His eyes connected with mine. “I’ve got this in the bag.”
I couldn’t help but smile. “We’ll see.” I flounced into the bathroom and shut the door behind me.
Marco better pray for a miracle because there was no way he was going to find the right app and then have the Golden Girls playing on the TV by the time I was done getting ready for bed.
This was going to show me if Marco was going to play fair or not.
*
Chapter Twelve
Marco
“What’s the name of the show?” I hissed into the phone.
“Golden Girls,” Apollo shouted.
“How the hell am I supposed to find this on her TV?”
I wasn’t going to be able to get this done before Royal walked out of the bathroom door. It had taken me a minute just to figure out how to turn on the TV.
Apollo quickly ran through how to get the app on the TV, but it still took me a good three minutes to get there. I glanced at the bedside clock and growled. “Do I just search for the—” The words halted in my mouth and a smiled curved in my lips.
“You see it?” Apollo called.
Right there on the screen was a picture of four gray-haired ladies with the words Golden Girls scrawled over them. “Bingo.”
Apollo chuckled. “Do I even want to know what the hell you are up to?”
I clicked on the four old ladies. “I don’t have enough time to tell you. Just know if you need me tonight, I’ll be in Royal’s room.”
Apollo chuckled. “Okay, sir. I’ll make sure I don’t need you.”
I ended the call and shoved my phone back in my pocket.
Apollo thought Royal and I were going to be getting it on tonight.
I knew that wasn’t going to happen. I was just over the moon happy that I was going to sleep in her bed with her again, and this time, she was going to be conscious of the fact.
A booming theme show played, and I scrambled to turn it down.
“What?” Royal shouted from the bathroom. The door flung open, and she stormed out. “How in the world did you manage to do that?” she questioned.
I shrugged and tossed the remote on the bed. “Do you really think an app on the TV is smarter than I am?”
She put her hands on her hips and tipped her head to the side. “You had Apollo help you.”
“I am slightly offended by the fact that you think I need help to simply watch a TV show.” My eyes traveled the length of her body.
She was wearing a pair of red and blue plaid pajama pants and a black, thin t-shirt was stretched over her chest and stomach. I knew it was a thin material because her pert nipples strained against the fabric.
If I hadn’t already taken my tie off, I would have been working on loosening it from the sheer sight of her. “Are you ready for bed?” I asked.
She rolled her eyes. “I am, but I really thought your butt was going to be out the door.”
I patted the bed next to me again. “You better hurry up, mio amore. Your show is starting.”
She blindly reached into the bathroom and turned off the light. “I don’t know how you did it, but I’m going to find out which of your men you called while I was in there.”
It was a good thing I trusted Apollo, and I knew he wouldn’t tell her I had called him. “I did it on my own, Royal. I pressed all of the buttons.” It wasn’t a lie at all. I had been the one to press all of the buttons. Apollo had just told me which ones to press.
She huffed and moved to the door.
I panicked and sprang off the bed. “Where are you going?” I blocked her path to the door and gently pressed a hand to her shoulder to stop her.
“What are you doing?” she laughed. She tried to step around me, but I moved with her.
“Where are you going?” I repeated. She was not going to leave me. Maybe she was thinking she would find a different room to sleep in and leave me here. With the club being here, there weren’t many rooms left vacant, but there were two or three.
“To turn off the light, Marco,” she laughed. “I don’t know about you, but I can’t sleep with a bright light illuminating the whole room.”
Oh. Well, now who looked like an idiot. “Of course. I meant where do you think you’re going to turn the light off?” That made zero sense. That seemed to happen around Royal more than I would like. “I can get it. Climb into bed and get comfortable.”
She rolled her eyes but turned on her heel. “Nice cover,” she mumbled.
“Did you want some cake before you fall asleep?” I asked.
Royal laughed. “Is that my bedtime snack? I know I don’t have a doctor yet, but I’m pretty sure that’s not the healthiest.”
I moved to the tray I had set down and exchanged the plate in my hand for the one with three slices of cake on it. “You’re pregnant. You get a pass.”
“A pass to be as big as a whale?” she laughed.
“Whale is the last word I would ever associate with you.” I moved back to the bed, turned on the bedside lamp, and then turned off the main light.
Royal managed to climb into bed and was leaning against the mountain of pillows.
I pulled the comforter back and slipped underneath it next to her. “Are you comfortable like that?” I asked.
She laughed. “The word comfortable isn’t really in my vocabulary right now. I’m good like this for a bit, but then, I need to roll over onto my side.”
I grabbed a piece of the cake and held it out to her. “Well, then you better eat this before you need to roll over.”
She grabbed the piece of cake and sighed. “I better enjoy this now because once I pop this baby out, I won’t have an excuse to eat cake in bed with you.”
I grabbed a slice for myself and leaned back on the mountain of pillows next to Royal. “Says who?” I drawled.
“The waistband of my jeans.” She broke off a piece of the cake and popped it into her mouth with a groan.
“I’ll buy you new jeans that actually fit.”
“You already bought all of my clothes, Marco. I’m not going to have you buy me more.”
This was the first time she had mentioned the clothes that were in her closet. That first day she had arrived at the estate, the staff had scrambled to get her clothes that would fit her. I had told them to hold off on buying clothes that weren’t maternity until she gave birth to the baby. “I don’t mind buying you clothes, Royal. As a matter of fact, I like it.”
She shoved a huge bit of cake in her mouth and chewed. “If I keep eating like this, I can just wear these clothes all of the time.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Or I’ll have to keep you pregnant so you fit in them.”
Her eyes widened, and she choked on her cake. She coughed and leaned into me to catch her breath. “Be careful what you say to me when I have a mouthful of cake.”
I grabbed the last of her cake from her and set it on the plate. “Maybe you should finish this in the morning when you’re not laying down.”
She snatched the last of her cake and shoved it in her mouth. “You are not going to take my cake away from me,” she mumbled.
“I’ll have to let Bristol know that you loved her cake so much that you’re willing to choke on it.”
She swallowed hard and smiled. “You didn’t, by chance, bring a drink with you?”
“No,” I drawled. “I didn’t have time to grab anything more than my plate while I chased you up the stairs.” I set the plate with the last piece of cake on it on the nightstand and pulled out my phone.
“You could just run downstairs quick and grab me a bottle of water,” she replied sweetly.
I leveled my gaze on her. “Right, but I would only do that if I forgot about you jumping out of this bed as soon as I walked out and locking the door behind me.”
She pouted out her lips and grumbled. “Whatever.”
I texted Apollo and asked him to have someone drop some water at the door.
Not even a minute later, a light knoc
k sounded.
“You’re pretty spoiled,” Royal muttered.
I slipped from the bed, opened the door a crack, and grabbed the two bottles of water sitting there. Then I threw the lock back into place and returned to the bed. I twisted the top open on the one and handed it to Royal. She sat forward and managed to take a few sips. “If I drink much more than that, I’ll be up in five minutes when the baby starts tap dancing on my bladder.”
“That doesn’t sound fun at all,” I murmured.
I took a long drink from my bottle of water and put them both on the nightstand. “Just let me know if you need more. Or anything else.”
She leaned back on the pillows and shimmied down a bit. “I should be fine for the night. You could even head to your own bed so you get a good night sleep.”
I climbed back into bed next to her. “Nice try, Royal.”
She moved her leg and pressed it against mine. “Sorry,” she muttered.
“You can sleep however you need to, Royal. Not like there is a line drawn down the middle of the bed that you can’t cross.”
She moved around a little bit to try to get comfortable.
“Just lay on your side facing the TV,” I suggested.
“If I do that, I’ll be asleep in five minutes.”
“Isn’t that the whole point of laying in bed?” I asked.
She huffed but finally turn on her side. Her butt was to me, and her face was to the TV. “I can’t see you now,” she complained.
I rolled toward her, maneuvered my arm under her head, and draped my other arm on her waist. “I’m right here, Royal.”
Her body tensed against mine for a second, but then, she relaxed into me. “I don’t know what we’re doing, Marco,” she whispered.
I didn’t know either, but I knew it felt right. Anytime I was near Royal, it was right. “Just go to sleep.”
“Your arm is going to be numb by the time you wake up in the morning if you keep it under my head,” she muttered.
It more than likely was going to be, but I didn’t care. “Sleep, Royal.”
“You’re not listening to me, Marco,” she sighed.
“I am.”
“Then why aren’t you moving your arm?”
I leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her temple. “Because it feels right where it is.”
“Nice Marco,” she sighed sleepily.
“Come again?” I chuckled.
“You’re nice Marco right now. He makes me sigh and happy. Not like mafia Marco.”
This had to be her exhaustion talking. “Are you still talking about me?” I laughed.
She laid her hand over my hand that was on her waist. “Yeah, I’m talking about you since you’re pretty much all I think about besides this baby in my stomach.”
That was news to me. Good news to me. “So what does mafia Marco make you feel?” I asked gently.
She rolled over in my arms and faced me. She tipped her head back, and her eyes connected with mine. We weren’t as close as we were before since her stomach was between us, but it was nice to be able to look her in the eye. She looked tired, but I knew she wasn’t sleep talking like she had the other night.
“Uh, well, they both give me butterflies but the butterflies from mafia Marco are a bit more intense. Sort of like mafia Marco is.”
“You’re a bit of a nut, Royal,” I chuckled.
She shrugged. “Yeah, that may be, but it’s just how I feel.”
“So I give you butterflies,” I stated.
She nodded and bit her bottom lip. “And you make my heart do little flips.”
“Little flips, huh?”
“Yeah,” she whispered.
“Then why were you running from me tonight?”
“Because I was embarrassed with everyone talking about me. And you.”
I brushed her hair from her face. “I like that. A you and a me.”
“Yeah?” she whispered. “I’m not too sure if it makes sense, but I can’t keep denying all these butterflies and heart flips.”
“Sometimes things don’t have to make sense for them to feel right.”
“I’m pregnant with my psycho ex-boyfriend’s baby whose father is now trying to either kidnap or kill me, and you’re a mafia boss who rescued me, but then my brother ended up getting killed. I’d say we’re complicated, not right.”
I shrugged. “We’re a complicated right. You never know how life is going to go, so you gotta be able to roll with the punches.”
She reached up and traced her fingertip over my lips. “You know how you had two lists of things you could do with me?” she whispered.
I nodded.
“Which list do you think a kiss would fall onto?” Her eyes connected with mine, and her breath caught.
“We might have to make another list. That might be on the PG-13 list.”
“Maybe we can add it to the list and then check it off?”
I grabbed her hand and pulled it to her side. “I kiss you, and things change quickly. I’m not a man who plays and shares. I’m serious in business and in my personal life.”
“So, if we kiss now,” she trailed off.
“Then I’m gonna kiss you a hell of a lot more, Royal.”
Her breath caught, and her mouth dropped open. “And what happens after that?”
“I’m a patient man, Royal. I have a feeling your kisses will hold me over until you’re ready for more.”
Her emerald green eyes filled with desire. “Okay,” she whispered.
“Okay that we kiss and then I get to keep kissing you?” I needed her to fully understand that a kiss was going to catapult us into a new place.
There would be no pressure for more, but it would be a promise that there would be more when she was ready for it.
She nodded slightly.
“I gotta hear it from you, mio amore.” Not because I was some ego maniac, but I needed to hear it to know that she understood.
“I want you to kiss me, Marco.” She bit her bottom lip. “Now and later.” She closed the gap between us and pressed her lips to mine.
Shock rocked me, but then, I was back. My hand on her hip shot to her face, and I cradled her cheek in my hand. My lips moved over hers, and her soft moan fell into my mouth. Her hand pressed against my chest and balled the fabric of my shirt in it.
There was a need and a hunger in her kiss that I didn’t expect to be there. I had wanted to kiss her since the first day I had laid eyes on her when she was with the Meeks. Her sweet innocence was too much for me to walk away from.
“Marco,” she gasped.
I pulled back an inch and looked her in the eye. “Okay?”
She nodded. “Yeah. I just wanted to say your name when your hands were on me.”
Holy fucking shit. I don’t think she understood what she did to me. “Well, I’m not going anywhere, mio amore. You can say it all you want.”
Again, she pressed her lips to mine, but I swiftly took over the kiss. Her hands roamed over my chest and popped open the buttons of my shirt. “Marco,” she whispered against my lips.
I didn’t stop kissing her this time. My name on her lips willed me on.
All I wanted to do was kiss her and never stop.
All I wanted was Royal.
Her hands pulled open my shirt and traveled over my chest. I delved my fingers into her hair and tipped her head back. Her lips were like silk against mine, and her hands were like velvet.
We kissed until we were both breathless and panting for air.
“Oh my,” Royal gasped.
“Oh my is right, mio amore. I can hardly control myself with you.”
Her eyes connected with mine. “Control?” she panted. “I lost all my control when your lips touched mine,” she confessed.
“I held onto mine by a thread, otherwise you would be naked beneath me right now.” Every word I spoke was the truth. The only thing that had stopped me from stripping her naked and taking her right there was the fact I had told her she d
ecided. If she wanted to just kiss me for the rest of her life, I was fine with that. I would just be taking a lot of cold showers from now on.
“I don’t even know how you can be remotely attracted to me right now,” she whispered.
“Because you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen.” The words were out of my mouth before I could stop them. Once again, when I was around Royal, I didn’t have a chance to think before I spoke. Under normal circumstances, that was a dangerous thing, but when it came to Royal, that was the thing that connected us. Maybe I didn’t always say things in the neatest way, but they were words I meant.
“You haven’t even seen me, Marco. Right now, I’m all belly.” She closed her eyes and sighed. “I’m pregnant with another man’s baby.”
Her words hit me, one by one. “Open your eyes, Royal.”
She shook her head. “No. I just ruined the moment.”
“Open your eyes,” I demanded. My tone was harsh and sharp.
“Just tell me you want me to go away, Marco. Don’t make me open my eyes,” she pleaded.
I enunciated each word slowly. “Open. Your. Eyes.”
She opened her eyes and looked up at me.
*
Royal
Oh, God. Why did I have to go and open my mouth like he didn’t know I was pregnant and the baby wasn’t his?
Stupid, Royal.
He would have had to have been dumb and blind to not know it.
“I didn’t have a dad until I was sixteen. The day Slider married my mom was when I finally got that.”
“Oh, Marco,” I gasped. I reached up and trailed my fingers down his cheek. I hated that for him. My parents weren’t the greatest at all, but I still had them.
“Why do you think I was hesitant to be with you, but at the same time, I wanted you, Royal?” he asked.
Well, to be honest, I wasn’t sure he actually did want to be with me until his lips had touched mine. Sure, Greer, Bristol, and even Indiana had told me that Marco wanted me, but I figured it wasn’t actually true. Not until that kiss did I believe it.
Royal Mess (Devil's Knights 2nd Generation Book 3) Page 11
