Prince Billionaire: A Royal Romance

by B. B. Hamel

  I had to get out of there. I could feel my willpower crumbling. Because the truth was, I did want to get on my knees in front of him, though I didn’t want to do much talking.

  Trip brought the worst out in me. He made me dream of dirty things. He made my pussy dripping wet, my mouth hungry for his.

  I should keep away, but I knew I wasn’t going to.

  12

  Trip

  It was a bright, beautiful morning in Stehen. I stood next to my favorite black BMW while the security detail went about their preparations.

  I was excited, though I wasn’t entirely sure why. I was taking an American girl out on a tour of the city. That in itself wasn’t anything special at all, and it was supposed to be below the fucking king. Still, I was looking forward to it more than anything lately.

  Finally, I saw Bryce emerge from the castle’s interior. I smiled at her as she waved at me. She was wearing a cute as fucking hell blue sundress. I loved the way her legs looked in it, and I couldn’t help but glance at her full breasts. The girl was absolutely gorgeous.

  “Nice morning,” she said as she got to me.

  “It is,” I agreed.

  “How’s this going to work? Are these guys going to drive us around?”

  “No,” I said, shaking my head. “I expressly forbade them. You’ll be with me.”

  “Really? I’m shocked.”

  “Scandalous, I know. Unfortunately, they’ll be ahead and behind us the whole time.”

  “Good. I was worried for a second.”

  I laughed and then got into the car. She went around to the passenger’s side and climbed in herself. We waited a minute for the security detail to get themselves situated, and then finally we were ready.

  I fired up the engine. “I love this car,” I said.

  “Really? It’s nice, but it’s not what I’d imagine a king would drive.”

  “Like I said last night, sometimes I like to put all that king shit behind me.”

  She gave me a look as we pulled out into the heavy morning Stehen traffic.

  The city was laid out in a simple grid. The castle was in the very center of the grid, and the city stretched out all around it. We were headed into north Stehen, which was also known as historic Stehen. This was the oldest part of the town and was where most tourists wound up.

  “Historic Stehen,” I said as we pulled onto an old cobblestone street.

  “Very nice,” she said. “I love this architecture.”

  “Beautiful, no? We try very, very hard not to update everything too much. If something old falls apart, we rebuild it as close as possible to the original, though of course with modern amenities. We’re old on the outside, but we’re very young on the inside.”

  “I like that,” she said.

  “Good.” I pointed out some local landmarks, statues, and famous shops as we drove through the streets. We began to make our way toward west Stehen, which was really what I wanted to show her.

  “This is my favorite part of the city,” I said to her as we pulled down a narrow street.

  West Stehen was not as nice as north Stehen. In fact, it was probably the worst part of the city. Most of the poor congregated there, near the waterways, but it was the liveliest part of the whole town.

  We pulled over in front of a squat, gray building. I turned off the engine.

  “Beautiful,” she said. “Really nice.”

  I laughed. “This isn’t an architecture tour.”

  “What is it then?”

  “Watch.”

  We sat there together in silence for a few minutes before finally the doors to the building opened up. People spilled out of them, people of all shapes and sizes and ages and races.

  “This is one of the many Stehen food banks,” I said. “If you live in Stehen and you’re hungry, we will feed you. There are hundreds of these all over the city.”

  She raised an eyebrow. “Really?”

  “Really. We pay for it out of the royal treasury. Any citizen is eligible, though we prefer that people use it only if they need it.”

  “That’s very nice,” she said.

  “In Stehen, we have food banks, free clinics, and even free lodging for the poorest of the poor. We take care of our people here.”

  “We have this back in America too, you know,” she said.

  “You do,” I agreed, “but not like here. Nobody is turned away, ever. If every single person in this city showed up here in the next hour, every single person would be fed. Every single day, three meals a day.”

  “That’s amazing,” she said.

  “And the clinics offer as much free medical care as possible,” I said. “Our country has universal healthcare, and I truly believe that healthcare is a right for all people.”

  “Very progressive,” she said.

  I laughed. “I’m not telling you this to impress you,” I said, “though I don’t mind it if you’re impressed. I want you to understand that just because we aren’t a democracy, that doesn’t mean we’re tyrants.”

  “You don’t seem like a tyrant,” she said. “But shouldn’t the people have a say in who rules them?”

  “Maybe,” I agreed. “Maybe they do. But right now, they’re fed and healthy and almost all of them have a place to sleep at night. Things are good here.”

  “Except for the rebels.”

  I sighed. “Yes, except for them.” I pulled back out into traffic and we resumed our tour.

  I pointed out the historic bread bakery, an old hotel that was rebuilt hundreds of times over the years because they kept insisting on leaving candles burning all night long, and many other places.

  Finally, we pulled down a narrow alley. “I have one last thing to show you,” I said, “but I want a little privacy.”

  “What do you mean?” she asked.

  Instead of answering, I swung the wheel hard to the right.

  The tires screeched as I accelerated down the side alley. The front security car slammed on their brakes, but it was too late. The following car stayed behind me.

  I came to the end of the alley and wove through traffic, speeding up. The big security truck had a hard time keeping up in the narrow streets. We came to a red light, but I blew through it, blaring the horn.

  “What are you doing?” Bryce called out, but I just laughed. We made it through the intersection no problem, and the following truck had to stop.

  I made a quick series of turns and then finally slowed down. “I think we lost them,” I said.

  “Are you crazy?”

  “Maybe,” I admitted, laughing. “But, man, that was fun.”

  “You scared the hell out of me. Tell me if you’re going to do something insane next time.”

  “Why? It was more fun my way.” I smirked at her and drove for a few more minutes before finally coming to a stop.

  “Where are we?” she asked.

  “Come on. Let me show you.”

  We climbed out of the car and began to walk down a narrow alley.

  “Wait,” she called. “Hold on. We should wait for the security detail to find us.”

  I waved her off and kept moving. I heard her run to catch up, and she walked close behind me.

  The alleyway ended in a large, dusty courtyard. It was closed in on most sides by buildings all around it. In the center of the courtyard was a large, round fountain.

  I walked up to the fountain and sat down on the rim. Bryce walked toward me cautiously.

  “Where are we?” she asked.

  “West Stehen,” I said. “Well, on the fringes. This is one of my favorite spots in the city.”

  “Why did we have to lose the security to come here?”

  I gestured for her to sit. “Come on, sit down. I’m not going to hurt you.”

  She sighed and sat down. “Now, tell me.”

  “When you live in the public eye, there are very few truly private spaces left. Even my apartment feels public sometimes. But this is one of the last places in the whole city
I can go to that nobody knows about. If I brought them, they would ruin it.”

  She nodded and put her fingers in the water. “Why this place?” she asked.

  “I used to live near here. Back before I was king, I’d come here sometimes just to get away from the shit. I like it here.”

  She nodded. “It’s nice. Quiet.”

  “Quiet, sure, but not nice.” The fountain was crumbling and hardly working anymore, and there was trash littering the edges of the courtyard.

  “Okay, fine. Not nice. But I can see why you’d like it.”

  “It’s one of the last real places left for me,” I said softly. “Maybe that sounds stupid, but I wanted to bring you here.”

  She shifted her weight toward me. “Got any change?”

  I grinned. “Sure. Need me to buy you something?”

  “No. Come on, hand it over.”

  I fished a few coins from my pocket. She took them and tossed them into the fountain.

  “What did you wish for?” I asked.

  “Can’t say. Otherwise it won’t come true.”

  I tossed a few coins in and then stroked my chin. “I don’t know what to wish for.”

  “Better hurry. The magic doesn’t last.”

  “I wish that you’d finally let me spread your legs and taste that pussy.”

  She blushed and looked away. “How’d I know you’d say that?”

  “Because you know what’s on my mind.” I reached out toward her and pulled her chin toward me. “We both know what I want. And we both know what you need.”

  “What do I need?”

  “You need to taste me. Ever since I whispered in your ear, you’ve been thinking about what it would feel like to have me against your lips.”

  “Not true,” she whispered, but her body said differently.

  “Liar,” I said softly. “You know it’s a crime to lie to the king?”

  “You’re not my king.”

  I moved closer to her, still holding her chin. She didn’t move, her eyes locked on mine. “Maybe not yet.”

  “And how do you think you’ll become my king?” she asked.

  “First, I’m going to kiss you, and then I’m going to make you come so hard you forget where you’re from. I’ll worry about the details later.”

  She smiled. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes.” I pulled her against me and kissed her hard.

  She didn’t fight. She wrapped her arms around me and I pulled her against me, our lips pressed together. Her taste flooded my mind and my mouth, every inch of her like flames against my skin.

  It was exactly what I wanted. Her lips were soft and starving against mine, and she let out a soft moan as my hands spread her legs open. She didn’t fight me, and I knew she was mine to do with whatever I wanted.

  I needed to taste her, to feel her. I wanted to press myself deep inside her tight pussy and bite her lip. I wanted to fuck her in the shadow of the crumbling fountain, the last place I felt at home.

  Instead, as I continued to kiss her, our tongues touching, my phone began to ring.

  It rang and rang and then stopped. We kept kissing. It began to ring again.

  Finally, she pulled back. “Get it,” she said. “It could be a national emergency.”

  “It’s always a fucking emergency,” I said. “And right now, I’m too fucking hard to do anything but feel you.”

  She bit her lip and shook her head. “Answer it.”

  I sighed, pulled my phone from my pocket, and answered it.

  “Yes?” I said.

  It was Al, and he sounded serious.

  “Your Highness, there was an attack at the east Stehen rail station. Reports say two dead, many wounded. We need to bring you home.”

  My jaw went tight. “Very well. Meet me at first and Hohle.” I hung the phone up.

  “What’s wrong?” Bryce asked.

  “We have to go.”

  “National emergency?”

  I stood up, sighing. “For once, yes.”

  She stood, worried. “Is everything okay?”

  “It will be. I promise.” We headed back to the car and got in. I started the engine and drove to the intersection. My security detail was already there and waiting.

  We headed back to the castle in tense silence. I hated that we were interrupted, but I hated even more that those bastard rebels would start killing civilians in Stehen.

  It had only been a matter of time. Their brutal tactics could work only so well so far from the capital city. They were butchers and thieves, and they would pay dearly for this.

  I was going to kill every last rebel I could get my hands on. Those bastards were going to feel my retribution.

  13

  Bryce

  I couldn’t believe I kissed the king.

  I looked at myself in my bathroom mirror, my mind reeling. We got back to the castle not too long ago, and although I could tell something had happened, nobody was telling me what was going on. It was probably some obscure Starklandian crisis I wouldn’t care about, but still.

  I couldn’t believe I kissed Trip. I kept telling myself over and over that I wasn’t going to fall for his shit, but the second he actually pulled me against him, I couldn’t resist. I should have known better than to put myself in that position at all, but I couldn’t help myself.

  I was beginning to see more in Trip than just a bad boy king. He wasn’t just a player and a partier. He seemed to genuinely care about his subjects, and I was impressed with their social welfare programs. We didn’t care that much about people back in America.

  Then there was that fountain. Of everything Trip had shown me so far, that was the most real. Not just because it was rundown, but that helped. No, it was because of how small it was and how out of the way it was. I believed him when he said that he used to spend a lot of time there.

  I couldn’t begin to fully understand Trip. His experience of the world was so different than mine. Everything he said and did held a weight I couldn’t exactly fathom, completely unlike everything I did.

  But he was also a regular guy, too. He was a normal person who liked fountains and had simple taste for his personal life. Sure, he was a king, an asshole, but I was beginning to see past that.

  And those lips. My god, the way he kissed me sent chills down my spine just thinking about it. I’d been ready to strip my clothes off right there and let him take me. I’d been out of my mind.

  I quickly left the bathroom and got into bed, pulling my laptop onto my stomach.

  I did a quick news search for Stehen, and the first result surprised me. Apparently there had been a big attack on the main rail station in the city, and the body count was up to five people, with many more wounded.

  And it had happened recently. The attack must have been the reason why Trip had had to get back to the castle, and why he’d seemed so serious. For a brief moment, I wondered if we were safe.

  But of course we were. We were inside a giant castle with hundreds of guards all over the place. I should have been more worried about the people out in the city who didn’t have the king’s immediate protection. Nothing bad was going to happen to me, not while Trip was around. I didn’t know why I believed that, but I did.

  I continued reading more about the war with the rebels in the south. There were a lot of articles in Starklandian and very few in English, but what I could find was surprising.

  The fighting had been going on since the old King had died, which I’d known about. The rebels wanted democracy, and the Royal Army was fighting back.

  But I didn’t know about the reports of abuses on both sides. I knew the rebels were brutal, but so was the Royal Army. Apparently hundreds of civilians had died already, with thousands more injured or displaced. Many of them reported horrible things done by the Royal Army.

  I sat back, biting my lip. That only made me so much more confused. On the one hand, I was convinced that Trip genuinely cared about his people and went out of his way to provide much-needed
services to them. But on the other, Starkland was a lot more complicated than I had realized. There were ministers all with their own power bases and land holdings, and they all were fighting with each other all the time. The king had to try to keep the peace between them, but that was a pretty impossible task.

  Then you throw this rebellion into the mix and things were only muddied and horrible.

  And Trip wanted to get me involved in all of this. He wanted to make me his queen, which meant I would have a political position in this country. I was a total outsider, and I knew absolutely nothing about any of it.

  And yet the way he touched me sent thrills through me. I didn’t want to be queen, but I was starting to realize that I wanted the king anyway.

  There was a knock at my door not long later. I got out of bed and answered, assuming it would be my father.

  Instead, it was Trip.

  “Trip. Hey,” I said.

  “Bryce. You okay?”

  I nodded. “Come on in.”

  I stepped aside and he came in. He glanced back at the security detail and they hung back as he closed the door.

  “Sorry about earlier,” he said. “Something fucked up happened.”

  “I know; I read.”

  “Those bastards.” He walked over to my little side table and took a glass decanter full of some brown liquid. I hadn’t bothered with that stuff, but he poured himself a drink and knocked it back. “Those sick bastards. They bombed a train station full of innocent people.”

  “It’s really awful,” I agreed. “I can’t imagine how you feel.”

  “I feel fucking angry,” he said. “I want to crush these bastards underneath my boots. I want to kill them all and be done with this foolish war.”

  “I don’t blame you,” I said softly.

  He sighed, poured himself another drink, and then sat on my couch. “Sorry. I’m just angry.”

  “I understand. I mean, I can’t really get it all since I’m a stranger here, but I understand why you’re angry.”

  “You are a stranger here,” he agreed, “but you’re a person. You get that much.”