Royal Arrangement #2

by Renna Peak

He pulls away from me after only a second. “Justine…”

  “I mean it, William. If you deny me… If you do something like you did on our wedding night, I’ll never forgive you. And you’ll never have this opportunity again.”

  He shifts away from me, sliding his arm around my waist. “It isn’t that I don’t want the opportunity. It isn’t that at all.”

  I groan in frustration, looping my leg over his and trying to pull him to me again. “There is far too much talking going on then—”

  “Justine… I just don’t want it to be like this.”

  I shove against his chest and find my way over to the other side of the bed. I let out a long breath. “Fine. Never mind.”

  He touches my back, and I flinch away. “I didn’t mean—”

  “I know what you meant.” I pull myself up to sit on the edge of the bed. My eyes still haven’t quite adjusted to the darkness, but I pull my robe tightly around me and stand, feeling my way over to the wall.

  “Justine…” He turns on the light on his nightstand.

  I’m already at the bedroom door, and I pull it open before I turn to him. “I’m going out.”

  “Dressed like that?” He slides off the bed and strides toward me. “If you would just—”

  “You know what? Go to bed, Your Highness. I’ll find a way to release this tension one way or another.”

  His eyes narrow for a moment and he looks me up and down. “It isn’t that I don’t want you. I do. More than you can imagine.”

  My eyes roam over his body, but I see no sign that he’s dying to have me. “I’ll figure things out on my own. I always do.”

  He frowns. “Please… Just come back to bed. I’ll hold you all night if you like—”

  “I already told you that isn’t what I need.” I wait for him to respond, but he doesn’t. “Do I really have to say it out loud?”

  His frown deepens and lines form between his eyebrows. “Justine—”

  “Fine. I need you to fuck me, William. That’s all I need. I don’t need you to give me a song and dance. You don’t have to woo me. You just have to fuck me.”

  He says nothing, just stares at me with those damn blue eyes of him.

  “I suppose if you refuse, that is your right. As I said, I’ll figure something else out on my own—”

  “You’re going out to have an affair? After only four days of marriage?” His brow lifts along with the corners of his mouth, though he doesn’t quite grin. “And you believe that after this storm, you’ll be able to walk right into town and find some man to please you—”

  “I never said anything about a man needing to please me, Your Highness. I only said I needed you to fuck me.”

  He lifts a brow and stares at me, as though he doesn’t quite understand my words.

  “I don’t need you to do anything fancy. Believe me, I’m perfectly capable of taking care of my own needs, Your Highness. I just need you to…fuck me.”

  He gives me a small shake of his head. “This is not exactly how I pictured our first time together, Princess—”

  “We can do it however you like. If you’d prefer not to look at me while you do it, that would be fine. I don’t…I just need—”

  “Me to fuck you. Yes, I gathered as much.” He rubs at his chin for a moment. “Again, I pictured our first time together much differently—”

  “I’m not sure what sort of romantic notion you had for our first time, Your Highness. I’ll admit, I never pictured us even having a first time.”

  He grins. “Well, that would make having four heirs quite a bit more challenging.”

  “I don’t want four heirs. I don’t want any heirs. I can’t say I want any children at all anymore, which you might have known had you bothered to speak to me before our wedding day.”

  His brow furrows again. “And if you’d married my brother, Andrew? You wouldn’t have provided him with his requisite heirs?”

  “That is a different matter. I’m saying if I’m given the choice—”

  “I fail to see how you have a choice. We have to produce four male heirs, Princess. If we were wise, we’d get started on them as soon as possible—”

  “And I’m giving you the opportunity to do just that, Your Highness.” My stomach does a strange flip that I recognize immediately as guilt. “Fuck me full of your seed and put a male heir inside me tonight if that’s what you need to tell yourself for you to agree to join with me tonight—”

  “Join.” He shakes his head, chuckling. “I suppose I was the one who told you to just say what it was you were thinking. You were certainly clear with me, weren’t you, Princess?”

  My cheeks burn. “I’ve had enough, Your Highness. I’ve put up with your insults, your invasions of my privacy, your refusal to treat me as a human being, let alone your wife—”

  “I hardly think that my refusal to… How did you so eloquently put it? Fuck you? I hardly think that counts as me insulting you, Princess. On the contrary—”

  “I give up, Your Highness.” I shake my head at him. “I give up on trying. I… I know I’ve been difficult. I know…” I look down, realizing my robe has come undone and he’s probably getting an eyeful of my breasts again. I pull it shut, grabbing the top of the robe to hold it closed. “But do know, Your Highness—”

  He’s standing in front of me again after what seems to be a single step. “What? What is it you want me to know so desperately, Princess?”

  I lift my chin with indignance. “Know that you will never—and I do mean never—have this opportunity again.”

  “I should hope not.”

  My jaw tightens, and I desperately want to reach up and slap him.

  “And what I mean by that, Princess, is that I have no intention of fucking you. Not yet. Perhaps someday, if we’re both feeling so passionate about the other that it’s what we both want—”

  “It is what I want, Your Highness. I’m not sure how I can throw myself at you any harder—”

  “You couldn’t. And that’s the problem.” He places a hand on my shoulder, pulling the sleeve up so it better covers my exposed skin. He lets out a low whistle. “You have no idea how much I want you right now.”

  I don’t bother to glance down at his midsection this time. Not that I want to—I think I might kill him if he dares to touch me now.

  “I think… I think perhaps we should have done this all differently. We should have at least come to know each other a little before we were pushed into this situation. But we’re here, and I think I do know enough about you now to know the last thing you need tonight is to be fucked, Justine.”

  I close my eyes, shaking my head slowly. I’m not even certain how I’m supposed to respond to his words.

  He stands there with his hand on my shoulder, saying nothing for a long moment.

  I finally open my eyes and look up to meet his gaze. “What is it you think I need then, Your Highness?”

  He lifts his shoulders in a small shrug. “I can’t say with any certainty, of course. But if your poetry is any indication, my gut says you don’t need to be fucked. You need to be loved.”

  William

  I know it’s risky, bringing up a word like love around her. The bits of her journals and poetry I’ve read dealing with the subject made her pain surrounding that emotion quite clear—and if they didn’t, the conversation she and I had—where she confessed that she believes people only love once in their lives—certainly did. Love is a dangerous topic with Justine, from any angle.

  Anger still burns in her eyes as she stares at me. Fuck, why does she have to look so irresistible when she’s furious with me? My mind is flooded with images of what I want to do to her—carry her to the bed, throw her down on the sheets, and fuck her the way she’s asking to be fucked.

  Suddenly, Justine smiles—but it’s not a sweet smile, or even one of understanding. Instead, that smile is just as angry as the look in her eyes.

  “Love,” she says with a sharp laugh. “What do you know about
love? Come to that, what do you know about what I need?” She inclines her head and shrugs my hand off her shoulder. “You don’t know as much as you think you do.”

  “I know better than to trust a woman who’s suddenly throwing herself at me—”

  “Do you?” She laughs again, and before I can even register what she’s doing, she releases her robe. The silky fabric falls open, revealing bare skin from her throat all the way down to her toes.

  I try not to look, honestly I do. But my eyes can’t help but be drawn to her body, to trace her from her collarbone down to her feet then back up again, lingering where her thighs meet. The jolt that runs through me is so powerful it almost knocks me over.

  Good God, what is she doing to me? Is she trying to make me lose control? Sure, she asked me to fuck her—but I know better than to trust those words out of her mouth, after all we’ve been through. She might mean them now, but she won’t mean it in the morning. Or even an hour from now.

  When I finally drag my eyes to her face again, I find her watching me intently. I’m sure she knows exactly what she’s doing to me, but I refuse to give in.

  Slowly, without saying a word, she lets the robe fall down her shoulders. The silk slides down her arms, flowing like water, before finally pooling on the carpet below.

  My breath catches. She’s completely naked in front of me, and though my mind screams to look away, I can’t. My gaze drinks her in, and though the light is dim, the shadows only seem to enhance the curves of her body, making them more pronounced. From her round breasts to her modest hips, from her dark pink nipples to her bellybutton…I can’t look away.

  The voice in my head is still screaming at me, telling me to turn away from her, shouting at me to stop staring. But I can’t. My mouth has gone completely dry, and the rest of me has gone white hot. An inferno burns inside me, scorching me from the inside out, drowning out everything else.

  I don’t even realize I’ve moved, but suddenly I find her in my arms. My hands slide up her back, and her bare skin is hot under my touch—but I’m not sure whether the heat comes from her or me. And I don’t have the patience for thinking right now.

  My mouth is on hers. I’m not sure whether I kissed her or she kissed me, but I don’t care. Every part of her feels as hot as my own body, and that only makes the desire burn brighter. I can’t remember what we were arguing about—right now, I know one thing and one thing only.

  The taste of her mouth is intoxicating. The scent of her skin is invasive. I feel as if I’ve known that taste and that scent forever, like my body is responding to something it didn’t know it was missing.

  We’ve reached the bed again. I’m not quite sure how we got here, but that doesn’t matter. I throw her down on the mattress and fall on top of her, kissing her everywhere I can reach—her face, her throat, her collarbone, her breasts. My mouth finds its way down to her nipples, and I suck one between my lips. She moans and arches against me, and her nails send pricks of pain into my back.

  Fuck me, even her skin tastes amazing. Everything about her is exquisite, and I can’t get enough.

  I kiss her other nipple, then return to her mouth, plying her lips open with my tongue. One of my hands moves to her hair, while the other slides down between her legs, slipping between her thighs.

  She’s already dripping wet. If there’d been any lingering doubts that she wanted me, that discovery scares them all away. My hand slides against her easily, and she squirms and gasps, then lifts her hips to show me how she likes to be touched.

  Her hands are doing their own explorations. Her fingers graze my back, then move down to my ass. Everywhere she touches, my skin prickles. Sometimes she tightens her grip, letting her nails bite into my flesh, and that flare of pain sends a fresh round of blood to my cock. I ache to drive into her, to stop with the teasing and torturing and go right to the main event, but something holds me back—part of me wants to keep exploring first, wants to discover a few more of her secrets before charging towards the finish line.

  I grab her by the thigh and pull her leg up over my hip, giving me easier access to the silken skin between her legs. Before tonight, Justine made quite the show of not wanting me—of suggesting we’d never end up consummating our marriage—but between her legs, she’s groomed in such a way to suggest she knew this was coming…or was at least open to the possibility of it coming. It makes me burn with need.

  My fingers move deeper, this time slipping inside of her. She moans again, pressing her body up against mine, and her teeth bite down on my bottom lip. I stroke her slowly—and gently, at first, but urgency soon takes over. I want her like I’ve never wanted any woman ever before—I don’t know how, or what she’s done to me, but I’m too far under her spell to worry about it for long.

  She whimpers, shifting her hips to meet the thrusts of my fingers, guiding me with the subtle movements of her body. Justine seems to know exactly what she wants, and she has the confidence to show me—she’s not nearly as shy or innocent as I expected, given that she’s only had one other sexual partner in her life.

  That thought slows me down a little. I’m only the second man she’s ever known this way. All the things she likes and wants…she learned with him. Because he touched her this way. Because he showed her how her body could feel.

  I suddenly feel as if someone has thrown a bucket of ice water over my head.

  It all comes back to him, that bastard. Jealousy courses through me, but it isn’t the blazing, fiery jealousy I’m used to. No, this jealousy is cold and hard and bitter.

  “William?”

  Justine’s voice startles me out of my thoughts. I realize I’ve stopped moving, and she stares up at me with a mix of expectancy and confusion on her face. Her face is flushed, her lips swollen, her eyes bright. Fuck, she looks more beautiful than I’ve ever seen her. And yet I find myself stumbling back from the bed.

  “This is wrong,” I rasp. My feet nearly trip over something—her robe. I reach down and grab it, then throw it at her. “I shouldn’t have fallen for that.” But fuck me, I still want her so much…

  She grips the robe to her chest, blinking, the confusion still in her eyes. I don’t want to be here when that confusion turns to anger. I only have a few seconds to escape.

  But the anger never comes. Instead, she stands, letting the robe fall again.

  “Are you really going to leave me like this?” she asks softly.

  “I won’t fuck you.” The words are almost impossible to get out.

  “Then don’t.” Her eyes flicker, but I can’t read the emotion. “Call it something else if you like. Call it making love, if that makes you feel better.”

  She sits back down on the edge of the bed, waiting. And I find myself walking back toward her, drawn by some invisible force.

  I won’t fuck her. I won’t. And calling it something different doesn’t change anything. I won’t be tricked by something as simple as wording.

  But I can’t walk away from her, either.

  In the back of my mind, I haven’t forgotten the other man. And I won’t—not ever, I suspect. But when Justine looks at me with those dark eyes of hers, begging me to give her pleasure, I can’t deny her.

  No, I won’t fuck her. But there are plenty of other things I can do.

  When I get to the bed, I don’t lower myself on top of her again. Instead, I place my hand in the center of her chest and push her down fully onto her back. Then I kneel in front of her, pushing her knees apart.

  Her voice rises from the rumpled sheets. “What are you…”

  She doesn’t get a chance to finish her question. Her words dissolve into a gasp at the first touch of my tongue between her legs.

  No, Princess, you won’t get fucked tonight. Not by me. But I’m not going to rest until I give her an orgasm she won’t soon forget.

  Justine

  His tongue lashes at me, bringing me to the brink of my ecstasy far too quickly. My fingers thread into his hair, and I moan his name as his m
outh pushes me over the edge. My eyes flutter closed as the entire world stops. My hands fall away from him, and I lie there for a long moment, more satisfied than I can remember feeling in a very long time.

  I’m barely breathing as he kisses his way slowly back up my body. He stops when he reaches my neck, kissing it briefly before rolling over to lie by my side.

  I want him. More than I ever thought possible. I thought I needed a good, hard fucking before, but now… Now I want him.

  I turn to face him, tracing my fingers over his chest, down to his bellybutton, before starting to work on the button fastening his pants.

  He grabs me by my wrist, lifting it to his lips and pecking a kiss on it before he sets my hand on his shoulder. “Not tonight, Princess.”

  His eyes won’t meet my gaze. Instead, he shifts so that he’s fully facing me, tucking his arm under my head and pulling me toward him. “Tonight, we sleep.”

  “You want me.”

  His eyes flutter closed. “More than you know.”

  I slide my hand from his shoulder down his arm to find the waistband of his pants again. “Then at least let me return the favor.”

  He groans, squeezing his eyelids tighter.

  I don’t need to do anything to feel how much he already wants me. But I do make a point of grazing the stiffness in his pants as I work at the button again with my free hand.

  William takes my hand again, this time threading his fingers through mine. “Princess…” He lifts my hand to his mouth and kisses the back of it. “You have no idea how many times I’ve fantasized about having your lips wrapped around my cock.”

  “Then let me, Your Highness. Let me return the favor.” He still hasn’t opened his eyes—I’m not sure what’s going on. He’s clearly done what he did for me many times before with other women. Surely he isn’t embarrassed about having given me that gift. I just can’t understand why any man would turn down what I’m offering him.

  “I can’t.” His eyes open, and he kisses my wrist before setting my hand on his shoulder again. “Like I said, tonight, we sleep.”