by Nana Malone
“Ben, I need you.” She swallowed hard and licked her lips.
“Livy. We need a condom. And I don’t have any in here. We took a risk last time.”
She-devil that she was, she stroked me, all the while biting her bottom lip. “I’m on the pill.”
Yes! There was a God. No, you know the right way to do this. Fuck my fucking conscience. That fucker was dead to me. “Liv, it’s still a risk. I want to do this right. When I fuck you bare, I won’t ever want to wait for condoms again. I’m just waiting on my tests to come back.”
She pouted. “So you’re telling me,” she pressed my cock against her clit and her eyes rolled in the back of her head, “that we’re not making love right now?”
No. What? Yes. Yes that was exactly what I was saying—except, she kept stroking me along her slick folds and my brain cells had promptly taken a vacation. “Olivia.”
Her grin was pure evil. “You’re right, I do like bossy Bennett. I’m sorry, should I stop?” The head of my cock, dipped inside her.
“Fuck me.”
“Gladly.”
Even as the laugh tore out of my chest, I squeezed my eyes shut. Fuck she was wet. And slick. And warm. So damn hot.
The tingles started in the base of my spine, and I bit off a curse. “Damn it, I was supposed to be in charge today.”
The evil woman lifted a brow and gave me a saucy smile as her pussy clenched around my head. “Are you?” She had my number, and we both knew it. She wanted another orgasm, and she’d worked out that I was weak enough to give her whatever she wanted, however she wanted.
I gritted my teeth, then stilled her hand. It took some mental wrangling, but I managed to give the command to my hand to remove her from my dick. Unfortunately, that obviously took the bulk of my brain power.
Because when I was in the driver’s seat with my cock, I stroked it through her folds again.
Not smart.
I’ve already fucked her bare once.
You were waiting on your blood test results.
I was tested just a little over six months ago. And the only person I’d slept with was someone I’d known for years, and we just occasionally shagged with no strings if we were both in town.
You promised to take care of her.
Yes. Yes, I had. But one could argue that giving her another orgasm was, in fact, taking care of her.
The desire flooded my veins, and I couldn’t think straight. It felt too good. I’d do anything to hold onto that feeling.
She seduced me with those tiny moans she made like she couldn’t get enough of me. My hips notched right against hers, my dick in perfect alignment with her sweet heat. I dipped the head into Nirvana again, and we both moaned low. My whole body was tingling.
Stroking my dick against her, I leaned forward, fusing our lips together. I palmed her breast as our kisses grew more frantic and became a tangle of tongues and a clashing of teeth. I dipped inside again while pressing a thumb over her clit. For the hat trick, I pinched her nipple.
Livy’s eyes went wide as she wrenched her lips from mine, threw her head back, and started to convulse.
I watched in awe as her eyes squeezed shut, her hands clutched in my hair, and her lips parted in bliss. I could watch that expression all day every day for the rest of my life.
I was coated in her slickness. And as I stroked my cock, I slid my tongue into her mouth, kissing her deep, muffling her cries. The added connection tripped me into the point of no return.
When she met my tongue with hers, that tingling exploded from the base of my spine shooting down to my bloody feet, through my chest, through my whole body.
I forced myself to pull away from her, and as I stroked, thick ropes of my release coated her slick lips.
My legs started to convulse as I kept coming. Fuck, I was going to die. Like this. On top of Livy.
There were worse ways to go.
My impending doom was only solidified when she reached between us and gently took hold of my still-hard dick, sliding it back inside her.
Oh. Fuck. Me.
My traitorous dick swelled as her heat surrounded me. Well, if we were going to hell, I might as well make it count. I laid her back onto my desk, fusing our lips together as I pumped my hips.
Her nails scored my back as she started to contract around me once more. To help her along, I dipped my head, pulling the perfect bud of her nipple into my mouth and reaching between us to stroke my thumb over her clit.
Her legs locked behind me, her back arched off my desk, and her pussy clamped around me like she was never letting me free.
But it was her soft murmur of my name against her lips as she started to come down that set me off into the stratosphere. The edges of my vision started to gray as bliss rocketed through my body, and I knew this was the woman who’d been made for me.
She was part of me, and I was part of her, and there was no way I was ever letting her go.
15
Livy
I didn’t know what I’d expected from a princess’s home, but what I saw wasn’t it. Jessa and Roone’s loft was located in Mayfair. It was open and airy and oh so modern, but she had normal magazines on the counter. Hello and People were just sitting there like there wasn’t a pretentious bone in her body.
Royalty, they’re just like us.
The art on her walls was refined. Expensive. But she also had a Marks and Spencer rewards card on her key chain. And the party plates she put out were Ikea. I only knew because I had the same ones. I’d spent a lot of time worrying about trying to impress her, and she was completely down to earth.
Ben sat close. Every now and again he reached out and touched me, made sure I was okay, or offered to get me a drink.
Ever since yesterday, he’d refused to leave my side. And at every opportunity he had, he was touching me like he feared I’d change my mind about us again.
Not that I minded, because if I was being honest, I was still having aftershocks from what happened in the office that afternoon. That was singlehandedly the hottest, most reckless thing I had ever done in my entire life.
And God knew, I wasn’t reckless. My reckless adventures had started exactly a month and a half ago when I met him. Before that, I never would have let my boss go down on me in his office and then cap everything off with an excellent fuck on his desk.
I could still hear him whispering in my ear. “That’s it, love. Open wide for me. Show me how pretty you are.” I flushed, shifting and crossing my legs.
“All right?” He leaned down and asked.
Asshole. He knew what he was doing to me. “Yep.” I tried for a demure nod, but the wolfish grin he gave me told me knew just what I was thinking about.
Lucas and East were setting up. Bridge was talking to Drew. Jessa was sitting on her husband’s lap, whispering something with him, looking like a couple in love. God, the way he looked at her. Their love was palpable. He looked like he wanted to eat her alive and we were keeping him from that. His look very much said, ‘You’re wearing too many clothes right now.’ More than once I caught her shoving his hands away from sliding under her skirt.
Finally, Lucas stood, and with a smile and he said, “Five more minutes and we’ll be ready to go.”
Jessa frowned and shoved her husband’s hand off her. “Seriously, we’re not waiting for Bryna? She’s here in London and she’s part of Team Winston Isles, and you’re not including her?”
Lucas shook his head. “Nope.”
“The whole family has been through a lot. As a rule, we only make it through because we handle things together. And now, Lucas, my big brother, whom I love, is being a dick and leaving out his fiancée.”
Lucas raised a brow. “I’m not being a dick. But already, the idea of moving is an adjustment for Bryna. She doesn’t need all of this. Besides, this will be an in-and-out job. And she doesn’t need to know that I came back to do this.”
I frowned at that. The whole interaction made me a little uneasy. He had s
omeone he wasn’t telling, and I thought maybe none of us should be keeping secrets at that point. I wasn’t exactly sure I had the right to speak up, but I muttered, “If her not knowing is a distraction for you, isn’t that a problem?”
He turned slowly to assess me and lifted a brow before his gaze shifted to Ben. “I see you found one smarter than you are. Well done.”
“I have excellent taste. Maybe you should listen to Jessa. Bryna should be here.”
He shook his head. “Not happening.” He said it in a way that indicated the conversation was over. When everything was set, he called the impromptu meeting to order. “Okay beggars and thieves, first an assessment of the skills that we have in the room. Jessa and Roone, both of you are excellent with handguns and hand-to-hand combat, except, obviously, I’m not looking to put my sister at risk.” He rubbed at the stubble on his jaw.
She flipped him the finger. “You know I’m still better with a gun than you are.”
He rolled his eyes at that. “I don’t need a gun. I’ll make it out of most situations before anyone sees me.”
It was Jessa’s turn to roll her eyes and groan. “I’m not going to be stuck on comms. Give it to one of the pretty boys.” She waived vaguely in Bridge’s direction. “You look pretty. You don’t want to get your face messed up, do you? You be on comms.”
Bridge blinked at her. “Jessa, we’ve worked together far too long for you to say that I’m just a pretty face. I have skills you know.”
“Bridge, I know, fast hands,” Lucas said.
Bridge winked and added a little bit more East End to his accent. “I’ve not always been a paragon of virtue. So yes, fast hands is a good way of putting it.”
Ben laughed. “Bridge, mate, no. We want to stay as far away from this as possible. You need to be hands-off. What, you’re going to run in and be fighting? We need plausible deniability.”
“Mate, you’re benching me?” Bridge scowled at that.
We were quickly devolving, but Lucas got it back on track. “Look, I just want to ascertain skills. But let’s be clear, I’m keeping this as simple as possible. No muss no fuss. We don’t want to complicate anything.”
As it turned out, East, Bridge, and Ben all had hand-to-hand, tactical fight training. Ben had some anti-kidnap skills too. Jessa had some training like that, but she was good with guns as well. After all, she was a princess. Roone had all the training, the guns, all of it. And he was also an experienced strategist and former military.
I licked my lips nervously, needing to offer up something. “Um, I don’t have any skillsets. Not any useful ones anyway.”
Ben squeezed my hand and nudged me. “Not true. She’s an excellent researcher. She doesn’t panic under pressure, and she has some self-defense skills.”
My brows lifted then. Hadn’t he just yelled at me a few weeks ago about taking stupid risks? Or was it because I’d wanted to go back to my old flat and it had more to do with the fact that I might see Dexter.
“I’m happy to research anything we need, but I’m not sure how it will help. I can also pick most locks in under two minutes.”
Every gaze in the room swung to mine.
“What?” I shrugged. “Try being a teenager with a parent in the diplomatic corps. I often had to sneak back into my quarters. Just don’t ask me where I picked up that skill.”
Roone perked up at this. “This I can work with. We can work a little on tightening up your self-defense techniques.”
“Okay thanks. Sounds good.”
Ben was still staring at me, mouth working but no sound coming out. Lucas blinked several times, but he was more than happy to put me to good use. “It’ll all come in handy. But you will actually play a vital role in this plan.”
I lifted a brow. “How?”
“All you have to do is get us an invite to the annual Art for Charity Auction.”
Was that it? “I’ll do what I can. It’s a bit late in the season, but I have some contacts of Mom’s I can maybe squeeze a ticket out of.”
Lucas’s smile was cheeky smugness. “Good. We’ll need two. One for Jessa and one for me.”
It was the first time I’d seen Ben hesitate since the beginning of all this. “Lucas, mate, are you sure this is a good idea? Are you sure you want to go back to this?”
The prince didn’t hesitate. “One-time engagement. Besides, it feels good to be alive again. And this is a simple job. Jessa makes nice with April Van Linsted, I make the simple swap out. We’re out of the benefit before she even knows she’s got a fake on. Only thing we need is a good forger.”
Ben shifted next to me. His discomfort rolling off him in waves. “It seems too simple.”
I wanted to reassure him. But I saw it on his face. Everything was riding on our ability to steal this jewel. Everything. And right now, he wasn’t entirely sure that we could pull it off.
Lucas nodded. “April Van Linsted, like her husband, likes to show off, show out. And what better reason to do that, than to have royalty visit.”
From the corner, Jessa nodded. “Lucas is right for once. She’ll feel compelled to invite us to the estate and that will be our way in. And she’ll certainly want to show off the Van Linsted power and fortune. She’ll want to impress me.”
“She’ll wear the bracelet. Easy peasy. No one else needs to be involved. And all of you come out clean.”
Roone growled from the corner. “Except Jessa. No way Jessa’s clean. And,” he kissed his wife’s neck, “I love you, sweetheart, but I don’t think your hands are that good.”
Jessa leaned away from the kiss. “My hands are, in fact, that good. Thank you. But I’m merely there as the distraction.”
Lucas nodded. “I have an idea for the forger. She’ll make a replica so good that even with a loupe it will be hard to tell the difference. Hell, you lot are rich enough to make her a diamond that looks good enough to pass muster.”
Behind me, I could almost feel the wheels in Ben’s brain turning. As if he was trying to estimate the danger of it all. “I don’t like it. Jessa is exposed at that point.”
Roone nodded. “Amen. Finally, one of you is thinking clearly.”
East chimed in. “But it’s low risk. What, they’re going to go after a princess? They wouldn’t dare. Given who she is, and who her brothers are, there’s no way the Van Linsteds will go after her.”
“You really want to risk it?” Roone’s scowl only deepened. “My wife is the one who’d be in there.”
Lucas sighed. “Mate, she’s my sister. Clearly, I don’t want anything happening to her.”
East rubbed the back of his neck. “Am I going to have to be the one who says it?”
Roone frowned and turned to face him. Bridge crossed his arms. Drew, apparently, had no idea what was going on either. “What do you mean?” he asked.
East’s gaze flickered to meet each of ours. “Jessa is mixed race. The Van Linsteds are closet racists. So we’re going to run into the problem of whether or not she will see Jessa as enough of a societal boon to even wear the stone. She only trots it out of the vault for important events. Not to mention, Lucas’s past might already be known to her.”
The prince shook his head. “Not in these circles. No one knows I was a thief. All anyone knows is that I’m the bastard son of a king.”
Jessa lifted her chin. “Legitimized.”
Lucas sighed. “Fine. Legitimized. But that’s how these people will think of me. As a prince. No one knows I’m a thief.”
East shrugged. “Fair enough that no one knows. But whether they know or not, they will immediately suspect Jessa and come for her with everything they have. Her reputation, everything she’s built. It’s too risky. If we’re smart, we’ll keep her far away from April Van Linsted.”
Even I could see Lucas’s frustration as he ran his hands through his hair. “Have some faith. Or you can always make a replica with identical weight. Who wants to drop a hundred million?”
Bridge winced. “I’m not giving
them a hundred million dollars. Besides, a hundred million dollars only keeps them where they are. The point is for them to feel the pain once the jewel is gone. They feel the pain of losing everything that they’ve worked for. Their power. I’m not going to give it back to them on a silver platter.”
Lucas rubbed at his jaw. “I know it’s not ideal, but this is the cleanest way. No one else has to get hurt. No one else is in danger. There are no extra moving pieces. If Jessa doesn’t want to be involved, I can still make the lift. I just need a good distraction. But it will be easier with Jessa. April’s bodyguards won’t read me as a threat.”
Roone opened his mouth to argue, but Jessa stopped him. “I ran through this with Lucas. I agree. This is the way. It’s easy. It’s simple. And there’s no danger to anyone else. So what if she suspects that I’ve done something? What’s the big deal? She’ll have a bitch of a time proving it.”
Roone sat forward. “I don’t like it.”
Ben echoed his thoughts. “I don’t like it either.”
East, Bridge, Drew and Lucas were on the side of, ‘Hell yes, let’s go for it.’
Everyone looked at me. “I mean, if it’s clean and easy, and no one gets hurt… I just… I don’t want anyone else to have to deal with the Van Linsteds. They’re cruel.”
Jessa gave me a smile. “Look, this is easy. I smile and let her slight me all she wants while Lucas makes the switch. They’ll never know.”
East looked at Lucas. “How are we going to get it out?”
“No one ever searches private security. We have a royal guard each, but if we want to be showy with the Van Linsteds, we’ll want more.”
Ben didn’t love the plan, but he offered his assistance. “I’ll get you men from my team. I don’t love it, but it’s clean. If Jessa is willing to do it, then okay.”
Lucas gave him a brisk nod. “It’s the simplest solution. The only thing is making sure she sends an invite.”
I sat forward then. “I can do that. Alia Reynolds, who works as the fundraising chair for the Van Linsteds, called a few weeks ago wanting to do a special tribute to my mother for another charity. I can mention that Jessa and Lucas are in town and see if I can get them an invite.”
