Royce: An Enemies to Lovers Romance

by Skye Darrel

  His eyes wander to my breasts as I blush. “Eyes up here, Mr. Royce.”

  “Every part of you is a feast for the eyes.”

  I giggle like a total schoolgirl. “You’re an animal,” I tease him.

  “What man wouldn’t be in your presence?”

  “Maybe I should ask another man.”

  “I’ll kill any other man who touches you.”

  “Oh stop it.”

  I nudge him with my toes under the water. His cock is hard. Everett leans back against the tub, staring back as I massage his erection with one foot. I slide my other up his abs, watching the twitches of pleasure play across his face.

  “You’ll make me cum if you keep that up,” he says.

  I bite my lip. “So?”

  “You’ll soil the bathwater.”

  “Oh trust me, it’s already soiled.”

  Everett grins. “Are you wet, April?”

  I take my feet away and splash him with water. “None of your business.”

  “Naughty girl, teasing me again.”

  “You’ll just have to take it,” I say sweetly.

  He scoots over to me and frames my face with his hands. The smile on his mouth falls away, and his eyes are filled with so much love it makes my chest ache. “Only for you,” he says somberly. “Everything for you.”

  After the bath, we eat dinner in a luxurious dining room that could seat twenty people. Just the two of us now. Both naked.

  Soft violin music plays from speakers in the ceiling. I feel warm and safe and in bliss.

  Everett really did think of everything. All sorts of meals and ingredients have been stocked in the kitchen pantry. There's an industrial fridge crammed with fresh lobsters, which Everett said was airlifted by helicopter to the lodge yesterday on his special orders.

  I poke at the empty lobster shell on my plate. Everett had grilled our dinner himself. “Airlifted?”

  “Yes.”

  “You shouldn’t have.”

  “I’ll show you the best two weeks of your life, April. If only we had a month, a year. But we will.” His voice is shaking, those deep eyes of his fevered hot. “The places I could take you, the life we can have. The future is ours.”

  The future.

  I set my fork down and look at him across the table, seeing the certainty in his eyes.

  I love this man. Somewhere along the way, from the day we met til now, I fell in love with him. And I can’t pretend anymore that we have this happy future, that this is only the beginning of some fantastical life together. It wouldn’t be fair to him. My eyes burn with tears, hot and sudden.

  He rushes over to my side and kneels. “April what’s wrong?”

  “I’m sick.”

  “The lobster?”

  I choke out a laugh. “No the lobster is perfect, everything here is. You know how to spoil a girl.”

  “Then what’s the matter?” He holds my hand like he’s about to propose.

  “Do you know what ALS is? Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.”

  Everett frowns, and his hands tighten around mine. “Lou Gehrig's Disease?”

  I nod, recalling everything I’ve learned since I was fourteen. “Yes. It’s a genetic disorder. ALS attacks the brain cells that control muscle movement. You get cramps and weakness in the legs. Difficulty walking. Loss of balance. Then breathing problems. Your body shuts down, but the mind is unaffected. You become a prisoner in your own body. Eventually, you suffocate to death.” I take a deep breath. “There is no cure.”

  “April . . .”

  “That’s why I fell down the stairs at St. Jude. I’m not clumsy, Everett. My symptoms are getting worse.”

  He opens his mouth then shuts it. He shakes his head. “That's impossible. ALS only affects the elderly. It's like Alzheimer's, one of those brain diseases. You’re nineteen, you can’t have it. Who told you this? Which fucking doctor told you—”

  “Listen to me! I was diagnosed at fourteen with juvenile-onset ALS. It’s extremely rare, but it happens. It happened to me. I’m lucky I’ve lived this long. Most people—most people who get it in their teens don’t survive more than a year or two.”

  He squeezes my hand. “No. We'll get you tested again. I'll find another doctor for you. Someone fucked up.” Anger rises in his voice. “Look at you. You're healthy. You're alive. There's nothing wrong with you.”

  “Everett, my neurons are dying. That’s what’s wrong. Look, I’ve had all the tests done. I spent half of ninth grade in a hospital. There’s no question.” I pull his hand off mine. “I’m sorry. I should’ve told you before.”

  “There must be a way to fix it. There must be a cure.”

  I laugh. “You and my mom should get along swell. She thinks the same way.”

  “This isn’t funny, April.”

  I’m still laughing, even as sobs build in the back of my throat. “Funny is all I have.”

  “April, look at me.”

  I meet his eyes, doing my best to bite back more tears.

  “You are not going to die.” He really believes it, just like Mom. He thinks he can save me somehow.

  “You can’t stop it,” I say. “I’ve been living with this disease for years. It’s a disability. I’m like those kids at St. Jude, the ones you called worthless.”

  He drops his gaze.

  Silence.

  I look away at the fireplace before guilt hits me. He’s only trying to make me feel better, and here I am digging up old wounds. “I’m sorry, Everett.”

  He pulls me to my feet.

  “You have nothing to be sorry about. And you have a future. I will fix this. We’ll find a way. You can’t give up, April. I won’t let you.” He tips up my chin and smiles. “This is what you’ve been hiding from me? Why you don’t go to school? Why you wouldn’t let me ask about your life?”

  “Yeah.”

  Everett growls. “April, I have some words in mind you may know. I was going to wait until the proper time, but I'll say them now. I love you, in sickness and in health, in good times and in bad—”

  “Til death do us apart.” I smile. “Yeah, I've heard of these words.”

  “You are not dying,” Everett says. “We’ll find a way.”

  I've never met someone so good at promising the impossible. “Everett—”

  His hands latch on to my hips. He kisses me furiously, and when he pulls away, I'm about to faint in the best way.

  “Not gonna lose you,” he says. “End of discussion.”

  I give in.

  I tried to warn him, but he’s too stubborn. Fine. If he wants me this badly he can have me. Like Mom says, once in a blue moon, anything is possible. “Love you too,” I say.

  Chapter Nine

  EVERETT

  We’ve been on the mountains a week, and with every passing day, I love her more. If that’s possible. Longing fills my chest whenever she’s out of reach, which isn’t often.

  My obsession isn’t all tender-hearted.

  I need her as well. The only woman on earth who stirs my lust and slakes it.

  No clothes indoors—my rule.

  Seeing April strut all over the place keeps my cock constantly hard. Seeing her ass jiggle as she trots through the lounge turns me feral. Seeing her pert tits bouncing has my balls boiling. Her silky, luscious hair that I love to bury my face in. Her little smile teases me and warms my soul.

  I don't wear clothes either, so I can't hide my desire. It can be inconvenient to walk around with a hard dick, but it also means April knows exactly what she does to me.

  How much I need her, in every way.

  She was sore for a few days after losing her virginity, but after that she used my cock like a toy whenever she wanted.

  Her mood has improved, and we haven’t talked about her illness since our first night. We’ve spent all our time together. Just being together. The outside world no longer exists.

  On Thursday, I woke up in bed with her mouth wrapped around my morning erection, and he
r pussy soon after. All day long we fucked and loved. We took hour-long breaks to eat and rest before the next frenzied rapture. By nightfall, she was heady with orgasm, and I finished the day with my tongue on her sweet, sticky pussy. We lay in bed for a while before she fell asleep against my chest. Peace filled my being, and I knew she felt the same.

  I can’t lose April.

  When she’d told me about her disease, my heart crumpled. The feeling lasted two fucking seconds. ALS is no different than any other enemy, and I refuse to accept defeat. I'll never give up on my girl. Nothing gets between us. Me and mine.

  We have another week together.

  I will make it the best of her life. Then, once I return to the city, I'll assemble a team to research treatments. We'll find the best doctors. All the resources of Royce Innovations are at my disposal to help April.

  Whatever it takes.

  Early this morning, we left the lodge to go hiking. Wearing clothes feels almost unnatural. I've gotten used to being utterly free and had no desire to leave the great indoors. But April wanted to sightsee on a higher slope, and whatever makes her happy is my command.

  A dirt trail through the thick trees took us up the mountain, and we’ve been following it all morning.

  Half an hour past noon, we turn off the trail to blaze our own path and reach a grassy clearing above some cliffs. In the middle of the clearing stands a single oak tree. I lean against the trunk and wipe the sweat out of my eyes.

  April clambers up a rocky ledge that juts over the valley below. The breeze whips her hair, and she waves at me. “Hurry up, Everett! The view is amazing!”

  “Careful!” I get nervous watching her climb everywhere like a wildcat. It’s a sheer drop of a few hundred feet from that ledge to the slope below.

  “I’m fine,” she yells. “Get up here!”

  She’s definitely recovered from her fall at the hospital. She tells me all the time how great she feels, joking that it must be the sex, but we both know there’s no telling when her symptoms might act up again.

  I scramble over the rocks and plop down at her side.

  She pecks me on the cheek. “Gotta work on your cardio.”

  “Yeah, or it’s because I’m carrying all our gear.”

  “And you’re doing a great job.”

  In the sunlight, her eyes are liquid and even more beautiful. I kiss her, my hands pawing over her breasts. Can’t help myself. I’m greedy for my girl.

  “Wait,” she says. “Set up the tent first.”

  “Okay.”

  April wants to make love under the stars tonight, and I have every intention of making that wish come true. The long hike hasn't dampened my needs. My cock is painfully hard. Usually by this time of the day, we'd be in bed, having already made love two or three times. We'll have to make up for lost time today.

  I spend half an hour fooling around with tent poles, sleeping bags, and other equipment I don’t know the names for. We make camp under the lonely oak tree.

  “Sheesh Everett. You don’t travel light, do you?”

  I smile. “Never know when you might need something.”

  The plan was to camp outdoors for one night before we head back to the lodge, but I packed every piece of equipment I could find in the resort’s storage. I wanted April to be comfortable no matter where we are.

  Soon the tent is up. Then I spread a picnic blanket over the grass not far from the cliff edge.

  April puts her hands on her hips and looks over our campsite. “Very nice, Mr. Royce. You’re handy for a billionaire.”

  “I’m just handy. You really feeling okay?”

  She frowns a bit. “Yes, Everett. Really.”

  “Only checking.”

  I look at her for a while, lost in my thoughts. These past two days we’ve spent more time in bed than anywhere else. When our bodies collide at night, it’s raw and furious. There were moments I worried about being too rough, but April’s screams of pleasure always kept me going. Last night, she got on all fours in our bed, and I bent over her like an animal, my hips slapping on her ass as I plunged my cock into her wet heat. I grabbed her hair in a ponytail and yoked her head back so I could taste her soft neck. And after she came, I set my girl down and licked her pussy clean. She called me insatiable, and I’m exactly that.

  Can’t get enough. Every night I rip my heart out and offer it on a platter. But in the mornings she makes me whole again. I love her to death.

  April is holding her backpack, frowning at me. “Ahem ahem. Earth to Everett. Anyone home?”

  I've been staring at her for minutes. “Sorry,” I say.

  “You have that look again.”

  “What look?”

  “The dirty look.”

  I walk over and touch her lips. “I’m thinking about you.”

  Blushing, she takes out two sandwiches wrapped in foil from her backpack. “Hungry? Peanut butter and jelly, made them myself.”

  “You’re too fucking cute.”

  “Don’t swear so much,” she says with a pout. “Here, try one.”

  I take a sandwich and peel back the foil and finish it in three bites while April watches me. I’m sure it’s delicious, but food is not what I’m hungry for.

  THE NIGHT is cool and breezy. A full moon blots the sky, stars twinkling too. The small fire, which April made, crackles within a circle of rocks.

  Under the open sky, our bodies move together as she writhes beneath me. Sweat slicks her skin as I thrust in her pussy. She tucks her knees up, squeezing me harder, and we writhe over the blanket.

  “Right there,” she moans.

  I slow down to push on a deep place inside her, grinding my base slowly against her clit. Her juices flow, and my balls draw up in climax as April shudders with orgasm. I stay inside her, feeling every heartbeat in my chest.

  “Let me be on top next time,” she says. “You should see the stars.”

  “No need, angel. My view is much better.”

  She giggles. “I need a break, you big beast.”

  Stretching out at her side, I look at the sky and whistle. April is right about the stars. Exquisite, scattered across the black like diamond dust. No nights like this in the city.

  “Haven’t seen stars this bright since I was a kid.”

  “You were a kid? No way.”

  “Yeah. Believe it or not. I used to stargaze with my brother, way back when.”

  April rises on one elbow, hair spilling down her neck. “So tell me. What’s it like growing up filthy rich? Did you have a dozen nannies? A golden crib? Spoiled all day long?”

  “I was not spoiled. That honor goes to my brother.”

  “Oh?”

  I smile at her. “Sebastian was born seven years before me, and our parents raised him like a little king. So he became what they taught him to be, which is to say, spoiled and pampered. My brother has no discipline, no ambition. But I love him despite his faults. When I was a child, he protected me from our father.”

  “Your father?”

  “Edmund Royce. By the time I was born, the old man had developed another approach to parenting. Sebastian got the carrot, I got the stick. Edmund sent me to the harshest boarding schools and treated me like an investment. Not a son. The summer I turned sixteen, we went on a trip to Bangladesh. Even water is precious in that country. Edmund dropped me off by myself in the middle of a slum, where no one spoke English, and he told me to find my way back to the hotel or die trying. That was Father’s idea of toughening me up. Whatever doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.”

  April gapes. “It’s child abuse.”

  “Edmund called it conditioning. I would either break—or become a worthy heir. I didn’t break.”

  “And your mom went along with that?”

  “My mother Portia had her own demons to contend with. Infidelity. A loveless marriage. An unfaithful husband. Edmund cheated on her with his secretary. So she slept with her yoga instructor. Those are the affairs I know about. There were more. By the
time I was ten, my parents’ marriage existed only on paper. My mother did her best, but she couldn’t help me.”

  April frowns. “Sorry for asking.”

  “Don’t be. I found you.” I take her hand in mine and place it over my heart. “I was hollow here before we met. You changed that, April. You think I saved your hospital, but the truth is you saved me. I love you forever, Princess.”

  “Nothing lasts forever,” she whispers.

  I press my forehead to hers. “You are not going to die.”

  “Even stars die.”

  “Hush.”

  The night grows colder. Our fire dwindles to embers. I carry her into the tent, dimly lit by a single camping lamp.

  I can’t see the stars anymore, but it doesn’t matter. She’s all I need. I unzip our sleeping bags and spread them out.

  “Didn’t mean to sour the mood,” April says.

  “That’s easy to fix.”

  I roll her clit under my fingers, kissing her throat, and soon she’s moaning for more. The scent of her wetness has my cock throbbing as desire curls through my stomach. I bring my mouth to her sweet place, kissing her rosy folds.

  Moans fill the tent.

  I dip two fingers into her pussy and rub under her front wall, the sticky warmth of her flesh pulsing to my touch. I lick circles around her clit.

  “That tongue of yours is magic,” she says with a coy smile, her fingers grasping my hair. “You should stay down there all night, Everett.”

  I growl. “Such a dirty little girl. Such a tight little pussy greedy for my cock.”

  “Your tongue, actually.”

  “Keep talking like that and I’ll fuck you all night long.”

  “Keeping talking and I’ll kick you out of the tent.”

  I can’t win with her. My balls tighten with the urge to cum. I give her folds a thorough lick with the flat of my tongue, finishing at her clit again. “I’m gonna breed this pussy. I'll make your belly big with my seed. I'm not going anywhere.”

  She smacks my head. “So dirty.”

  I kiss my way up her navel to the dip between her collarbones, then up her throat to the tip of her chin. I keep rubbing her slit as she flutters around my fingers. My princess wants another orgasm and I’ll give it to her.