Risking the Crown

by Violet Paige

  I wanted to know what she tasted like. I wanted to see her body go up in flames when the orgasm hit her.

  Her head rolled to the side and she tried to gather the sheets in her hands, but there was nothing for her to hold on to. Her fingers gripped the back of my head and guided me deeper, riding the building need to come.

  My cock hardened and I wanted to bury myself inside her. Feel her clutch at me. Feel her hot, wet pussy stretch around me. I looked up and saw her body dotted with perspiration. Then with one slow, long lick she lost it.

  She convulsed and shook. I sucked urgently, spurring her on for more. She moaned, forcing her hips higher in the air.

  I lowered her to the bed and reached across her head. There were condoms all over this fucking place. There were bowls in the lobby and every common area. I pulled one from the bedside drawer and rolled it on.

  “Wait, wait.” She breathed.

  I hovered over top of her. “What?”

  “I want to do something you’ve never done before.”

  I sat back. “What?”

  She bit her lip. “I know the whole girlfriend thing is a sham, but I want to do something here. Something you’ve never done with another girl.”

  If she was trying to surprise me, it worked. I was speechless.

  “Anything?” I grinned.

  “Almost anything,” she added.

  I had a history with women. There had been more than I could count. And I had done just about everything I’d wanted to do. Women didn’t walk out on me like this one did. But I didn’t want to tell her last night was a first for me. I had to keep my ego intact.

  But still, she was opening up a list of possibilities I didn’t know I wanted.

  I tried to think of all the ways I could contort us into a position I had never attempted. I imagined her up against the shower wall while I buried myself inside her. I thought about bending her over the end of the bed while I fucked her from behind. It all sounded good. I was harder just thinking about it.

  “I want all of it,” I growled.

  “What?”

  “I’ve never done anything more than once with someone. I want to try all of it with you. Something different every day we’re here.”

  “We can’t have sex every day.” She tried to sit forward.

  “Why not?” I waggled my eyebrows. The Olympics had just gotten a lot better and hotter.

  “Because people don’t do that. Do they?” she asked.

  “We do.” I kissed her roughly.

  “Oh,” she sighed when I pushed the tip of my cock between her legs.

  “You’re so fucking hot, Aspen.” I didn’t know how long I could hold off before I had to thrust inside her. She was already so wet.

  Her fingertips trailed over my chest. Her eyes were heavy with lust.

  “I want to shag you all morning.”

  “Then what are you waiting for?” she tempted.

  I slammed inside her, hilting myself to her core.

  “Oh, God,” she screamed, gripping my shoulders.

  But I couldn’t stop. I wouldn’t stop. I pumped in and out of her. My body taking over with primal need. She felt fucking incredible. Her legs wrapped around my waist and I pushed in before pulling out swiftly. I rocked in and out of her, watching her tits bounce wildly on the bed.

  “Fuck, Aspen.” I wanted more. I needed to be deep inside her. I pushed her knees toward her chest and crawled forward on top of her.

  “It’s so intense,” she whimpered, while she gyrated toward me. “Fuck me. I want it.”

  I wanted to own her. It wasn’t just a stupid joke or a dare. I wanted this woman. I wanted her to be mine in every way. This was the first step in claiming her. Burying myself in her. Filling her with my cock while she clung to me.

  12

  Aspen

  When he first pushed inside me, my entire body surged with a new kind of exotic energy. My core took over and my brain shut off. All I knew was that with each thrust of his cock, I was climbing and higher and higher toward something blissfully erotic. Something my body craved and hungered for.

  Lachlan looked into my eyes with a kind of determination I’d never seen from a man before. He wanted to sear this into my skin. He wanted to make sure I never forgot what it felt like when he was inside me. I cried out when he flicked my swollen clit with his fingers, strumming it to the point of explosion. It was an exquisite torture.

  “I’m going to come,” I whispered. I didn’t recognize my own voice. “I want to.”

  “Good. Come on my cock when I tell you to.”

  I don’t know what I had agreed to do, only that my body felt alive in a way it hadn’t before. A bead of sweat rolled down Lachlan’s chest and landed on my stomach. Shit, he was hot.

  He moved in and out of me with complete control. Every time I thought I was going to spill into my orgasm he would pull back and start over again. He could feel the power he had over my body and he knew how to use it.

  “Please let me,” I begged. The tension in my belly was almost painful. My thighs tingled and my clit was swollen with want.

  “Tell me you belong to me,” he ordered.

  I didn’t think I could say the words, but that was exactly what was happening. I was giving him control with every thrust. With every kiss.

  If I didn’t come, I was going to be tortured by the bundle of nerves tightening every time Lachlan touched me. I’d never put this fire out on my own. He rubbed his cock between my folds, nudging my clit.

  “Say it,” he commanded.

  “I belong to you,” I groaned. “I’m yours, Lachlan Kenzie.”

  “Yes, you fucking are.” He grinned.

  He pulled out and I looked up at him, puzzled. “What are you doing?”

  I ached between my legs and immediately missed the way he filled me.

  He gripped my hips and flipped me on my stomach. “Fucking you all the ways I want.”

  “Oh God.” I grabbed at the headboard as I felt him push inside me, shoving my ass in the air.

  And the fire took over. I couldn’t stop bouncing and riding him. Every time he slid inside me, I met him with another thrust. I ground my ass against him.

  “Fuck, yeah,” he growled.

  “Now? Can I come now? I can’t hold off anymore. Please. Please let me come on you.” I knew that was what he wanted. And in some deep part of me, I wanted it too. I wanted to coat him in the hot stickiness he created.

  He reached around and I felt his palm slide over my stomach and inch between my legs. He twisted my clit between his fingers. I screamed from the intensity.

  “Now, baby. Now come on me.”

  And I let go. I sat backward as the orgasm shattered me. My back landed on his chest as he grabbed a breast with one hand while the other massaged my clit back and forth. I couldn’t move. I had nowhere to go, but to let the orgasm split through me. It pulsed and rocketed through my limbs, while Lachlan pumped in and out of me with sudden strokes.

  His cock hardened and I felt his body tense and go rigid.

  “Turn around,” he ordered.

  He sat upright while I spun around to face him. I didn’t know I had that kind of sexual agility, but I was learning new things about myself.

  “Ride me. Fuck me hard.”

  Just when I thought I had spent all my energy and there was nothing left, I found a new wave of strength. I jolted up and down, moving over his shaft. It only took a few thrusts before his arms closed around me. His mouth covered mine as he groaned with his own release.

  He fell back on the bed, pulling me with him.

  “Bloody hell,” he whispered.

  I heard the steady beat of his heart. His chest was warm and broad. I felt him slip from between my legs.

  “Is that bloody hell good or bad?” I asked. I didn’t get all the weird British slang he used.

  “Good.” He exhaled. “Very good.”

  I closed my eyes. Good. I’d screwed up everything since I’d been here
, but at least I hadn’t screwed up sleeping with Lachlan.

  His fingers dug into the small of my back. I didn’t expect to feel safe and protected in his arms. I thought it would feel like a stranger’s arms were holding me, but we had crossed planes. What Lachlan and I experienced together wasn’t stranger sex. It was epic. Historic. Cosmic.

  And for the next three weeks, it was mine.

  13

  Lachlan

  A few hours later we stood outside the stadium.

  “Okay, so you know what you have to do?” Aspen asked.

  I scowled. “Play nice is what you call it?”

  “Yes. Play nice with everyone. The press. Your teammates. The water boy. It doesn’t matter. From here on out, we are completely changing your optics.”

  I couldn’t believe I had come up with this scheme. This morning was worth it. She was fucking incredible. But I didn’t want to suck up to the assholes inside the dressing room. I also couldn’t believe I was letting her call the shots.

  She had clamped on to the idea like an eagle with its talons and started running with it. I was impressed. And scared like hell.

  “It’s not me. They’ll see through it,” I argued. “I’ve never been a nice bloke.”

  “It’s going to be the new you. By the time you leave Rio you’ll have an entirely new image. They’ll love you. You’ll have so many endorsement offers you won’t be able to keep them off of you.” She flattened the front of my dress shirt. I had balked when she demanded I dress up for my arrival at practice.

  “And if I don’t want that?” I asked.

  She pinched her brows together. “Do you want my help or not?”

  I groaned. “I fucking need it. Okay?”

  She crossed her arms. “Then remember out here, I’m in charge. We both have a stake in this relationship.”

  I wrapped an arm around her waist and grabbed her ass. “And in bed, I’m charge of this.”

  I eyed her, knowing that under this skirt was the cutest arse I’d ever seen.

  “This isn’t part of the image.” She swatted at me. “You can’t grope me in front of everyone. Proper boyfriends don’t do that.”

  “I never said I’d be a proper boyfriend.” I winked.

  I released her, but felt I had shifted the power back in my direction. I grinned. Maybe it would work after all. As far as fake girlfriends went—I had scored epically. She was smart, sassy, and sexy as fuck.

  “Go. You don’t want to be late. That’s the first thing that has to change. No more tardiness.” She wagged a finger in my direction. “You are here for your country. It shows respect to be on time.”

  I was tempted to grab her again, but I knew I was already testing my limits with her.

  I looked up at the stadium. Today felt different. It helped I didn’t have a raging hangover. And I had this overwhelming sense that I had someone in my corner for the first time in a long time.

  Aspen had her own motives. I wasn’t a prat about it, but there was sincerity under her skin I detected beneath the designer suits and the business talk. She was a bright woman and she didn’t bullshit me like everyone else.

  I took one step inside the fence before the first reporter came out from behind the bushes. Where in the hell did these wankers hide?

  “Lach, what’s your statement on hitting a member of the paparazzi?”

  I felt the anger grip my shoulders. Who in the hell did this guy think he was? I pursed my lips, but before I could spit out a comment, I felt Aspen’s hands glide around my bicep.

  “Mr. Kenzie is here for practice. Maybe we could set up an interview later?” she suggested, flashing a beautiful smile at the bugger.

  “Are you his publicist?” he asked. “We heard he’s no longer represented by an agent.”

  “Me? No, I’m his…” She looked into my eyes, searching for the words.

  “This is my girlfriend.” I pulled her into an embrace.

  “Girlfriend? Can I get a name?”

  I felt her tense in my arms, but this was what we decided. I needed a respectable woman on my arm.

  “Her name is Aspen Pitch and I’d appreciate it if you’d give her some space.”

  “How long have you been dating? What did you think about the video with Lach and the Brazilian girl?” he asked her.

  “Lachlan really needs to get inside. How about another time?”

  She wiggled free and reached up to kiss me on the cheek.

  I threw her a wicked smile before planting a deep kiss on her mouth. She squealed, but I didn’t let go, despite the way she squirmed to break free. The photographer snapped a few pictures while I kissed the hell out of her.

  “See you after practice, love.”

  Her lips came together in a pout.

  I walked through the tunnel into the dressing room for the UK team. I wasn’t used to being the first one in to practice. I wondered if too many things were changing too quickly.

  Yesterday everything had come crashing down. Today I was a new man. At least that was what I had to convince everyone.

  No more drinking. No more women. No more slugging the press.

  I was here for Mother England and her football fans.

  “Look who decided to show up.” Alex whistled behind me.

  I gritted my teeth. “The kits are here today.” I held up my red and blue uniform.

  “They were here yesterday if you had stuck around to see them get delivered.”

  I wanted to shove mine up this prick’s ass, but I couldn’t start a fight five minutes after I walked away from Aspen. She’d be pissed and I wasn’t going back on our deal—not after this morning. Not after we shagged like we did.

  He sat across from me and started unlacing his boots.

  Practice was going to suck.

  Two hours later, I headed out of the stadium. Aspen was waiting for me by the gate along with a pack of reporters. I had showered and wore the suit she had chosen for me. The collar was itchy. I tugged at it, trying to breathe. I missed my T-shirt.

  She smiled as I grew closer.

  “How was practice?” she asked.

  “Brilliant.”

  Her hand fit perfectly through my arm as if she belonged next to me. She grinned up at me.

  “That’s all?”

  “How did things go out here?” She was going to try to do damage control on the reporter incident from yesterday. I wanted to know if she was as good as Rick at cleaning up my image.

  “I think I made some progress,” she whispered.

  “Then it sounds like we’re both keeping our end of the deal.”

  Alex and Taylor started answering questions about practice.

  “Why don’t you join in?” Aspen whispered. “It will help. Just smile and try not to punch anyone, okay?”

  I chuckled. I could never make those kinds of promises.

  “All right,” I agreed.

  I strutted forward and stood next to my teammates. I looked over my shoulder at Aspen. She had shoved me straight into the lion’s mouth.

  14

  Aspen

  I wanted Lachlan to believe I could make his problems go away. But I didn’t have that kind of power. The man had boozed and slept around until I was the only one standing behind him. If his plan didn’t work, I wouldn’t be here anymore either. This fake relationship could blow up in both our faces.

  I tried not to think about the line I had crossed with him this morning. Or the line I had agreed to cross with him every night of the Olympics.

  I had a lot of work to do while he was at practice. I had to get ahead of the story before Karen found out I was the British star’s girlfriend.

  As soon as Lachlan walked into practice I called her.

  “Aspen, what’s going on?”

  “Hi, Karen. Can we speak for a few minutes?”

  I didn’t have a plan on how to tell my boss that I was going to be a publicity girlfriend. She didn’t need to know the rest of our deal.

  “How is
Rio? Did you find Kenzie?”

  “Yes.” I bit my lip. “I sure did.”

  “Good. And is he going to make some changes? I’ve had stockholders blowing up my phone all morning. They want us to let him go.”

  “No!” I said a little too quickly. “I mean. Yes, he’s going to clean up his image. He’s willing to do whatever it takes to make this work. Just tell them he’s a new man. He’ll turn everything around during the games. You can’t let him go, Karen.”

  “You don’t know how happy I am to hear that. Really, I don’t want to go through the messy business of severing ties with a big star like him. It’s never good for business even when the board calls for it.”

  My stomach lurched. “But there is one more thing I need to let you know.”

  “What’s that?”

  This was the most ludicrous conversation I had ever had with my boss. I couldn’t believe I was going to say it. “In order to make a drastic change to Lachlan’s image, we had to come up with a radical plan.”

  “I’m listening.”

  “And that radical plan includes me.” I winced.

  “I’m not following you, Aspen.”

  “Well, what I’m trying to say is that for the rest of the games I’m going to stand-in as Lachlan’s girlfriend.” I sped up the delivery. “It made the most sense that it should be me.”

  “Sense? This makes sense? It’s completely unprofessional. I can’t condone these kinds of tactics.”

  “Karen, it’s only for the optics. There isn’t anyone we can trust with this kind of responsibility. Lachlan has agreed to take my advice and I have unlimited access to him during the Olympics.” I hit my forehead with my palm. Access wasn’t the word I wanted to use.

  “I see.”

  “It’s strictly professional. I assure you.” I wasn’t about to tell her how he’d gone down on me this morning before delivering the most powerful orgasm of my life.

  “This makes me nervous. He has a reputation. It’s the reason you’re there trying to protect the account. Are you sure you can handle him?”