The King's Virgin Bride

by Natalie Knight

  Keagan laughs. “Yes,” he answers the first. “And yes, step sister. We’re not related,” he reminds them.

  He pulls me against him and kisses me. It’s a hot kiss, deep and beautiful, and butterflies erupt in my stomach. Keagan breaks the kiss, and we turn in the spotlight. The camera men click away, and flashes blind me. Questions ring out in a jumble from so many different people, I don’t know which to listen to first.

  Keagan laughs. He is comfortable and relaxed. He knows who he is and how to handle these people. I stand next to him, unsure of myself, and force a smile. I’m sure my discomfort shows.

  Keagan jokes around with some of them. When they ask about our status as step siblings, he mentions that it’s the dawn of a new era and love should have no limits, that we’re not related. I don’t catch everything. I’m struggling to concentrate with all the flashes going off in my face.

  Finally, Keagan holds up his hand.

  “If we’re any later, we’ll lose our reservation,” he says.

  He has his arm wrapped firmly around my waist, and he guides me toward the door when the paparazzi aren’t around to enter. I’m relieved to be away from the limelight.

  “That was intense,” I breathe when we’re away from the crowd.

  “But it was good,” Keagan says and pulls me against him, kissing me again.

  And he’s right. It was good. We’re public now. Keagan looks happier than I’ve ever seen him, and the way he looks at me makes me feel like this was all worth my while, that our future looks bright. We have real potential.

  A seating hostess takes us to our table. Spago is a classy restaurant with light wooden floors and beige walls, tables with white table clothes and dark chairs, and a huge painting of an anchor on one wall that picks up all the colors of the room.

  When we sit down, I’m aware of faces turning to us. Diners are recognizing Keagan. There aren’t any cameras inside, and we’re not here to make an announcement, but I know they’re taking note of my face. Tomorrow, the photo of us kissing will be all over the internet. If it isn’t already.

  But for now, they don’t know who I am beyond speculation.

  I’m starting to relax. The worst is over, and I can focus on being myself. Keagan is in a good mood. He orders a bottle of champagne. “To celebrate,” he says.

  We are handed our menus, and Keagan asks for the specials. This world of fame and fortune is familiar to him, where I feel like a stranger that’s offered a glimpse into a life where I don’t belong.

  Maybe, as time passes, I’ll get there. For now, I feel like an outsider.

  “How are you feeling?” Keagan asks after we’ve ordered appetizers.

  We’re drinking champagne, and the alcohol makes me feel light and airy.

  “I’m okay, actually,” I say. “I feel better than I expected.”

  Keagan smiles. “I’m glad it went well. Now, we can relax and enjoy our night.”

  And we do. The food is fantastic. I eat until I can’t anymore, and everything feels special. Keagan is in the best mood, talkative and happy. Finally, when we get up to leave, he pulls me close to him and kisses me. Murmurs ripple through the crowd, but we ignore it.

  “There are going to be a lot cameras outside,” Keagan says.

  “More than before?”

  He nods. “Word travels fast, and they come looking for something to print.”

  I swallow. I thought it was over. I guess it’s only just beginning. Keagan takes my hand firmly and leads me to the door. When we step outside, lights flash all around us, and it’s so bright it’s like daylight. I’m blinded by camera flashes no matter where I look. Keagan was right. It’s a lot worse than when we arrived.

  Keagan pulls me against him, his arm around my waist, and he’s smiling. I do the same. It seems like the safest route to take. I want to duck and run, but that would look like I have something to hide.

  “Give us another kiss,” someone calls.

  Keagan laughs and turns to me, planting his lips on mine. The kiss isn’t the same as before. It’s not sensual. It’s for show. I don’t like it, but I keep smiling. Maybe this is how it’s done.

  “Is this a temporary thing?” someone asks.

  Keagan shrugs. “Who’s to know what the future holds? I do know that we are in love, and that is all that matters. That will pull us through, and what will be, will be.”

  My stomach twists when Keagan tells them that we’re in love. I must concentrate to keep the smile on my face. Everything Keagan does is for show, and I don’t want to be a part of it. I won’t throw him under the bus, though. I won’t make a public scene. I have to deal with this in private. This is what our life will be like.

  I’m getting my first taste, and I don’t know if I like it.

  Keagan says one or two more things, but I just smile at the cameras and let him speak. When he pulls me in for a final kiss, I speak to him before he can kiss me.

  “Can we get out of here now?” I say it with a smile, and softly enough that no one else can hear me but him. “I can’t deal with this much longer.”

  He nods and thankfully abandons his idea to kiss me. He calls it a night and guides me away from the cameras and to my car. He came in a cab so we can leave together.

  When we’re in the car, locked in together, away from the attention, I can finally breathe again.

  “How do you stand it?” I ask.

  Keagan shrugs. “You get used to it. You learn how to deal with them and give them what they want.”

  I glance at him as he switches on my car and pulls out of the parking space.

  “Is that why you did it?” I ask.

  “Did what?”

  I take a deep breath. “Told them that we’re in love. Were you just giving them what they want?”

  Keagan shakes his head and looks sideways at me, puzzled.

  “No. I said it because that’s the truth.”

  I shake my head. “Did you ask me?”

  He blinks. “What?”

  “Did you ask me if that was what I felt, or did you just decide for yourself?”

  Keagan doesn’t hesitate. “I didn’t think I had to ask.”

  “I would have liked it if you did. You can’t know what I’m thinking, or what I’m feeling.”

  Keagan shakes his head. “I thought we knew what we felt for each other.”

  I nod, looking out of the passenger window.

  “I know what I feel for you, Keagan, but I would have liked the opportunity to tell you before you just took it as a given.”

  “I don’t understand why you’re upset,” he says. “It’s not a big deal.”

  I’m angry now. “It’s a big deal to me. It’s my heart we’re talking about here, and my emotions. Everything we’ve been doing has been behind closed doors, but this? I didn’t want you to just assume. I keep giving myself to you, again and again, but you don’t once ask me what I’m feeling.”

  “Dana,” he starts, but I don’t let him finish. I shake my head.

  “No more, Keagan,” I say. We stop at a traffic light, and I suddenly can’t stand being around him. Not if he will dictate who I should be. He doesn’t get to call the shots just because we fell into each other’s arms and each other’s laps.

  I open the door and get out.

  “What are you doing?” Keagan asks. “Get in the car.”

  “This is how it is?” I ask. “You’re just going to tell me what to do?”

  He’s angry now, too. I can see it on his face. His eyes blaze, and he’s clenching his jaw.

  “I don’t need this shit from you,” he says. “It’s a big deal to me to sacrifice my reputation for you. And the moment I do, you get pissed at me?”

  I slam the door shut, cutting him off. I don’t want to hear what he sacrificed for me. We’ve both made equal sacrifices. He’s not better than I am.

  Keagan is pissed off that I cut off his sentence by closing the door.

  “Fine!” he shouts, loud enough that I
hear his muffled voice through the closed door. He floors it and speeds off into the night.

  I’m alone in the middle of LA. It’s dark, and I don’t have anything with me other than my little handbag that matches the dress. I start walking in the direction of my parents’ studio. I can’t think where else to go. I can’t call my friends, and my parents’ place is the closest. I wrap my arms around myself and start shivering, even though I’m not cold.

  Did I make a mistake?

  Keagan

  At first, after Dana got out of the car in the middle of nowhere, I was angry. She was being ridiculous, I told myself, and I didn’t want to deal with her drama. I didn’t like being cut off in the middle of my sentences, and I went through a lot to go public so that neither of us had to worry.

  I expected she would come home with a cab or something.

  When she didn’t come home at all, I started to worry. The next few days I tried to call her, but she wouldn’t answer.

  Now, it’s Friday, and I don’t know where she is or what she’s doing. I just know that she wants nothing to do with me. At first, I was angry about that, too. She was just overreacting. The more I thought about it, the more I understood why she was angry.

  All I want to do now is tell her that I’m sorry and make it right. But I don’t know where the hell she is.

  Our photo was all over the news, but the thrill of it all, the rush of going public, was tainted. I don’t care now what we do, or what happens, as long as I can speak to her.

  I keep running scenarios through my mind where something went wrong, and she’s not okay. I shouldn’t have left her alone in the streets in the middle of the night. But I was angry.

  All that anger is gone now. All that’s left is regret and worry and the feeling that whatever I did before to make it work, it was all for nothing.

  I leave work early because I can’t concentrate on my work. I keep checking my phone, but I know she won’t call me. Not if she’s not answering my calls. I haven’t spoken to anyone about what happened, not even Mason. Everyone is still talking about us going public. I can’t exactly tell them how short-lived our bliss was.

  I decide to go talk to my dad. If someone can give me advice, it’s him. He’s not very happy about our relationship, but he’ll be straight with me, and right now, I am in desperate need of advice.

  When I go the studio, it’s closed for the day. I frown and walk to the door that leads upstairs to their apartment above. I knock on the door. It clicks from the inside as someone unlocks it, and the door swings open.

  Dana stands in front of me like a vision.

  “God, Dana, I’ve been worried sick about you,” I say.

  She doesn’t answer me. She just shrugs. She’s wearing track suit pants that belong to Susan and a t-shirt with a peace sign in flowers on it. Her hair hangs around her face, and she has dark circles beneath her eyes like she hasn’t slept very much.

  “What do you want, Keagan?” she asks. She sounds as tired as she looks.

  “I wanted advice from my dad, but now that you’re here, it’s so much better.”

  She rolls her eyes, leaves the door open, and walks to the living room where she sits down on the couch. I sit down, too.

  “Please talk to me,” I say.

  “What do you want me to say?”

  She doesn’t sound happy. I don’t blame her.

  I shake my head. “You don’t have to say anything,” I say. “I’m the one that has to do the talking.”

  She pulls her legs up so that her feet are on the couch, and she hugs her knees to her chest. She looks defensive and vulnerable. Large windows look out over the street, and I look at the view that she seems to be studying so intently.

  “I’m sorry,” I say.

  Dana looks at me. “I don’t want to be in this thing for you just to call the shots and tell me what to do.”

  I nod. “I know. I was wrong. I should have talked to you about everything before I said anything to the press. But the truth is…” I hesitate because it’s not easy for me to talk about my emotions like this. I have to do it, though, if I want us to go anywhere. “I was scared.”

  Dana blinks at me. “Of what?”

  “Of telling you how I feel about you. I was scared that you might reject me. I didn’t want to ruin what we already had, and I was scared that it would hurt when I told you.”

  “Tell me what?” she asks. Her voice is breathy, her eyes large, and she looks younger than usual, more fragile.

  I take a deep breath. “That I love you.”

  She stares at me for a moment, and I don’t know what to expect. Dana shakes her head back and forth, and her eyes slide back to the view. I move from my couch to hers and take her hand.

  “I’m serious,” I say. “I love you. I should have told you before I told them. I was wrong. I’m sorry.”

  Dana swallows. “I want to be angry at you,” she says. “But all I am is hurt.”

  I nod. I understand.

  “I made sacrifices, too, you know.”

  I nod again. “I know. Your job. And going public. I realize it’s a bigger sacrifice for you than it is for me. I know I was wrong.”

  I raise her hand to my lips and plant a kiss on her knuckles. She looks at me, and for a moment, I think she’s going to cry. She lets out a shuddering breath and nods.

  “It’s okay,” she says in a soft voice. And I believe her. “I love you, too.”

  The words are so soft from her lips I can barely hear them, but they’re there, and they are real. I hesitate only a moment before I take her head in my hands and kiss her.

  She kisses me back, carefully at first, but then the kiss intensifies, and suddenly, all I want to do is be inside her. It’s not about lust, either. I want to claim her as mine, to take her back into my personal space, to keep her safe and not let her go.

  “Let’s move away from windows,” she says. I have a feeling she feels the same as I do, but I won’t assume again.

  “What do you want to do?”

  “I want to be with you,” she says, and the way she says it tells me exactly what she means.

  I get up and hold my hand out to her. She takes my hand, and I pull her against me. I’m already hard for her, but I want to make this about her.

  The only two places in the apartment with windows that allow for privacy is in the spare bedroom and the main bedroom. There’s no way I’m going to lead Dana to the main bedroom, so we walk to the spare, and I close the door.

  “Where are they?” I ask Dana, only thinking to ask, now.

  “They’re on some expedition. Chris said they’ll be all day.”

  I smile at her. “Perfect.”

  I step close to her, cup her face in my hands, and kiss her. I let my tongue slide into her mouth slowly and taste her as if it’s the first time. As if I haven’t tasted her before. The kiss is deep and sensual, drawn out and Dana melts against me.

  I let my hands roam over her body, touching her everywhere, her breasts, her ribs, her stomach, her hips, her groin, her ass, her back. I slide my hands over her in one big caress. Her breathing gets harder as I do, and I can tell that she’s getting turned on by it. The urge grows inside me, but I don’t act on it. I want to keep this soft and sensual. I want to show her that I love her.

  Slowly, I start to undress her. Piece by piece, I get rid of her clothing, and she does the same for me. When we’re both naked, I guide her back to lay on the bed. I crawl over her body and kiss her again. I make my way down her jawline and onto her neck, focusing on the delicate skin below her ear, the dip above her collarbone, and then her chest. I kiss a line between her two breasts and over her stomach. I shower her with kisses, worshipping her body.

  She breathes harder and moves beneath my hands and lips, but I don’t touch her anywhere sexual. I want to kiss her, to love her, and to show her how beautiful she is. When my mouth reaches the dip above her hip bone, she shudders. I open her legs and work my way down her legs, kissing the
insides of her thighs. I smell her scent with her legs open, and it damn near drives me crazy, but I’m not done.

  I keep kissing her down one leg and then back up the other. I roll her over and do the same with the back of her body, crawling up from her feet. Every inch I kiss, I cover with my own body until I’m lying almost on top of her, keeping my weight off her body enough not to crush her beneath me.

  “Keagan,” she breathes. I know I’m torturing her. “Please, I need more.”

  I know she can feel my cock against her ass, the feel of my flesh thick and hard, resting against her ass cheek. Her skin is burning hot, and I want to take her, but I don’t want to do it for the sake of getting off.

  Dana rolls over onto her back again. I kiss her on the mouth, my tongue playing with hers, and press the length of my body against hers. She sighs into my mouth. My body aches for her, but I am resolute. I want to take it slow, and I will control myself.

  I kiss her again, showering her body with kisses. This time, I include her breasts. I take each nipple into my mouth in turn and suck gently on her. I knead her breasts and run my hands down her ribs and hips, feeling her, touching her. She’s petite in my hands, and being bigger and stronger than her makes me feel protective of her.

  I won’t hurt her again, I tell myself. I will protect her, the way a man should do for his woman.

  “Please,” she begs and her thighs fall open for me.

  I nestle myself between them, and it takes a lot not to push into her, but I don’t want to do anything other than make love to her, and I’m going to draw it out as long as it’s necessary for her to realize how much I feel for her, and how much she means to me. It’s not just about sex with her, even though it’s mind-blowing sex. It’s about so much more.

  She sighs when I rest between her hips, not pressing myself against her entrance. My skin touches hers, and that’s what I want. I can satisfy my hunger for her later. Right now, I want to make sure that everything is right between us.

  Dana

  He’s driving me mad. His kisses all over my body drive me crazy. He leaves a trail of fire behind wherever his mouth touches me, and he strategically avoids all my sexual areas so that I’m writhing with anticipation. The denial frustrates me, just as much as it turns me on.