Seduced by the Prince

by Cristina Grenier

  “Do you come here often?” she asked him.

  “Not recently, no. I’ve just been too busy. But when I was younger, I came here all the time.”

  She turned to look at him. “Max, if you don't marry and have an heir, who will get the throne when you’re seventy-five?”

  “My cousins have children. The next in line would come from the oldest among them.” He held her gaze. “Why do you ask?”

  “I’m just curious about how that works. Do you want to have kids?”

  Again Max had to squelch the little light of hope that was fighting to escape from the box he had put it in. “I have thought about it, yes. But it will never happen if I cannot make them with the woman I love.”

  “So you’re not one of those royals who doesn't mind planting his seed willy-nilly! How very responsible of you!”

  She was avoiding the implications of the conversation, but Max let her alone. She had to pay up eventually, and then they would discuss all these things.

  “What about you?” He turned the question back on her. “Do you want children?”

  “I’m not averse to it,” she said, “but as they say, my biological clock is ticking, and I think, to mix my metaphors, my hourglass is swiftly running out of sand.”

  “Older women than you have had babies. You should put that on your bucket list, especially since you’ve just scratched one very large item off it.”

  She went back to looking out the window, asking almost idly, “So what’s on your bucket list? You never did tell me.”

  There aren’t many things I haven’t done that I still want to try. There is one thing I will never give up hope on achieving.”

  “And what’s that?” She eyed him over her shoulder.

  “Marrying the woman of my dreams, and sharing an eternal love with her. My father had that with my mother, so I know it’s possible. I just need the right woman.”

  She didn’t respond, and Max shifted her so that her mouth was easier to reach. Then he leaned in too steal a kiss or three, the tension gradually building between them until he was once again straining to control his erection.

  “Shouldn’t we be getting back?” she asked eventually. “Who is with your father?”

  “He has a nurse and his butler with him. He is well taken care of. But if you are ready to go, we can leave now.”

  She stood up, smiling at him. “I’m still sleepy from that massage,” she admitted.

  “You may sleep here, milaya,” he told her. “No one will disturb you.”

  She walked away to the window, her hands in the back pockets of her jeans. Max kept his seat. “Are we expected for dinner?”

  “Yes. But that’s a few hours away. Come…I’ll show you to a bedroom where you may take a nap.”

  Tina did not pay up on their bet that night. In fact, she didn’t pay up for the next two days. Max was losing patience. The first week of her stay was half over and still she was hesitating. It was Christmas Eve, and she had asked if they could go back to the cabin. This time, he took her on the snowmobile. The day was almost over, and Max sensed that she had something important to say that she wanted to say in this space.

  They sat together on the sofa as they had before, but this time, Tina sat facing him.

  “Grannie used to let me open my gifts on Christmas Eve, so she wouldn’t have to get up too early on Christmas morning to do it. So I want you to have this. I bought it for you before I came. It’s not much, but it says what I need to say.”

  She handed him a gift bag, which she had hidden in an ordinary grocery shopping bag, and he reached in to take out the carefully wrapped gift. Inside was a picture of her in a double-sided frame, and on the back a quotation: “There is only one happiness in this life, to love and be loved.” You could see both sides of the picture one at a time as you rotated the frame. Max trembled as he read the message again.

  “Are you happy, Tina?” he asked, clearing his throat.

  She looked him in the eye and whispered “Yes, Max. I am.”

  He couldn’t wait another second. Dropping the picture on the floor beside them, he hauled her over to straddle his lap and kissed her and kissed her.

  “I love you so much, lyubimaya.” He kissed her forehead, and trailed his lips down to her ear. “I fell in love with you long before I was willing to admit it. But I knew from that first day that you were special.”

  He bit back the question he wanted to ask. That could wait. For now, he wanted to slake his thirst for her, and he couldn’t wait any longer. Mindful of his men’s presence, Max took her back to the bedroom and lay her out before him like a feast. Stripping her and himself took only moments, and then he draped his body over hers, threading their fingers together above her head.

  “Tell me, my love. I want to hear the words from your lips.”

  “I love you, Max.”

  He sucked on her lips, each in turn. “How do you know that it’s love?”

  Because I’m happy. Even when you make me angry, you make me happy.

  Max smiled against her lips, and spread her legs, settling between them for the long haul. He would show her now what she meant to him, over and over until she cried uncle. And then he’d show her again. Tomorrow, he would ask her to be his princess.

  Epilogue: Six Months Later

  The wedding reception was over, the guests were gone, and Max had come to his sire’s wing to fetch his bride. He watched the woman he loved more every day as she sat next to his ailing parent. She held his father’s hand, and the old prince smiled at whatever she had just said to him. Nothing she did should be a surprise to him anymore, and yet he found himself in awe of her as he watched her give his sire just the extra touch he needed. His heart welled up with gratitude. How would he ever repay her for making his father’s final days as happy as she had made them? They all knew he was on his last legs, and while Max would never admit it to anyone, his heart was breaking that he would lose his other parent so soon after his mother’s death. No one is ever prepared for death, and he was more glad than he knew how to express that he had Tina. His father had been right…a man did need someone by his side who would love him even through the hard times.

  They had decided to delay the honeymoon until things were more settled. His father’s condition had worsened, and if he died, there would be a period of mourning. Perhaps then they could steal some time away. If not, they would go when they could. Tina had already told him not to concern himself with such things.

  “It’s a holiday, honey,” she’d said. “We can go on holiday whenever we like, right?”

  “Within reason, yes,” he’d replied. “But doesn’t every woman want a honeymoon immediately after her wedding?”

  The kiss she had ghosted across his lips had heated his blood. “But as you well know, Your Serene Highness, I’m not every woman.”

  God, but he was glad she wasn’t! And now he longed to hold her in his arms again, to feel her pressed up against his naked flesh, to inhale the scent of her arousal, to sink into her until he was lost in her. He shivered at the thoughts that ran through his mind as he watched her, and when she looked up, as though she sensed his eyes on her, his whole frame jerked in response to the love in her gaze.

  “His Highness is tired, Max. We should let him rest now.”

  “As you will, my love.” He reached for her, drawing her into his side. “I will wish him goodnight.”

  The old prince turned to look at his son and daughter-in-law, a gentle smile creasing his wrinkled cheeks.

  “You have made an old man very happy, my son,” he said, his voice a thin reed of sound. “Leontyne is a most beautiful and becoming Princess of the Realm.”

  Max smiled. His father had taken to calling Tina by her full name, a bittersweet reminder of her grandmother, and the older prince’s way of showing her that he regarded her as family.

  “I cannot disagree with you, Papa,” he said, leaning down to kiss the top of her head. “Tina makes me happy, too.” He release
d her so he could bend down to hug his sire. “We will see you in the morning. Rest easy, Papa.”

  He kissed his father’s cheeks and withdrew, leaving the prince’s butler to attend to his needs. Max led his new wife with him to their own wing in the palace, which she had not seen before. He opened the door to the sitting room with a flourish.

  “Your Highness, welcome home!”

  He picked her up and carried her over the threshold, and her girlish giggles delighted him.

  “Max, put me down!”

  “Why?” He held her still against his chest and stole a kiss from her parted lips.

  “I’m no lightweight! Put me down!”

  “No!” He ignored her and carried her to their bedroom, the long train of her reception gown trailing behind them. He kissed her soundly on the mouth before letting her down, and when she was standing on her own two feet, he dragged her into his arms again and ravaged her mouth with demanding, hungry kisses.

  “I long for you with every breath, lyubov moya,” he whispered in her ear. “I want to ravish you.”

  He could hardly find words for the way he felt as she wrapped her arms around his neck and returned his kisses. She trembled in his arms, and he loved that she was as caught in the web of their love as he was.

  “You are my star,” he told her, cradling her face between his hands. “You light up all my dark and lonely places. I love you, my Tina.”

  “Ya lyublyu tebya, sladkij,” she whispered. “I love you too, honey.”

  Tears welled up behind the eyelids Max closed to contain them. She had learned to speak the Russian phrase correctly for him, because that was his language of love for her. And she hadn’t said a word, until now. He gathered her back into his arms, hugging her tightly to his chest, raining kisses everywhere he could.

  “Turn around,” he ordered her hoarsely, and when she complied, he pulled the zipper down on the lavish dress, baring her back to his gaze. She wore nothing but a matching bra and panties beneath the silk and chiffon gown, and as he stripped her of its royal blue, he was glad there was not much left between the delicacy of her skin and his hot mouth.

  Max licked her bare back, trailing his tongue down the center, feeling the ridges in her spine beneath his tongue. Her moans of pleasure drove his desire higher, and he reached around her to palm her breasts in the lacy bra, squeezing and kneading them as he planted open-mouthed kisses on her back.

  “Max!”

  Tina’s voice held a plea for him to give her more pleasure, and he willingly complied, turning her to face him again.

  “Step out of the dress, lyubimaya,” he told her, his voice harsh even in his own ears. He was riding the edge of a powerful need, and only his long training in restraint, as becoming a sovereign leader, was helping him hold it together. Who knew that it would come in handy in the bedroom on his wedding night?

  When she was bare before him, he said, “Now strip me. I want to feel your hands on me.”

  Her trembling hands undid the buttons of his shirt, and unbuttoned his dress pants. They slid the shirt and undershirt off his shoulder and over his head, and pushed the pants and boxers down to his ankles.

  “Step out of them,” she ordered him in her turn. And when he did, she kicked them away. He toed off his socks, and stood before her as bare as she was.

  “Turn around. I want to see your ass.”

  Max could tell she was getting more and more turned on, because her language was going gutter. He loved it, because the dirtier she talked, the harder he got.

  “You’re so fucking perfect,” she whispered as she caressed his butt cheeks, and slid her hands around him to cradle his hard erection.

  She stroked him, standing behind him and moaning against his spine as she did. “You’re so hot, baby,” she said. “And I want you so much.”

  Max turned in her embrace and crushed her mouth in a ravenous kiss. “You have me, milaya. You have me.”

  They kissed each other hungrily, standing in the middle of the room, swaying together to keep each other upright, lost in the heat of their love. Eventually, Max pushed her down onto the bed, and spread her legs. Still kissing her, he speared her with three fingers to her core, pushing in and out slowly, working her up to a frenzy. She began to ride his fingers, moaning against his mouth as he finger-fucked her, and he added the final touch, pressing hard against her clit.

  She broke, screaming his name. He barely managed to swallow her screams, but he kept stroking into her until she collapsed against the bedsheets, exhausted from her first orgasm as a married woman. Impatient to share the ecstasy with her, Max reared up before she had completely come down from that high, and slammed his cock into her still convulsing core, setting off another small shockwave inside her.

  “Max! Oh god, fuck me, baby!”

  She reached up to drag him in for a kiss, whispering words of love before she took him in. “I love how you fuck me, baby,” she said. “Don’t stop. Please, don't stop!”

  “As long as you love me, I will never stop.”

  Max shuddered as he rode her, feeling the weight of emotions pushing him to stroke into her harder and faster, over and over again. He could feel his own release tightening up his balls, riding a wave of hunger so intense it burned him like fire. He felt her tighten around him before convulsing again, and he shouted as his release slammed into him. He rode out the orgasm, thrusting wilding into her, not letting up until he had spent all his seed inside her. Panting, he rolled off her and dragged her sweating body next to his.

  “Will you bear my children, Princess Tina?”

  “Yes, my love, I will. Ready when you are.” She giggled, making Max smile.

  He rolled over onto her again so he could kiss her. “Give me fifteen minutes, love. Then I’ll get right back to work. You know what they say…practice makes perfect,” he informed her with a wink.

  Tina laughed and pulled the covers up and over them. Life was good, after all, and she was truly happy. She’d finally found someone worthy of her trust and her love. And she was never letting him go.

  Chapter 1 - The Girl Next Door

  What the hell was all that racket? Cal Appleton reached across to the bedside table and snagged his cellphone. Sliding his thumb across the face, he activated it, and saw that the time was just after seven in the morning. He dropped the phone on his bed, and stretched his upper body, regretting the extra three beers he had had the night before. Drowning his sorrows in tequila shots and beer was not the best move for a military man of his experience. And this unwelcome wake-up call was not going to put him in the best mood for the start of his next phase of rehab. Now that he was out of the wheelchair, he felt the need to push his body so he could get rid of the cane as well. Swimming laps would no doubt help with strengthening his lung function and mobility. The pain meds had been gradually decreased as well, but his goal was to stop taking them altogether. So there was lots left to do.

  Swinging his legs over the side of the big bed, he stood and limped to the bathroom. He had no plans for the day, it being Saturday, which explained his drinking the night before. His buddies had all come for a visit, and the laughter had been good for him. He had needed to see them, and they had not disappointed him. At thirty-eight, Cal was one of the older ones on the team, looking at almost four more years before he could legitimately retire from the Army, and get on with the rest of his life. He intended to end his time on the battlefront, not convalescing at home. His teammates’ support was invaluable to him, and he fully intended to get back out there with them, even one last time before he called it quits.

  An hour later, the racket next door had not lessened, and Cal was at the end of his patience. He had done a half hour of stretching, and had decided to go visit his friend the owner of the local gym where all the guys who lived off base went; but first he’d have a word with whoever must have moved in while he was out painting the town with his buddies yesterday. This was a quiet street...at least his part of it was. Even the kids play
ed circumspectly. The newbie would have to learn that channeling banshees from Ye Olde Eire would not do. And especially not if he or she planned to live a stress-free life next door to Cal. When he went back to the front, the whole neighborhood could implode, but not while he was there.