He brought his hands up to my breasts and squeezed my nipples, making my back arch on its own accord. My orgasm took me by surprise, the sensation crawling through me all at once until it felt like I would explode from the inside. I felt when he found his own ecstasy, his well-formed abs clenching beneath my fingertips as he pumped inside me and growled my name once more. I never once said his. I didn’t know what to say if I wanted to. It was better that way. I knew I’d remain completely unattached if I had no face to his name and no name to every other part of him. We lay beside each other, breathing hard, covered in sweat, and I wondered if I should get dressed and leave now. Etienne was probably still upstairs. I’d left my phone at home, knowing they’d take it away from me if I brought it, so it wasn’t like he had any way to reach me.
My answer came when the man beside me began to snore lightly. I pushed the sheets away and went to the bathroom. That was when I noticed tiny trickles of blood. I didn’t think he’d broken my hymen. I was pretty sure gymnastics and horseback riding had done that, but now I wasn’t so sure. My thoughts raced. Were the sheets bloodied? No. This was too little blood to begin with. I flushed, washed my hands, and dressed quickly, placing the mask back on my face before making my way to the door. I glanced at him one last time. The sheet was covering just the right parts, as if it had purposely been draped over him for a photograph. I sighed as I opened the door and closed it quietly behind me. A part of me felt the loss the moment I stepped out of that room. I’d never given my virginity much importance until that moment when I no longer had it.
By the time I got to the floor that the party was taking place, I was smiling again. It hadn’t been a fairy-tale experience with rose petals and candles, but it had been perfect nonetheless. I found Etienne, standing near the back door with his hands on his hips, and I knew he was looking for me. When I reached him, he shook his head.
“I’ve been looking everywhere. I even walked to your house thinking you were home.”
“No man left behind, remember?” I arched an eyebrow.
“Where were you?”
“Around.” I shrugged. “Didn’t you tell me to have fun?”
“How much fun did you have?” He eyed me closely, a smile tugging on his lips.
“More than I’ve ever had.”
“Adeline Sofia Isabella Bouchard!”
“Etienne Pierre Bellerose,” I said in a mocking tone.
“We are leaving this party right now.” He grabbed my arm and led me outside with a laugh. “Your father will murder me if he finds out this happened under my watch.”
“Oh please. As if he doesn’t know your reputation.”
“Still.” He yanked his mask over his head as we walked over to my parents’ villa. “Who was he?”
“I don’t know.” I pulled my mask off as we reached the door.
“What do you mean you don’t know?”
“I don’t. He was . . . dreamy. Gorgeous. So, so hot.” I sighed. “But I didn’t get his name. It doesn’t matter anyway. I’m leaving tomorrow.”
“Today,” he said, glancing at the big-faced watch on his wrist. “Your flight is in four hours. You need to finish packing and we need to go.”
“Shit.” I practically ran inside the house.
I showered, changed, and finished packing quickly as Etienne sat in the living room, telling me about the woman he was talking to at the party. My parents were gone for the weekend, which was why Etienne was staying with me. He’d been my best friend since I was born. Our mothers were best friends and their wish was that we’d end up together. Unfortunately for them, we weren’t each other’s types. Etienne was an artist and his type was model-thin, with more issues than Vogue. The kind of woman he could try to fix and take care of. My type was . . . well, probably the man I’d just lost my virginity to and would never see again. We talked quickly and about everything as he drove me to the airport. He spent an hour trying to figure out every single man at the party and who it could have been that I slept with. I let him because I was curious and also because watching Etienne decipher anything was a comedy in itself.
At the airport, I bought a magazine to entertain myself with. As I flipped the pages, I landed on a familiar face. My heart stopped. Prince Elias. That was the . . . surely it couldn’t be . . . except, it was. I knew it without a shadow of a doubt. I’d just lost my virginity to the future king of France.
Chapter 1
Five Years Later
Being back in Marbella sucked. My mother referred to this as home, and expected me to as well, but after living in so many places and finally settling in London, I didn’t consider this home at all. The last time I’d been here was two years ago; we celebrated Christmas here instead of Paris. Ever since I started my own event-planning business, I focused solely on work. That was, until a sex scandal rocked my entire world. It had been a few weeks, but after watching everything I worked so hard for going down the drain, along with the tears I had left to cry, I decided maybe going on a bit of a break like my mother suggested wasn’t such a bad idea.
It was confusing and hurtful to have people who claimed to be friends suddenly turn on me. For a few days, I was mostly just angry at my ex-boyfriend for letting the video leak, but it wasn’t his fault that his devices were hacked into and the world was skewed and unfair against women in these situations. It wasn’t like he’d asked for me to leave town and spend my summer in Marbella. It wasn’t like anyone asked me to leave the events I had planned in the capable hands of my mother and assistant while I helped my uncle run the bookstore that he was completely ruining by only stocking biographies and political books, and it wasn’t like anyone told me I’d be getting a huge slice of humble pie when he asked me to take over delivering baskets to the princes, who were back this summer, renting their usual four villas on our property. Nope. No one asked me to do any of this, yet here I was, angry and alone and completely hating every single decision I’d made in the last year of my life.
“My father said he could make the tabloid stories go away,” Etienne said, from the floor, where he was helping me stock new books I’d ordered for the store to liven the place up.
“It’s not your father’s job to erase my mistakes.” I walked over with another stack and placed them on the floor. “It’s my job to stay out of the tabloids. I should have known better.” I sighed. “God, it’s so embarrassing that your father even knows about them.”
“He’s a celebrity lawyer, Addie. He knows about everything,” Etienne said. “In all fairness, you were dating a banking heir. Staying out of the tabloids would have been impossible.”
“Yeah, but filming a sex tape was plain dumb.” I sighed heavily. “I’m an idiot. End of story.”
“Thomas is an idiot. He should have never let it leak and I’m sorry but I don’t believe he had no part in it.”
“Why would you think he had anything to do with that? Because he looked like a fucking god in the tape and I looked like absolute shit?”
“You didn’t look like shit.”
“You watched it?” I aimed a book at him, ready to throw it.
“No,” he said quickly. “I saw the stills on the tabloids though. Everyone did.”
“I hate myself.” I lowered the book and closed my eyes.
“You shouldn’t.”
“I should’ve worn a wig or something.”
“You shouldn’t have recorded it at all.”
“I was having fun with my boyfriend! I didn’t realize the entire world would have access to it.”
“Well, look at the bright side, some families have become billionaires because of sex-tape fame.”
“That is not how they became billionaires, but I see where you’re going with this and trust me, I don’t want my company to get any fame over my nudity.” I covered my face with the book in my hand and thumped it against my forehead. “I just want to fast-forward the next couple of months until a new scandal arises and I’m forgotten.”
“I’m sure i
t’ll happen soon,” he said. “The prince is in town, after all.”
My heart raced. I lowered the book. “Which one?”
“Didn’t your uncle ask you to take baskets to the villa every night? He didn’t say?”
“No.”
“It’s the summertime, Addie. It’s always the princes’ time here.”
“I really thought they’d be bored with this by now.”
“You thought wrong. It’s the only place they can escape to without the tabloids getting to them.” He chuckled. “I spoke to Aramis the other day and he said he wasn’t coming this time. It’s only Elias.”
“Which one is that one?” I asked, even though his face was seared in my brain. His face and other parts of him, which I wouldn’t discuss with my best friend, no matter how close we were.
“The one you may or may not have had sex with.”
I threw the book at him. He laughed and swatted it away as it reached him. I turned around and busied myself with things behind the register as Etienne kept talking. I completely tuned him out. My mind was too busy racing. Would Prince Elias recognize me? No. He wouldn’t. Right? I was supposed to deliver a basket to his door every night at seven thirty sharp. Those were my uncle’s orders. It was a simple task, one my uncle had left perfect instructions for. Five large wicker baskets were already stacked up in the guest room in my villa, along with the contents of what went in each of them. I hadn’t really paid much attention to any of it, but I would tonight. My stomach coiled. I’d see him tonight. Maybe not. I’d seen security outside of the villa I assumed was his, the same one we’d . . . my face flamed. Oh my God. I couldn’t do this.
“Adeline?” Etienne walked over to me and stood on the other side of the counter. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing.” I blinked up at him. He looked concerned. I sighed. “I don’t want to deliver the baskets.”
“If you want, I’ll take it tonight,” he said. “But I’ll be gone tomorrow.”
“Why do you have to leave?” I groaned.
“Because my girlfriend is waiting for me in London.”
“Can’t you tell Mira to come here?” I rested my elbows on the counter with an exhale.
“No.” He laughed. “Don’t be ridiculous. Elias won’t bite you, and even if he is the guy who took your virginity, he . . . I don’t know how to say it in a way that doesn’t sound awful, Addie, but he’s slept with a lot of women.”
“He didn’t take my virginity. I gave it to him. There’s a difference.” I met his gaze. “He didn’t even know I was a virgin.”
“I don’t think I would know either, to be honest.” He pursed his lips to think. “Unless a woman starts bleeding.” He shrugged. “And even then I may just assume she’s on her menstrual.”
That made me laugh out loud. Men were so clueless about women’s bodies. Maybe Etienne was right. Prince Elias had absolutely no reason to remember me. Even though I remembered the night I had with him, I was just a notch on his bedpost.
“Why don’t you prepare the basket and go with me to deliver it? That way he’ll know that you have a mutual friend.”
“Okay.”
“Good. Let’s finish up here, please. I’m starving and feel like I’m going to die under a pile of romance novels.”
“Hey, there are worse ways to go.” I raised an eyebrow. “You could die under a pile of autobiographies.”
The look he gave me told me he wasn’t impressed by my joke, so I went back to work, trying to ignore the fact that I may or may not be seeing the prince tonight.
Chapter 2
“Stop fidgeting,” Etienne whisper-shouted.
I stopped. We were standing outside the door, waiting for someone to answer. When it opened, I held my breath, then let it out when I saw one of the security detail standing on the other side.
“Monsieur Bouchard told us he’d be sending his niece to bring the baskets,” the man said, eyeing Etienne with curiosity.
“I’m a friend of his niece and the princes’. You must be new,” Etienne responded.
“What is your name?”
“Etienne Bellerose IV.”
“Oh. Monsieur Bellerose,” the man said, bowing ever so slightly. “My apologies.”
Etienne wasn’t a prince, but as the great-grandson of a duke, he had his own pull on society’s strings. The Bellerose name carried prestige and honor and unlike my own name, which had been on the decline in some circles for reasons that had nothing to do with me or my leaked sex tape, Etienne’s was respected on all grounds. The man before us opened the door wider and stepped aside, allowing us to walk inside the villa. Etienne offered me his arm, which I gladly took, and I stepped inside with him. He was holding the basket in his other hand and I was unsure of what to do with my free hand, so I brought it up to hold his arm with both of mine. It was either that or I’d start fidgeting again and I didn’t want to seem like a silly young girl with heart eyes for a prince I hadn’t even seen in five years.
“I’ll tell His Royal Highness that you’re here.” The man shut the door behind us and disappeared into one of the halls. I let out a breath.
“Am I supposed to curtsy?” I whispered. “I don’t even know how to do that. Do you bow when you say hi to him?”
“He’s not the king,” Etienne whispered back.
“Yet.”
“Yet,” he agreed gravely.
“So I can just shake his hand like normal?”
“If he tries to shake yours, then yes.” He eyed me curiously, then added, “Don’t take offense if he doesn’t.”
My brows shot up. I tried to picture what Prince Elias would look like now. Unlike his brother, Aramis, who was always in the spotlight, Elias hadn’t been seen in years. If the rumors were true, he was too busy preparing for his future role as king to attend any of the usual events. It wasn’t that he wasn’t doing things, more so that the things he was doing weren’t being documented and reported on. Once in a while, you could catch a grainy photo of him arriving or leaving an event or more likely, a halfway house he spent a lot of time helping. Of course, that deed too, came with rumors of its own.
Somehow, as I stood there, I felt some of my tension slip away. That was, until I heard footsteps approaching and I was right back to a tense ball. The man in the black suit came into sight first, followed by Prince Elias, who was far more gorgeous than any grainy photo could ever encompass, and definitely far more man than I could remember from that night so many years ago. For a moment, I second-guessed myself. Maybe this wasn’t the man I’d lost my virginity to after all, but then he spoke and my heart took a life of its own, galloping from my chest to my ears.
“Etienne,” he said, “I wasn’t expecting you.”
“I’m not really here for a visit,” Etienne responded. “I’m helping out a friend with this basket.”
Prince Elias, who had definitely already seen me standing here, but had made it a point not to look at me, now turned his attention toward me. Despite my galloping heart, I tried my best to paste a nonchalant smile on my face.
“Hello.” My voice was so weak and low and pathetic. I licked my lips.
“Hello,” he said, not taking his eyes off mine. They were dark and I still couldn’t see their color from where he was standing, but I knew they weren’t brown like mine. “You’re the niece bringing my basket?”
“Yes, sir.”
“It’s her first time in charge of it, so if she got anything wrong, take pity on her. She’s not much of a rule follower.” Etienne chuckled lightly.
“I followed all of the instructions perfectly.” My face whipped in Etienne’s direction momentarily before I looked at Prince Elias again. He walked closer to us, finally closing the gap between us, and effectively making my insides haywire again. “I . . . I think the basket is perfect.”
“I’m sure it’s fine.” He reached for it and took it from Etienne’s hands, his attention now on its contents. “Looks right to me.”
“It’
s a lot of champagne,” I said, then swallowed. There were two bottles of Dom Perignon in the basket, which I thought was entirely too extra for anyone, but I definitely shouldn’t have pointed it out.
“Do you want to stay a while?” Prince Elias asked Etienne, ignoring my statement.
“I would, but I can’t. Mira is waiting for me in London. I have a flight to catch and Addie is driving me to the airport.” He slung an arm around me and pulled me closer.
“Right. My brother mentioned he was meeting with you over there,” Prince Elias said, his gaze sliding over to me. He lifted the basket. “Thank you for bringing the basket on time.”
“You’re welcome. Same time tomorrow.” I smiled and pinched Etienne in the back so he could speed this up.
“Will you be here all summer?” Etienne asked.
“I’ll be here a while. Traveling in and out, but I plan on getting a lot of rest while I’m here.”
“Right. You should get as much of that as you can.” Etienne lowered his voice. “My thoughts are with all of you.”
I bit my lip. I knew they were talking about the king’s declining health and I really had nothing to add in this scenario. I was the daughter of a man who was completely opposed to all things in the monarchy, especially the way the king and his family ran things. They were traditionalists in every sense of the word. Had it not been for the pushback that happened when my father was growing up, a movement he had a lot to do with, from which the cabinet was born, the king would still be the sole leader of France. So, I had no room to speak when it came to this. Instead, I focused on looking at him while he was speaking to Etienne. He really was so incredibly good-looking. And tall. And fit. He was wearing khaki pants and a white short-sleeve button-down that framed his toned physique perfectly. He had a swimmer’s body. A surfer’s. With broad shoulders and muscled arms that weren’t bulging, but just right. My assistant, Joss, was all about body-building-type bodies. I preferred Prince Elias’s body though. And his lips. On mine. Making their way down my body. Between my legs. I forced myself to look away to fight the blush I felt creeping. I needed to get out of here.
The Sinful King: By New York Times Bestselling Author Page 2