Deiondre was like twice her size, but even he flinched at her cold words. It sliced at me. Courtney was my best friend. I’d made her laugh, seen her cry, but I’d ne
ver heard her sound like him before. Five years being married to Tariq, and this was the first time she’d done it.

  “C’mon, let’s talk about this,” I pleaded.

  She barely moved her head, like I wasn’t worth the trouble. She turned just enough to give me a profile. “No. I can’t even look at you right now.”

  She shut down and shut me out. There was no getting through to her right now. Time was what she needed. I looked at my security guard and nodded for him to step back. “It’s cool, D.”

  As soon as he was out of the way, she shoved the door open and fled.

  He lifted an eyebrow at me. “She’s pissed.”

  Yeah, no shit. “Can you walk with her to the train station? Make sure no one bothers her.” My club wasn’t exactly in a nice part of town.

  “You got it.”

  He disappeared out the door, leaving me alone in the boring-looking entryway, and I put my hands on my hips. I was more fucked up now than I’d been when I got here, worried about Courtney going out with someone else.

  I hated the lying. I hated how I’d hurt her.

  But I was going to make it right. I just needed a motherfucking plan.

  Chapter Seven

  Courtney

  I didn’t answer Julius’s texts or calls during the weekend. Whenever I thought about him, I see-sawed between anger and hurt. I got that Tariq had been Julius’s friend first, but how could he not tell me something so… huge?

  Julius’s silence was deafening.

  Six months ago, Tariq got drunk after an away game and he’d thought he was texting his driver to pick him up from some random chick’s place. Instead, he’d been texting me. I remember the moment with horrifying clarity as I looked at my phone and read it. My husband bragged about the nasty pussy he’d gotten in two texts that were so full of spelling errors, some words were gibberish.

  Autocorrect gave up on him, and that night, I finally did too.