Royals of Danovar: The Complete Series

by Leslie North

  “Eric,” she shouted, pushing herself against him, meeting him thrust for thrust. “Yes! Eric, harder, oh God, harder—this is…I can’t…” Pressure built in her core and she shouted wordlessly, tensing all over, arching helplessly against him as she tightened and shuddered around his cock, pleasure breaking over her in waves that she rode out until she could barely breathe. And then he was shouting too, his pace becoming relentless as he pumped himself out inside her.

  When it was over, he rested his head on the crook of her shoulder, and they just breathed. The world looked new to Anna; she felt new, remade together with Eric. And at that moment she knew without a doubt that this, exactly here, with this incredible man, was where she wanted she wanted to stay forever.

  11

  Eric woke up feeling like he was winning at life. Last night had been mind-blowing, and then afterwards, he and Anna had just sat and talked. That had never been something he’d been particularly keen to do after lovemaking before, but with Anna it had felt almost as intimate as the sex. He’d asked her about her vintage swearing habit, and she’d laughingly admitted that she’d always been impressed by “those badass women” who could curse like sailors but was too embarrassed to try many real curse words herself. He’d refused to accept that and had immediately given her a cursing tutorial, which she had passed with flying colors. Her newfound dirty mouth had left both of them turned on all over again, and after another session of amazing lovemaking, he’d been too wired to fall asleep. To repay him for the swearing lesson, Anna had decided to teach him how to relax properly before bed, and had dug through the B&B’s cupboards and dressers until she came up with ten different varieties of herbal tea for him to try and some brand-new flannel pajamas in his size. He decided he loved the surprisingly comfy pjs, hated chamomile, and actually enjoyed peppermint tea. They’d fallen asleep side by side near dawn, with Eric feeling closer to her than he’d ever felt to anyone.

  Between his newfound maybe-relationship—the details had been fuzzy, but he was pretty sure last night had meant there was more between them than seduction lessons now—and how well the research was coming along, he felt like a million bucks today. He did wish the research would move a little more quickly, since they’d fallen a bit behind schedule lately, but that was small potatoes compared to how well everything else was going.

  He was whistling as he walked into his breakfast meeting with Simon. His cousin looked up, surprised, then narrowed his eyes. “You look…” he started, a suspicious note in his voice.

  “Devilishly handsome? Roguishly charming?” Eric supplied helpfully.

  “…tired,” Simon finished.

  “Well, that’s a letdown,” Eric commented, taking a seat.

  “But still weirdly glow-y,” Simon went on, waving a hand at him vaguely. “You look like the cat that got the cream. What have you been up to?”

  “None of your business,” Eric said with a wink, and Simon gave a longsuffering sigh and rolled his eyes. Eric pulled out his notepad. “So we’re doing a soft count for our support in Parliament today, right?” he asked. “Did you get the meeting set up?”

  “Of course. We’re having lunch with two of the senators who are on the fence this afternoon. They’re senior members, so their support could potentially swing more votes our way from their junior fellows.”

  “Great,” Eric said, and jotted down a note.

  The door opened behind him and his mother swept in, looking regal as ever. “Have you seen this?” she said without prelude, and dropped a newspaper on the table in front of him.

  “Good morning to you too, mother dearest,” he said, but foreboding filled him at the look on her face. He picked up the paper and scanned the page she’d given him. It was an article about his healthcare bill, and it wasn’t promising. It made it sound like the palace could do better and even got in a dig at Eric himself, saying he “spent all his time distracting the head researcher,” causing slower results. He grimaced—the basic facts were true, even if the reasoning wasn’t. Or at least, he was pretty sure it wasn’t. Sometimes research just got behind schedule, that was all.

  But the quote at the end was damning. Apparently Anna had told the reporter that fun was what Eric did best, and the reporter surmised that Eric was still good for a good time but wasn’t the best horse to back for getting a bill through Parliament.

  Eric tossed the paper onto the table, reeling. That day when Anna had asked him for rugby lessons, she said she’d gotten sucked into unexpected small talk at the gate. Had she accidentally gone to the gate that was reserved for the press and not realized she was actually talking to a reporter? He shook his head, his good mood evaporated. Now, instead of convincing the two senior Parliament members to support them today, Simon and Eric would be hard-pressed to do damage control.

  The meeting went even worse than expected. Sensing blood in the water, the senators took full advantage and demanded he accept cuts that would hurt the poor populations he was trying to help. They claimed it was the only way for the bill to perform on budget, but that kind of change was a hard ‘no’ for him. He refused to allow his first bit of legislation—or any of his legislation—to harm Danovar’s most vulnerable subjects.

  The older senator stood up, pushing his chair back from the table with a scrape. “The money isn’t there,” he huffed. “I know you’re young and this is your first move into serious politics, so listen to me when I tell you, things simply can’t get done if there’s no money for them.”

  Eric gritted his teeth at the condescension, but channeled it into a charming smile. “Please, Senator Winton, sit. I’m sure we can come to some sort of compromise.”

  The other senator, a woman with her gray hair in a no-nonsense ponytail, leaned forward. “There is one other place we could make cuts,” she suggested. “The medical research laws. We could cut some of the grants there, limit how much funding the palace provides.”

  Eric bristled. That would undercut the funding for Anna’s project, and for projects like hers. Still, if she got her research back on schedule and finished before the bill was enacted as originally planned, they wouldn’t have to worry about it.

  “We’ll consider it,” he said at last.

  It hurt his heart to even consider this, especially knowing how passionate Anna and her team were about what they were doing. He felt dirty, like he’d betrayed her, but if this was the only way to get the legislation through then what other choice did he have?

  He adjourned the meeting and went back to his rooms, hoping the senators would find another place to make cuts—somewhere that wouldn’t break the heart of the woman who was starting to mean everything to him.

  12

  Eric arrived at Anna’s house that night to find an open bottle of wine and two glasses already on the table, with Anna herself nowhere to be found.

  He sat down and poured himself a glass. He needed it, after a day like today. The five o’clock news had ran with the story and Anna’s quote, and he and Simon had been putting out fires all day. As a result he’d been out of touch with Anna—after he’d briefly texted her to verify that she actually had given the reporter that quote and asked to meet tonight, he hadn’t gotten the chance to talk to her further. He knew she was probably mortified about what she’d said and how the press was interpreting it. It wasn’t her fault, and he wasn’t upset with her, but it was clear she needed a bit more training on how to deal with the public now that they would be quizzing her more often in hopes of nabbing another juicy quote.

  Anna strode out of the living room, pulling her hair out of its braid. She froze when she saw Eric. “I am so sorry,” she blurted before she even finished entering the room. “That guy ambushed me and I didn’t even know who he was, and I was so nervous about the whole rugby thing and so happy when he started asking me about research, which I did know how to talk about—or I thought I did—but I have no excuse. I’m so sorry. I hope your campaign can recover.”

  Eric waved her to the table. �
��Come have a glass,” he said, and drained the rest of his. “I think you need it as much as I do.”

  She sat and poured some for herself, shooting him little glances like she was still anxious. He moved his hand across the table and rested it atop hers. “Hey,” he said, “I’m not mad. And I think the campaign will be okay, or at least, as okay as it was before all this. I just thought maybe you could use a little refresher course with the small talk, that’s all.”

  She blew out a breath and sat back. “I definitely could,” she admitted. “I’m still terrible at it, apparently.”

  “Nah, you’re not bad at all once you get to know someone. And you’ve improved a lot since we’ve been working together. You just need a few more tips.”

  She gulped down her glass of wine, and they both poured another. “Okay,” she said when half that one was gone too. “I’m ready.”

  He laughed. “If you have to get drunk before you can make successful small talk, we may be doing this wrong.”

  “I’m not drunk yet,” she protested. “This has thirteen percent alcohol content, it’ll take at least two glasses for me to get buzzed. I’ve tested it.”

  That was so Anna, he had to laugh again. “Okay then,” he said, “let’s practice. Maybe some role playing would help. You be the reporter and I’ll be the subject.”

  “Right,” she said, a little uncertainly. “So, Prince Eric, do you…have any hobbies?”

  They continued in that vein as the level of wine in the bottle got lower and lower, and Anna loosened up and made some good progress in her small talk skills. Somehow, though, the conversation came back to their project.

  “I’m worried,” Anna admitted. “This is my first foray into major research, and I don’t want to fail on such a large stage, with something that matters to so many people. I mean, your funding has helped a lot—but it’s also raised the stakes so much higher. It’s nerve-wracking.”

  “I know what you mean,” Eric answered, staring grimly at his empty glass. “All my life, everything has come easily to me, and I loved it. I loved being the spare, the charmer, the life of the party. But now I’m being asked to help clean up my family’s reputation, and not only that, this bill means a lot to me on a personal level. And everyone’s watching, everyone’s judging me, everyone’s waiting for me to fail as a serious politician.”

  “I don’t think you’ll fail,” Anna said. “I think you’re amazing.”

  “You’re biased,” he accused, but with a smile.

  “Maybe,” she allowed, “but you are. Everyone loves you. Even if you did fail—which you won’t—they’ll still love you. If I fail, I’ll lose my reputation, and it’ll be so much worse because that’s all I have.”

  “No, it’s not. You’re much more than just your professional reputation,” he declared hotly. “You knit all those blankets for the babies at the neonatal care unit. Do you think their parents care about whether your research fails? No. They care that some kind, talented, incredibly generous woman has given their child a beautiful gift that will keep them warm for years to come. And what about Anderson, and the rest of your team? Those people love you. You know they’ll be in your corner no matter how this project turns out. You might not be the life of the party, but you’re the heart of whatever room you’re in.”

  She stared at him, her eyes suddenly shining. She pushed her chair back, came around to his side of the table, leaned down, and kissed him. “Thank you,” she whispered. “That’s the nicest thing anyone has ever said about me.”

  “It’s true,” he said staunchly.

  “It’s true for you too,” she said. “You’re like the sun, and everyone else, they’re flowers. Anywhere you are, people are always looking to you—not because they’re watching and judging you, but because they admire and respect and genuinely like you. I genuinely like you. I always have, even at first when I didn’t want to.” She kissed him again, then sat in his lap to get a better angle. Overwhelmed by her praise, he reciprocated and deepened the kiss.

  She leaned back, eyes bright with emotion, and pulled off her shirt. He eagerly followed suit. Soon they were naked and she was rolling a condom onto him, and he was holding her hips as she lowered herself onto him in the chair. She tilted her head back and gasped, a look of wonder on her face as he entered her. He remembered the fantasy he’d had long ago, imagining this very moment, but it was so much better than his daydreams ever could’ve produced: the erotic curve of her neck, the cascade of her hair against her naked breasts, the way the connection between them strengthened with every moment they spent together.

  She shifted her hips, wriggling on his shaft, and he let her set the pace. She moaned, settling herself deeper, winding her hands through his hair, reaching around to palm his balls. He kissed one breast and then the other, worshipping them. He spanned his hands across her hips, watching the awe play across her face at each sensation of this new position. He would never get enough of watching this woman try new things.

  He reached down, touched her, watched her catch her breath and bite her full bottom lip. “Fuck, that’s good,” she whispered, trying out her new cursing skills, and he couldn’t help but kiss her. She tasted like wine and sex and wonder.

  She lifted herself up then, grabbed onto the top of the chair behind him, and drove herself down hard onto his cock. He grabbed her hip in one hand and her hair in the other, anchoring himself, unable to stop himself from meeting her thrusts now. “Yes,” he whispered, “Anna, yes.”

  Anna dipped her head to kiss him, her eyes shining again, as they drove each other to the brink of oblivious pleasure. A few more hard thrusts and then they were hanging on tight, shattering together. They stayed joined for a long time afterward, not wanting to let go, not wanting to leave behind the new connection they’d forged.

  But later, when Eric was lying in bed with her in the dark, he couldn’t help but worry. Earlier, she’d talked about how he’d made things better and worse—given her something important, but heightening the stakes too. Being with her, falling for her, it was like that. She’d given him an incredible gift…but now he was more nervous than ever that somehow, it would all go wrong.

  13

  Anna was finishing up paperwork with a test subject—Mrs. Grady, an older woman who always showed them endless pictures of her grandchildren—when Eric arrived at the lab a few days later. The woman perked up immediately. Eric was a favorite among the patients.

  “Morning, handsome!” Mrs. Grady called across the room.

  “Morning, beautiful,” Eric replied, but his greeting was more subdued than usual.

  “Someone piss in your cornflakes?” the woman asked with a grin, noticing as well.

  Eric shrugged and smiled back. “Nah, just didn’t get much sleep.”

  “In a good way, I hope?” She winked.

  Anna narrowed her eyes. She hadn’t been with Eric last night. If he hadn’t gotten much sleep, it must’ve been because something was bothering him, not because anything fun was keeping him up.

  Confirming her suspicions, he just shrugged again and wandered into Anna’s office.

  Anna turned to her patient. “I apologize, but I think I need to speak to the prince.”

  “You do that, hon. Don’t let that one get away, eh?”

  Anna hesitated. “What do you mean?” she asked carefully.

  “Oh, we all know you two are together now,” the woman answered. “It’s all over the tabloids—that sweet nerd date he took you on. Did he really rent a whole B&B for the night?” She sighed, overcome by the romance of it.

  Anna stared at her, flustered. “Oh,” she managed, and then, “forgive me, I really need to go talk to Eric.”

  She hurried to her office while trying not to look like she was hurrying, and quickly closed the door behind her. “Is it true?” she hissed at Eric. “Is our nerd date really in the tabloids?”

  This was bad, so, so bad. What would her colleagues think? Would they believe he was the reason her researc
h had gotten behind schedule? She’d been terrified all along something like this would happen—that he or his support would ruin her professional reputation.

  “I don’t know,” Eric said, startled. “Why do you say that?”

  “Mrs. Grady knew all about it, the B&B, everything!”

  He shook his head and ran a hand through his hair, agitated. “The B&B’s owner must’ve given the info to the press. I’m sorry, I didn’t know, I thought she was trustworthy.” He pulled a dossier from his bag. “But I’m afraid I have more bad news. The Queen Mother is pressuring me to throw another gala, one that celebrates the results of your study. I’m worried that it’ll enhance the appearance of me only being good for parties.”

  So that was what had been bothering him. She started pacing. “That’s a terrible idea. We aren’t ready for anything like that yet. We can’t throw a party for successful results before the results are even in. What if something goes wrong at the last minute?”

  “Does it look like that might be the case?”

  “No,” she admitted. Everything was going wonderfully, if a bit behind schedule, and her gut told her the results would be as spectacular as they’d anticipated. But as a scientist, she couldn’t announce anything until it had been tested, finalized, and double-checked. “But still, it’s not a good idea. It could make my reputation look even worse than it does now. We should just go radio silent until everything is done.” When her results were published, the scientific community wouldn’t care about her nerd date or perceived unprofessionalism with Eric. Throwing a party too early, though, that could backfire spectacularly.

  Eric shook his head. “I don’t know. This party could help rally support for the bill, get us those last few votes we need. I can take being labeled a party boy. I can’t take being a failure.”

  Anna stopped pacing. “No, Eric, you can’t throw the party. It’s far too soon!”