“So… I think we’ve done enough talking, don’t you?” I asked, my gaze falling to his lips.
He didn’t answer. He didn’t have to. He lips told me everything I needed to know when they crashed down on mine. A warm, rough palm covered my breast and squeezed as his tongue danced with mine. Damn, he could kiss.
“You taste so good,” he murmured against my mouth, “τόσο γλυκό.”
I didn’t have a clue to what he’d just said, but I didn’t care as I pressed myself closer to him, my fingers finding the soft strands of his hair. We’d barely begun, but this was already my best sexual experience. I’d never had a man take so much time with just this… kissing and caressing, murmuring words that made me feel like a goddess to him.
“Are you as sweet everywhere?”
I couldn’t answer because his lips were trailing down my mouth and over my nipples. He sucked deeply, and I felt the pull down to my toes. I cried out, and instead of softening his movements, he took the other into his mouth and sucked even harder.
I writhed, wrapping my legs around his waist and pulling his head harder to me. He bit my skin, and I wailed, wondering at how pain could feel so good.
Before I could think too much on it, he was moving again, trailing kisses down my stomach. Nibbling at my hip bone, he hooked the top of my panties with his thumbs and dragged them down my thighs and around my ankles before they were on the floor.
Kneeling between my legs, he pushed my thighs apart, spreading me wider. I watched his face as he looked at me. Watched him lick his lips as his thumbs spread my folds apart.
I squirmed, not used to be being examined so quickly, and his eyes flashed up to meet mine. I stilled under the direct gaze.
“Όπως ένα λουλούδι,” he murmured.
“What does that mean?” I asked, surprised I was able to form the question.
“It means, ‘like a flower,’” he said, his thumbs spreading me again. “Your body is like the petals, and all I have to do is peel them back to find the sweet center.”
Everything about him was a seduction. His accent. His words. His scent. His gaze. The rough calluses on his hands as they stroked across my skin.
He ran a finger up my center. “And already so wet for me.” He lifted the finger to his mouth and tasted. A low moan left him. “Γλυκός.”
I was going to ask him what he meant, what the language was that he spoke, even though I’d earlier declined to know. But even as the words were about to leave my lips, he lifted my hips and his mouth came down on me.
And I was scrabbling backwards, twisting, reaching, crying out as his tongue and teeth sent a shot of electric sensations I wasn’t able to name or describe.
He gripped my hips harder, holding me still while he feasted, sucking my flesh into his mouth, nearly sending me over the edge.
Seb opened his eyes, watching me as his mouth and tongue worked, and that made what he was doing to me even more intense.
“So. Good,” I managed between pants.
He smiled and murmured against me. “Yes, it is.”
And just when I thought I couldn’t feel anymore, he lowered my ass to the bed and settled on his belly. While his teeth settled over my clit, scraping the sensitive nerves, a long, wide finger slipped into my body, soon followed by a second.
I came unglued, pulling at his hair, begging for, “More,” even though I wasn’t even sure what more looked like.
His tongue circled my clit as his fingers worked the inside of my body, knuckles twisting and scraping over my internal walls. Then…
“Yes. Please.”
I arched from the bed as his fingers thrusted and stroked, causing my vision to grow white as the orgasm built in a rush within me. It hit me so fast, I screamed from the intensity.
I’d seen movies and read novels and had always rolled my eyes when the heroine screamed and wailed during sex. But holy hell. The harder I tried to keep my mouth closed, the louder I seemed to get until I simply no longer cared and let the sensations do to me what they would.
Still trembling, I felt the loss of his warmth as he pulled away. Finally able to clear my vision, I focused in on him rolling a condom down his thick length.
“Wow…”
I was a photographer, not a writer, and even if I had been a poet, I wasn’t sure I would have been able to say more than that one word.
Seb grinned as he finished with the condom and settled his hips between my thighs, pressing his lips to mine again. I could taste myself, smell my scent on his mouth, and I licked at his lips, loving the combination of his body and mine.
“Do you know how sexy you are, my sweet little Ana?”
My focus was pulled away from his mouth and to his eyes looking down on me.
He was so big, his entire torso covered most of my length, and I again wondered how we’d ever be able to fit together.
“I feel sexy with you,” I admitted, and wrapped my legs around him, although he was too wide for my feet to meet and hook together.
He shifted his hips, and the tip of his cock settled at my entrance, causing me to catch my breath.
“Look at me,” he ordered, and I did, captured by the brown eyes that seemed even darker now, even as the gold rings around his pupils appeared to glow.
For some stupid reason, emotion climbed up my chest and up my throat and into my face, burning my sinuses and behind my eyes.
He was just looking at me so… completely. Almost tenderly. I barely knew him, but I’d never had anyone look at me like that. Like he was seeing me.
Knowing me.
In one swift movement of his hips, he was inside me, spreading me wide, and all tenderness fled as raw, primal power took its place.
He was right. We fit perfectly together for some strange reason. And while my head was caged between his forearms, his hands pulled my head back so our lips could meet again. Even though the angle was awkward, I would have stretched and contorted myself however I needed to in order to have his tongue gliding against mine.
“You are so perfect.”
The emotion rose again but was soon overtaken by other feelings as he seriously began to move. Although he caused no pain, I was stretched. Not just between my legs but everywhere as I tried to hang on to his wide body. As he picked up speed, it became impossible for our mouths to continue to meet, and I found myself pressing my face into his chest, his chin cradling my head.
“I want you to come beneath me,” he said, moving harder and faster, the sweat from both our bodies causing us to glide against one another.
“Close.”
I was close, which was another surprise to our coupling. Seb seemed to have been touching some button inside me that made me multiorgasmic in a way I’d never been before.
He growled and hooked an elbow under my knee, changing the angle. And, holy hell, his pubic bone ground into my clit, sending electrical jolts through the nerve endings and into every part of me.
Pressing my face into his chest, I held on as the second orgasm ripped through me but he didn’t stop moving, which caused the climax to feel like it would never end.
Then I was on top of him, straddling his hips, as he plunged up and into me over and over.
Balancing with my hands on his chest, I caught my breath and began to move too. I wanted to give back, move with him, pleasure him as he was pleasuring me. From the hard glint in his eyes and sharp set of his jaw, I was succeeding.
I was impaled, and I wasn’t quite sure how my much smaller body was so accepting of his. As I lifted up to my knees, I looked down to watch, needing to see.
“I told you we’d fit.”
His deep voice made me smile, and I looked up his expanse of chest to find his dimples winking at me.
“You did, and we do.”
“I’m not sure how long I can last like this,” he said with a low laugh, and the thought that I was pushing this strong man’s limits was pretty empowering. Putting more weight onto my knees, I beg
an to rock my hips, grinding into him, reading the tension on his face and how his hands gripped my hips, urging me to move faster.
My head was swimming from the change in position, but the connection between us was grounding enough to keep me balanced. Leaning forward, I put my hands on both sides of his head and let all my inhibitions about how I might look or what the hell I was actually doing go. I simply felt the connection between this beautiful man and myself, and that was about all it took. I felt the orgasm starting to build once more and pushed harder against him as my hips worked.
“Σκατά,” he ground out, and although I had no idea what the word meant, I thought I probably agreed.
Seb placed both hands on my ass and pushed me harder as my body found the perfect angle against his and the ecstasy exploded. Suddenly, I didn’t care about the cries or the moans coming from either of us — I only cared about riding that orgasm as far as it would take us. Which I thought might be to the end of the universe and back.
A few moments after we’d come down from the rush, I was collapsed against Seb’s chest and trying to catch my breath.
“Wow,” was all I could manage, and his chest rumbled with laughter. His lips pressed into my hair, his big hands stroking up and down my back.
We lay that way for a long time, neither of us talking as the sweat dried between us. When I finally found the strength to push up on my hands, he lifted his head to kiss me.
This kiss was sweet and tender, and I sank down on him again, surrendering to the feel of him, the taste.
When he began to swell inside me again, I laughed. “So soon?”
“As many times as I can manage before sunrise, Squeaks.”
The sound of my nickname on his lips did something strange to me, but I brushed it aside and began to ride him once again.
***
As much as I didn’t want it to, sunrise began to peak through the shades of the hotel room and drew me out of an exhausted sleep. I blinked a few times and gathered myself. I looked around and shook my head as the previous night’s activities caught up to me. I couldn’t help myself, and I smiled, looking at the sleeping form of the man who’d offered up countless orgasms. An amazing one-night stand.
Seb looked like some sort of unshaven angel sleeping beside me, his hair dark and wild, giving him the naughty devil look at the same time. His cheek, dusted with a bit of scruff along the jawline, was flawless, and I couldn’t help but run the back of my hand across it, trying to memorize every detail.
He groaned, and I quickly pulled my hand away, not wanting to wake him.
Not wanting to have to say goodbye.
Which meant I needed to get my ass out of there before I started crying or babbling, begging to exchange numbers or something worse… begging to see him again.
This was a one-night stand, I reminded myself. I knew that going into his room. It was what I wanted and what he’d most definitely given me.
It was insane how much I wished I could have met this man at a different time or in a different place, though. But maybe if it had been a different time or place, it wouldn’t have been so freaking magical. The fact that our encounter had an expiration date had probably made us both so open and honest, and now it was my turn to honor that agreement.
Tiptoeing around his hotel room, I hastily gathered my things and slipped my shoes on without waking him. Part of me wanted to leave my phone number, but I knew better.
It wasn’t supposed to be anything more. We’d both agreed, and I’d just make it awkward by forcing myself on him. With a final glance behind me, I said a silent goodbye and thank you to Seb and his glorious butt, then went wordlessly on my way.
Noticing the sign for the stairs, I headed that way instead of the elevator, thinking they would let out near the lobby doors. As much as I could, I wanted to avoid whatever walk of shame I had waiting for me. Not that hotel staff didn’t see that sort of thing daily. I just didn’t necessarily want it to be me.
With one single glance back at the staircase that had just led me away from Seb’s room and the most exciting night of my life, I pushed open the door that led to the street outside, and I returned to my life.
To the next chapter of my life — with a plane leaving in only one sleep now.
A few blocks later, as I neared the commuter rail line that would take me to Jenn’s apartment, I pulled the collar of my shirt up on my shoulder… again. Then paused. Why was my shirt so big?
Looking down, I cursed. In my haste to get out of Seb’s room, I’d accidentally put on his white v-neck, leaving my llama shirt somewhere on his floor.
“Dammit,” I swore, thinking about sneaking back in there to reclaim it for about a half-second before abandoning the idea. I could already see myself banging on his door, asking to be let back in after having already snuck out like a thief.
I sighed. Crap.
Guess I’d be starting the next chapter of my life without my favorite t-shirt.
CHAPTER FOUR
Sebastianos
“Buuuut… you promised me you’d be home last week.”
In most cases, a female voice henpecking me like that would be enough to make me grind my teeth and look for the nearest exit. But as it were, the owner of this particular feminine voice wore pigtails, was missing one of her front teeth, and carried a half-naked fashion doll everywhere she went.
“I came as soon as I could, Princess,” I said as I turned from my desk and smiled at Penelope, Crown Princess and heir to the throne of Cassia. She was my first cousin, but I treated her more like a little sister than was probably proper. “After I left the United States, I was asked to take care of some things in Italy that took longer than expected, but I’m here now.”
“I missed you, Sebby,” she said as she sprang into my arms before I was ready, nearly sending us both crashing to the floor as my computer chair wobbled beneath us.
“I’m fairly certain you’ve grown, Pen.” I gave her an assessing look. “You have. You’re nearly as tall as I am now.”
“And nearly as strong too,” she said as she flexed her bony little arm for me. I made my most impressed face and squeezed her little bicep between my thumb and forefinger.
“You’ve been doing your push-ups?” I asked, and she nodded enthusiastically.
“Swimming lessons too. I can make it across the entire pool and back now.”
“I’m proud of—”
“Your Highness, there you are.” Penelope’s middle-aged nanny came rushing into the room, and when she saw me, she stopped and dropped into a curtsey. “Your Grace.”
I nodded a greeting at the middle-aged woman. Her hair was bound into a tight bun and her prim skirt and blouse didn’t dare carry a wrinkle.
“Good morning, Mrs. Kent,” I said, turning my chair until Penelope faced her caregiver, who she’d likely given the slip as soon as she could that morning.
“I apologize for losing sight of Princess Penelope, Your Grace,” she said with a sigh. “She’s getting wilier each day.”
I gave Penelope a fake scowl, doing my best to not let my lips curl in amusement. “I expect nothing less from Her Royal Highness,” I said, knowing how much Penelope hated being called that. In retaliation, she tweaked my nose and darted from my lap and out the door.
“Best of luck to you, Mrs. Kent,” I said as the nanny turned and pursued her charge. “I believe you may need it.”
My reunion with Penelope over, I turned back to the stack of work waiting for me. My job seemed simple enough on the surface, but there seemed to be at least a million and a half moving parts when it came to the ever-revolving staff members and visitors, not to mention the fact that Riniasa Castle, home of the royal family, had about a million more rooms than could be safely monitored at all times.
It was a giant jigsaw puzzle that I feared would take a lifetime to piece together, especially since I’d been gone the past fourteen years, and while in the army, hadn’t kept up with royal protocol. Between making sure Penelope
grew up into a proper queen, and now my responsibilities of projecting a positive image for the kingdom, it sometimes felt like the pressure fell squarely on me to figure it out sooner rather than later. And the pressure was intensifying, as there were whispers of plots and schemes that were getting louder every day.
We were a small nation on a larger island about the size of Alaska. We shared the island with our neighbor to the north, Amur, and our neighbor to the east, Baskos. The relationship between Cassia and the monarchy of Baskos was peaceful. The relationship with the Republican Nation of Amur? Not so much.
Sure, we had official diplomatic relations with their Premiere, but things weren’t necessarily friendly. They were fundamental and archaic — at least their government was — about many issues, namely religious freedom and the rights and freedom of women. It was a tricky situation that I’d always been happy not to have to figure out, but now that there were whispers that Amur wanted an unstable monarchy in Cassia, with the hopes of overthrowing our government. The whispers got worse once it was decreed that a female, namely Penelope, could take the throne, and because of the unrest, my role got a lot more complicated.
I sighed as I read through all of the briefings I’d missed while in America and then Italy. There were piles of them, and I’d been forced to work through lunch and probably would dinner before I even made a dent.
Nate, the mind reader that he was, arrived just after one in the afternoon and dropped a tray of food from the kitchen on my desk.
“Lifesaver,” I said by way of thanks as I dug into the meal. Our culinary specialties, thanks to our proximity to the ocean, were fish-based, but I’d never been the biggest fan of seafood and was forced to stomach it at most State events. The kitchen staff knew my preferences, keeping me full of all my favorites — pastitsio, souvlaki, moussaka, or keftethes for starters, but anything filled with a hearty beef wouldn’t be turned down.
“How’s it going?” Nate asked as he took his seat on the other side of my huge desk.
I motioned to the stack in front of me. “Boring as hell,” I said between bites. “You?”
Claiming My Duchess Page 4