The Prince and the Pawn

by Reid, B. B.

  “What’s going on here?” my father demanded as his gaze shifted from me and narrowed on his star player. Vaughn was busy trying to blink the water from his eyes. “Rees? What are you doing here?”

  “I came to talk to your daughter, Coach.”

  Vaughn’s voice was thick and raspy, and despite the trouble I was in, I smirked. Unfortunately, it was the wrong time for me to be smug because my father’s gaze had already returned to me.

  “And what is it that you came to talk to her about?”

  I tensed, hearing the suspicion in my father’s tone. Vaughn’s gaze sheepishly fell to the ground as his massive shoulders slumped. My gaze narrowed at the same time he stuck his hands in his pockets. What was this? He was the perfect picture of shy. I wasn’t buying it for a second.

  “I came to—I came to ask her for help, sir.”

  “With what, son?”

  On the contrary, it seemed that my father was eating it up.

  “I was thinking about our talk this afternoon, and I realized you were right. Being the best player on the team doesn’t excuse me from making good grades.” He chose that moment to look up, his gaze pleading and humble. It was clear my gullible father was buying Vaughn’s bullshit when he laid his hand on the quarterback’s shoulder. “Your daughter is the smartest person in our school, sir. I was just hoping she’d tutor me.”

  “I see. And the reason for the hose?”

  My lips parted to answer, but Vaughn beat me to the punch, twisting the truth in his favor.

  “It’s my fault,” he said, his gaze returning to the ground. “I got a little desperate, Coach. I wouldn’t take no for an answer.”

  “He’s lying!” I didn’t even consider the trouble I’d be in if I told the truth. I wasn’t supposed to be at the party where I’d caught Vaughn’s eye. Unless…his interest began earlier that day when I told him off at school for being a bully? I shook my head because it seemed so unlikely. Vaughn liked girls who were pliable and easy. Who were…not me.

  Fortunately, my claim fell on deaf ears as my father whirled on me, his eyes that weren’t as light as mine, ablaze with fury. “Tyra Morgan Bradley, explain yourself!”

  “I—” The words became stuck in my throat, not because of my father’s anger but because of the grin now spreading across Vaughn’s lips. He winked the second he caught my gaze, pissing me off even further. Fine. This game he started was for two. Only I could play it better. “The truth is that he looks awfully like that sex predator we saw on the news the other day. Don’t you remember, Daddy? It’s uncanny.”

  My father blinked weary eyes at me. “Enough. I want you to show Rees inside and get him into some dry clothes.”

  “But—”

  “That wasn’t a request, Tyra.”

  And so began Vaughn’s embarrassingly easy victory over my heart and soul.

  “What did he say?” I asked when I finally found the courage.

  Vaughn shrugged as he wiped some of River’s drool from his chin. “He was pissed, but he didn’t seem surprised. Your father isn’t stupid, pip. He trusted you to make smart choices on your own.”

  Vaughn’s lips flattened, and I had the feeling it was out of guilt rather than anger. Despite what he’d done, I didn’t put one-hundred percent of the blame on Vaughn. He’d been honest about his intentions from the start. It had been my ego and stubborn heart that chose not to listen.

  Of course, I thought with a wry twist of my lips, it didn’t give him the right to fool around with my sister.

  “Hey,” I said when his turmoil didn’t seem to be passing. He looked at me then, sorrow filling his green gaze, so I flashed him a crooked smile, an olive branch of sorts. “We can’t change the past. There’s no need to hurt your poor butthole trying.”

  He quietly mulled that over before offering a reluctant nod. I thought at least my advice would ease the tension, but it only seemed to increase it. “Can I stay?” he asked after a while. My sharp inhale was audible. Sensing my worry, he rushed to add, “I’ll sleep on the recliner.”

  “You’ll regret it,” I warned him after forcing myself to calm down.

  He glanced down at River, but when he met my gaze again, he stared at me for the longest time. “No, I won’t.”

  My reaction, thankfully, was silent this time. A chill worked its way down my spine as my belly tightened and my heart fluttered. I forced myself to smile good-naturedly since Vaughn was always good at reading me. He was especially keen at detecting when I was horny. “Only if River says it’s okay.”

  Our son released a sharp cry, and as he fussed, he turned his head from side to side, making Vaughn wince. I was sure his feelings were a little bruised. “I’m just going to take that as a yes, anyway,” Vaughn stubbornly teased him.

  “In River’s defense, it’s probably because you’re holding him like a football.”

  At Vaughn’s dumbfounded blink, I tossed aside the blanket that had been wrapped around me, then stood and padded over to them. His gaze dropped, and when it seemed to burn, I remembered that I was only wearing tiny shorts and a thin tank. Despite the hospital feeling like the arctic, I had a habit of overheating at night, which was why I always wore little to nothing. In fact, I usually wore less, to Vaughn’s pleasure, during those nights, I snuck him up to my room after my father had fallen asleep.

  “Preemies have a hard time keeping themselves warm.” Taking River from him, I told Vaughn to hold out his arms. Swallowing at the veins threading through his forearms, I gently placed River back in his arms. “Hold him close to your chest so that he can feel your heartbeat and share your warmth.”

  Vaughn did as I directed, and River slowly quieted. “You think I’m warm?” he flirted once River had gone still. Vaughn’s head was tilted, and his lips turned up in a smirk.

  I rolled my eyes even as my own body temperature rose. “I think basic biology says that you are.”

  “And what do you say?” he challenged.

  Turning back to the sofa, I began pulling out the bed hidden inside. “I say we should steer clear of the subject since nothing good can come of it.” I pulled out the sheets and covers I’d brought from home, grateful that Vaughn didn’t seem willing to argue.

  “Can we talk about what you plan to do when the fall comes?” he asked after I finished making the sofa bed.

  I paused from pulling my hair up into a bun. “What do you mean?”

  “I mean when school starts up again, and you have to go back to Harvard. What happens to River?”

  “I’m not going back to Harvard.” The indifference I heard in my tone might as well have been nails on a chalkboard. I cringed. “I lost my scholarship.”

  Vaughn’s fury was immediate.

  “How the hell did you do that?” he snapped. If he hadn’t been holding River, I would have clawed his eyes out. His blatant disappointment was a kick to my stomach when I was already down. Vaughn had been the wrench in my plans, and I blamed no one but myself. I’d stupidly allowed him in.

  “How do you think, Rees?”

  I didn’t allow him the chance to respond before I hurried inside the mini en suite and slammed the door shut. I wanted to run back out there and scream at him to leave. For River’s sake, I sank onto the bathroom floor and hugged my knees instead. Frustration and grief bubbled up inside of me, but it wasn’t for Harvard. I didn’t want to accept the inevitable truth. The reason I hated Vaughn Rees so deeply. It wasn’t because of the wreckage he left of my heart. It was because, despite it all, he still held it in his soulless grip.

  All of these months, I’d kidded myself.

  I would never be whole again.

  Trembling, I wrapped my arms around Vaughn’s neck as he moved inside of me slowly.

  “Pip,” he pleaded, staring into my eyes. Two tears slipped from his own. I never thought I’d see the day Vaughn Rees cried. “I think I’m drowning, pip.”

  “I’ll save you,” I vowed. And I would. I’d do whatever it took.

 
He shook his head before he kissed me, a desperate meeting of our souls as he deepened his strokes. I could feel his piercing teasing a spot deep inside of me. A spot that nearly had my eyes rolling back as I tasted the alcohol on his lips, greedily allowing it to dull my senses more. “That’s the last thing I want,” he whispered when he came up for air. “Because it’s you. You’re what’s pulling me under.” I held him tighter, which seemed to be exactly what he needed. “Promise you won’t let go?”

  “I promise.”

  “I love you, pip,” he whispered.

  “I love you, too.”

  Admitting it felt as natural as breathing. As natural as the feel of his cum when he released inside of me.

  “Pip, wake up.”

  I groaned, batting at the hand that shook me as I desperately tried to return to the beautiful dream. Only…it hadn’t been a dream. It was a wonderful memory.

  “Wake the fuck up!”

  Gasping, I shot up, clutching the sheets that were soaked in my sweat. Vaughn, who was frowning at me, his gorgeous hair mussed from sleep, stood over me. I must have woken him.

  Details of the dream came flooding back to me all at once as my body heated.

  “We didn’t use a condom.” My voice was a whisper of horror. Vaughn’s face was contorted from aggravation over having his sleep interrupted.

  “What are you talking about?” he demanded impatiently.

  “That night at the beach house. We got really drunk, we…” My gaze traveled to the crib. “We didn’t use a condom.”

  Vaughn’s only response was to yawn as he stared down at me blankly.

  “Well, aren’t you going to say something?” I shouted. The lights about the crib flashed, and River gave a short whine. Shit.

  “Why would I? It’s not like we can change the past, right?”

  I blinked in shock. What—

  He’d thrown my words from earlier back at me.

  I never thought for a second that they would anger him, but it was clear they had, and I wondered why. “Vaughn…I didn’t say that to hurt you.”

  “Right. Because I’m so heartless, telling me I don’t have a shot in hell with you no matter what I do would have zero effect on me.”

  My lips parted. What?

  “That’s not—”

  “Save it and go back to fucking sleep.”

  Even at a whisper, Vaughn’s tone was harsh. He turned away from me, and I shot up from the sofa bed as he made his way over to the recliner. Vaughn ignored me, closing his eyes to pretend to sleep, even when I stood over him. “How could you twist my words like that?”

  “That’s what you meant, isn’t it?” Before I could tell him no, he continued. “It is. Even if you aren’t willing to admit it, deep down, that’s what you meant.”

  “You told me you didn’t want to be with me, either.”

  His eyes opened then as his eyebrow rose in challenge. “Did I?”

  “I’m not that fucking wild about you, either,” I mocked, echoing his words from a few days ago. I hadn’t forgotten them. He slowly stood from the recliner, and I forced myself not to back up a step even when he towered over me.

  “I can be pissed at you and still want to kiss the fuck out of you, pip. Don’t you know that by now?”

  “I—what am I supposed to say to that?”

  “Why do you have to say anything at all?” I felt his hand cup my nape, and when he leaned down, I automatically rose to the tips of my toes. The moment his lips touched mine, I could barely remember my own name, much less what we’d done to each other. Each time felt like the first. Even when it was brief, there was no such thing as a casual kiss.

  “You…will…always…be…mine,” he dictated between kisses. This time when he pulled away, he looked me in my eyes. “Do you understand?” Subtly, I felt his hand tighten on my nape in warning. I wasn’t sure if the shudder that made my body tremble was from fear or anticipation.

  “We’ll see about that.” I refused to give in so easily. Or at all.

  There was a rumble in his chest, and then he was kissing me again rather than tossing me away. I guess Vaughn wasn’t so predictable, after all. It felt like our senior year, and he was chasing me all over again. Something told me this time around, he was playing for keeps, and the thought sent my heart soaring at the same time my hands ached to push him away. His tongue slipped between my lips, and I barely noticed his fingers doing the same beneath the waistband of my shorts. They were so thin and short that I hadn’t bothered wearing panties.

  “Your pussy better be fucking wet,” he threatened against my lips.

  Even if by a snowball’s chance in hell I hadn’t been, his low throaty tone had me gushing between my legs. “See for yourself,” I teased at the same time his fingers reached my clit.

  Bypassing it completely, he curled two of his fingers before forcing them inside of me and making me cry out from shock as I rose to the tip of my toes. The cruel glint in his green eyes didn’t stop my pussy from tightening around his fingers in welcome. He didn’t slow down even when another surprised whimper slipped from my lips, one he cut off by closing his hand around my neck.

  For a while, there was only the wet sound of his fingers plunging through my arousal. I wanted to tell him how close I was to coming, but his hold around my throat kept me from speaking.

  “It’s funny,” he taunted as he daringly added a third finger. I rotated my hips, wanting to get him deeper. I’d long forgotten that I was supposed to hate him. “I never forgot the feel of your pussy.” His lips brushed my ear as if he had a secret to tell me. “How wet it gets, how greedily it squeezes me…how every inch of your pussy molded to the curve of my cock.” I whimpered because his words only reminded me that he wasn’t inside of me. At least, not the part of him I needed most. “It’s exactly how I remember it.” His hand tightened until he cut off my air supply. “Exactly how I left it.”

  Vaughn didn’t give me a chance to worry that he’d called me on my shit. I hadn’t been with anyone else, and something told me he’d make damn sure that stayed the case.

  Releasing me, he dropped to his knees, taking my shorts with him as I gasped for air. Before I could even catch my breath, he had my leg hoisted onto his shoulder, and then his tongue flicked my clit. Vaughn suckled, licked, and even bit me as he fucked me with his fingers and tongue until I came. I clapped my hands over my mouth, keeping my scream inside as I rode Vaughn’s face. He didn’t seem to mind one bit even when the movement of my hips became jerky and wild.

  When the wave eventually passed, I was too weak to stand. Luckily, Vaughn was there to catch me, pulling me onto his lap as we both struggled to catch our breath. I could already see round two in his eyes when I met his gaze. He leaned in, and I was more than willing, rising to meet him halfway, but then short, angry cries had us both freezing.

  River had awakened.

  Vaughn groaned before setting me aside and rising to his feet. My eyes were already drooping by the time he washed his hands and lifted River from his crib.

  “Cockblocker,” I swore I heard him mutter. I smiled as I rested my head against the seat of the recliner. In no time, I was asleep, awakening only when I felt myself being lifted. “I wasn’t done with you,” Vaughn griped as he laid me on the sofa bed.

  The room was quiet, so I assumed River was fast asleep. I didn’t bother to protest when I felt Vaughn lay beside me. I told myself it was only because I felt guilty about him sleeping on the recliner. In the morning, I’d ask the nursing staff about having an extra bed brought it. It would be a tight fit, but River would be released in just a week and a half. If we couldn’t make the next few days work, Vaughn and I would be in for a rude awakening over the next eighteen years.

  I expected to feel dread, but all I got was a sleepy yawn as Vaughn curved his hard body behind mine, leaving no space between us. The last thing I felt was his erection in my back and then his arm closing around my waist.

  I felt like I was home.


  THE NEXT MORNING, I WOKE up in bed alone.

  Or so I thought.

  I felt the spot where Tyra had been, and when I came up empty, my eyes slowly opened.

  “Good morning, sunshine.” I shot up with a scowl at seeing Jamie lying on his side next to me, his head propped in his hand and a wide smile. “You’re so beautiful when you sleep, baby.”

  “Fuck off.” I rubbed my eyes before looking around the empty room. Where the hell was Tyra?

  “If you’re looking for your baby mama,” Jamie announced as he stood from the bed, “she’s downstairs having coffee with some poor sap in a janitor’s uniform.”

  I froze. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “Tyra went on a date while you were up here, getting your beauty sleep.”

  I was silent, trying to figure out how the hell that could be when I just had her pussy in my mouth. That prick from the diner flashed in my mind. I guess my message hadn’t been received. Then again, Tyra could be persuasive. She had me chasing her ass.

  “Black, average height, looks like he enjoys pillow talk and long walks on the beach?”

  Shoulders trembling, Jamie bit his bottom lip to keep from laughing out loud. “That would be the one.”

  I felt my nostrils flare as I stood there, contemplating what to do. Obviously, I hadn’t scared him off, or maybe Tyra was so determined to piss me off, she didn’t care what the hell happened to him.

  Seeing tiny movements coming from the crib, I walked over to find River wide awake, his gaze moving all around as if he were looking for his mother, too.

  Fuck her. I refused to play this game. She wanted me jealous, she got it, but that didn’t mean I had to stoop to her level and act on it.

  “If you want my advice,” Jamie began before I cut him off.

  “I don’t.”

  “Damn, man, you should have told me sooner. I’ve already started.” I rolled my eyes even though my back was turned. “Bee and I had a lot of issues—mountains I thought we’d never climb, but we did.” Jamie paused then for dramatic effect. “It’s amazing how much two people can accomplish when they sit down and talk their shit out.”