I sat between Sam’s arms and rested my back against his chest. “Are we sure this is what we want?”
He tightened his arms around my waist and pulled me in closer. My head rested against his shoulder. For the first time in months, I felt at peace.
“Pixie, you know I would do anything for you. If you don’t want to be here, then we’ll figure out another way to make sure the country is well protected.”
“Too bad we can’t find another sibling. Maybe I’m not the oldest,” I said. Sam’s muscles tightened, and I knew I’d hit one of his secrets. “Sam?”
“You might not be, but your father picked you years ago.”
My mind spun. Sam’s words repeated in my head. “How many?”
Over the past few years, I’d learned that my father had slept with a lot of people. He’d also never accepted any consequences for what he’d done wrong.
When Sam didn’t answer, I repeated the question. “How many?”
“I don’t think I’ve found them all. As of right now, I know of about five.” Sam grimaced, his voice soft.
He was still keeping something from me. I pulled back from his embrace. I needed to look into his eyes when we had the conversation.
“Why have you kept this from me?” The secrets hurt, and I knew he would be hurt with how long I’d kept my news from him as well.
Sam’s brown eyes darted to the side, and I saw a movement. My father, the man who’d left me to run the country for years, was standing in the garden. I glanced back at my future husband, who didn’t seem at all surprised that my dad was in the palace.
I ground my teeth, putting aside the question about my siblings. “What other secrets are you keeping from me?”
King Beckett sat on the stone bench four feet from me. When I was younger, I would have run up and given him a hug because I missed him. Now I wanted answers from the two men I loved.
“Don’t be mad at Sam. I asked him to keep my location from you.”
“Seriously, you’re okay with me running the country but can’t let me know you’re here?” I said, hating that I sounded like a whiny brat.
“You did a fine job. There was no need for me to help. I asked Sam to look for your siblings so I could meet with them.” He winced. I could tell not all the meetings had gone his way. My father was a charmer, but not everyone bent to his will.
The last siblings I’d met had wanted Jessica and me dead. Am I ready to meet more siblings, or do they even care to meet me?
Jessica and I had a privileged life growing up because our father had made sure we had everything. It seemed he hadn’t done that for his other children. Chances were they would be bitter about how they’d been treated over the years.
“I had a right to know,” I said, glancing at Sam.
Sam nodded. “You did, Pixie, and I planned to tell you after we tracked all of them down. I figured it would be easier to tell you and Jessica at the same time and see if you wanted to meet with any of them.”
I wasn’t a fan of the fact Sam had kept valuable information from me, but his logic did make sense. And I would want to have Jessica with me. I missed my sister.
“Are any of them older?” I asked my dad, but his lips formed a straight line, and he didn’t answer.
“Yes,” Sam finally said.
“So I don’t have to take over the country when you die.”
Technically, I didn’t need to be in Shialia past the wedding. My heart picked up. Things could go back to normal. We could spend time in the states and in Shialia.
“It’s not going to work that way,” my father said, glancing at Sam. “The power transfer is happening on Sunday.”
“No,” I ground out like a two-year-old and looked at Sam, the conversation from earlier coming back. “You knew. That’s why you asked my sister to come early.” I couldn’t help the tears pooling in my eyes. Everything was hitting me at once, and everybody was taking my decisions away from me.
Sam’s hand reached out to me, but I backed away. I didn’t want to be near him or my father. “Pixie,” Sam said.
“I can’t right now.” I turned and walked away, reaching for my stomach. I didn’t know what tomorrow would bring, but I felt betrayal deep in my heart.
3
Sam
I heard the sniffles before I opened the door to our bedroom. The sight of Patty curled up in a chair, crying, crushed me. Years before, I’d thought my heart was sealed, but the second Patty walked into my club, my life had changed. I didn’t ever want to go back to the time before her, the empty nights of sleeping with women I didn’t care about.
I walked into our room and stripped my dress shirt off. Patty looked up and glared at me before her eyes traveled down my body. I knew I wasn’t fighting fair. When it came to Patty, I would do everything to make her happy.
“I’m not sleeping with you.” Patty set her phone down on the table next to the large reading chair. I reached for my belt, slowly pulled it off, and dropped my pants. “I mean it, Sam. Sex isn’t going to fix this.”
“I never said anything about sex.” I sat down in the large chair next to her and pulled her into my arms. She didn’t fight me, and it helped ease the worry.
Patty eyed me. “So you just decided to strip down to your boxers for fun?”
I shrugged. “It’s more comfortable, and I think we have a lot of things to hash out.”
She ran her fingers over the tattoo on my arm. I would be getting another one soon. Patty didn’t think I knew she was pregnant, but I’d figured it out more than a month earlier—probably before she had. If we planned to make our lives in Shialia work, we couldn’t hold back.
I rested my hand on hers. “Can we start by talking about the fact that you’re pregnant and don’t want to tell me?”
Her fingers stilled. “You know?” she asked before tracing Kinley’s name with her finger.
“I know your body. So why didn’t you tell me?”
“We feel off,” Patty said, not looking up at me. “I’m not sure why, but we’ve become so wrapped up in our duties that we’ve forgotten about each other. I’m not sure I remember the last time we did something, just you and me. Or even played.” She whispered the last part.
God, I fucked up so bad. Patty was right. We’d both let the duties of Shialia interfere in our relationship.
“We need to make time for each other,” I said. “But you also need to come to me when you feel this way.”
Patty gazed at me. I recognized the hunger in her eyes. It would have to wait until we were done talking everything out, but I felt the same way.
“I was serious earlier, Sam. I don’t know if I want to do this. You and my father decided to have power transferred to me without talking to me. That hurts. These are things we need to discuss as a family. Especially with another baby on the way. Kinley is already causing issues because I’m not there for her enough.”
She was always there for our daughter, despite the nanny’s comments earlier. I would catch Patty checking on our daughter throughout the day, and she made sure to have dinner with us each night.
“I’m here for you both ways. But you make an excellent mother,” I said as Patty laid her head against my chest and traced the frog-and-trident tattoo. “If this isn’t what you want, I can stop your father, but, Patty, you’ve done an amazing job over the last few years. Imagine when you have the full title and can’t get stopped by those old fuckers.”
Even I hated dealing with the royal council. They were so stuck in the old ways that they couldn’t see how change could help shape the country's future. When power was officially transferred to Patty, she could make the changes she wanted.
“You’re right,” she grumbled. “Are you sure this is what you want to do?”
I was, as long as Patty was by my side. The only thing that mattered to me was my family. I also knew that things would get more complicated when the older generation learned about the change. Many believed King Beckett would be back and felt
the country should only be led by a man. Most would take the news of the power transfer as a good thing, but I worried about the few who didn’t want Patty to be queen. Beckett thought if we didn’t make an announcement until afterward, it would decrease the time before someone could plan an attack against Patty. I hoped that was true.
“You’re the one who needs to make the decisions, Pixie. I’m not going to tell you not to lead your people.”
She tensed. “They are my people. I care so much about them, Sam. But I also care about you, Kinley, and our future baby.”
“Maybe we need to work on our plan for how to run things,” I said, running my hand down Patty’s back. “After power is transferred, things will be easier.”
Patty nodded. “But many are going to be mad about me becoming queen. Carl thinks Dad is coming back, and he’ll decide to give him power.”
Carl Hanes was King Beckett’s right-hand man and someone who worked his own agenda, not necessarily the one that was best for the people. I’d overheard him talking to others about how the king would never put Patty in charge.
“So you want to complain if I add a few more bodyguards for your protection?” I asked.
This wouldn’t be a negotiation. I would add extra protection for Patty even if she didn’t want it.
“I know you will add them either way. But for once, I don’t plan to fight you on this.” Patty grabbed her phone from the table, and her fingers flew across the screen before she set it back down.
“Work?”
“No. Kat wondered how big our ponds are,” Patty said.
I couldn’t hold back a groan. “You told her we don’t have water here, right?”
Shialia was surrounded by water. The palace also backed up to a large body of water.
“Nope.” She smiled. “I’m also going to have my sister videotape her trying to get an alligator on the plane.”
The last thing we needed to worry about was an alligator, but I knew Kat would figure out a way to get it to us. I just needed to make sure Antonio stopped her.
I linked my hands with Patty’s. “You never officially answered. Do you want to go through with your father’s plan this weekend?”
“Do you think I’m a terrible mother for doing it?” Patty sighed. “What happens if someone tries coming for Kinley like they did for Jessica?”
Patty’s twin sister had been kidnapped twice—the first time was when she was eighteen. The men who kidnapped her then had never been prosecuted by King Beckett. A few years back, the same men came after her again. It came to light that the men were actually Patty and Jessica’s brothers. They’d wanted the power and believed Jessica was the older twin and would take over one day. Doug, Jessica’s ex-husband, had worked with the men to kidnap her.
“No matter where we live, Kinley will be a target.” I pressed my finger to Patty’s lips. “Think about it. People all over the world know who you and our daughter are. No matter where we move, you and Kinley will always be in danger and will need bodyguards. If we moved back to the states, you might not be under a microscope, but people would still try to take pictures.”
“I’ll do it.”
I nodded and placed my hand on her belly. “Now, do you want to discuss why you didn’t tell me about this little one?”
“We hadn’t talked about more kids,” she sighed.
“I’m here for you, Patty. I can’t wait to have more kids. If I had my say, we would fill this place up.”
“We are not filling up a twenty-bedroom place,” Patty laughed.
I shrugged. “I’m okay with two kids or ten. As long as I have you by my side.”
“We’re getting married in fourteen days,” she reminded me.
“Yes, and I can’t wait. We also have all of our friends showing up Friday.”
“Maybe they can help solve the problem of the missing women,” Patty snarled.
I winced. “Hopefully. But you don’t have to worry about that. You have to get everything ready for Sunday. Your dad is working on the power transfer.”
“Does Carl know?”
“No. Both your father and I didn’t think we should tell him. He’s not going to take the news well.” I would need to meet with my team and make sure they had eyes on Carl, just in case information somehow leaked out of their tight circle.
Patty nodded. “I think he’s trying to undercut my authority and working against me. I haven’t figured out who is working with him, but he’s doing something. A few times, I caught him hanging up his phone the second I walked into the room he happened to be in. Once might be a coincidence, but not every time. Last week, I hacked his computer and phone records. The calls are to outside the country, always a different place. As for his computer, it’s clean—too clean. Like he’s not searching for anything.”
“I thought we agreed to no more hacking,” I muttered.
“Nope. You suggested no more hacking. That doesn’t mean I listened.”
“Have you looked into anyone else?”
“Yes.” Patty ran her tongue along her lips. “That’s what’s strange. Everyone I thought he was working with is squeaky-clean. None of them even searched for porn on their laptops. I hacked the Wi-Fi units in their houses and checked all the devices. Don’t give me that look. This isn’t Big Brother seeing what someone is doing. This is me trying to protect my country.”
“So we think Carl and a few others are bad because they don’t look at porn?” I asked.
“Yes and no. They aren’t searching for anything.”
I leaned over and planted a kiss below Patty’s ear. “You know how sexy it is when you talk all geek to me?”
Patty turned so that she straddled my lap. Her long skirt bunched up along her thighs, showing the garter she was wearing. “I’ve missed you,” she whispered against my lips.
“We need to make more time for us.” I ran my hands over her ass. “We’re a team and need to act like one.”
“I agree. Kiss me, Sam.”
I pressed my lips to hers and tightened my hold on her ass as I stood. It had been way too long since I played with my wife. This was the one way we felt closer to each other.
Our tongues danced together as I took the few steps toward the secret door in our bedroom. Patty tightened her legs around my waist as I entered the code into the keypad by the door. We’d had to add that after Kinley found her way into the room and stole the rope to tie up the babysitter.
The door pushed open, and I closed it with my foot, leaving our phones and the world on the other side. The only thing that mattered was Patty and me. If something happened to Kinley, Wes would know where to find us.
At this moment, I needed my future wife as much as she needed me. I couldn’t wait to sink deep inside Patty, but she had on way too much clothing. I released her ass as she slid down my body. Her pink dress was wrapped tightly around her, accenting her curves.
“Strip,” I commanded. Patty smiled up at me as she untied her dress, and the fabric fell open, showing her lace bra and no panties. “You can slowly strip for me another time. I need my hands all over your body.”
She reached behind her and unclasped her bra, and the straps dropped to the side as she cupped her breasts. I’d used ropes before to tie them so they were on display. We’d spent hours in the room, playing, but not lately.
Patty naked was heavenly. She slid to her knees effortlessly, like she had a million times before. She clasped her hands behind her back and tilted her head down.
“You know tonight isn’t going to be all pleasure,” I warned. “You have a few infractions you need to pay for.”
She raised her head and glared in my direction. “I wasn’t the only one with infractions...Master.”
I shrugged and ran a finger under her chin. “But you’re my sub, and you held something from both of us. What would have happened if we decided to play and I didn’t know? I could have hurt our little guy.”
“Or girl. I would’ve told you.”
Patty
was protective of her kids. I was sure she would have told me, but I hadn’t given her punishment in months, and from the heated look in her eyes, she needed it as much as I did.
“Get your pretty little ass in place, and we can begin.” I held out my hand to help her up.
Once she stood, she reached down to take off her pink high heels, and I shook my head. She moved to the white leather bench, which was already adjusted to her height with heels. Her round ass was at the perfect level. The only thing left to do was to tie her down.
4
Patty
I settled myself on the cold leather spanking bench. Sam kept the room on the warm side, but the touch of the bench sent a shiver through my body. The high heels raised my ass higher in the air. Every time I bought new shoes, I thought of Sam, because he always commented on how they made my ass look nicer.
I placed each hand near the leather strap. A year had passed since my skin had touched the leather or we had set foot in the room. Too much time.
Sam ran his hand along my bare ass. It was exactly what I needed from my Dom—the one person who grounded me and made the worry of the world disappear into the darkness.
So why did we wait so long? The question faded away as Sam touched me again. His calloused fingers dragged over my skin. This was us. It felt so right to be touched by him again, to be under his control, to know that once he strapped me down, he could do anything he wanted to me. I trusted him with every fiber of my being.
When he seemed happy about the pregnancy, I had damn near lost it. Doubt about our relationship crept into my mind every so often, and when we stopped playing, more uncertainty washed over me. I hadn’t been sure how he would take the news about the baby.
Tonight was the start of our change, each of us figuring out our path again. We still had so many issues we couldn’t control, but Sam’s touch was one thing we could control, and I wanted my ass spanked. Hard.
Hacker Wedding Page 3
