by Amelia Jade
“I want you inside me,” she ordered, her tone brooking no argument. “Now.”
Daxxton smiled and rolled up behind her as they spooned, and she bit her lip as the tip of his dick slid inside of her, pushing her open slowly as he thrust forward.
“Fuck me,” she commanded as he slowly teased her with his length.
That was all the air she had for words after that, as Daxxton went about doing his best to obey her order.
Chapter Eleven
Daxxton
He stirred awake, his face a mix between a smile and a frown.
“Well that’s an interesting look,” Miranda commented sleepily from within his arms.
“Does it look as happily unhappy as I feel?”
She mused on his words for a moment, her brain still addled from the night. “Yes, I think that means what you look like. Otherwise no, it doesn’t mean what you look like.”
He chuckled at the way she covered her bases for no reason.
“I was happy about waking up to the sight of your pretty face,” he said, looking deep into her eyes, so brown they were almost black, especially in the dim light of the bedroom. Her hair was undone and fell down around her shoulders.
“Yeah, I really should have gone back to my room,” she said. “I was so good about that the past few nights, but tonight I was just so tired,” she admitted.
“I’m not complaining, but the odds are high someone noticed.”
Miranda shrugged. “It’s early. I’ll go soon. It’s right across the hall. Nobody will know.”
He arched an eyebrow, but she didn’t seem too concerned, so he let it go. It was much more enjoyable waking up to her in the same bed as him after all.
“So what’s the unhappy all about then?” the raven-haired beauty asked as he admired the top half of her naked body, visible to his hungry eyes as the covers fell back while she stretched in bed.
“It’s been two whole days since we went to the Council. And we haven’t heard a word,” he said grimly. “I am losing hope in their willingness to do the right thing.”
Miranda reached out a hand and gently stroked his face. “It’ll be okay.”
He nuzzled her, relishing her touch. “I hope so.”
“It will,” she said, more strongly this time.
Daxxton lay back and gazed at her face for a long time, not saying anything. Miranda began to blush and eventually ducked her face back under the covers.
“You know,” he said softly, “I think things are going to be okay.”
She looked up at him. “You aren’t talking about the Council, are you?”
He shook his head. “No, I’m not.”
“What changed?”
“I didn’t have the dream last night,” he said, still somewhat in disbelief himself. “I slept peacefully for the first time in centuries.”
“Daxxton,” she said cautiously. “That’s great.”
The Aurum Dragon’s eyes riveted on hers. “But…” he said.
Miranda sighed and sat up, pulling the comforter tight to her chest to hide her nudity. “But don’t go falling in love with me just yet,” she said wistfully.
His stomach heaved and flopped. “What do you mean?”
Although he hadn’t considered the idea of love, he also was aware, if he admitted it to himself, that only something powerful could have gotten him to continue on with his life after Kyra at long last. He would always cherish his first mate, and she would forever have a spot in his mind and his heart. But he was learning how to care again, and that was a rare thing indeed.
“Dax,” she said softly. “I’m the Princess of Tanith. I have to think of my people. I won’t ever be able to mate for love.” She reached up and caressed his cheek. “No matter how much I may want to.”
He froze at her touch.
How could he have been so stupid? Of course she couldn’t be with him. She was the ruler of a bloody shifter stronghold! He was important and powerful, and in that aspect he would be an acceptable suitor for her.
The problem was, he was Cadian, and Tanith…
“Is neutral,” he said aloud. It was an incomplete thought, but she nodded sadly, confirming what he was thinking. “I’m such an idiot.”
“No,” she admonished, leaning in to him until their foreheads rested against each other. “You don’t feel this way alone,” she told him. “I promise. But I must keep their interests first and foremost. That starts with the neutrality of Tanith in any conflict. We’ve worked hard for it, and they would hate me if I threw it away.”
He bobbed his head repeatedly, searching for the right words to say just then.
But they didn’t come.
Eventually Miranda pulled away. “I should get going,” she said. “Before anyone notices I’m not in my chambers. Can we talk more later today?”
He nodded absently, not sure what more there was to talk about, but eager to spend more time with her.
What a fucked-up situation. I should have never let myself get into it. I’m supposed to be the smart and wise one, and here I am jeopardizing her entire nation. Good fucking job, Daxxton the Dumb.
He snorted derisively at himself as the door closed and he threw the covers aside, not feeling like being confined by them any longer. This time he resisted the urge to destroy the room, taking deep breaths and running through some meditative exercises to help dissipate his anger.
Okay, what would the smart Daxxton do in a situation like this? Think.
He sat down on one of the few unbroken chairs in the entire suite and let his mind wander.
There had to be a way to make this work.
***
Miranda
Miranda held back the tears until the door to her own set of rooms opened for her. Then they began to flow indiscriminately as she started stripping her clothes back off, heading for the shower.
“Mir?” came a voice from inside the room.
She jerked upright, not having realized anyone was there.
“Oh, hey Har,” she said with a wan smile at Harriet Saunders, her best friend and body double. She looked much more comfortable now that she was able to abandon her act as the fake princess. “Why are you here?”
“Why aren’t you?” the other woman asked, lounging on the bed that Miranda had spent very little time in over the past few days.
“I was just talking with Daxxton about the security,” she said, hoping to avoid any further conversation about it.
“Oh, was that a long conversation?”
She shrugged. “A little, why?”
Harriet just eyed her. “Well, I came looking for you last night and you weren’t here. So I was wondering if you two had spent all night talking about ‘security.’” Her friend put a heavy emphasis on the last word, letting the real princess know she wasn’t fooled for a second.
“Does everyone know?” Miranda asked, throwing herself down on the bed, still half-dressed but no longer interested in the shower.
“Nolan and I do,” she admitted. “I’m not sure if anyone else has guessed it, but we haven’t told them.”
“Fuck,” she groaned. “This just keeps getting worse and worse!’
Harriet sat up, looking at her with concern in her blue-green eyes. “What do you mean? What happened?”
Miranda patted her friend’s arm, appreciative of her protective streak, but not in need of it just then.
“He happened, that’s what I mean. Daxxton. He just waltzed into my life. It’s not even been a week yet, and I already feel as if I couldn’t live without him around,” she complained. “It’s not fair.”
She lifted her head slightly and threw it back down onto the bed, her arms coming up to rest on her face, obscuring her vision of the room as she vented.
Harriet was quiet for a moment. Miranda thought she was trying to come up with some words to say, but then she felt the bed begin to shake. Moving her arm slightly, she peered up at her friend.
“Are you serious right now? How is this a
laughing matter?”
Harriet couldn’t contain herself any longer and doubled over, her peals of laughter bouncing off the walls as she tried to sputter an apology to the red-faced Miranda.
“What the hell is so funny? How can I be true to my heart and my people at the same time?”
The laughter stopped, replaced with a look of disbelief as Harriet turned and stared at her.
“Okay, now what?” Miranda ground out, beginning to get frustrated with her longest friend. “Use your words, please.”
“What do Daxxton and Tanith have to do with each other?” Harriet asked, confused.
Now it was Miranda’s turn to stare. “Are you daft, girl? He’s from Cadia. Do I need to spell that out for you? It certainly isn’t spelled T-a-n-i-t-h.”
“So what?”
“So? How the hell do you think that will look if I, the Princess of Tanith, marry Daxxton, of Cadia. Who in their right mind would buy our claim to neutrality then?”
“Neutrality?” Harriet asked. “What does that have to do with staying true to your people?”
Miranda’s jaw dropped open. Was her friend on drugs? Tanithian neutrality was at the core of their being. Of who they were as a people.
“Because, Tanith has always been neutral between Cadia and Fenris, never siding with one over the other.”
Harriet barked a laugh. “Oh my. I love you so much, Mir, but you’re so wrong you don’t even know it yet.”
“Explain,” she said, not used to being spoken to that way, even from Harriet.
“Miranda Pyke,” Harriet said sternly, her eyes narrowing at the snappy reply from her friend. “You are a great princess, and you care deeply for your people. Nobody would argue that. But you need to realize that the people don’t care about neutrality because of neutrality and tradition. They care about it because you care about it, and they care about you. They love you, adore you, because you do whatever it takes to make their lives the best you can. But they aren’t married to the idea of neutrality themselves. They just champion it because you do.”
The Princess of Tanith stared at her friend in open-mouthed shock. All her life, she’d fought for the cause of neutrality, because she’d believed it was what her people wanted, what they desired from her. Now she was being told she was completely in the wrong.
“And before you go accusing me of reading the population incorrectly—which I assure you, I’m not—don’t forget that one of those two strongholds has tried to kill you. Not once, not twice, but three times in the past week.”
“Kidnap,” she corrected absentmindedly.
“Right, because they were going to set you free eventually,” Harriet replied with an overly dramatic eyeroll. “Come on Mir, you know better than that. Once they had what they needed from you, you were as good as dead to them.”
She couldn’t argue that point. “Fine. I suppose they might be more favorably inclined toward Cadia at this point. But that still brings me back to Daxxton. He’s powerful and well respected, yes. But he’s not part of the political elite here.”
“So? Who says you have to marry a politician? He’s a born leader, Miranda. Plus, he hates politics as much as you do. Wouldn’t that make married life just a little easier, when you can both vent about hating the same thing instead of having to pretend you love that part of your job?”
Miranda looked away unhappily at the accuracy of Harriet’s points. “How the hell do you know me so well?” she grumped.
“Oh you know, I’ve just had to deal with you for over a century. Practice makes perfect, right? And I’ve had a lot of practice.”
Harriet started to giggle, but it was cut off by her cry of surprise as a pillow took her full on the side of the head, appearing in Miranda’s hands as if by magic.
That started a battle that lasted no more than a few seconds. It was hard to rein in their supernatural strength, and the pillows ripped to shreds as they hurled them into each other over and over again. Lying there in the midst of tattered pillow cases and shards of memory foam, the pair laughed and allowed themselves, for just a moment, to relax.
“Are you sure this is okay?” she asked into the silence that descended as they caught their breaths. “That I’m thinking with my monarch brain, and not my heart or anything else?”
Harriet laughed again, but it was a sympathetic chuckle this time.
“No, I think you’ll be just fine,” she said. “Tanith loves you, Mir, as little as you wish to acknowledge that, which is part of the reason they love you even more. If they see that you found someone you truly care for, and not some political flunky, they will go absolutely nuts. Trust me on that.”
Miranda took a deep breath.
“He is a nice guy,” she said at last. “He may not be politically powerful, but Harry, oh, you should have seen the way he called out his Council. Told them that Klara was a cancer in their midst, while she was right there. He didn’t even flinch once, not even when she threatened him. All he had to do was stare her down and she backed away. It was magnificent.”
Harriet handed her a piece of a shredded pillow cover.
“What’s this for?” she asked in confusion.
“To wipe the drool off your face,” her friend teased.
“Rude,” Miranda replied, but there was a smile on her face.
“Are you still here?” Harriet asked with a yawn, rolling over and bunching the covers under her cheek as if making to take a nap.
“It’s my room. Why wouldn’t I be here?”
“Don’t you need to go find him? Tell him you’re done being dumb and you can be with him?”
Miranda rolled to her feet and pulled the covers—and one surprised Harriet—off the bed and into a pile on the floor. Her friend yelped, but Miranda was already grabbing her previously discarded clothes and reassembling them on her body.
“I’m happy for you,” Harriet said softly from the floor, flashing her friend a genuine smile.
“Me too,” Miranda said, knowing she was blushing fiercely as she thought of the idea of spending her life with Daxxton.
She resolutely ignored the fact that he was much older than her, and she would likely only have three or so centuries with him.
That will just have to be enough.
***
She walked down the hallways, trying not to seem like she was desperately searching for Daxxton, even though that’s exactly what she was doing.
He hadn’t been in his room, but that wasn’t a surprise. She figured he was out walking the grounds or something.
“Dak, have you seen Daxxton?” she asked, passing one of her security team as he roamed the halls.
“Yeah, he was in the atrium when I passed through there a few minutes ago,” the young shifter said, his long blond hair flying as he turned and jerked a thumb back down the hallway behind him.
“Thanks,” she replied, trying not to break out into a run as she made a beeline for the atrium.
At the center of the Nova household, where all four wings met, was a massive atrium filled with plants, trees, and other greenery, complete with glass ceiling and everything. It was beautifully kept, and she could understand why Daxxton would want to go there now. There was something about the room that just emitted a sense of calm, and peace. A tranquility she was sure he would be seeking after what she’d said to him.
A smile appeared on her face as she pictured his reaction upon her telling him what she’d decided—with a little help from Harriet of course! The idea of making him so happy made her happy.
Daxxton was right where Dak had promised, standing against a metal fence separating the walking paths from the greenery, overlooking the koi pond beyond.
Now, with him in her sights and the reality of the situation explained to her, Miranda found that she was hesitating.
What is wrong with me? A second ago this was all I wanted.
But what if it wasn’t what Daxxton wanted? Yes, he’d said he cared for her unlike any other. Was that enough though? He�
��d been mated once, and lost his love. Would he ever be over that?
Shaking her head, she ignored the doubts suddenly cropping up, and forced herself to walk forward until she was leaning on the balcony next to him. Neither of them said a word for a long moment.
“You look like you have something to say,” he said, speaking at last.
“More like an apology to make,” she admitted.
Daxxton turned to look at her, his short golden-blond hair reflecting the sunlight that streamed in overhead, giving his eyes a vividness to them that threatened to steal her breath.
Not this time. Right now I have some explaining to do. I can get caught up in his eyes later.
“I pushed you away earlier, and I’m sorry. I know this seems like a complete reversal of everything I was arguing for, and it kind of is.” Miranda shook her head. “No, not kind of. It is a reversal of all my earlier objections.”
“I see,” Daxxton said, though it was obvious he didn’t understand.
“I was operating under some false assumptions,” she said. Her shoulders rose and fell in a shrug. “But I just had some sense knocked into me by someone.”
Miranda stopped speaking. Her words were coming out in a jumbled mess, and she wasn’t making any sort of coherent point.
“This is not going the way I had imagined,” she said with a shake of her head.
“Oh? And how did you imagine it going?” Daxxton asked, the beginnings of a smile creasing the corner of his lips.
“Umm, I come running in here, tell you I was a dumb idiot and you sweep me up in your arms and tell me that you love me and we’ll be together forever?” She smiled sheepishly. “Something ridiculous like that.”
The big shifter chuckled. “I’d like that,” he said. “But I’ve been doing some thinking as well.”
Miranda steeled herself. Here it comes, she thought. He’s about to tell me there can’t be an “us.”
“If we were to mate,” he said thoughtfully, “how would it work?”
She frowned. This wasn’t what she’d been prepared for. “Umm, the same way it works with other mated couples?” she said slowly.
