by Kyanna Skye
“What?” Amira asked. Jesse’s brows were drawn, mouth downturned.
“Should we?” he asked.
“We don’t know each other,” Amira began. “And you’re here to protect me. So no, we shouldn’t. But yes, I want you. Come here.”
Jesse wrapped his arms around her waist, pushing her back against the couch. “I was hoping you’d say that,” he whispered against her cheek. He explored her with his hands. She sighed as his fingertips moved beneath her shirt, stroking her breasts. She moved away just long enough to pull it off, revealing the lacy bra beneath. He reached behind her back and she felt the snap of the elastic as he undid the closure. The moment her bra was discarded his lips touched her skin. He sucked on one nipple, while he caressed the other with his hand.
“Baby, please,” she moaned. She touched him. His hardness strained against his jeans. She reached for his belt buckle. He helped her, managing the buckle and zipper more quickly than she would have. She reached beneath his jeans and stroked him. His smooth skin was hot against her palm.
“Uh,” he muttered. His eyes were on her, and she was close enough to see his pupils shrink to pinpoints. He moved away slowly, standing up and offering her his hand. “Come.”
In the bedroom, they shed what remained of their clothing. Jesse was even more handsome than she imagined. His clothes had hidden some of the subtle angles of his body. His gold skin was perfect, soft to her touch but with the firm hardness of muscle beneath. He was toned. His muscular chest and arms, tight abs all showed evidence of the work he did to keep fit. They stood, sunlight pushing against the edges of the closed curtains, looking at each other in the soft light. Amira expected to be shy about being naked in front of him, but she didn’t feel that at all. Instead, she felt privileged to be alone with him, to feel his eyes taking in her body and see the joy on his face. Her heart beat faster as he came close. He was heat and sweetness and something else with an edge of salt and spice to it, his natural scent beneath the aroma of soap and aftershave.
He touched her hair, ran his fingers down her cheek. She kissed his palm.
“You’re so beautiful,” he said, leaning near. His hands traced her body: breasts, waist, and the round of her hips. With a gentle touch, he parted her with a touch of his finger. He stroked her clit until she moaned, and then pressed two fingers inside of her pussy. He started slow and then increased the pressure, draping one arm around her waist as he pumped her with his hand. Amira felt her body tightening, the heat that let her know she was coming close to climax. When the moment of crisis came it hit so hard that her legs went numb. Jesse caught her as her knees gave way.
“My darling,” he whispered, holding her tight. “We’re just starting.”
He put her on the bed. He kissed her mouth deeply. He laid on top of her. Amira closed her eyes, running her hands up and down his back. She grabbed his ass, loving how hard he felt. She raised her leg around his waist.
With one hard, sure thrust, he was inside her. A long, purr like moan escaped her throat.
They moved together, making their own steady rhythm. He felt so good that there was a tear in her eye, but at one point she wanted to laugh. He grabbed her hands and squeezed them in his own. She moved her hips to take him deeper each time he pushed. Her back arched, her breathing coming in shallow, jagged spurts. She pressed her lips against his neck and tasted the salt of his sweat. She clawed at his skin as if she could somehow draw him closer than he already was.
She pressed her eyes shut as the wave of climax rose inside her again. This time she cried out, a breathless sound which moved through her with the clenching and shivering of muscles at the core of her body. He came moments later, with a burst of heat and wetness inside of her.
When they parted, they laid side by side for a time, neither one of them able to speak. He grabbed her hand again, this time bringing it to his lips for a kiss. She turned over onto her side. With her head on his chest, she could hear his heartbeat. She was lulled to sleep, listening to the strong, steady pounding.
***
Amira’s eyes fluttered open with the pleasant realization that she was being kissed.
She was lying on her side, and Jesse was kissing her back. His hands gripped her breasts while he teased the skin along her spine with a flick of his tongue.
“Oh,” she sighed. “That’s so nice.”
“Good,” he nibbled at her earlobe.
She turned around to embrace him. “I’m glad it happened,” she whispered in his ear.
He caressed her face. “I am too.”
“You won’t get in trouble with work, will you?” she asked.
“No,” he answered. “Seeing the history of how a couple of my colleagues met the women in their lives. I want you to know though. I take protecting you seriously. Always have, always will.”
“Enough of that,” Amira smiled. “Stop telling things I already know.”
“Good, because I have so many other things I want to do other than…talk.”
He turned her on her back and leaned over to kiss her belly button. Amira moaned, stroking his shoulder. He laid kisses on her skin, down her pelvic bone, and along her hip. She spread her legs for him and he bent his head. When she felt his cool tongue against her clit, she gripped his shoulders.
***
Detective Emmett McConnell was in a bad mood. Things were not going his way. The suspect in Princess Sabine’s shooting had committed suicide in his holding cell. The Mayor was on his back about finding out who was pulling the strings and why this person seemed intent on killing a foreign Princess while she was visiting his city. And to make it worse, he really had no clue about how to find out who was behind the assassin. He demanded Kiefer show up to listen as Iris Brown was questioned.
He wasn’t looking forward to interrogating her but having Kiefer there served two purposes: not only did he want to share any information or insights he could with his friend, but because he knew Attorney Brown personally, he didn’t think it would be advisable to question her alone. When the higher ups looked at his report, he didn’t want anyone to claim he’d treated her with any type of favoritism.
When Iris first heard the news that her client had killed himself, she requested to go home and return in the morning to give a statement. McConnell had agreed because he figured she wasn’t going to hold out on him. At eight o’clock in the morning McConnell, Kiefer, and Iris met together in a conference room. Iris seemed nervous but she had brought with her the personal file she had on the suspect.
After introductions were made between Iris and Kiefer, they got right to business.
“First off. Who exactly got in touch with you to represent the shooter?”
Iris sighed. “I got a call about two months ago from a woman who identified herself as an assistant to a potential client. She told me that her boss had a person coming to work for him in the United States. The woman explained he was someone high up in the government, and though he had diplomatic immunity, his representatives did not. According to her, it was important that he have someone on retainer, ready to provide legal counsel if it was needed.”
“She didn’t give a number for you to reach her directly? Or did she give you her name?” McConnell asked.
“No, she didn’t give me a number. She only gave me a first name: Mary.”
“Isn’t that unusual?” Kiefer asked.
“Yes and no. Usually, foreign diplomats will have someone on their team contact us, and it’s usually no big deal. What is unusual was that they didn’t want to give the name of the diplomat.”
“It wasn’t necessary in order for you to represent this person?”
“No,” Iris replied. “They had a retainer paid to my firm by wire. I printed out the information as it appeared on the company account,” she said, handing a statement to McConnell.
“Great, the payment was wired from a Swiss bank,” the detective huffed.
“You’d be surprised how many people have them,” Iris said
. “Offshore accounts aren’t considered problematic when it comes to securing a lawyer. I was given the name of the man I was supposed to represent—Jordan Elmari—and was told he would only be in touch with me if something unexpected came up.”
Kiefer ran a hand through his hair. “So we don’t really know if this person was a diplomat at all. Most likely it’s just someone with a lot of money.”
Iris shrugged. “My guess is it’s a cover story too unless the assistant unknowingly slipped up.”
“Were you given a number to reach her?”
“I wasn’t. I wish I could help you with that. The whole thing was very mysterious and I had misgivings about it but my firm is very clear about what cases we’re supposed to take. I went to one of the partners and was advised to take the case, but if anything seemed strange about it later, I could always drop the client.”
Kiefer glanced at McConnell. “She did what she had to, then.”
“It’s the drawback to working with a firm and not under your own shingle,” Iris conceded.
“My fiancée says the same,” Kiefer said. “She works for Kittredge, Plant, & Hemmings.”
“Oh does she? What’s her name?”
“Shari Allen.”
“Oh, I am acquainted with her. We graduated from the same class.”
“Sorry to break up the reunion,” McConnell quipped. “The shooter gave us that name too, it was really the only information he would give us after he was arrested. It appears to be an alias. So whoever was speaking to you probably knew she was involved in some bull.”
“Either way, Emmett,” Iris said. “I’m really sorry I can’t give you more.”
***
McConnell asked her a few more questions and let her go. Once they were alone, the detective turned to Kiefer and sighed. “Well, they’ve got the preliminary done on our guy. He was poisoned with a capsule, a slow-acting poison which usually takes about twenty minutes to take effect. So he probably took it right after or before he shot at Amira. And we were just lucky enough to have him in our custody when he expired.”
“Damn. Well, that’s a way to make sure he didn’t snitch on his boss.”
“No kidding,” McConnell said. “Have any theories you would like to share?”
Kiefer shook his head. “I have all kinds of theories. At this point, it’s a question of which one we should pursue. I want to tell you that this is more about her family and her position as the heir apparent, but I just don’t know. There’s something about this case which just smells funny to me. I feel like there’s some vital part of this we’re missing. Something we’re not privy to which would make the whole picture make sense.”
“At least the Princess is in a safe location,” McConnell said. “I do appreciate your people having that end of things taken care of because honestly, the city doesn’t want to pay out that kind of money.”
“Comes down to the almighty dollar, does it?”
“You know everything does,” McConnell said. “I’m worried about how many more of these people there could be hiding in the shadows, waiting to take their potshots at this woman.”
***
While Jesse was in the shower, Amira fished her tablet out of her duffel bag. There were no new messages. She wondered if her parents had been warned not to reach out to her. Since she was told to stay offline, she figured it was a good possibility. She wasn’t sure if she was relieved or upset that the other person hadn’t bothered contacting her again. At least when she was speaking with them she felt she could reason with them. When there was no conversation she worried something worse would happen.
There were things she had never intended on telling Jesse. But now that she had slept with him, she was beginning to reconsider. If she expected to have any kind of relationship with him, she was afraid that she would have to tell him the truth. And she realized that once he knew he might not forgive her for letting him go without knowing everything.
Responsibilities to her country and to her family loomed largely. In some ways, those parts of her life were designed to eclipse her own personal needs. She was a young woman who wanted her own life. And as she had with Jesse, she wanted to experience what it was to be cared for by someone without her status coming first. If there was one thing she was absolutely sure of it was that Jesse wanted her just for himself—no titles or privilege included.
It was at times like these that she regretted not doing exactly what her brother did; find a new country and immigrate, leave the nation of Demani behind forever. But she feared what that would do to her father who always dreamed of passing the crown to the next generation. It was bad enough her father didn’t have his son to give it to. She would work to make a suitable replacement in his eyes. She felt a great sadness. One way or another, she was going to have to leave an important part of her life behind. Maybe being a Queen was not what she felt destined to be, but she wanted to do her part to make some positive change. It just felt that her needs would have to play a second or third to what she was being pushed to do.
And to make it worse, there was someone willing to kill her or anyone else that stood in their way. She was being bent to follow someone else’s will.
***
Jesse got out of the shower and went back to his room to get dressed. When his cell rang, he had just finished.
“Alec,” he said. “What’s up?”
“News,” he said coolly. “The networks are going with the shooter’s death in the next couple of hours. We held it off as long as possible.”
Jesse cursed. “Okay, what else?”
Alec gave him the information about the shooter’s autopsy. “We don’t know who employed him, David is doing some back door research to see if we can follow the money trail. The police are pretty frustrated and so are we. What’s your plan as far as the Princess?”
“I want to move her again tonight,” he said quietly.
“Her father is threatening to fly out here, which I have told him was not ideal. It will attract all kinds of attention we don’t want, and I already told him we’re not letting him see Amira anyway.”
“Any particular reason for that?” Jesse asked. In the past, they had cleared family members to see their loved ones in this kind of situations.”
“Between you and I,” Alec said quietly. “I know he’s royalty and you expect such people to be pushy, but I honestly don’t trust the man as far as I can throw him. I haven’t been able to clear him to my satisfaction, and we know whoever hired this shooter has a ton of money. He fits that bill fine for me.”
Chapter Six
“Amira,” Jesse said. “I think we should both start getting our things together. I want to move right after sundown.”
It was a little after five o’clock. Jesse had spent most of the day in the study, working on his laptop. She hadn’t wanted to disturb him, so she had stayed in the living room, trying to distract herself with sitcoms and shows about modeling. He’d warned her that there would be coverage about the shooter’s death, so she’d avoided any news. She was afraid that maybe he was a little embarrassed after their encounter but she quickly realized that was not the problem. He was working on something and whatever it was worried him.
“I only brought one bag so that’s easy enough.”
She was sitting on the couch. Jesse was standing in the doorway, tapping his fingers against his left thigh.
“What’s wrong?” Amira asked. “You’ve been nervous all day.”
He paused. “Amira. We haven’t talked about some things I would like to know about.”
“What? Is this because we were together…?”
“Not about that. I need to know about the hierarchy in your family. If you were no longer the heir apparent, who would benefit from having you out of the way?”
“I don’t think there’s benefit for anyone in the family,” Amira said. “My brother might be asked to come back home but…”
“Who would want to make that happen?” Jesse interrupted. “Anyon
e close to you that you could think of?”
“I hope you’re not suggesting my father would do something like that,” she said. “He’s more upset at my brother than he is about me taking his place. In his eyes, it was a cowardly thing for Jamaal to do.”
“It’s my understanding that your brother could be forced to take his place as heir if something happened to you.”
“Those are very old laws,” Amira said. “I can’t even say that my father would invoke that, necessarily.”
“If you were suddenly gone, do you think he’d have any other choice?”
Amira paused. “Maybe he would. I don’t know that anyone would go to those lengths.”
“Which is the problem. We don’t really know how far this person would go. Other than the fact they did hire a hitman. They hired a lawyer ahead of time to protect him, but once he was brought in by the police he committed suicide. He feared having messed up. He must have known they could break him if he was questioned. Better to off himself and have his family pick up whatever his commission was going to be.”
“Did one of your partners give you new information?”
“No. We’ve been pretty much in a holding pattern for the last twenty-four hours. These people covered their tracks.”
“If your basic question is whether my father loves me, he does,” Amira stood. “I’m insulted that you’d think otherwise.”
“I have to consider the possibilities. I can’t afford to be blind-sighted. Though just for the record, if he, or someone else who should care for you, doesn’t, that’s their shortcoming. What is your relationship with your brother like?”
“A bit strained, on account of our parents. I don’t fault him for his decision, Jesse. I’ve visited him and his wife in Sweden, and he’s truly happy. Maybe for the first time, I can remember. I would never want him to take that back on my account.”