by Rebel Fox
I don’t want to think too deeply about the reasons why. But the longer I remain in the hallway unanswered, the more my irritation grows. What if there’s something wrong with her? She shouldn’t make her guests wait like this because they will naturally assume the worst.
“What the what?” a voice squeaks from behind me. “What are you doing here?”
I turn to find her sister Emily with a bag of groceries in hand, staring at me with a pale face.
“I’m here to see Ella. Is she in?”
“Yes, of course she’s in,” Emily stumbles over her words. “But I highly doubt she wants to see you after the way you treated her.”
“The way I treated her?” I scoff.
She glares and tightens her grip on the grocery bag. “If you’ve just come here to be an asshole all over again, you may as well leave. Because I can tell you right now your royal highness, I’m your only ticket for getting in that door, and at the moment, I’m not one of your loyal subjects. You better find a damn good reason to win me over.”
It’s apparent that the sass runs in the family, and I can’t help but smile at Emily’s feisty attitude out of loyalty to her sister.
“I made a mistake rushing off the way I did,” I tell her. “Leaving your sister to deal with the media circus on her own. I’d like to offer my apologies in person.”
Emily seems to weigh my words carefully before jingling her keys in front of her. “Fine, then get the door at least, will you? It’s the gold key.”
I unlock the door and gesture her inside first, but as soon as I step in after her, there’s a gasp from the sofa. Confusion washes over me when my eyes move over Ella, swaddled in blankets with a horrified expression on her face.
She is pale and unkempt, her hair a tangled mess and her veneer of perfection hidden beneath her humanity. There is something so different and unexpected about seeing her this way that it unnerves me.
“I found him lurking in the hall,” Emily says. “He told me he wants to apologize.”
“And you just let him in?” Ella glares.
Emily gives her an apologetic shrug before sneaking off to the kitchen to tend to the groceries. Grateful for the privacy, my eyes focus on Ella.
“Are you ill?”
She shoots daggers at me with her eyes all while clutching the blankets tighter around her body. “That’s none of your business,” she informs me coolly. “In fact, you have no business being here at all, actually. I’d like you to leave.”
The callousness of her tone surprises me, and for the first time in my life, I’m not really certain how to deal with the situation. In my mind, I conjured up a thousand different scenarios of how this would play out now that she knew who I really was, but her kicking me out of her apartment was never one of them.
I decide that it must be for show and the best course of action is to go ahead with the plan regardless.
“You’re upset with me,” I murmur. “Understandably. But I have a proposition for you that I think you will find beneficial, if you’ll hear me out.”
Her face doesn’t falter. “You have nothing that could benefit me in any way, except for your absence.”
My jaw clenches as I get straight to the point, expecting her to take the bait without delay once she hears my offer.
“How about a million dollars?”
Her eyes bulge and she rises from the sofa, small and angry, coming at me like a bull. “Are you freaking kidding me? You’re trying to buy me off? And what exactly for? My silence? It’s a little too late, don’t you think, considering that our pictures have been printed in every gossip rag from here to Germany.”
“It isn’t for your silence,” I tell her. “Although there would be non-disclosures involved, of course, given my position. I am simply asking you to portray the image of my girlfriend publicly for two months before we have a clean and amicable break. No harm, no foul. You’ll get what you want, and my image will be restored.”
“Unbelievable,” she mutters. “You are really something else, you know that?”
“What part of the offer is not acceptable to you?” I counter. “Let me guess, it’s the number. You want more I take it?”
She glowers and shoves me towards the door. “You know what, Prince Aleks Taylor from delusional land? I don’t know how they apologize in your country, but you suck at it. Now get out of my apartment and out of my life.”
Before I can get another word in, she slams the door in my face.
9
Ella
“Did you know you have like a hundred bouquets in the hallway?” Emily asks as she lets herself into my apartment.
“I’m aware.” I finish applying the last of my makeup in the mirror.
“Look at you,” Emily says. “You’re dressed. And your hair is brushed.”
“Ha, ha,” I smirk. “I’m going into work today.”
“Really?” she asks. “Getting back on the horse, huh?”
“Yep.”
“What are you going to do about Aleks?”
I avoid her gaze as I toss a few necessary items into my handbag. Ginger chews. Saltines. Hard candies. Some basic staples to get me through the morning sickness phase.
“What is there to do?” I ask. “He has his life as Prince of Brighton, and I have mine. That’s all there is to it.”
“Hmm,” Emily murmurs. “It doesn’t really seem like he’s going to give up though. I mean it’s been like four days of this already.”
I haven’t told Emily about his proposal or the offered contract, and I have no intention of doing so. It’s even more humiliating to admit that he only came back to try to clean up his image to the media since he got caught red-handed with me.
“He will just need to move on. We might as well be on different planets. I’m sure he’ll get tired of this soon enough and move on to the next conquest.”
“Sure,” Emily says quietly.
I know there’s more coming and I also know I’m not going to like it.
“But don’t you think you owe it to him to at least tell him about the baby?”
“No,” I snap. “I don’t think I owe him anything. Now I’m going to be late. Are you coming in today?”
“I’ll be there.” She gives me a weak smile.
By lunchtime I have over ten messages from Emily alerting me to the fact that Aleks has called me. I don’t know how he knows I’m back at work, but I have a feeling he has more details on me than I’d probably care to think about.
He is royalty, for God’s sake. A Prince of all things. It’s still almost unfathomable that he would have ever taken a mild interest in me. And his dedication to this quest is beginning to make me question so many things. Why does he need me to do this for him? But more importantly, why is he so cold? Something must have happened in his life to make him that way. I just don’t get it.
“Ella,” Emily’s voice comes through the intercom. “Um you have a visitor and—”
Her message is cut short when the door to my office opens and I look up to find Aleks in the frame.
“What are you doing here?” I demand.
“Ella, this is getting ridiculous,” he says.
“Tell me about it,” I scoff.
He sighs and shuts the door behind him, inviting himself in and taking a seat at the chair opposite my desk.
“Did I say you could come in?”
He ignores the question and scrubs a hand through his hair.
“What’s it going to take for you to forgive me?” he asks.
For a fleeting moment, his voice wavers, and I see a hint of vulnerability in him that I would have never believed existed if I hadn’t witnessed it myself.
“I don’t see why it matters,” I mutter. “Why do you even care?”
“Because I do,” he grates. “Jesus, Ella. How can I make it any more obvious?”
“How about by not sneaking out of your hotel room in the middle of the night in the first place?” I counter. “Or coming back weeks later only to throw
your money in my face as if you can buy me?”
He cocks his head to the side, studying me. “So, you’re trying to tell me that if I’d never brought up the money, you would have forgiven me?”
“I don’t know if I’d go that far.”
He stands up and I can’t help but admire the way the fabric of his suit stretches over his muscles. He’s dark and right now… more dangerous than ever to me.
Despite my anger, my hormones are a raging ball of fire. My breasts are swollen and heavy and aching for a man’s touch, and unfortunately for me, he’s the only one here right now. The memories of our night together still burn my skin, and I long for the touch of his skilled fingers. His strong, solid cock thrusting in and out of me. I hate myself a little for admitting it, but it’s true.
He rounds my desk and my breath slips away as he kneels before me like he did once before.
“God,” he groans as his mouth rests an inch from my thighs. “You still smell the same, Ella. I can’t tell you how much I want to resist you right now. Give me a reason.”
“I don’t like you,” I declare.
He smiles. “Maybe I don’t like you either.”
The space between us is quiet and tense. The sexual chemistry is off the charts, and just because he’s an asshole doesn’t mean I don’t want him to fuck me again. Over and over and over.
“Seriously,” I growl. “You are such a jerk, you know that? You should never have come back here.”
His response is to drag his nose against the creamy skin of my thigh below the hem of my skirt. My breath hitches and my fingers curl into his hair.
“Stop.”
He stops and looks up at me.
“I really should kick you out of my office.”
“But you don’t want to,” he rasps. “I can tell you don’t want to. Give me some direction, Ella. Tell me what you need from me, and I’ll do it.”
I hesitate, grinding my teeth together as I try to find the courage to tell him to leave. But he’s right. I don’t want him to.
“If we’re going to do this,” my voice breaks, “we need to have some ground rules.”
His body tenses, and he rocks back on his heels, his eyes never leaving mine. “What kind of ground rules?”
“Two months,” I say. “Nothing more. When the two months are over, we both go our separate ways. And if you piss me off before that time, it is my prerogative to call it quits at any time of my choosing.”
“Sounds fair enough,” he concedes.
“And if we’re going to do this,” I continue. “It needs to be monogamous for the time that we are together for safety reasons. I’ll make the public appearances with you, so long as we don’t go overboard. But you have to keep the paparazzi under control.”
“Done,” he agrees.
“And just to be clear, I am only using you for your body. Nothing more.”
He nods with a weary expression, like he doesn’t quite believe it. “So, you only want me for my cock?”
“Out of everything I just said that’s all you heard?” I ask. “I literally just gave you every dude’s dream scenario. Sex without strings. Are you really going to argue with that?”
To my disbelief, it looks like he wants to, but thinks better of it before he shakes his head. “Fine. We will do it your way.”
“Fine.”
“And what about the money?” he adds.
“I don’t want your money.”
He blinks like he still isn’t sure he heard me right, and it occurs to me that he wasn’t joking when he said a financially beneficial relationship was the only kind he could provide. It makes me feel an unwelcome pang of sympathy for him, but that sympathy is swiftly washed away when his hands come to rest on my calves.
“Who made you so jaded, Aleks?”
He looks up at me and shakes his head. “Ella, the only thing I want to discuss right now is how wet your pussy is. Understand?”
I bite my lip and nod. It’s undeniably hot when he talks to me that way, and even hotter when his hands graze the length of my legs, pushing my skirt up as they climb higher and higher.
Before he even really touches me, I can feel the arousal soaking through my panties. It’s wet and sticky and Aleks is going to be very pleased with himself. Sure enough when his head dips forward and his nose drags against the cloth covering my parted thighs, a sound of approval rumbles in his throat.
“For someone who claims to hate me you sure seem to like my dick an awful lot.”
“For someone with royal blood you certainly seem to have a filthy mouth.”
He smirks and tugs on the panties with his teeth, creating friction against my clit. I squirm, and he pins my legs to the chair with strong, capable hands.
“Don’t be so impatient,” he murmurs.
I’m not being impatient. The truth is I’m on fire for him. Every little touch feels like a bolt of lightning inside my core. My nipples are so hard they could cut glass, and all I want to do is shove his face between my thighs.
It isn’t me, it’s the hormones.
When he finally stops tormenting me and shoves my panties aside, I breath a sigh of relief. But to my disappointment, Aleks has other plans.
“Only good girls get eaten out,” he declares. “You’ve been very bad, Ella. Ignoring me. Tormenting me…”
As he speaks his fingers dip inside of me and the rest of his tirade becomes distant noise. It’s sloppy and it’s loud, and I should be embarrassed that I’m so out of control. But instead my hips are moving along with him, demanding more.
“Christ, you are soaked,” he grunts.
“Please don’t stop,” I beg.
It feels like I’m going to explode. It feels like I might not survive the orgasm when it comes, but it will be the sweetest death, and I want for it anyway.
“I’m not going to stop,” he promises.
His fingers slide in and out of me, teasing my g spot while his thumb rubs my clit. The tension continues to build in my belly until it’s so taut I can’t take it anymore. I erupt with a strangled cry and come in an endless wave of ecstasy. It’s without a doubt the most intense orgasm I’ve ever had, and yet it still hasn’t even touched on the cravings inside of me.
“More,” I plead between breaths as I reach for Aleks.
His eyes move over my face, curious, and I hope I’m not giving anything away. But that notion is quashed when the next minute he’s standing up and releasing his cock.
His giant, throbbing, perfect cock.
I need it inside of me, and I tell him so. He smiles and brings my hand up to wrap it around the hard flesh. My fingers don’t even close around it.
“Is that what you want?” Aleks asks.
“Yes,” I insist.
He peels my fingers off the burning flesh and retreats from me.
“Where are you going?” I demand.
He doesn’t answer. Instead, he sits down against the wall, propping his back against it and pulling his pants down around his ankles.
“Let me see you ride it,” he says.
Ride him? He wants me to ride him? A month ago, I would have never considered such a thing. But right now, my vagina is the one at the wheel and she’s calling the shots.
There isn’t an ounce of modesty left inside of me when I stalk towards him like a predator, unzipping my skirt and letting it fall to the floor as I go.
Aleks growls when I kick off my panties and plant one foot on either side of his strong, muscular thighs. He squeezes my ass and strokes between my legs several more times, teasing me before I squat down in front of him.
His dick is so close the head is poking against me. I can feel the heat coming off of him. I need to feel that heat inside of me. Piercing me. Fucking me. Filling me.
“Do it,” he urges in a hoarse voice. “Let me see you sit on my dick.”
I start to lower my ass and his throbbing cock is swallowed by my slick heat. Aleks groans and I cry out when he thrusts up unexpectedly.
“Ride me,” he orders. “I need it, Ella. I need it now.”
I grab onto his shoulders and give in, rocking my hips up and down against his shaft. He’s so big I can’t fit him all the way in, but I take every solid inch of him that I can, riding him like my life depends on it.
Hard fingers squeeze my hips and his eyes roll back in his head as his mouth falls slack. Filthy, sweet words of encouragement fly from his mouth as I use his cock for my own selfish needs.
“Take it,” he rasps. “Take my cock, Ella.”
I take it, and he plays with me. Touching my clit. My ass. Unbuttoning my shirt and unclasping my bra, freeing my aching breasts.
“God, these are beautiful,” he murmurs as he squeezes them in his palms. “So soft. So big. You have perfect tits, angel.”
“Suck on them,” I beg. “Please. I need it.”
Aleks grunts and cups my breast in his palm, feeding it into his mouth and suckling from my nipple, flicking his tongue against the tip and bringing me closer and closer to the edge before repeating the same action on the other side.
It’s exactly what I need, and I let him know it by spasming all over his cock as another vicious orgasm rips through me. The sheer force makes me collapse, and I can’t go on. Aleks murmurs his satisfaction before flipping me over onto my back and wrapping my legs around his hips.
“Hold on tight, baby,” he whispers. “I’m going to fuck you hard and fill you with my come.”
I cry out as his hips slam into me over and over again. It’s raw and tender, but it feels deliciously blissful. My hands cling to his biceps and my lips find his throat, kissing and nipping at the skin there while his dick moves in and out of me.
“One more time, angel.” He strokes my hair. “Come on my dick one more time.”
I whine, and his fingers move to my clit, circling until I can’t take it anymore. I make a noise that gets caught in my throat as I come on him one last time, and while the spasms are still rocking my body, Aleks buries himself all the way, pumping jets of hot come deep into my womb.
His head collapses forward, burying his face between my breasts as he catches his breath. Milking out his release, his hips thrust forward a few more times before finally coming to rest against me, his dick softening inside of me.