by L. Nicole
“That’s what all the girls say.”
“You shouldn’t listen to gossip, Princess,” he growls, and I can tell he’s not happy, which confuses me, but I ignore it.
“Eddie can go all night…” I mock, altering my voice to imitate the girls I’ve heard giggling over having sex with him. I hated those girls. It used to be so painful knowing they were having the one man that I’ve always wanted. The one man who made me feel like a woman.
“Ree—” he growls, but I don’t let him talk.
“He can do things other men have no clue about…”
“Damn it, Ree!”
“They even said you ruined them for other men. Can you do that, Eddie?”
So intense is his stare, that he seems to burn me. There’s anger on his face, frustration and something else that I can’t even begin to name.
“You’re playing with fire, Ree.”
“Maybe I want to.”
“Ree, you’ve been avoiding me for a year. You want me to just believe you’ve had a change of heart after all of this time?”
“Is that so hard to believe?”
“It damn sure is, Princess.”
“I don’t see why. You know we have a pull between us. You’ve told me that yourself.”
“We do, and I have. You also told me to forget it, that we were never going to get together.”
I sigh. This is harder than I thought it was going to be. Somehow, in my head, I thought Eddie would just take what I offered, no questions, no issues. Leave it to Eddie Andrews to make my life even more difficult.
“This was a bad idea,” I mutter. “It’s fine. If you don’t want me Eddie, I’m just wasting your time—yours and mine.”
“I didn’t say I didn’t want you, Ree. Fuck, I feel like I was born wanting you. I’m just asking why you’ve had the change of heart after all of this time.”
“Does it matter?” I don’t want to explain the why to him. Maybe I am embarrassed, or I’m afraid he will pity me. I don’t know, but I’d just rather he never found out.
“It does to me.”
“Why do you have to be so stubborn?” I grumble.
Eddie steps into me and immediately his closeness has my breathing going heavy, my body tingling. There’s just something about him the affects me in ways no one else ever has and I’m pretty sure no one else ever will.
“Do you know that you’re one of the few people on this island that has ever recognized me. It’s probably one of the reasons I love coming here.”
“It was hard not to recognize you from the tabloids, Ree. Your face isn’t one easy to forget,” he says softly. I let out a quiet breath of disbelief and shake my head no. He puts his hand under my chin applying pressure so that I’m forced to look at him. “I mean it, Princess. That gorgeous face and body of yours have haunted my dreams.”
“I’ve dreamed of you too, Eddie,” I confess.
He looks surprised, but then a smile spreads over his face, one that seems to light up his eyes and make them grow warm.
“That’s good to know, Ree. Damn good,” he murmurs.
“I don’t want to dream anymore, Eddie. I want to know.”
“To know?”
It’s decision time and I decide to lay all my cards on the table. My face deepens in color because of my embarrassment, but I ignore it and push through.
“I’m getting married in two weeks, Eddie.”
He takes a step back from me and this mask comes over him. Seconds ago, he was warm and sexy, looking at me like he could eat me alive. Now, he’s just pissed.
Really pissed.
“Then, I guess congratulations are in order, Princess. I doubt seriously your husband would appreciate you being here with me, however.”
“He’s not my husband,” I snap, anger boiling inside of me, only to deflate when I realize that he will be soon and there’s nothing I can do about it. I mean, maybe I could run away. Tell my father I’m abdicating and leave him to deal with the mess, but I can’t do that. From the time I was born, it’s been duty first. That’s just how it is when you were raised to one day be the head of a country… a queen. “At least not yet,” I add, sounding more than a little pitiful.
If Eddie’s frown gets any fiercer, I’d be scared that I would spontaneously combust.
“Maybe you should just tell me what it is you want here, Ree,” he says finally.
The smart thing would be to run away—far, far, away, or to tell him I don’t want anything from him.
“I want you to take my virginity and spend the next two weeks living up to all your hype,” I blurt out, wondering if the floor could just swallow me up now.
Sadly, it doesn’t.
4
Eddie
Of all of the things I expected to come out of Ree’s mouth. This wasn’t it.
Not even close.
“All of my hype?”
“Exactly. I want you to show me what I’ve been missing all this time, Eddie.”
“Missing all this…Are you drunk?”
“In two weeks, my father will have married me off to some boring, probably bald, older man who I will have to force myself to be content to be married to. I will have to do it because it’s expected of me, because it’s the best for my country.”
“Ree—”
“That gives me two weeks,” she says, stepping so close to me that I can smell the vanilla spicy scent of her. Blood rushes through me, pounding in my ears. I’ve always been so addicted to this woman…
“Two weeks?”
“Two weeks to give into the one thing I’ve always wanted.”
“What’s that, Ree?”
“You, Eddie. I know you’re not for me, I’ve always known that. That’s why I’ve forced myself to stay away from you. But, I have two weeks to take what I want, and I want you, Eddie.”
“So, we fuck for two weeks and I just let you go? You just walk away?” I question, keeping the bitterness out of my voice. What does Ree expect from me? Is this how she sees me? As if I’m nothing better than a fuck toy…
How in the hell did we get here?
Better yet…What in the fuck am I going to do?
“We both know that you’re not the staying kind, Eddie. You’re not made to settle down. Just like I’ve always known that my life was not my own.”
“Bullshit. You’re your own person, Ree. If you want something, you take it and if your father loves you, he’ll accept it.”
“If I were normal maybe, but then, I’m not normal,” she says sadly.
“At least on that we can agree, Princess,” I murmur, tucking a strand of her hair behind her ear.
“Will you do it, Eddie?”
“Why don’t you explain exactly what it is you want from me, Ree? Just my dick? If that’s it, baby, you can have it right here and right now.”
“I do want that, but I want…”
“Want what?” I prompt when she falters.
“I want you too, not just your dick. Will you give me two weeks, Eddie? Just… you and me, no other women, nothing but us. Can you do that?”
Jesus, she really does have the wrong impression of me. That’s probably my fault, I guess. Part of me didn’t realize that Ree was watching me so closely, although it bothers me that she could be so completely blind on what I feel or her.
“And at the end of two weeks, what then, Ree? Are you just walking away?”
“I don’t want to think about that,” she says so quietly that I barely hear her.
I take a deep breath. I should tell her no. I should come clean and tell her how I feel about her, how I’ve always felt about her. I don’t. I have two weeks to show her and two weeks to make her admit she feels the same. It’s a gamble, but I’m a gambler at heart, always have been.
“Then, let’s go,” I respond, decision made.
“Go?” she questions, clearly confused.
“If you think I’m going to fuck you for the first time in the office of this damn bar, Ree, y
ou’re full of shit.”
“Oh,” she breathes stepping back.
“You’re sure about this,” I ask her, holding out my hand.
She stares at it, and then puts her hand in mine.
“I’m sure,” she says, sounding anything but.
It’s too late now. The die has been cast. Whatever happens is going to happen, because I’m not going to let Ree slip through my fingers.
I can’t.
5
Ree
“Whose place is this?” I ask, feeling more than a little uncomfortable. It’s a gorgeous place. A large two-story beachfront home, with white stucco with blue shutters. There’s a marble stairway leading to the front door and patio. It screams money without shoving it down your throat. It’s the kind of home I’d be happy in, nothing like the palace my father had built to live in, because he said appearances were everything. I’ve always hated it. It’s cold, impersonal and constantly reminds me that I’m a prisoner in my own home.
“Mine,” Eddie says, and I frown, because that’s the last answer I expected.
“You live here?”
“Why do you sound so surprised, Ree? Did you think I just stayed with whatever woman I went home with at night?”
“I guess I never thought about it,” I mutter, not liking the reminder of what a player Eddie is. It shouldn’t bother me, after all, he did promise to be with only me for the next two weeks. It does bother me though, and I force myself to push away all thoughts of Eddie with other women. That doesn’t enter into what we have going on between us.
It can’t.
“I just… I didn’t even realize you had a job,” I mumble, because clearly this home has to be worth millions, especially considering where we are. Heck, some people spend close to a million just to vacation here—depending on the accommodations—let alone live here.
“You’re painting a flattering picture of me, Princess.”
“Eddie,” I sigh, knowing I’m making a mess of all of this and not wanting him to take offense.
“Let me guess,” he drawls. “You think I’m home with a different woman or two every night, staying at their place, and no job. Did you think they paid me for my services, Ree? What did you think my going rate was? Were you prepared to pay me to fuck you?”
I flinch at his words, even as I can feel the inside of my thighs getting wet. It’s not what he’s saying. It’s how he’s saying it. The coarse words, the graveled tone of his voice, the heated look on his face, the depth of emotion he’s showing—it’s all turning me on. It doesn’t even matter that the emotion is anger. I know underneath the anger is hunger, because I feel the same need coursing through my veins.
“I never allowed myself to think about you, Eddie,” I tell him and I’m lying. I thought of him all the time. I thought of him during my day when I was lonely, at night when I was in bed alone, lonely and touching myself. I thought of him when I was in the shower, imagining it was his touch, instead of the water, warming my body. I’ve thought of him so often, wondered what kind of lover he’d truly be, wondered if he was as funny in a relationship as he seemed to be from a distance. Eddie was always making everyone laugh and I can admit that I found that made him even sexier.
“Tell me Ree, what do you think my going rate should be for two weeks of fucking you? Should I charge differently for each way I’m planning on taking you?”
“I don’t know. How many ways are there?” I ask him, breathless.
He moves straight for me, closing the small distance within two steps. He doesn’t stop there, however. He just keeps coming, forcing me to back up. Before I realize what’s happening, I’m pinned between him and the wall. My breathing becomes ragged, as his masculine presence surrounds me. I feel tiny and feminine. His earthy scent that reminds me of leather and sex, encircles me. I breathe it in like I need it to survive—and maybe I do.
“I could do you hard. Not even bothering to prepare you, just thrust my cock into you and demand you take whatever I give you. It would hurt, but by the time I finished, Ree, you’d be begging for more.”
“I would?” I ask, picturing what he’s describing in my mind. My body trembles, because I’m on the verge of begging him to do just that.
“I’ve thought about it,” he says softly, causing my breath to stall in my chest.
“You have?” Happiness blooms inside of me. I like that Eddie has thought of me like that. Maybe—just maybe—he’s thought of me as often as I have him.
“Fucking dreamed about it,” he growls, kissing along the side of my neck.
The feel of Eddie’s lips on my skin is like tiny sparks of electricity firing inside of my body.
“Eddie,” I gasp.
My hands are at my sides, I curl my fingers into a fist, my nails biting into my palms. I’m afraid to touch him, afraid that if I do anything it might make him stop and that’s the last thing I want.
The very last thing.
“Imagined how you would feel when I slide inside of you for the first time, the sounds you would make as I’m taking you. I’ve dreamed about the way your fingers would bite into my back as I’m thrusting into you over and over, pushing both of us over the edge.”
“Oh God…” I groan just as I feel his hand slide under my shirt.
“Tell me, Ree. Have you wondered what we would be like together? While you were plotting all of this up in that pretty little head of yours, did you wonder just how I’d take your virginity? Did you imagine a bed with rose petals and sweet and slow?”
“I…” I bite my lip, as his thumb moves against my hard nipple.
“Answer me, Princess,” he orders.
“I didn’t want gentle, or at least I never thought about it…” I finally gasp. “I just wanted you, Eddie. I’ve always wanted you,” I admit, all of my defenses gone with the beautiful way he’s making my body react.
I’m lost.
Lost to him.
6
Eddie
The way Margarita’s body comes alive for me with the barest of touches, goes straight to my head. I want to see how she’ll fall apart for me. A protective feeling combined with one of ownership runs through me. She probably wouldn’t like to hear me say that, but hell, she owns me too. Eventually, I will prove that to her. She might think this is only for two weeks, but she’ll soon learn that I’m never letting her go. I groan out her name as the sweet taste of victory hits me.
“Ree.”
I’m going to be the first man to ever feel or taste her and I’ll die before I let another man have her. I’m going to be the only man she gives herself to. I wanted her for so long, it feels like I’ve won a fucking war to have her in my arms finally.
I’m never letting her go. It’s time that Margarita realizes that she’s mine. Her body knows it already. I can tell by the way she reacts to me. She wants more of whatever I give her. Even now, her hands are diving into my hair. I feast on the warm column of her throat, my teeth nipping a blazing path. Her moans deepen, as her body moves against mine.
I fucking hate like hell that we have clothes between the two of us.
“Eddie,” she moans, and the sound goes straight to my throbbing cock.
“You have too many damn clothes,” I gripe, my voice a passion-filled, hoarse, noise. Her body against mine isn’t enough. I need her bare. I plan on making her body so addicted to me that she’ll never want to leave.
Ree and I work together to undress her. It’s a blur of clothes flying and buttons being torn. Looking at her naked body, I’m just about brought to my knees. My gaze is frozen on her breasts, full, beautiful, golden globes which make me want to bury my head in them…or my cock. Her nipples are deep cherry, pebbled points that make my mouth water. “Fuck,” I hiss, my cock weeping at the sight of her.
“I…” she seems embarrassed and I smile at how innocent she truly is. How she can think she’s anything but perfection, is beyond me.
“You’re perfect, Princess. Absolutely perfect,” I moan, be
fore taking her mouth in a kiss.
Jesus, she tastes like sugar, sweet and addictive. She meets my kiss and she’s just as hungry as I am. Our tongues dance and fight for domination as we let the fire between us begin to rage. Ree knows. She has to know. There’s so much more to this than just two weeks.
She starts to tremble in my arms, as we break apart to drag air into our lungs.
“Eddie,” she whimpers, and my name sounds as if she is begging and I love that. I love that it’s my name on her lips right now. I’ll be the only man to make her feel this way. “More,” she moans out, her body quaking with need.
I kiss an imaginary line along her neck, breathing her in and teasing her. Her body bucks against mine, searching for relief, that for now, I refuse to give her. I could fuck her right here, sink inside her warm heat, knowing that I’ll be the one taking her virginity and making her mine completely. I want that more than she will ever know, but fucking her isn’t my only goal.
I want more.
Ree’s chest is heaving as she breathes deeply. Her skin is a deep and tan, smooth as the finest silk, and I’m going to have my hands and mouth on every square inch of her body. I rip my shirt up and over my head, throwing it down.
I drop to my knees in front of her, my hands resting on her hips. She lets out a surprise gasp, her eyes are dilated, her breathing ragged as she looks down at me.
My cock is pushing against my jeans and it’s damn painful. The teeth of the zipper will be permanently imprinted on my shaft. I welcome the pain, however, because it reminds me that this isn’t about me, it’s about her. All of my focus is solely on Margarita.
My lips travel along her shoulder, meandering down. I take my time, savoring her, needing to taste her skin.
“Eddie,” she mumbles breathlessly, as my tongue teases her nipple, lightly brushing against the stiff peak. I take my time, torturing the both of us, as I kiss and lick her breasts. I move back and forth between them both, unable to get enough. Margarita’s hips begin to rock against me, her head thrashing with pleasure and frustration. I can feel her nails biting into my shoulders, scoring the skin.
