Royally Duched Up: (Duched #3)

by Xavier Neal

  “Yes. Your wedding was the headline of many national and international papers, tabloids, and blogs. The reception was here, but the few photos you shared with the world from the actual wedding were remarkable. You both looked stunning. Absolutely…stunning…”

  Kellan tries to give a nod of gratitude but ends up forcing a gritted grin.

  Not laughing…Can’t laugh…

  “It’s a pleasure to meet both of you in person,” Guy continues, hand finally slipping away from Kellan’s, while the waiter places water glasses around the table. “And the fact we’ll be working together is fantastic. Bloody unbelievable, really.”

  Practically being able feel the heat radiating off of Kellan causes me to stifle another desire to snicker.

  How hilarious does his face look right now?

  “I’ll have a martini,” Felicity informs, leaning back in her seat with a smirk. “Anyone else need a drink?”

  “Whiskey on the rocks.”

  Surprised by Kellan’s order, I turn to see the strain on his face not hidden at all.

  The opportunity to question it and his order is robbed by Guy. “I’ll have a Chocolate Disaster.”

  My head snaps back his direction. “A what?”

  “Chocolate Disaster,” he repeats. Curiosity covers his expression. “Don’t tell me you’ve never had one before.”

  I shake my head. “I don’t even know what that is.”

  “It’s a dessert beverage. It’s probably the second best thing I’ve ever had in my mouth.”

  The comment causes Kellan to clear his throat.

  “If you’re a fan of chocolate cake, you should try it. You won’t be disappointed.”

  “She might be,” my husband grunts, hand landing on my thigh. “You don’t know her. You don’t know her tastes.”

  Get the feeling this isn’t about chocolate drinks?

  I give him a short stern glance.

  “There’s nothing wrong with trying something new,” Guy counters.

  “There is when there’s nothing wrong with what she already has,” Kellan bites back.

  “Which is water,” I state in a playful tone hoping to bring Kellan back to what we’re actually discussing.

  His face frowns as he realizes how defensive he’s being.

  “I will try a Chocolate Disaster,” I say to the young waiter who looks very uncomfortable.

  “We’ll wait to order,” Felicity decides. The moment he steps away from the corner of the restaurant we’re dining in, she precedes, “Guy and I have been friends basically since we were born. His father and my father were once business partners.”

  With genuine interest, I ask, “What happened?”

  “Her father went corporate crazy and my father wanted to explore other things like Italy where he met my mother,” he answers.

  “Wait, so you’re half Italian, half Doctenn?”

  “Yes.”

  “But you have no Italianness to your accent.”

  Guy chuckles, “No. I was raised in Doctenn hence the accent, but I like to believe I got the best of both worlds. A lover with the ability to fight when necessary.”

  Kellan’s hand drops to my thigh and I roll my eyes. “So you’re a teacher?”

  He quickly nods. “I am now, yes.”

  “What did you do before?”

  My curiosity causes Kellan’s hand to shift on my leg.

  Oh I have to sit through hours of Reality T.V.’s back story, but can’t ask a few questions about my new tutor?

  “Bit of everything really.” He shrugs. “I modeled for a bit while getting my art and English Lit degree. Traveled around exploring art in unexpected places. Was an Au Pair to the child of a major director in the states for about sixteen months. It was during that time I decided teaching was my calling. I returned home, got my certificate, and have been dabbling in the area since. I’ve taught summer school and substituted here and there. Most recently, I was tutoring the daughter of a Duke, trying to help her with her university application into a state school she’s anxious to get into.”

  “Which one?”

  “Which Duke or which university?”

  “University.”

  “Ashwin.”

  “That’s where I graduated from!” I squeak too loudly.

  He chortles, but Kellan gives my leg another squeeze.

  “Sorry.” My hands fold together and I apologize. “I didn’t mean to get so loud. I just... I got really excited. It’s rare someone from here knows about schools from back home or anything from there really.”

  Guy offers me a kind smile. “I know many things about the states. If you’re ever feeling homesick, perhaps talking to me might help.”

  Thoughtlessly, I agree, “Maybe…”

  The grip on my leg disappears all together.

  I didn’t mean it the way he’s taking it…

  “Shall we get onto business?” Felicity coos as the drinks are delivered. “The reason for this…union, if you will.”

  “That’d be best,” Kellan states and swipes his glass from where it was just placed.

  Felicity immediately takes lead on the conversation collecting our attention. After explaining why Guy’s the perfect candidate for an English teacher, she suggests the idea of allowing him to help sift through the other possible employees given his knowledge about education. She also suggests that I should work with him in the interview process to find personalities I feel would match best with the children since I have spent and am spending so much time with them. Throughout the meal she verbally gives a task list of things we can accomplish between tutoring sessions. Each point she makes is well received by Guy and almost impossible for Kellan to dispute considering how much he wanted me to contribute to Hannah’s Hope. By the end of dinner, I’m actually excited to not only get my certificate, but to be more involved in a project I was beginning to feel alienated from.

  Let’s be honest. I don’t really give a shit about building codes, city ordinances, and beneficiaries to help build a new community standard that has apparently been lacking. It’s hard to fake interest in things you don’t know or understand even when you know you should. But this…becoming a teacher, helping decide on good fits for those I’m starting to care about, and actively helping make the inside of Hannah’s Hope as strong as it is on the outside, feels great.

  In the SUV on the ride home, Kellan tugs at his tie, and gripes, “Why is it so bloody hot? Is that the heat?”

  “It is,” Kage cautiously answers.

  “Why the hell is it on?”

  “It’s January,” my security detail replies. “It is a bit chilly out, Mr. Kellan.”

  Not as cold as it was at the end of November and December I’m told. We skipped their six weeks of dreadful winter. It’s been off and on chilly since we returned, but nothing that requires a heavy coat. I probably should’ve worn something to protect me from the winter air, but we just walked straight from a warm palace to the SUV and straight from the warm SUV to a warm restaurant. Didn’t seem necessary.

  “It’s blistering in here,” he continues to complain. “Is this an SUV or a sauna?”

  “Are you okay?” I ask wiggling my feet from their heel hell.

  “Fine,” Kellan snips.

  “You sure? You had four rounds of whiskey and barely touched your steak.”

  “It wasn’t cooked properly.” His eyes drift to me. “Surprised you even noticed.”

  “Of course I did. Why would that possibly be surprising?”

  “Maybe because your attention seemed so occupied by your shiny new tutor…”

  “Shiny?”

  “His face was oily enough to fry chips on.”

  Wow…Not sure what to do with that petty retort.

  “It was ridiculous the way you could barely focus on anything else!”

  “I was focused on the conversation!”

  “You were focused on his delightful tales and tidbits from his time in the states! My comments were practicall
y irrelevant!”

  “Really?” My eyes twitch a glare. “This from the man who I had to take my underwear off to get him to pay attention to more than his tablet?”

  As if the information had completely slipped his mind, he tilts his head at me and his expression darkens in a delicious way. “You’re naked under there.”

  “We established that before we got out of the SUV and your pissing contest began.”

  He slides his body so it is pressed up against the side of mine. “It wasn’t a pissing contest.”

  “Not one you were winning,” I tease.

  Kellan’s hand snakes under the edge of my dress. The heat from his fingertips leaves a seared path as it inches upward. He banishes the accusation with one word. “Open.”

  Slightly rearranging, I brace myself against the door, and remind him in a lowered voice, “We are not alone.”

  “I don’t care.”

  “Kellan-”

  His hand reaches the heat between my thighs and gives it the smallest stroke. I gasp, but it’s instantly swallowed by his starving kiss. The taste of whiskey clashes with the chocolate lingering on my tongue, but sparks an animalistic response in him I haven’t felt since our honeymoon. My body begins to comply with his command without regards to my warning. I shift my dress upward to accommodate the spreading of my legs while Kellan’s tongue reprimands mine for verbally speaking praise of another. There’s no reluctance in his fingers lightly toying with my clit. The initial touch while soft is torture. My pussy cries out for more forcing my hips to rock upward in protest. Kellan groans into my mouth, blocks my body with his, and plunges a finger deep inside. I attempt to break our lips apart to catch a much needed breath, but his tongue becomes unrelenting as if so famished it’s unable to stop ravishing mine. He slips another finger inside and pumps harder. Stretches me wider. His tongue and hand work in a tenacious, tireless tandem that tempts me to come faster than I thought possible. I do everything in my power to hold onto the moment that has my entire body spiraling out of control. My hands latch onto the edge of his jacket. My chest heaves heavily from the screams burning to break free. My parted legs shake in surrender echoing the submission my pussy is trying to provide. Kellan’s efforts only intensify until I can’t hold my orgasm at bay any longer. My head yanks away and buries itself into the leather seat in hopes it contains my screams. I shudder and quiver as my mind spins shamelessly.

  Still desperate to claim me in every aspect possible, he sinks his teeth into my turned, exposed neck, and slows the speed but doesn’t loosen the strength of his pushes.

  Unsure of how much more I can handle, I whimper for mercy, “Kellan…”

  His hot breath against my ear lobe surprises me. “You are my wife.”

  The need for reassurance sewn to his sexual desire shifts the corners of my lips into a smirk. “Yes…”

  Vincent clears his throat and announces, “Sir, we’ve uh…arrived at the palace.”

  Kellan uses his face to nudge mine for our eyes to meet. After a long, intense stare, he keeps his attention on me and replies, “Then get out of the bloody vehicle, so we can finish what we started back here…”

  I snicker and playfully attempt to push him away. With a relief filled smile, he winks and presses his mouth back to mine. The moment we hear doors shut, the two of us begin to yank at the clothing in our way, completely captured once more by our craving for one another.

  Gotta admit. A little bit of jealousy can go a long way…It’s nice to know his ego gets bruised too. But I am his wife and nothing will change that, especially not some pretty boy ex model who is nothing more than a possible new friend to me at most. I’ll make sure to tell him that…eventually. Jealous Kellan is kinda sexy…

  Kellan

  “You’re not listening,” Hugh huffs, leaning back into his chair. “You’re not even fucking pretending.”

  I drag my attention away from the bookstore at the end of block where I’ve been staring most our meal. Leaning forward onto my elbows, I nonchalantly counter, “I was listening. I just…I don’t have an opinion.”

  Not lying. He was rambling about American football and I really don’t give a rat’s ass. Especially when my wife is a few buildings away, laughing it up and sharing secrets with a blonde bastard I want to hate but technically can’t.

  He nods slowly and reaches for a fallen sautéed onion on his plate. “You seem like a bigger dick than usual. Not getting yours touched enough? Trouble in paradise?”

  “Me and my cock are very satisfied. Why do you think I was late for lunch?”

  Shagged my wife twice before we made it to the car. The impromptu taking on the other side of the stairs hit shortly after Guy offered to meet her at the bookstore to help pick out additional educational reading. It’s been almost two weeks since they started working together on her certificate and between you and I? It’s driving me insane. Literally insane. When I know they’re going to be studying late, which by the way is only when I’m working late, I can’t seem to focus on anything else. Isn’t that timing…odd? Why not study late when I’m available to do it with them? When they can be supervised? What? No. It’s not that I don’t trust my wife, it’s that I don’t trust that sneaky, slimy, bed hopping bastard. Well no…I don’t know he is a bed hopper for certain, but I recognize the signs. Need I remind you what I was before Brie’s paint stained chucks walked all over my life like she owned the place?

  Hugh sneers at the information. “And where is Mrs. Kenningston? Thought she was eating with us.”

  “She’ll be here shortly. She needed to stop at the bookstore to pick up some reading material to help with her studies.”

  His face grows an inquisitive expression. “Is she alone?”

  I pull my aviators down to block the bright sun. “She’s with Guy, her tutor.”

  Hugh erupts into laughter and my hands tighten in irritation. “Wait, she has a male tutor?”

  “It’s for the best-”

  “Another dick in her life is for the best?”

  The urge to growl increases exceptionally. “He’s a certified teacher who is helping guide her through what will be on the test-”

  “You’re paying another man to ‘educate’ your wife?”

  This is one of those bloody times when violence is the answer.

  “He was offered a fee, but refused to take it.”

  “Oh…” Hugh’s jovial attitude causes me to grit my teeth. “He volunteered to spend all his free time with your better half.”

  I tried! I tried to force him to take the ridiculous amount of money I was offering him to just tutor her, but he refused insisting it was his pleasure…See. He’s trying to be a clever asshole. I’m watching him. You watch him too.

  “You’re not paying him at all?”

  “I am, but for a different task.”

  “A more physical one?”

  “Do not make me bloody backhand you in the middle of brunch.”

  Hugh grins obnoxiously. “Is it still brunch? Seems like they’ve been in that store for so long that it’s officially lunch now.”

  Payback will be a bitch for him. That’s all I will say.

  “What task, other than wife stealing, has he been assigned to?”

  I let out another annoyed sigh. “He is hired as one of the English teacher’s for Hannah’s Hope. From skill set, most likely he will teach the older half. However because of his diverse background, Felicity thought it would be a brilliant idea if he collaborated with Brie to pick out the remainder of the educational staff. Felicity believes since Brie has spent the most amount of time with the children who will be transferring the first year, she would have the best knowledge, which I completely agree with.”

  Hugh nods. “She has been spending a significant amount of time there.”

  A suspicious scowl scatters across my face.

  “How do you know that?”

  “Relax, Cujo. Dana’s shown me some pictures that blogs have posted.”

 
; Every muscle in my body instantaneously relaxes.

  “That’s right. Breathe easy. I’m not the one sniffing around your wife.” He chortles at his joke before stating, “So, that’s what’s up your ass? You’re jealous?”

  Extremely.

  “Not at all.”

  “You’re a shitty liar.”

  No. Do not agree with him. It’s the absolute last thing I need right now.