Reluctantly Royal

by Gillian Archer

  Chapter 13

  I was certain my bodyguards meters away heard my gulp. Hannah was so gorgeous as she crouched in front of me with her sparkling eyes shining up at me. How anyone could look so seductive and innocent at the same time was beyond me, but Hannah accomplished it.

  “Moi? Uh, oui.”

  “I knew I shouldn’t have taken Spanish in high school. But I’m gonna take that as a yes.” Hannah leaned forward to lick the tip of my throbbing erection, and I closed my eyes with a groan.

  “Merde.”

  Hannah laughed huskily as her lips skimmed down my cock to the base. “You know how I know that I’m getting to you?”

  I must’ve made some sound for her to continue, but honestly at that point my every thought was devoted to not coming all over her face like some untried teenager obsessed with pornos. Hannah squeezed my cock at the root as her tongue tickled my foreskin.

  “I know I’m getting to you when you babble in French. It’s like your brain can’t work to make the translation.”

  “I’m pretty sure it’s a lack of blood flow problem.” I gasped as her deft tongue found a sensitive spot under the head of my cock. “Uh.”

  “Well, before you lose all blood flow to your brain, how about we take a little break so you can give me your shirt.” Hannah’s hot breath caressed the wet skin she’d left behind from her lips.

  “Qu’est-ce que c’est?”

  Hannah blinked up at me. “What?”

  “No, that’s what I said. You want my shirt? For what?”

  “For my knees, Casanova. My quads won’t let me squat forever.”

  “Ah, mon chou, Je suis désolé. I wasn’t thinking. Come, come. We can do better than my shirt.”

  “No, I don’t want to wait. Just give me your shirt.”

  “Really, Hannah, I think that’s supposed to be my line.”

  “Here.” She stared up at me mulishly, and I had to laugh. Was I really arguing about where she was going to blow me?

  “As you wish.” I grabbed my shirt and rucked it up and over my head; my undershirt came off, too. I balled up the material as best I could to make an adequate cushion, then handed it to Hannah.

  She shoved it under her knees and sat up with a groan. “Thank you. I think my legs were about to give out. Now, where were we…”

  This time it was my turn to groan as her lips skimmed down my length. Her hair brushed against my naked thigh and I shivered. I brushed her hair back and tried to curb the impulse to thrust my hips into her face. Christ, her mouth felt good.

  Hannah murmured appreciatively as she took more and more of my length into her mouth. She worked my dick with a hungry determination that made it almost impossible to control myself. I wanted to grab her hair and thrust, take control of the moment, but I held back. Hannah didn’t deserve a rutting, grunting caveman who didn’t give a shit about her. Although if she kept making those groaning sounds and vibrating my cock for much longer, I couldn’t be held responsible for what I did.

  Hannah squeezed my cock at the base just as the head brushed against the back of her throat, and I lost it.

  “Han—Ugh, I’m gonna—” That was all the warning I was able to garble out before I came. Spurt after spurt sprang out of my cock. Hannah made a muffled sound but kept my cock in her mouth as my ejaculate jetted out. When there was no more in me, I sagged and would’ve fallen but for the knowledge of what was under me—rocks and twigs and scratchy scrub grass. And Hannah. It took all of my willpower, but I locked my knees and remained upright. Like a man.

  Hannah pulled back slightly and gave the tip of my cock a soft kiss. Then she blinked up at me with teary eyes. “Was that…Are you okay?”

  “Aww, mon chou.” I grabbed her under her arms and lifted her to her feet. Covering her lips with mine, I tried to tell her without words how amazing she was and how grateful I felt. Her mouth tasted faintly of salty musk, but I tried not to think about that too much.

  After a few moments, I pulled back and brushed her hair out of her eyes. “Are you all right? I’m so sorry I couldn’t give you more warning.”

  “That’s okay. I like it when you lose control. And I take it back—I love it when you’re too flustered to form a sentence in either language. It’s a rush to know that I can do that to you.”

  “Thank you, Hannah. And you can make me incoherent anytime you’d like. Because I’m so giving like that.”

  Hannah laughed softly as she cuddled into my naked chest. The breeze picked up and a wave of goosebumps rose on my legs, reminding me of our surroundings and how little I had on.

  “Come, let’s go spread out the blanket and set up our picnic. I don’t know about you, but I worked up an appetite with all our outdoor activities.”

  “I could eat. My last, er, meal wasn’t very filling,” she teased with a smile.

  “Minx.” I shook my head as I put her away from me so I could pull up my pants. I buttoned my fly, then picked up the tangled material of my two shirts. I didn’t bother putting on either, as I was certain I’d just be taking them off in a few minutes. Then I grabbed Hannah’s hand, and we returned to our makeshift campground.

  I shook out the thick blanket as Hannah rummaged through the coolers. In a few minutes we had the makings of a picturesque picnic laid out around us. Fruit, various salads, fried chicken, some shredded meat of indeterminate origin. There was enough food to feed a small army. I half wondered if the guys forgot to take their lunch with them, but I knew my staff’s tendency to overdo. We filled our plates and didn’t make a dent in the offerings.

  “So you gotta admit—” Hannah said with her mouth full of chicken. She swallowed, then gave me a half shrug as she wiped at her mouth. “Sorry about that. Anyway, you gotta admit being a prince isn’t all bad. I mean blow jobs and fried chicken? What’s not to like?”

  I burst out laughing. After a few moments, I paused and wiped at my eyes. “You got me there. I guess it’s not all bad.”

  Hannah’s eyes smiled at me as we shared a sweet moment—which she promptly broke by taking a huge bite out of her chicken breast. Her cheeks bulging with food like a chipmunk, she held a hand in front of her mouth as she chewed. It was the strangest and most oddly liberating sight I’d ever seen. Much like at the food truck a few nights back, Hannah was unapologetic about her appetite.

  “So tell me about your old life. Before your brother called you home. What did you do before in the French army?”

  “I flew.” Resting on my elbow, I sprawled out on the blanket next to Hannah and watched as she daintily used a fork and knife to cut a piece of melon. The juxtaposition of her manners now to her cavewoman technique a few minutes ago was endearing. “Helicopters mostly. I went through the regular grunt training, then officer training, then flight training. It wasn’t easy, but, Christ, it was worth it. There is nothing like sitting behind the controls of a Super Cougar while on a mission. I miss pulling pitch and rolling g-forces…” I sighed. “God, that was the life.”

  “Doesn’t really compare with taking orders from your brother, huh?”

  I gave a slightly bitter laugh. “No. Not at all.”

  “So what’s the deal with you two? Has it always been like this between you guys? I mean, I couldn’t understand what I overheard of your conversation, what with all the French, but you didn’t sound happy. And I’m guessing, with the way you two ended things, he wasn’t happy, either.”

  “I don’t know. I guess so.” My belly full, I leaned back on the blanket and idly watched Hannah pick her way through the melon salad. “But it was different. Before.”

  “Before you lost Julien?”

  The more I talked about him with Hannah, the easier it was becoming to hear his name. “Oui. He was our buffer, I guess. Plus the distance between Bastien and me didn’t hurt. Hard to be at each other’s throats when we’re hundreds of kilometers apart. But enough about me. Tell me about you.”

  “Me?” Hannah laughed. “I’m easily the most boring person on th
e planet.”

  “So helicopter rides and blow jobs out in the wide open are just another day for you?”

  “Of course.” Hannah managed to hold my eyes for a whole minute before she broke and laughed slightly. “Okay, maybe not, but most of that was you.”

  “Can’t argue that. It was my cock getting blown.”

  “See?”

  She was so captivating when she was being all cute and bashful and mine. “All joking aside, tell me about you.”

  “I’m not all helicopters and palace living like you. I’m probably the most regular girl you could meet. Middle-class parents, skipped college for cosmetology school, regular job, regular apartment. Boring.”

  “Christ, you’re a tough nut to crack. All right: Tell me something you’ve never told someone before.”

  “Something I’ve never told anyone?” Hannah made a face, then rolled her eyes. “There’s tons I’ve never told you. We’ve only known each other three days.”

  “Agreed, but I want to hear something you’ve never told anyone else.”

  “Fine,” she huffed. “I hate doing hair. I hate my job. I hate the feeling of other people’s wet hair on my hands. I hate the smell of chemicals from the dyes and perms. I hate everything about my job.”

  “Then why do you do it?”

  Hannah laughed harshly. “I don’t even know how to answer that without opening up a whole ’nother can of worms. I just…Did you ever play the game of Life? You know, that old-timey game with the little plastic cars and the pink and blue peg people? Well, I landed on that square where you gotta choose between college or starting a career, and it wasn’t even a choice for me. My parents were struggling, we didn’t have the money for college, and they really didn’t need another mouth to feed and support. So I took the easy option. I went to cosmetology school—it was only like six months and cost a fraction of a semester’s worth of college tuition. I had a job within a year and started helping my parents pay down their bills. But I hated it. I’ve hated every minute of it.”

  I nodded slowly as I thought about what Hannah had confessed. “Do your parents still need help?”

  “Luc, I’m not letting you—”

  “No, I know you. I know better than to offer financial help. But it’s been a few years, you’ve moved out of their house, so I wondered if you were still helping your parents out. Maybe now—with everything that’s going on with your job—maybe now’s a good time for a change.”

  Hannah shook her head. “It’s not as easy as that. I have bills and responsibilities, and there’s…” She sighed. “It’s just not that easy.”

  “Nothing worth doing ever is. So say you got to go back and change that decision—take the college route—what would you have studied?”

  “That’s just it—I don’t know. I didn’t have time to do the whole college thing, take a bunch of classes, and figure out what I wanted to do with my life. And now I don’t have the time to waste to figure it out.”

  “What classes did you like in secondary school—what do you call it? High school?”

  “I really loved math, working a problem that had a definite solution. I also liked government and history. Nothing that would make a career at the end of four years of college. What do you even do with that?”

  “Maybe take some classes in finance? Or business? Then you can always intern in a few companies while going to school, in order to see if it’s something you’d like to do full-time.”

  “Maybe.” Hannah frowned.

  “You know we have a fabulous university in Monaco, an English-language university that has renown finance and international busin—”

  “Are you kidding me? I can’t just uproot my entire life on a whim. Besides, I can’t afford college here at UNLV, let alone foreign tuition. I can maybe swing community college, and that’s only if I’m working at the same time.”

  “I could—”

  “Not happening.” Hannah glared at me like I’d offered her something offensive. “I wouldn’t let you sort out a job for me last night. Do you really think I’m gonna let you pay for my schooling? This whole conversation has just spun out of control.”

  “Hannah, will you let me talk? I wasn’t going to offer to pay your tuition. I could help with housing and the application process. There are scholarships and financial aid you could apply for. How will you know unless you try? And how else can we see if what’s between us is going to work? We need more time together. We deserve more time together.”

  “Because this is love?” Hannah pulled away from me and wiped at her eyes with no regard to her makeup, leaving smudges behind. “This was only supposed to be one night, maybe two, and then we’d both go our separate ways. You know it. Heck, we’ve only known each other three whole days. You can’t turn this into something more because you want to.”

  “I wasn’t aware we were working on a strict timeline. Don’t sometimes you just know? You feel it inside? Besides, when have I ever played by the rules? Hell, my father and now my brother have harped on me enough times for leaping without looking. At least this time I got a huge preview before I leapt.”

  “Preview? What the heck does that mean?”

  I tilted my head toward the blanket and raised my eyebrows.

  “You did not just ask for sex in the middle of a fucking argument!”

  I shrugged. “Can’t blame me for trying.”

  “Yes, I can. And I do! Holy crap, I am stuck in the middle of nowhere with a lunatic. We’re talking about our lives, our future, and you want to get laid.”

  “C’est pas impossible. Sex is life and death. It’s the ultimate expression of being alive. And do you know what the French call an orgasm? La petite mort. Which literally translates to ‘the little death.’ ”

  “Yes, thank you, Wikipedia Brown, for that little jaunt down insanity lane. You’re still not getting laid.” Hannah rolled her eyes so hard it was a wonder they stayed in her head.

  “Ah, ma chérie. I think you’ll change your mind when I turn up the charm. No one can say no to the allure of Prince Luc.”

  Hannah snorted. “Okay, now you just sound like Pepé Le Pew.”

  Merde! Hannah just compared me to a lovesick cartoon skunk. After a second of stunned silence, I laughed so hard that tears sprang into my eyes. It only took a few seconds for Hannah’s laughter to join mine. She collapsed on the blanket next to me giggling like a fool while she clutched at her stomach.

  Once our laughter faded away, I reached up and brushed a strand of hair off her cheek. “I want more time with you, Hannah. We both deserve that.”

  She shook her head slightly. “I can’t promise that. Neither can you.”

  “No, but I can promise that I’ll do everything in my power to spend more time with you. I will make an effort if you’ll just let me in.”

  Some indecipherable expression passed over her face, but before I could even try to put a name to it, it disappeared as Hannah gave me a small smile that didn’t reach her eyes. She ducked her head and snuggled into my shoulder. “That sounds great. Thank you, Luc.”

  “Thank you for trusting me with your secret. We’ll figure something out.”

  I held Hannah in my arms for a while as we lay on the blanket, my hands never moving from her shoulders. It felt like we were on the edge of a precipice and the slightest movement would send us tumbling over. I was scared. It was humbling to admit as much to myself. I’d finally found someone I wanted to explore more than one night with, and she was doing everything she could to push me away—and there was very little I could do about it. Time and circumstances were not on my side. The distance alone was daunting.

  But I silently promised myself and her again that I’d do everything in my power to make sure that we had a chance.

  I held Hannah until the radio crackled with static, but no voice came over the waves. I knew it was my security team checking on us; that our time was up. With an apologetic smile to Hannah, I radioed the boys to come pick us up and we packed o
ur idyllic picnic away, the mood shattered.

  I held Hannah the entire drive back to the hotel and all night long in my bed. We didn’t speak much or do much more than kiss, but I felt better having her in my arms and I thought she felt the same.

  Right up to the moment I awoke the next morning to an empty bed, and a Dear John note on the pillow next to me.

  Chapter 14

  Dear Luc,

  I cannot thank you enough for this weekend. But I think we both knew we weren’t ever meant to be more. You have a life with important responsibilities to take care of and an entire country counting on you—no matter how much you try to downplay it.

  Please take care of yourself, and don’t forget to tell Dimitri that foot fungus is never sexy ;)

  All my love,

  Hannah

  My heart pounded like I’d ran a marathon and not just woken up from a sound sleep. She left me? No one left me. My ego staggered under the attack. I’d promised to stand by her; why would she leave? I searched the note for a clue, but I came up empty. She had enough time to tease Dimitri about his foot fungus but couldn’t tell me why? What the hell?

  I ripped off the sheets and stomped naked to the bedroom door. After pulling it open, I roared, “Dimitri! Get in here!”

  Silence met my demand, then a shaky voice asked, “Um, monsieur?”

  I closed my eyes with a muttered curse. The new assistant. Merde, what was her name again? I grabbed a robe from the closet and was pulling it on when the bedroom door crept open.

  “Monsieur?” A brunette woman with average features in a plain business suit popped her head around the door. “Uh, Dimitri is downstairs sorting out arrangements with the hotel security for your speech tonight. He should be back in thirty or so minutes. Would you like me to summon someone else from the security team?”

  “That depends. Did he escort Ms. Allen from my suite this morning?”

  The woman’s eyes widened at the implication of my words. “Non, monsieur. He arranged for a car to take her home.” When I didn’t say anything, she continued. “I believe it was at Ms. Allen’s request. Was that…Is there anything else?”