Their Royal Wedding Bargain

by Michelle Conder

  His words were thrilling, a balm to her wounded feminine soul. ‘Then take me,’ she whispered, moving a step closer so that her body was flush up against his. ‘Take me and show me what pure, unadulterated pleasure feels like.’

  A harsh curse left Rafe’s mouth right before his lips crashed down over hers. It was like a match meeting a firecracker. Alexa’s body caught alight, her mind empty of everything else but this moment. This man.

  Too soon the kiss was over, Rafe lifting his head and tucking her in tightly against him. ‘We can’t stay here. We’ll get arrested.’

  All but dragging her from the dance floor, Rafe stopped briefly in front of her security detail before clamping his hand over hers and leading her along a series of narrow hallways until he opened a heavy door and ushered her through.

  Glancing around, she realised they were in an underground garage beside a shiny black motorbike.

  Rafe pulled out a leather jacket from beneath the seat and fed her arms into it. The jacket swamped her and smelled of him.

  ‘What about you?’ she asked when she noticed that there was only one.

  ‘I’m hot enough.’

  There were many responses she could make to that but she didn’t have the experience or confidence to banter with him in that way.

  Rafe pulled a helmet from the handlebars and turned back to her. One of his hands went to her hair and he breathed deeply. ‘Your hair is beautiful.’ He twisted the strands in his fist and brought her mouth to his in a fierce kiss that set her on fire all over again.

  Alexa moaned softly as he released her.

  ‘Home first,’ he said, plunking the helmet on her head and buckling it.

  Taking his hand, Alexa slid her legs over the back of the bike and settled on the seat, futilely tugging at her skirt. ‘Ignore it and hang on tight,’ Rafe instructed. ‘I won’t be going slowly.’

  It was a rush to know that she affected him like this and she did what he asked, sliding her arms around his lean waist as the bike started to move.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  THE RIDE HOME was as fast as he’d warned it would be. Alexa felt as if she’d just got used to the vibration of the engine between her legs and the thrill of being on a bike for the first time when he was zooming down the slope that led to his underground garage.

  Moments later they were in the lift and heading skyward. Rafe watched her from across the small cubicle but didn’t touch her. She used the time to catch her breath, her senses completely alert to his every breath.

  Stepping out of the lift, Alexa smoothed her skirt and wondered what to do with her hands. Now that she was here, now that they were doing this, she felt a moment’s hesitation.

  ‘Alexa?’

  Standing before her, all tall, dark and dangerously male, he made her heartbeat quicken. He was so beautiful,, his jaw clenched with the intensity of his arousal.

  The knowledge was as intoxicating as it was scary because, for someone who always thought about the consequences of her actions, Alexa knew she hadn’t thought this through completely. She also knew that she might never experience a feeling like this again and that she wanted this man. She wanted him more than was good for her.

  ‘You still with me, princess?’

  Rafe smoothed his hands over her shoulders, his touch electric. Alexa’s eyes sought his and although she knew this would likely mean more to her than it would to him she couldn’t bring herself to care. After she and Rafe ended their marriage she would always have this memory, this moment, and she shoved any remaining inhibitions and concerns aside and took the extra step needed to bring her into his arms.

  ‘Yes,’ she husked. ‘I’m still with you.’

  Taking her at her word Rafe took command, pressing her back against the door and eradicating the last of her doubts with an erotically charged kiss.

  It was like a brand, a claim that said ‘mine’, and Alexa opened her mouth to the demand of his tongue. Her arms went around his neck to hold him close, her fingers buried in his hair as she pulled him closer.

  ‘You smell like sugar and...leather,’ he groaned, his lips working their way along her jawline as he swiftly stripped the jacket down her arms and let it drop to the floor.

  Excitement poured through her at the hunger in his eyes, her legs suddenly giving out so that the only thing holding her up was his arms, banded around her waist.

  He moved his hands to cup her bottom and Alexa moaned indistinctly into his mouth, her body craving his.

  Needing to touch his skin, her fingers tugged at his shirt until she had it free, a frisson of desire racing through her as she stroked her fingers over lean male flesh.

  Her touch unleashed something primal inside him because his mouth turned greedy and hot, his hard body pinning her to the door as his hands roamed, bringing her core up against his hot hard erection.

  ‘Rafe?’ Alexa wrenched her head back as everything inside her softened to yield to that hard male presence between her legs.

  Swearing softly, he scooped her into his arms and carried her into his bedroom.

  Momentarily breaking the kiss, he slid her body down his until she was standing in front of him. With sure, practised fingers he found the invisible zip in the side of her dress and deftly divested her of both her dress and her bra, holding her hands to the side so that he could look at her.

  ‘You’re beautiful,’ he breathed, bringing one hand up to cup her breast while the other went to the back of her head to bring her mouth back up to his.

  The kiss was fierce and sweet, the sensations of his fingers teasing her nipple sending sparks of need through her body that obliterated everything else except the man touching her.

  ‘Oh, please...’ She didn’t know what she was begging him to do but when his mouth closed over the tip of her breast and he flicked her with his tongue she thought she might expire from pleasure. Shifting to her other breast, he let out a low chuckle at her soft pleas and then she felt the coolness of the mattress at her back as he lowered her onto it.

  Aroused and aching, Alexa fumbled with the buttons on his shirt, desperate to expose his body to her view. Helping her, Rafe shrugged wide shoulders until the shirt slid down his back and her hands roved over his naked chest and back.

  The sheer size and power of his corded body was breathtaking and even though part of her knew it was dangerous to want him this much she couldn’t help it. She had no control over her body or her senses and she didn’t want any. She was a willing captive to the fever raging through her body, and she would have flown into the centre of the sun if he had asked her to.

  His lips returned to hers, commanding and potently male, his fingers hot against the inside of her thighs as he swept them higher until he was cupping her through her panties.

  A small whimper escaped her and she bit gently into the hard ball of his shoulder as his finger stroked and teased until she was a writhing mass of nerves and sensation.

  ‘Rafe, please...’

  Smiling against her neck, he nuzzled at her breast, flicking his tongue against the rigid peak at the same time as his fingers teased.

  ‘Please what, my sweet?’ He continued to stroke and torture as he slowly, so slowly, shifted the silk aside until finally he was touching her, his fingers finding and parting her flesh before plunging inside her hot, wet sheath.

  Gripped in a fever of desire, Alexa wasn’t sure who groaned the loudest and then she didn’t care as Rafe expertly flicked a finger across the bundle of nerves nested at her apex and sent her spiralling into an earth-shattering orgasm that made her scream.

  She must have lost consciousness because suddenly her panties were gone and Rafe had cupped her bottom and raised her to his lips, his tongue lapping at her and bringing her body to another mind-numbing climax.

  Spent and gasping, she couldn’t move as Rafe crawled back up her body, kissing
every inch of skin he came into contact with.

  ‘You,’ Rafe growled, coming down over her with lethal male grace, ‘are incredible.’

  Alexa felt incredible but she wanted more. The space between her legs felt hollow and empty, her eyes widening as Rafe rose to his knees and unzipped his trousers. With bated breath she watched as he lowered the fabric down over his hips, his thick, gorgeous erection springing free.

  Unaware that she’d licked her lips until he made a low growly sound, she pushed to a sitting position and ran her hands down over his heated torso, the dark hair on his chest soft like a wolf’s pelt beneath her fingers. Moving downwards, she couldn’t stop herself from reaching out to touch him. As she gripped him her eyes flew to his. He’d sunk his teeth into his lower lip, his eyes hooded as he watched her, and it made her more daring.

  Stroking firmly, she felt one of his hands softly grip her hair and she hadn’t even realised she’d brought her mouth closer to the swollen length of him until she felt him against her lips.

  The earthy taste of him burst across her tongue, the flavour so deeply male. She opened her lips and took him into her mouth, a heady sense of power filling her when his fingers gripped harder in her hair and a groan tore from his throat.

  Loving the silky hard length of him against her tongue, Alexa increased the pressure of her lips until she heard him swear, and then she was being pulled up and stretched out beneath him like a feast.

  A thrill raced through her as he parted her thighs and looked down at her. Grabbing a condom from the side table drawer, he rolled it on and then braced himself with his hands either side of her face. Mesmerised, Alexa couldn’t look away from his hungry gaze as he slowly pushed into her.

  Something in the way he watched her almost tenderly made her unable to tear her eyes from his. Rafe must have felt the force of the connection too because his lips came down to claim hers once more as his body thrust hard, filling her and driving her to the heights of another pulse-pounding climax before he followed her over the edge on a hoarse cry of completion.

  * * *

  Waking up from what might actually have been the best sex of his life, Rafe glanced at the woman curled up in his arms, her dark hair spread out on his white sheets like a waterfall of black silk. She was asleep, her head nestled in the curve of his shoulder and her sweet breath warm against his chest.

  Waiting for the usual need for space and privacy to overtake him, he was surprised when it didn’t come. Instead he felt replete and relaxed, and more complete than he’d felt in forever.

  Complete?

  The alien concept entered his head then was gone just as quickly. Sex didn’t make him feel complete. That wasn’t what he was feeling. What he was feeling was... It was... He frowned. It was pure, unadulterated pleasure after a week of being tied up in the tightest sexual knots he’d ever experienced.

  No woman had ever made him want so much or had satisfied him so fully.

  Had he really thought he’d be able to ignore her, with the level of sexual chemistry they shared? Well, if he had, he couldn’t now. Alexa had been responsive and giving and so sweet that just the memory of her hands and mouth on his body was turning him surprisingly hard again.

  His hands stroked down over the silky skin of her arm, his fingers finding and twining with hers. She breathed out a sigh and relaxed more deeply against his side.

  He remembered that she’d been up working late last night and was probably exhausted. She worked hard and took her job seriously. Which he supposed she had to. Just as seriously as he took his. When you had the amount of staff he had relying on you to provide their wages it was important to perform well. He supposed they were similar that way. Only he no longer sought the approval of others the way he suspected Alexa did. He’d given up on needing to please a long time ago. She would need to do that too once she became Queen or she’d work herself into the ground. But why was he thinking about Alexa’s future?

  Usually he didn’t concern himself with a woman’s life after sex. He’d already moved onto his next task or his next project. It didn’t matter where he was, or who the woman was, Rafe always liked to be on the move, rarely staying still long enough to feel trapped. It came, he knew, from always having to toe the royal line when he was younger. From having a father who’d demanded that he behave a certain way, and then giving him grief if he missed the mark.

  But why waste time thinking about things that weren’t important when he had a warm naked woman he knew would be receptive to his advances if he were to wake her with a soft kiss on those delectable lips?

  At least he assumed she’d be receptive. Every other woman he’d ever been with would be, but Alexa wasn’t like every other woman. She didn’t play the same games, acting coy to try to attract his attention, or turning girlish when she had it. Alexa was far too straightforward and earnest. But then she had no need to play games with him because they were already married. She already had his ring on her finger and he had hers on his.

  He held his hand up to the moonlight that spilled in through the gap in the curtains. The room was too dark for him to see the gold, but he could just make out the dull shape of the band. When she’d first slipped it on his finger the weight had felt foreign and unwanted. Funny how it didn’t feel like that any more.

  It felt right and good.

  Right and good?

  Something stirred behind his breastbone, some unwanted emotion that caused his ribs to tighten around his chest.

  As if sensing his unease, Alexa shifted her knee higher across his thigh. A shot of lust raced through him, a primitive hunger that bordered on need.

  Not that he did need. Need had a serious edge of permanence about it. Want? Now want was something he understood. It came and went and put a smile on his face, and his body stirred at the way he wanted to wake Alexa now with a line of slow kisses starting at her slender shoulder and encompassing her whole body.

  Shifting again, she made a cute little sleep sound that made him lose his train of thought.

  He felt her body tense as she awoke and he gently gathered her closer, stroking his hand down the silky skin of her spine.

  ‘Stay asleep, Princess,’ he murmured, even though sleep was the last thing on his mind. ‘I know you’re tired.’

  ‘Sleep?’ She raised her head and blinked at him. ‘I...’ She looked flustered, her eyes uncertain in the dim light as she stared at his face, his chest.

  Her tongue came out to lick her lips and before he was even aware that he’d made the decision he rolled her onto her back and kissed her.

  After a split second of hesitation her arms went around his neck, her body rising to his.

  Hunger ripped through him at the soft sound of pleasure she made when he stroked his tongue into her mouth, his body primed to take her immediately.

  But he also wanted to savour her. He wanted to taste her body again, her sweetness.

  Loving the way she clung to him, Rafe kissed his away across her face. First her cheeks and the soft skin below her ears, then her eyelids and her nose. Feeling her completely relax beneath him, he slowly moved down her body, laving her neck and licking at her collarbone.

  Her gorgeous breasts pointed skyward, her nipples achingly beautiful, and he took first one and then the other into his mouth. Then he positioned her so that she was beneath him, her long legs moving restlessly on the outside of his own.

  He used his knees to open her to the hard throb of his erection and he sank into her softness with unerring accuracy. She sobbed his name as he slowly filled her, sweat beading his forehead as her body took him in, her inner muscles gripping him tight.

  ‘Alexa...’ he groaned, remembering at the last minute that he wasn’t wearing a condom. She arched beneath him, her lower body straining for his thrust.

  Seriously perturbed at just how close he had come to forgetting protection, he reached in
to his side table and sheathed himself before thrusting back inside her tight body.

  She came almost instantly, the hot pulsing sensation of her climax shattering his self-control in a maelstrom of pleasure.

  * * *

  Opening her eyes to find herself wrapped in Rafe’s arms for the second time that morning, Alexa felt herself tense at the overwhelming vulnerability of being naked in his arms. Not because she regretted what they’d shared, but because she liked it a little too much. The feeling left her somehow defenceless, and her instinct was to pull back because, while she had anticipated the pleasure, she hadn’t counted on the emotional connection she’d feel when he joined his body with hers. Only she was quite sure Rafe would have experienced no such thing in return.

  Undoubtedly last night had been par for the course for a man of his experience, and she had to keep that front and centre in her mind at all times. Because while she had experienced something monumental in his bed, she knew she’d be alone in that line of thinking.

  But it had been monumental. The way he had worshipped her body, the tender kisses he’d lavished on her, the powerful thrusts of his body... It had definitely been mind-blowing, but not in the way that he had meant it would be. It was mind-blowing in that it was so lovely. So beautiful. So everything.

  Deeply asleep, he was sprawled on his side, one arm above his head, the other draped over her waist. Shifting slightly out from under his hold, Alexa took advantage of the moment to take her fill of him.

  Naked, he was utterly superb. The swell of his biceps and muscled shoulders, the broad chest and trail of hair that bisected his flat belly, the lean line of his hip that made her want to put her lips on his skin again.

  He’d lost none of his power or authority in sleep, but he did look more peaceful. More rested.

  She thought about the things she had discovered about him the night before. His generosity with his employees, his strong work ethic and the way his employees treated him with such deference and respect. Hannah had sung his praises and not because he was a prince. She truly liked and admired him for the man that he was.