Too much thinking. Maybe she needed to let go of what she couldn’t remember and what she didn’t understand. He’d been a perfect gentleman for seven days, and she hated that.
Because right now all she wanted was to have his arms around her.
When he was finally free of his clothing, she got one magnificent glimpse of his hardened body before he dove straight into the water. Like an Olympian.
He swam over to her and boxed her in against the wall. “The water is warm,” he said as his body pressed closer to hers.
“Yes, it’s wonderful. But shouldn’t you have left some sort of swim trunks on? Shorts? Anything? You have people working here, and they could come in at any time.”
“I told them to leave — to leave us,” he whispered before leaning forward and running his lips down her neck.
A shudder rushed through her. She wanted to turn her head, to kiss him full on the lips, but something instinctive held her back. Maybe she wasn’t a slut. But why not just do, though? Why couldn’t she just go for the gusto and take what she wanted?
“Chris,” she murmured, her insides growing molten as he reached around her and pulled her away from the wall and into those strong arms of his.
“Yes, Adara?”
His hardness was pressing against her stomach, and her nipples were jutting out against the fabric of her bikini top. She released her grasp on the wall and wrapped her arms around his neck.
Okay, so she couldn’t just kiss him. But she could ask him to help her out. “Kiss me, please.” Her words were almost inaudible.
His eyes instantly filled with desire and a low growl made its way past his throat as he pushed even more closely against her. He reached down and wrapped her legs around his waist, making his manhood rub insistently against her core.
She grew hot in an instant, ready for him to rip her little bathing suit off and take her right there in the warm pool water.
Lowering his head, he connected their lips, and the sparks she’d already been feeling in her body were transformed into explosions. He caressed her mouth with his own, and she didn’t hang back now. She gave in to his kiss, got lost in his embrace.
This was a different kiss from the others they’d exchanged in the past week. This kiss was a promise of what was to come, and she was sure that she didn’t want to turn back, that she didn’t want to leave his arms until she’d . . . she’d . . . had all she could of him. Every glorious inch. And there were a lot of them . . .
He withdrew, but she refused to let him go. “Please, don’t stop,” she moaned.
He growled again and fused his lips once more with hers while tugging on the string of her bikini top and releasing it. He yanked it away, and then her bare breasts were pressed firmly against the muscles of his chest.
It wasn’t enough. It felt as if it would never be enough. She needed them to become one. She needed it more than she’d ever needed anything in her life, or so it seemed. She had no doubts any longer.
He ran his mouth down the column of her neck, and when he sucked on the tender skin where her pulse was beating erratically, she had no choice but to let out a cry. And as that mouth of his proceeded slowly down to the line between her breasts, she started to hyperventilate.
It took a moment for her to realize that he was propelling the two of them through the water and into the shallow hot tub at the other end of the pool, because he’d captured one of her nipples in his mouth and was licking it avidly, and her entire body was tensed up in pleasure.
He ran one hand up over the curve of her breast while he now devoured the other nipple.
“Don’t stop,” she begged him.
“Are you sure?” he asked before sweeping his tongue in the valley between her breasts.
Her core pulsed with need. “Absolutely sure,” she gasped, digging into his shoulders with her fingernails.
He untied the knots on the side of her bikini bottom, and as the material floated away in the tub, so did any and all of her inhibitions. She was ready for this, and she didn’t need to have her memory back to know that.
Nothing mattered more at this moment than to be joined with him. To have and to hold. She could give up oxygen, food, anything at all — anything except for the passion she was feeling right now. His lips made a trail back up her neck and he captured her waiting mouth once again. She delighted in tasting him, and she pushed her now naked womanhood against his arousal.
Moving her hips back and forth almost frantically, she told him without words that she wanted him to sink inside her.
He took the hint. Smart guy.
With one solid thrust he buried himself deep within her and Adara let out another cry of passion as she tightened around him. The smallest of movements would send her over the edge to glory and she was aching for it. Aching for it all.
Before she had time to urge him on, he took charge. He grabbed hold of her hips and pulled back almost completely before thrusting forward again, all the way, with a single sure stroke.
She let go. What else could she do? Her body convulsed around his as she broke away from his lips and cried out her ecstasy. He moved his mouth to her neck and continued plunging in and out of her body, drawing out her pleasure.
Just as one orgasm ended, another began — one even more intense — and as he now moved faster and faster, his groans mingling with hers, she kept wailing in joy under the power of her climaxes.
“Adara!” He shouted her name, the sound echoing around the indoor pool as he found his release.
His manhood still pulsed against her walls and warmth washed through her as they each found total pleasure lying there locked together. Neither of them could move now.
Hell, the thought of ever moving again was too much even to think about.
But nature took its course. As Chris pulled himself gently from her and hoisted her and himself up on the bench in the hot tub, Adara curled up in his arms and rested her head on his shoulder. She felt at peace. Finally.
“Thank you, my princess,” he whispered.
“I should be the one doing the thanking. That was stunning,” she told him with a sated sigh.
“Let’s just agree that we’re both very pleased, my dearest Adara.”
Adara tensed then, and she pulled her head up. “Oh, my goodness. I have no idea where my bathing suit is. What if someone comes in?”
“I told you before, darling. I ordered them to leave us alone. They won’t invade our privacy.”
She looked around nervously anyway. “I’d still feel better if I had some sort of clothing on,” she said.
“I agree. I’ll get you a robe and we’ll go to my bedroom. My bedroom. When we’re there, I’ll be able to take the proper amount of time, to give you what you and your body deserve.”
“I wasn’t complaining about what you did before, Chris.” Another shudder passed through her, and though she didn’t think it possible, she felt her core instantly moisten at the thought of beginning their lovemaking again. He obviously felt something similar — he was growing hard once more against her hip.
“Woman, you do such incredible things to me,” he said before giving her one more extraordinary kiss and then releasing her so he could climb from the water.
Watching the perfect definition of his backside as he walked away had her completely ready to go at it again. He was truly a masterpiece of a man. Michelangelo’s David had nothing on this guy.
“Here’s your robe. You have exactly three seconds to get out of the tub and put it on. Because if you keep looking at me with that hunger in your eyes, I won’t be able to control myself any longer. I’ll just pull you from the water and take you again right here on the cold tiles at the side of this damned pool. Not that they’d be cold for long.”
“Ohhhh” was the only sound that came from her parched mouth at first. But then her eyes skimmed down his body and settled on his shockingly hard manhood. “You can take me anytime, anywhere.”
She didn’t realize she’d said
it out loud until she found herself being hauled from the water and pulled against his chest.
Yet he suddenly pushed her away, wrapped the robe around her, and did up the tie before throwing a towel around his waist. And then he was lifting her into his arms — and throwing her over his shoulders as he moved away from the pool in haste.
“Wh . . . what are you doing?” she gasped. She was hanging down his naked back, for goodness’ sake. The world was spinning on its axis.
“I’m taking you to my bedroom. To my bed. I think I explained that plan before.”
“Ohhh.” That was all she could say.
They barely made it to his room before he tossed her on the bed unceremoniously — a severe lack of proper behavior in a prince! — and proceeded to make love to her. For hours and hours. She forgave him for his caveman tactics.
They only emerged from the bed long enough to call for food and to shower, and then they went right back. And that shower had its interesting moments.
She’d never shower again without picturing herself on her knees, taking him deep inside her mouth. The two of them had obviously never had a problem in the lovemaking department; they fit so naturally together, in every way.
They must have been truly in love, she thought later as she lay against his chest and fell asleep with his arms possessively around her. She’d fallen in love with him all over again.
Chapter Ten
Our father has asked, so to speak, that you come home right away. News has gotten out that you have a potential bride whom you’ve hidden away here on your private island.”
Chris frowned as he looked at his brother — now his country’s king — and then he said, “I’m not ready to go back yet.”
“You can only hide out for so long, brother. I understand wanting to keep the woman away from our customs, from our people, from it all, until you absolutely have to return to the real world. I too wanted more freedom than we’re allowed. But you are a prince, and it’s time to come home.”
“What if we get there and she remembers everything?” Chris asked Xander. He was speaking to his brother, not to his king.
“I’m not sure what you’re saying to me,” Xander asked. “What really happened between the two of you?” He walked over to the bar and poured himself a nice glass of scotch. “Be precise.”
“She was sort of . . . well . . . she kind of told me I could go to hell . . .”
“Good heavens, Christopher! You’re speaking like a commoner now. An American! And what happened next?”
“ I . . . well, I did what we’re supposed to do. I took her,” Chris said, shifting on his feet.
“Hah! I knew she hadn’t come of her own free will. You were looking just a little too on edge when we came to your rescue after that sensational plane crash of yours,” Xander said. And he guffawed. “Did you engineer that too?”
“This isn’t the time to mock me, brother. Right now, I’m worried,” Chris told him as he marched up to the bar, poured himself a drink, and downed it quickly.
“Any time is the right time to mock you, Christopher. But I do understand what you’re going through. I’ll be candid. As you know all too well, I thought that I would lose Reanna, certainly lose her, after what I’d done and with all that drama. But it all worked out despite everything. She is now my wife. We have a beautiful child together, and another on the way. It doesn’t matter how the journey begins, ultimately. What matters is how it ends.”
Chris was silent for several moments as he thought about his brother’s words. “Do you think Adara will ever forgive me when she finds out what I have done?”
“Do you love her?” Xander asked him.
“I . . . I don’t see how that’s relevant.”
“Not relevant? That’s what it’s all about. If you love her, then tell her. Show her the man, not the prince, and let her love you back.”
“When did you become so damn wise, Xander?” Chris was trying to insert a bit of humor into this heavy conversation, but his heart was far too full to pull it off.
“The moment I met Reanna — that’s when. I thought I was saving my country, that I was protecting my royal title and doing what I was meant to do. Duty and honor and love of country. I never for one minute realized that Reanna was the one saving me, protecting me, and making me a better man, a man capable of ruling with compassion and great love.”
“I just don’t know what I feel. I’m eaten up with guilt now and I can’t figure anything out. Do I love this woman or do I just want her to be mine? A sort of possession, I suppose. And a means to an end.”
“Can you imagine living without her?” Xander asked his youngest brother.
“Not for even a second,” Chris said without hesitation.
“Then you have a starting place. It’s all happened quickly, and though there isn’t a fixed time on falling in love, there is a limit on how much a person can take. Just know that if you care about her, you must tell her. The truth — the whole truth. It will be difficult, and I doubt she’ll take it well. But there’s hope. I was certain that I’d lost Reanna forever. We were meant to be together, though, and we managed to find a way.”
“Thank you, Xander. I will tell Adara that I’m taking her to the palace. Maybe I’ll tell her about all of this after the marriage.”
“That is your choice, my brother. But I need hardly repeat to you the famous lines about a woman scorned, which includes being lied to,” Xander said with a smile. “Terrifying as hell.”
Chris found his sense of humor again. “Ah, but she is no match for me.”
“Of course not,” Xander told him with a laugh. “You know, I once thought the very same thing.”
The king left after his little brother promised to return home the next day. And Chris went to find his fiancée. Today wouldn’t be the day he told her the truth. That could wait. For now, he was focused solely on getting her to the altar and making her legally his before she could walk away from him again.
It would all work out. He was a prince, after all. Didn’t stories about princes always have happy endings?
Chapter Eleven
Adara sat across from Chris, looking at him over a table lit with candles. The waiter poured out a little wine, and after sniffing and tasting it, Chris nodded. The man poured them each a full glass and disappeared.
Chris lifted his glass to her, and a bead of moisture on his lips made her want to knock those candles over, reach across, and pull him to her. There was something in his manner that she couldn’t resist, making it impossible not to find ways to touch him these days.
Meeting his father hadn’t been nearly as terrifying as she’d thought it would be, but still, she was an American and didn’t know the first thing about how to address royalty. What if she did something completely wrong and caused an uproar?
Ugh! Whoever said life was easy had obviously never been engaged to a prince before. She’d heard mention of princess lessons. Maybe she would have to take them if she planned on staying with this man, which at the moment, anyway, she most certainly did.
“Why the look of concern, agape mou?”
“What does that mean?”
“‘My love,’” he answered. “It’s Greek. But I’m versatile. Would you rather I said something similar in French?”
“You can say it in any language,” she said, her heart beating faster.
“Je t’adore. That, of course, is a full sentence and not just a term of endearment.”
“Ooh, that’s very pretty,” she said with a sigh.
“It means that I adore you — it reminds me of your name, Adara. I have just one more thing to say,” he told her with a smile. He reached across the table and took her hand, then pulled a black velvet box from his pocket. “Veux-tu m’épouser?”
She gazed blankly at him, trying to figure out what he meant, until he opened the box and a beautiful diamond ring was sparkling up at her. She looked from the ring to his face and back at the large round-cut diamond surrounded
by smaller diamonds.
“You . . . um . . . you’re going to have to speak in English,” she gasped, her heart absolutely racing now.
“Will you be my wife, Adara?” he asked, stroking the back of her hand with his long fingers.
“I don’t quite know how to respond. I feel as if we don’t really know each other,” she said, afraid to even look at the ring again.
“Just tell me you will become my bride. Everything will fall naturally into place after that.”
“But you said that we’re already engaged.”
“We had agreed to be married,” he told her. He glanced away for a moment before reaching into the velvet box. He pulled out the ring, lifted her limp hand, and put the diamond on her finger.
It was a perfect fit, of course. These royals never got anything wrong. Or that’s the way it seemed.
“I think I want to marry you,” she finally said, her emotions now all over the map. It wasn’t joy that she felt, but it wasn’t sorrow. She had only two weeks’ worth of memories with this man; she wished so seriously that she could remember all the rest.
“That’s all we need for now. The rest will grow over time,” he told her, rubbing the back of her hand in soothing circles.
They sat in silence as the courses of their meal were served, each in its turn. Even with all these succulent dishes set before her, Adara had a difficult time forcing herself to eat anything.
Why was she the least bit reluctant about marrying this man? He was perfect in every sense of the word. He was kind, spontaneous, romantic, and giving. He was what every rational woman dreamed about having in a partner. And yet she couldn’t shake this feeling that something was wrong.
But maybe that was just because she just couldn’t remember what had happened before. He surely hadn’t changed dramatically after the plane crash. No person could do that. So if she’d agreed to marry him earlier, why should she hesitate now?
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