Royally Treasured (Royal Sons MC Book 4)

by Elle Boon

  She swallowed. Her throat so dry it felt like she hadn’t drunk anything in days. “You know you’re gorgeous.”

  “Hmm, that’s not what I asked, but I’ll let you get by with it.” He grabbed her left leg, smoothing his hand down her thigh to her calf, taking her boots off one at a time. Like he’d done with his, he took her shoes and placed them neatly on the floor off to the side.

  His action had been so smooth and fast she hadn’t thought to stop him. Hell, she was still sitting there when he came back and removed her socks at the same time, tossing them in his hamper like a basketball star, even making a swoosh sound, and still she didn’t think to protest.

  “What’re you doing, Duke?” she finally got out, slapping at his hands before he could unsnap her pants.

  Duke leaned over her, pressing her back into the bed. “I’m undressing you before we shower. Can’t very well get in there with our clothes on now, can we?”

  His matter-of-fact tone pissed her off. “After you shower, I’ll get undressed in the bathroom. Alone.” There, she asserted herself. She smiled up at his scowling face.

  “Not how this works, baby. So, you can either let me help you, or you can let me do it. Those are your options. I am going to check you out for injuries and make sure you’re alright, or I’m calling in a doctor.”

  Her breath caught in her throat. He wanted to see her naked. He wanted to check her out. For medical reasons.

  “Duke, I’m having a reasonable conversation with you. Clearly, I’m fine. Look at my pupils. Are they dilated? Feel my pulse. Is it normal or elevated?” She hoped like hell he didn’t actually take her pulse because it had to be racing, and not because of the drug that had been injected into her, but because of the half-naked man looming over her.

  “I don’t give two shits about your personal diagnosis. I trust what I can see with my eyes. I see scrapes on your hands, and the knees of your jeans are dirty and ripped. The ass of them are dirty which leads me to believe you were roughed up before I got there. I want to wash the filth of the fuckers off you and see with my eyes. We can do this the easy way, or the hard way, but I will be getting my way.”

  Lennox lifted her hand to his jaw, watching the muscle there bunch and relax. She’d seen Duke when he was in this type of mood. He was completely unmovable when he was set on a path that he’d set. “Seriously, Duke. A few bruises are all I’m sure I’ve got.”

  Duke’s nose touched her own. “That’s a few too many. What’s your choice?”

  Chapter Five

  Duke wasn’t going to allow Lennox to sway him. He’d seen her wobble when he’d set her on the ground in his bedroom, then seen her wince at his touch on her knees. Fuckers are lucky they were dead, or he’d hunt them down and make them suffer. Their swift death was too good for the damage they’d done.

  “Fine, but don’t say I didn’t tell you so.” She inhaled deeply.

  He didn’t let her see the triumph in his expression, nor did he try to hide the way his body reacted to her nearness. He was done hiding how she affected him. It was no secret he was a highly sexual man. What would shock the shit out of the gorgeous woman beneath him, though, what had his brothers surprised as well as himself, was his cock had quit wanting anyone but her. Now that he had her in his home, he would do everything he could to ensure her safety and find a way to make things work, even long distance. Fuck, his cock needed to know their woman.

  “I won’t. I’ll just remind you who the boss really is,” he told her moving back slightly.

  She laughed. The musical lilt had always made him feel better. Shit, he needed to get his head on straight, or she’d be leading him around by his dick.

  “Sure thing, boss man,” she agreed.

  Duke slid his hands under her arms, pulling her up so that she was at eye level with him, letting her feet dangle between them. “I am the boss of you, Dancer. You best remember that. I will beat the fuck out of anyone who dares to harm one more hair on this body.” He lifted her higher until he could bury his nose between her breasts. Even now, he felt rage boiling in his gut at what could’ve happened had he been a few minutes later. “Why the fuck are you working at The Club and not at Juilliard like you’re supposed to be? I let you go, Lennox. Hardest motherfucking thing I ever fucking did, and then you slide into town without a fucking word and almost get yourself fucking killed.” He knew he was growling like a junkyard dog, dammit.

  “You let me go?” she yelled, kicking her feet.

  It took him a moment to realize she was angry. “What the hell are you screeching about?”

  “You...you asshole. You didn’t let me go, you bastard. You told me I was too young and needed to grow the fuck up. Let me go,” she yelled.

  He narrowed his eyes, narrowly escaping a kick to the balls. “Hellcat, you better calm the fuck down before I turn you over my knee.”

  “Oh try it, and I’ll knee you in the nuts,” she warned.

  Duke turned with the screeching woman in his arms, taking them both into the ensuite, uncaring he still had his jeans on or that she was still fully clothed. They needed to have this shit out before they could move on. Fine, they’d have it out in the shower. He jerked her top off, hearing fabric rip. Her lacy white bra made his dick jerk, but Duke was on a mission.

  He tugged her around so her back was to his front, ignoring her yelling. “My mother was a saint, Dancer. You’re racking up the punishment, baby.”

  “She most assuredly was a saint to deal with your assholyness,” she snarled.

  “That’s another five, baby. You keeping track ‘cause if not that’s twenty.” He jerked the stretchy denim down her legs, leaving her in a little scrap of silky fabric that pretended to be panties and her bra.

  “They don’t match. Ha,” she said.

  Duke couldn’t help it, he laughed, which seemed to piss Lennox off even more as her foot kicked back at his shin. “Goddammit, stop it,” he roared.

  Lennox went still in his arms. Had he not been looking at her through the mirror, he wouldn’t have noticed the color leave her face.

  “Baby, I’m sorry.” He turned her to face him, cupping her chin. The water in the shower had steam billowing out around them, creating a sense of intimacy.

  She didn’t respond, her eyes staring unfocused.

  “Lennox, baby, talk to me. Come on, it’s me. Duke. You know I’d never hurt you,” he cajoled, rubbing one hand up and down her back. The other he kept hold of her chin, wanting her to see him.

  Lennox blinked luminous eyes, chin wobbling. “I’m sorry, Duke. You can take me home now.”

  “Yeah, like that’s happening.” He reached into the shower, shutting the water off, having a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. At the last second, he snagged a huge towel, wrapping it around her shivering frame. Even though the last thing he wanted was to cover her up, in his gut, he felt she might want the protection the cloth offered. “Speak to me, sweetheart. You know they say a burden shared isn’t quite as bad.” Whoever said it was an idiot, but Duke would spout bullshit all day if it kept her from ever looking like she had a moment ago.

  She gave a snort, but her hands weren’t white knuckling the terry cloth anymore. “Duke, you don’t understand. I...I think it’s best you just let me go home.”

  It was his turn to snort. Instead of letting her go, he swung her up in his arms, walking back into his bedroom. He was happy she didn’t have as many scrapes as he’d feared. It looked like her clothes had taken the brunt of the fall, along with her hands, thankfully. “Not on your life, baby. We’re gonna talk. Or rather you’re gonna talk. I’m gonna listen. After that, we’ll hash some shit out.” He didn’t go to his big bed. Mainly because the things he wanted to do to her there would override his good senses. Instead he went to one of the large oversized chairs on the other side of the room. When he’d been ordering furniture, he wanted things that were designed for comfort and for two, although he had a feeling when he and Lennox were there only one would be
occupied by the both of them, like now as he sat down with her in his lap. Big enough for two, sturdy enough to hold both of them at the same time. Perfect.

  “Stop squirming or you’ll lose that towel you’ve got a death grip on. Mind you, it won’t bother me none.” Hell, he’d seen and tasted every inch of her body and couldn’t wait to do so again. Only this time, he wouldn’t stop with giving her a screaming orgasm with his fingers and mouth. No, when he had her laid out before him begging for his cock, he’d give her what they both were dying for.

  “You’re so bossy and sure of yourself.” She gave a little huff. He wouldn’t mention how fucking cute the sound was, since he didn’t want to encourage her.

  “Alright, enough stalling. Start speaking, and remember, you’ve already racked up a count of twenty. I can promise you that your ass will get a lot more sore than my hand,” he warned.

  Lennox turned slightly so that she was looking directly into his eyes. “I’m not one of your club bitches, Duke. You can’t just decide you are going to...pick me up and play with me for a little while and move along to the next club bitch the next day. I’m not built like that.” Honesty was written all over her, spilling out in every word she said.

  Duke could’ve told her she had been the only woman he’d wanted for the last several years, that she’d all but ruined him for anyone but her. However, he wasn’t going to let her manipulate the conversation by turning it around on their relationship. “We’ll get to that in a little bit. Right now, we’re discussing what the fuck is going on with you and why you’re here instead of New York. Trust me, you don’t want me to go asking questions elsewhere, Lennox. I can be real persuasive when I want to be.” And he could be. People didn’t like the way he went about asking either.

  She took a deep breath, letting it out in a slow exhale. “Can I put something on first?”

  “Nope,” he said. “You’re not going to stall, Dancer. You might as well just say whatever the fuck you gotta say and be done with it. Absolutely nothing you say will make a damn bit of difference on how I feel about you.”

  Lennox looked away but not before he noticed her eyes had gone watery, and her chin wobbled before she straightened on his lap. Oh, his little spitfire was reaching for her grit. He preferred that to the wounded woman who had been present every time he’d caught a glimpse of her.

  “Fine, you want to know what happened? I’ll tell you, and then you’ll be pushing me out that door faster than a prospect who turned on you. I can guarantee you that.”

  She pushed at his chest, trying to get up. “Say whatever you think is so awful right here where you are.”

  “One night, just before tryouts for our final show, my roommates decided to throw a party. We’d all worked really hard all semester. They had been best friends for years, but I thought I was”—she paused, taking a slow breath in—"I thought they were my friends. We all hung out a lot. I mean, they partied more than I did. They liked to drink but that didn’t bother me. They also, well, they did the occasional drug. It wasn’t my scene. After I refused a handful of times the first year we lived together, they stopped asking and didn’t give me any more shit.” She bit her lip, fingers bunching in the towel as a minute passed.

  Duke didn’t say a word while rage filled him. Had he known the girls who’d roomed with her were druggies he’d have made Doc—fuck what could he have done? She hadn’t been his official ole lady. Doc should’ve checked them out, or had Keys do it. Fuck, he’d have known what tampons the little bitches bought.

  “Go on, sweetheart. What happened?” He tried to keep his tone level while acid ate at his insides at the scenarios that might’ve occurred..

  “The night before tryouts, they invited a bunch of people over, which wasn’t unusual. Our flat was pretty big. I have my own bedroom while the two of them share the larger room they’d separated with bookcases. Since I pay half the rent, and they split the other half between the two of them, we’d agreed to that setup. They didn’t seem to mind when they had guys sleep over.” Her voice broke.

  “What the fuck?” he asked. “Why the hell do you pay the lions share?” He winced at the flinch she did at his yell. “Sorry, baby. We’ll get back to that later.”

  “No, we won’t, since I don’t live there anymore, so it doesn’t matter.”

  Ah, he fucking loved it when she got sassy. On a different occasion, he had plans for her and that mouth. “We’ll see. Continue,” he instructed, knowing she’d give him a narrow eyed look that would make his dick hard and his hand itch. She didn’t disappoint.

  “I escaped to my room after a couple hours. Most of the people who came weren’t from school but people they, Grace, and Blair, my roommates, partied with. I didn’t run in the same circles, so I decided to call it a night and went to bed. I wasn’t feeling very good even though I’d only had half a glass of wine.”

  “Who gave you the wine?” He had a bad feeling roiling in his gut.

  “Marco passed us all a glass for a toast. I only took a sip, but he insisted I drink more for the toast, saying it wasn’t going to work if I didn’t.” She rubbed her forehead as if the memory hurt. “I think most everyone had left by then, but everything is messed up in my head.”

  He lifted his hand, rubbing the back of her neck. “Did the others drink the same wine?”

  “I can’t remember. They always had alcohol of some sort, but...but it’s a blur. I remember setting the glass down on the hall table and making it to my room. My stomach felt like it did when I’d had the flu before, but I didn’t throw up. I remember thinking something was off, and then everything began to spin, and I just wanted to lay down. The next thing I knew, it was morning, and my entire body hurt. I had bruises...everywhere. I was naked,” she whispered, tears fell from her eyes. She dropped her chin to her chest. “I thought maybe I had fallen or something, but then I heard it. Snoring. I did fall out of bed then, taking the sheet with me. Marco was in my bed, naked. I ran to the bathroom and threw up. He came in, all cocky and smiling and told me thanks for last night,” she sobbed.

  Duke breathed in and out, trying to control the anger inside him. “What did you say to him?”

  “I screamed at him to get out.”

  She hadn’t raised her chin from her chest, pissing him the fuck off. She’d been raped, and yet she was acting as if it were her fault. “Lennox, look at me.”

  He gave her a chance to do so on her own accord, but as the seconds turned to a minute, he moved his hand from the arm of the chair, feeling the stiffness in his knuckles, proof that he’d been gripping the damn thing like a lifeline. “Baby, I said look at me,” he said in a soft voice, using his pointer finger to raise her chin. “What happened wasn’t your fault. Did you go to the hospital?” Fuck, did she get checked out for all the shit that fucker could’ve given her? He’d never gone bareback with any bitch, but a raping bastard wouldn’t have any such issue.

  “No, I...I was so ashamed. I stayed in the bathroom until I heard him leave. I missed tryouts, which there was no way I could’ve performed anyway, not with the way my body was hurting.” She tried to turn away.

  “Explain.” He didn’t need the details from her what had occurred that night. No, he’d get them from the soon to be dead fuck.

  “What do you want to know, Duke? Do you want an accounting of how I lost my virginity to a guy I barely knew? You want to know about the bruises he left all over my body, about how I looked and felt like I’d been beat by the entire 49ers? ‘Cause, that’s what it was like. Oh, but don’t worry, I didn’t need to worry about diseases. I guess I should thank him for that, ‘cause there were three, yes three used condoms in the trashcan by my bed. Oh god, let me go. I’m gonna be sick,” she muttered. Her hand went to her mouth.

  Duke stood with her at once, taking them to his bathroom, helping her hold her hair while he watched her throw up. With each heave, he thought of how he’d make the bastard pay. When she whimpered, he thought of how the little cunts she lived with wo
uld be paying as well. Nobody fucked with his woman and lived like all was fine and dandy. He flushed the toilet a couple times, letting her get it all out while he felt like a useless motherfucker behind her.

  “Just let me go, Duke.” She sounded like a lost little thing, making every single protective instinct in him stand up to protest her words.

  “Ain’t fucking happening, Lennox. You done?” he asked after she had stopped heaving for a couple minutes.

  She nodded.

  He flushed the toilet one last time before scooping her up. “Come on, let’s wash your face and brush your teeth before showering off the shit you just spilled.” He didn’t mean the vomit that she’d just tossed into the toilet. He meant the truth she’d told him, even though it wasn’t physical, the need to feel clean rode him hard.

  “It’s not that easy, Duke. You can’t just think something away and it will go away. Every time I close my eyes, I imagine what happened. It’s loss of control, of knowing I had no say...” She shoved her fist in her mouth stopping the flow of words.

  Duke sat her on the counter between the dual sinks, pulling her hand out of her mouth before she could damage the skin any worse than what had happened earlier. “I’m not an idiot, Lennox. I know I can’t just say you’re fine and ta-da, you’re fine. Fuck,” he muttered, running one hand over the top of his head. “I wish like hell I could do just that or turn back time and stop you from leaving all those years ago. You know what we can do though? No, don’t turn away from me.” He held her face between his palms, making her look at him. “You and I are realists. Bad shit happens to good people, Lennox. You are one of the best, which is why I let you go. I fucking lied. That’s right. I lied. That night with you was better than any other time with any other woman, ever. You ruined me, woman. My dick won’t even stand up for another pussy and yeah, I’ve tried. Don’t you dare get that squinty look.” He had to tell her the truth even if laying his heart on the line made him a goddamn pussy.