The Secret King

by C. J. Miller

  His kiss was ravenous, in direct contrast to the gentle caress of his hands on her bare back. She wanted his hands elsewhere on her body. Casimir palmed her cheeks. “I was worried you would have to protect your cover and stay the night with him.”

  She would have rather been arrested. “I wouldn’t spend the night with Samuel. We haven’t even shared a kiss. I think we’d have a few steps in between.”

  “Those steps can blur and blend,” Casimir said.

  “I’m with you. I don’t want another man,” Serena said, capturing his lips and kissing him.

  Casimir rubbed his hips against hers and the friction hit her in the right places. She moved harder against him and she rapidly became frustrated. She wanted Casimir inside her. She’d come to associate him with mind-blowing orgasms and she was craving another.

  Serena reached for a condom from her bedside table and fumbled to remove it from the packaging. After a few missed tries, Casimir took the foil from her hand and deftly handled the task. She lifted herself over him. He licked each of her nipples and reached between her legs, slipping a finger inside her and circling the tight bundle of nerves at her core with his thumb.

  If he was checking if she was wet, the answer was obvious.

  “Ride me,” he said. The request came like a growl in his throat.

  Serena lowered herself onto him in one clean motion. Buried deep inside her, he held her close and kissed her. She swiveled her hips and broke the kiss, letting out a moan of pleasure. Passion and arousal were a hot blaze, urging her movements harder and faster.

  Desire shuttered his eyes and she felt bolder with every response of his body. He was thick and hard inside her and she had the power to move how she wanted.

  Timid at first, and then forgetting everything except how incredible it felt to be joined with him, she moved. His hands were at her hips, guiding her, sliding his body inside hers.

  She felt the pressure between her hips and an orgasm built and exploded, ripping through her. Casimir swept her into his powerful arms. He flipped her onto her stomach and slid a pillow beneath her hips. He entered her from behind.

  He thrust slowly. “Is this okay?”

  Her overexcited body was tingling. She thought she would burst from his thickness. “It’s good.” She gripped the sheets to keep from sliding at the strength of his thrusts.

  He increased his pace. He was taking her to new heights in his relentless pursuit of pleasure, bringing her with him. His thickness and length were almost too much, pushing her to the edge of another release. Casimir let out a growl and shoved hard into her, pausing for a beat before withdrawing and pressing inside her again.

  Knowing he had finished, she let herself go, turning her body over to him.

  How could she ever marry another man when her heart belonged to him?

  Chapter 10

  Santino burst into Serena’s office at seven the next morning.

  Serena stood to greet her uncle. “Good morning, what brings you by?” Serena had already skimmed the news that morning and saw no further mention of scandal related to her and Casimir, not even after he had attended Katarina’s birthday celebration. Not that it was far from the minds of the press, but it didn’t get top billing anymore.

  Santino handed her a thick envelope.

  “What’s this?” Serena asked.

  “The paperwork for the merger with Rizari, ready for your signature.”

  The merger, in other words, her marriage to King Warrington. “I haven’t had time to review it.” She had read it. But she wasn’t on board with everything stated in it.

  “You can’t drag your feet on this. Enough time has passed. If we let too much time go...”

  “Then what?” Would King Warrington change his mind? Would he attack Acacia and take it by force instead of by marriage?

  “We are exposed. Icarus could attack while we dawdle and debate trivial details.”

  The summit meeting had not gone well. But Serena had hope that Icarus, Rizari and Acacia could still come to an agreement. Her marriage to King Warrington wasn’t a done deal and she hadn’t lost her bargaining power. She wasn’t convinced that Demetrius DeSante and Icarus were the prime threats. She sensed more scheming and treachery from King Warrington.

  Her uncle appeared worried. “If we renege on the arrangement with Rizari, that is an insult that King Warrington will not forgive.”

  “Do you think he will respond by attacking us?” Serena asked.

  Her uncle seemed unsure how to answer. “I don’t know what to think.”

  Serena tilted her chin proudly. “Maybe I’ll run Acacia myself.” She said it to test his response, to see if anyone would believe it was possible, aside from her and Casimir.

  Her uncle shook his head. “How in the world do you intend to do that? You have no experience. You get nervous giving speeches. The press makes fun of you, constantly comparing you to Danae.”

  His lack of faith in her cut to the core. She had much to learn and she was open about that, but she was smart and capable. Her father had run the country for decades, just as her grandfather had before him. It was in her blood. She had watched her father all her life. She had learned from him and that counted for something. “I’ll do everything I can. Our Assembly is strong and I have great hopes for the future.”

  “How can you possibly think you are capable of running a country?” Her uncle slammed his fist against her desk. “You’ve behaving like a spoiled child. You’re wasting time pining for some commoner and imagining some fantasy where you’re with him. You have a duty and an obligation to your country. This isn’t an experiment for you to attempt. This isn’t about making you feel good about yourself or boosting your self-esteem. The few times you’ve been in public, you’ve looked like a bumbling dolt.”

  His harsh words struck at her deepest insecurities. “I realize how important this country is and how important my position.”

  “If you realize it, then sign the papers. Stop exposing us to attack!”

  Serena heard the shaking anger—or was it fear—in her uncle’s voice and couldn’t believe it was directed at her. “I will when I am ready.” Then she thought about what finalizing the merger would mean for her and Casimir.

  “You’ll sign them now. The enemy is at the gate. The enemy has been in this space. In our home.”

  Serena felt tears come to her eyes. It wasn’t solely her uncle upsetting her. The painful emotions that tightened her chest were rooted in her unresolved feelings for Casimir, her raw grief for her father and her sister, and the tremendous responsibilities that had been set upon her shoulders. “Give me time.” Perhaps her uncle felt responsible for her and that stress was affecting him.

  “Serena, I have always tried to protect you. This is a time where I need to protect you from yourself.”

  Serena stood and strode toward her office door. If her uncle wouldn’t leave, she would. Santino grabbed her arm and his grip tightened. “Sign the papers, Serena. You won’t be a good queen on your own.”

  She tried to shake him off, but his grip held. “You have no faith in me.”

  “Neither does anyone else in the country.”

  Serena felt as if she’d been slapped.

  “You were practically estranged from your father and you’ve been dragged back to a position you don’t want. Why are you resisting?”

  “Because what I want has changed,” Serena said.

  “So help me, if you make this about some puppy love with that man, then I will have to take drastic action.”

  “Drastic action?”

  Her uncle’s expression was menacing. “I will do whatever is necessary to protect the people of Acacia, even if it’s from their queen.”

  * * *

  Casimir’s judgment was clouded. He had set out on this path of vengeance years earlier and thought he knew what he wanted: to avenge his father’s death and his mother’s honor.

  Serena had unexpectedly become part of that plan, a game chang
er. She was supposed to bring him closer to Warrington and the evidence he needed to take his rightful place as heir to the throne in Rizari. His father’s killer would be brought to justice and his mother would have peace.

  Serena wasn’t supposed to be hurt in the process. She wasn’t supposed to know anything about him. His goal had been to get in and out, with zero emotional ties and nothing to trace him to Rizari.

  Casimir couldn’t see Serena as a piece in a chess game. She was a woman, a strong and beautiful woman, who was coming into her own. She could handle so much more than the people around her gave her credit for. He had underestimated her and he had been wrong about her.

  Casimir needed to tell Serena how he felt about her. Tell her the truth about who he was. Serena’s beautiful face filled his thoughts. Could he find a way to come clean with her without hurting her? The truth was brutal.

  He walked toward Serena’s office, needing to speak with her. He didn’t know what he would say, but he needed to clear his conscience.

  “What are you doing here?” Iliana asked, standing from her desk.

  “I need to speak to Serena,” Casimir said.

  Iliana glanced nervously at the door. “She’s talking with her uncle.”

  That didn’t matter. Casimir needed to see her. He burst inside the door. Santino was gripping Serena’s arm.

  “We’re in the middle of something. Come back later,” Santino said.

  Not a chance. “Let her go. Now.”

  Her uncle released her. Lucky for him. Casmir had killed a man for less.

  “What exactly is going on here?” Casimir asked, feeling his protective instincts rising.

  “I’m handing this,” Serena said.

  “This is none of your concern, commoner. I’m trying to prevent my niece from ruining her life and running this country into the ground.”

  “By forcing me to sign the marriage agreement,” Serena said.

  “Instead, she is caught up in a fantasy about you and refusing to sign,” her uncle said.

  “I am not a girl caught in a fantasy. I am queen of this country and I am trying to do what is best for Acacia,” Serena said.

  Her voice was strong and clear. Casimir was proud of her for standing up for herself.

  “Name your price,” Santino said to him.

  “Price for what? Walking out of here and leaving you alone with Serena? I have no price for that.”

  “Your price to walk out of her life completely,” Santino said.

  Even if Santino offered to kill Samuel Warrington in exchange for abandoning Serena, Casimir wouldn’t do it. That truth felt like a bowling ball in his stomach. She meant too much to him. “You can’t buy me off.”

  Serena smiled at him. Santino glared.

  Iliana stepped inside the office. She was deathly pale. “Serena, it’s happened. There’s been an act of aggression between Rizari and Icarus. This will mean war.”

  * * *

  The words act of aggression rang loud in Serena’s head. What had happened? She couldn’t reach either King Warrington or President DeSante.

  Serena called for the heads of the Assembly and her advisers to gather at the castle. She wanted to be prepared to make decisions quickly. Though her uncle had not left, he was quiet.

  After several more tries, she finally reached King Warrington.

  “I need to know what is going on,” Serena said. She was shocked by the hardness of her own voice.

  “One of DeSante’s submarines came too close to our shores and we fired at it.”

  “You opened fire on an Icarus sub?” Serena asked. She had anticipated Icarus being the aggressor. If they had traveled close to Rizari’s shores, it was provocation, but a full-on attack was a declaration of war.

  “We didn’t open fire. Our navy is trained to respond to attacks and follow protocols, and they did.” He didn’t sound happy. He sounded angry and bewildered.

  “Have you spoken to DeSante?” Serena asked.

  “No.”

  Serena wanted to scream in frustration. It was absolutely critical that communication stay open between the two leaders. “Stay on the line. I’m calling him.”

  She put Warrington on hold and called for Iliana. “Get DeSante on the phone.” Using her cousin’s connection to him had never been more important.

  Iliana nodded. When DeSante came on the line, he didn’t sound upset.

  “I warned you that Warrington wanted war.”

  She hadn’t gotten the impression from Warrington that war was the goal. “I just spoke to him. I think we need to discuss this incident. It may have been an unfortunate training issue.”

  DeSante scoffed. “Training issue? No, Your Highness. If you believe that, you aren’t the intelligent woman I believed you to be.”

  She was momentarily struck by the compliment, but she pressed on. This wasn’t about her. “DeSante, no one wants war.” Especially not her. Acacia would be the loser in this scenario.

  “Aren’t you supposed to back your boyfriend?”

  Serena thought of Casimir first, then realized DeSante was referring to King Warrington. “I am behind peace.”

  “At any price?”

  “I am willing to do whatever you need to keep this discussion going and not have the situation turn violent.”

  “It has already turned violent. My sub was manned. Four deaths.”

  “May I conference in Warrington so we might speak about this together?” Rationally and calmly as three leaders who didn’t want additional casualties.

  “The time for speaking was at the summit. Now it is time for action.”

  Serena tried again. “Please, President DeSante, if you would reconsider your position.”

  “Demetrius, please listen to Serena. You know that this is a difficult time for our administration. If you attack Rizari, you will force Serena into marrying Warrington.” Iliana was on her extension and had jumped into the conversation. She sounded desperate and scared.

  Though Serena thought it was inappropriate, given Iliana’s relationship with the president and his soft side when it came to her, it might help. Peace at any price.

  “Iliana, I did not realize you were on the call,” DeSante said.

  “I wasn’t supposed to be. But I couldn’t help it.” She didn’t sound sorry.

  “You understand that Rizari destroyed one of Icarus’s submarines today?” DeSante said. His tone when speaking to Iliana was a hundred times softer and warmer than it had been when speaking to her.

  “We don’t know the circumstances.”

  “I know the circumstances.”

  “Demetrius, please, don’t do this.”

  “Iliana, you cannot play on my affection for you to manipulate me. I have a country to protect.”

  Iliana hung up the phone with a growl of outrage.

  Serena didn’t know how to play this. She was hopelessly lost. “President DeSante, before any further action is taken, we need to discuss this with Warrington.”

  “No, Your Highness. You do what you must, and I will do the same.” DeSante disconnected the call.

  Serena returned to her call with Warrington. He was no easier to talk with. She received the same hard-line response from him.

  The best she could do was meet him to speak in person. Though she had previously declined the invitation, she agreed to meet Warrington in Rizari at the symphony hall, where he had scheduled a performance of the country’s most popular orchestra, an annual event held the day after Katarina’s birthday celebration. Warrington was unwilling to cancel the event, though there were clearly more pressing matters to attend to.

  It was a strange place to meet, but if it brought King Warrington to the negotiation table, then she would go, talk, listen and try to defuse the situation. Serena didn’t want war for Acacia and she had to stop this potential disaster before it spiraled out of control.

  * * *

  Casimir felt the shift in the atmosphere at the castle. Serena was doing her best to
hold it together. As the Mediterranean inched toward war, Casimir felt even more urgently that he needed to tell Serena who he was.

  If he made his move and overthrew Warrington, he could prevent war. DeSante would back off if Samuel Warrington was no longer in power.

  But overthrowing Warrington was not a simple task. Perhaps with Serena on his side, it would be easier. Would she support his play for power? Or would she be caught up in her anger at him for having lied to her and turn a blind eye to the benefits of helping him?

  When King Warrington had requested that Serena meet him at the Grand Symphony Hall in Rizari, Casimir had followed her. He was not leaving Serena unprotected and he felt something was amiss. Though he had barely spoken three words to her, he’d stayed close. She’d been conferencing with one person after another—leaders of other countries in the region, the highest ranking members of the Assembly and her advisers. Her meeting with Warrington was next.

  Of all the places King Warrington could meet Serena, why a musical performance? Samuel couldn’t be trusted. Certainly, this event wasn’t more important than the rapidly declining political situation between Rizari and Icarus. He was planning something and Casimir needed to get ahead of whatever it was.

  Upon entering the theater, Casimir promptly spotted Serena. Seated in the king’s balcony, she didn’t know Casimir was watching her and he found her even more beguiling. She was quiet and unassuming, but her eyes were sharp. She had a guard on either side of her, the king’s guards. Warrington had not yet arrived at the hall. Behind her was a heavy blue curtain, the same blue painted on the walls of the circular room. The gold trim was subtle, lining the balconies and stage without detracting from the aura of simplicity. Casimir’s father had commissioned the symphony hall in honor of his brother, Samuel’s father, and his love of music.

  Out of the corner of his eye, Casimir caught a glimpse of Rolland, Demetrius DeSante’s favorite and most trusted assassin. Rolland’s most notable trait was that he was not notable at all. Average height and build, his dark hair was cut short, his eagle eyes sharp. Casimir tensed instinctively. His methods were unpredictable and he was loyal only to money. Raising the body count with innocents and bystanders wasn’t a problem for him if it got the job done.