by Mia Carson
“Can you protect yourself from me?” She stalked across the room but steered well clear of the couch and him. “I should’ve known, should’ve seen right through your damn lies last night.” Her words were quiet as she gazed out the closed balcony doors, taking in the moonlight playing over the water.
With each white-capped wave she saw, her mind replayed the last few years of her life and the last conversation she’d had with the king and queen. Her life was planned out for her, every damn day of it, and she could only sit by and watch. Even with Matt, she didn’t get a choice. He made it for her, just like that, as if she didn’t matter.
But what about what Marie said, she argued with herself. Was he lying last night or lying on the roof?
Between Matt and learning what her parents had done to her, Daphne hit the end of her rope and words poured out of her mouth before she could even attempt to stop them. “You’re a coward,” she snapped, whirling around to glare at him.
“I’m a what?” Matt asked with a frown.
“You heard me. You’re a damn coward! You told me all those other women meant nothing to you, but the second you meet me and realize you could care for someone again, you run from it instead of facing it head on,” she bit out. “I saw it in your eyes last night. You can’t hide it, not from me.”
He shifted but didn’t get up. “I told you, we can’t let it go further.”
“Why not? And don’t give me that shit about me being a princess. That’s not why you’re doing this.”
“Just stop, Daphne,” he warned, his eyes darkening.
“No, I won’t! I’m tired of being pushed around and told what I can and can’t do! I’m goddamn tired of it!” Her hands curled into fists as she fought the urge to stomp her foot in anger. “I’m willing to take this risk and you—you’re just a damn coward!”
Matt was across the room in a blink and stood before her, his hands gripped tightly around her shoulders as he glared down at her. “Coward? You think I’m scared to let you see how I feel?”
Daphne’s body shivered with want, but she narrowed her eyes and jutted her chin out. “Yes, I do. You—” The kiss was fierce and would have knocked her off her feet if Matt hadn’t been holding onto her so hard. He crushed his lips to hers, claiming her mouth fiercely as their tongues danced around each other, fighting for dominance.
When he pulled back, Daphne sucked in a breath. “You can’t… can’t just kiss me like that…”
“Or what?” Matt asked and kissed her again, hotter than before. She groaned when his hands cupped her ass and he ground his hips against hers. She felt his need grow against her belly and nipped his lip.
“You really think you can stay away from me?” she whispered against his lips, her words rough from her anger. She dug her nails into his back, and he cursed when she pressed herself even harder against his body.
“If it would keep you safe,” he insisted.
“Stop being scared of this,” she told him. “I’m not.”
“You should be.” He squeezed her rear tighter and rested his forehead against hers. “What we’re doing… It’s dangerous in more ways than you understand.” When she frowned, he sighed. “And yes, I’m scared as hell about what you do to me. Can you blame me?”
Daphne kissed his lips gently. “Why?” She searched his face for answers, and where she usually wouldn’t be able to read anything from his stoic face, several emotions flickered loud and clear back at her.
He wrapped his arms around her and she felt his holster at his side. “You are under my protection, Daphne. If I’m distracted at all by my emotions for you, it won’t end well.”
“So you’re going to toss me aside and act like last night meant nothing?” she accused him and pushed herself from his arms. “Damn it, Matt, my life’s always going to be in danger! I’m royalty. That’s how this world works, but I don’t want to lose out on whatever this is.”
“We don’t have a choice.”
“Yes, we do! Stop telling me I don’t have a choice! It’s my life, and I’m going to live it!” She stormed towards the balcony and threw the doors open.
“Where the hell are you going now?”
She glanced out over the city. “Out. I’m going out.”
“The hell you are,” he muttered and stalked towards her. “Daphne, you can’t go.”
“Says who, you? You have no control over me, and the king and queen are gone.”
“It’s not safe, damn it! Stop arguing with me and get back inside,” he growled. When he enveloped her in his arms, she aimed to slap him, but he caught her wrist. “It’s not safe! Do you hear me? Your cousin is out to get you!”
Daphne stilled instantly at his words. “What did you say?”
He released her and stepped back, running a twitching hand through his hair. “Just please, stay inside until we sort everything out.”
“First, my parents, then you, and now Dion,” she whispered, turning her back to Matt. “I give up. I’m done. I can’t… I can’t keep doing this and plaster a smile on my face.”
“Daphne? I’m sorry,” Matt told her.
But those two words were the last thing Daphne wanted to hear, especially when she knew he did care about her, saw it in his eyes no matter what he said, and wanted her just as badly as she needed him. “You’re not sorry. Not yet.”
“Wait a damn minute,” he growled.
“No! I’m going to my room.”
“You’re not going to run away from me,” he muttered. “Not until I explain.”
Daphne didn’t want to hear any more. She kept walking, but Matt turned her around, and as she opened her mouth in protest, he picked her up and kissed her. “Damn you for being right,” he groaned against her lips as her arms closed around his neck, unable to resist him even in her ire.
“Right about what?” she breathed.
“Everything.” He carried her to the chest of drawers nearby and set her on top of them. “This is going to be trouble.”
“Good. It’s about time I had some trouble in my life.” Daphne groaned as his hands massaged up her thighs to her hips.
She returned his heated kisses just as fiercely, her fury and her desperate need for him competing inside her mind. They would finish their conversation later—much later. All she wanted was his hands on her skin and his mouth on hers. She wanted him buried deep inside her until she couldn’t take any more.
Matt slid the straps of her tank roughly to the sides and kissed a trail of fire down her neck to her bare shoulders as her hands fumbled for his jeans. She’d almost unbuttoned them when a knock sounded at the door. Quickly, Matt pulled away, and Daphne hopped down, fixing her tank top.
“Who is it?”
“Marie, princess. I brought dinner for you.”
Matt reached over and fixed her hair, his eyes smoldering as they took one long look up her body before he nodded and returned to his seat on the couch. Daphne told Marie she could come in. Marie glanced from one to the other with a raised brow but said nothing as she set down a tray of food with two bottles of wine.
“I’ll leave you to it, then,” Marie said, winking at Daphne as she curtsied. “Goodnight.” The door clicked shut and Daphne let out a breath of relief.
“You see why this is dangerous,” Matt muttered. “If it had been anyone but Marie, what do you think would’ve happened?”
He had a point, but she wouldn’t admit it out loud. “You want to stop?” she asked instead.
“Hell, no,” he said and closed the distance between them in three quick steps. He took her hand in passing and dragged her into the bedroom, closing and locking the door behind them.
Daphne’s chest heaved and she reached for him slowly in the dull light of the table lamp. His hand met hers, taking it, and pulled her to him. He turned her so her back pressed against his chest and a shiver ran down her spine when he tugged on her earlobe with his teeth. Her head fell back on a sigh, and those warm lips moved down her neck, languidly kissing
each spot they touched. The tips of his fingers trailed over her arms, a touch telling Daphne exactly what Matt wouldn’t admit. He cared for her a whole hell of a lot more than he could ever hide.
When his fingers moved the straps aside, leaving her shoulders bare, Daphne moved against him, wanting to turn and face him, but he didn’t let her. “Not yet,” he growled in her ear.
Melting from his touch, Daphne could do little but let him hold her. His hands went to her wrists and brought her arms up, draping them gently back and around his neck.
“Just hold onto me.” His voice, rough with his own need, caused Daphne’s thighs to clench, and she knew her panties were wet, crying out for the touch she understood she would never be able to live without.
One warm, callused hand slipped down the front of her shirt, cupping a heavy breast, while the other moved across her stomach, massaging from one side to the other and moving her back against him. His erection was prominent against her back, growing more with every move he made. Her eyes slid closed when he tugged at her nipple. Painfully slowly, he unbuttoned her jeans and slid the zipper down all the way.
Daphne sucked in a breath when his fingers inched through her curls beneath her panties and found her soft folds. He groaned in her ear, his hips grinding against her rear as he squeezed her clit. She flinched into his touch.
Her blood was on fire when his fingers slid solidly back and forth between those wet folds, spreading her until she whimpered for him. Daphne’s arms slipped, but Matt stopped his touching until she put them back. Her hands wanted to grip his length hard and take him, much as he did her. Those damn fingers slid up inside her, barely at first, blocked by her jeans, but it was enough to make her chest heave and her heart pound in time with his beating against her ear. He growled something, but the words were lost in her heavy moan.
“Matt,” she whispered as the tension rose within her body, twisting her madly in his arms.
“Yes, princess?” he asked against her neck while his tongue licked from her shoulder to her earlobe and back again. “Tell me what you want, love.”
What did she want? There wasn’t a way to put it into words, so she moved her hips harder against his hand. Matt got the message and shifted his hand until it cupped her and his palm pressed against that burning bundle of nerves. A moment later, he tore a cry from her lips as the intense but brief burst of pleasure shot through her body.
As he held up her quivering body, he whispered in her ear, “Still mad at me?”
“If you don’t let me touch you, I will be,” she replied, dazed. Her arms fell to her side, but not before Matt quickly relieved her of her tank top and bra. He tugged her jeans over her hips, and when she was completely naked, his eyes caressed every inch of her until her whole body screamed for him again.
The need must have reflected in his eyes. Matt set his holster and gun aside, tugged his shirt off, and before he could even get to his jeans, Daphne pulled him down for a kiss, demanding all he had to give. Her fingers fumbled with his jeans in her haste, but once she undid them and slipped her hand inside, she grinned. He swelled the second she touched him, and when her hand moved tightly from the tip to the base, he cursed, his hands tightening in her hair as his tongue delved deeply into her mouth. But when his hand went from her head to between her legs, he groaned, and Daphne was flat on her back in bed before she even realized what happened.
Propped up on her elbows, she watched with hungry anticipation as he kicked off his jeans and moved to the bed, a predatory look on his face making her warm from her burning loins up to her tingling nipples.
Neither said a word as he climbed up, his knee spreading her legs, and he pressed against her. Daphne drew him down for a kiss, and the moment their lips met, he thrust deep and hard inside her. Their bodies shook together at the immediate jolt of desire being satisfied. Daphne’s hips lifted to meet his, gasping as the heat grew to a burning inferno deep within her. Matt lowered his mouth to her nipples, sucking hard as his other hand slid down her thigh, gripping her hip tightly, but he didn’t go faster, and each drag out and back in left Daphne dizzy.
How did either of them think they could live without the other and the attraction growing with every passing second? He said he needed Daphne to silence his inner demons, but she needed him to keep her grounded. Stop her from losing that last shred of control.
As she gasped his name, close to release, he pulled out, flipped her over, and lifted her back up onto his lap. With his arms securely enclosed around her body, he brought her back down on him as he kissed and nipped her neck and shoulder. Daphne cried out as pleasure swarmed her and even more when his hand snaked down her stomach to her clit and tugged. The heat from his chest spread from her back to the rest of her body as the room spun around them.
“Jesus,” she whispered, “Matt… I can’t… oh God!”
“Let it all go, Daphne,” he grunted. “Just let it go.”
His fingers pinched her clit again as he drove hard into her. Daphne was torn apart, shattered into a hundred pieces. Matt growled a curse in her ear, and she felt his warmth spill into her as he kissed along her neck, his chest heaving behind her. He turned them so they fell back on the bed.
When she turned to face him and was able to catch her breath, even though her limbs felt like jelly, Daphne scooted closer and kissed him. “I think we could use that wine now.”
“I second that idea,” he grunted. “I’ll get it.”
“Great. I’ll go run the bath,” she said with a seductive grin when he shot her a look that promised she would not regret a thing about tonight nor any night after.
***
Sun streamed in through the open balcony, and Daphne breathed in the fresh morning air, completely at peace with the world around her for a change. With her parents absent from the island, even if only for a day or two, the walls didn’t seem so closed-in. She wanted to stay there, watching the water, and feel the sun’s warmth on her face, but sooner or later, she would be called from her room to perform her duties as a princess.
Except today, there was more to it than that. Two strong arms closed around her, and Matt kissed the top of her head as she leaned back into his embrace.
“What the hell am I going to do about Dion?” she asked quietly.
“Nothing, for now,” he told her. “Ambrose will tell me today if they found anything last night, but if there’s no proof, then legally, there’s nothing you can do to him. Yet.”
“So I’m just supposed to let him keep spreading rumors about me?”
Matt turned her around slowly. “No, but like I said, you do nothing for now. Let me see what I can find out. I have a contact in the city. I’ll call him, see what he knows. If nothing else, I’ll let something slip that Dion is involved in more than just drug allegations.”
“A smear campaign. This is one of those days I wish we didn’t have a damn parliament, and I could just snap my fingers and make him disappear,” she mused and tugged her ear until Matt pulled her hand away gently. “Sorry.”
He took her chin in his hand, frowning, and kissed her. “Don’t ever apologize to me, Daphne. We all have our ways of coping.”
“Yeah, and what’s yours?”
“For the moment, it’s you,” he admitted.
She grabbed his shirt and pulled him closer for a kiss. “Just don’t push me away again. It won’t be good for either of us.” A look she couldn’t read passed over his face before he kissed her again, and she tugged at his lip until he growled and his hands bunched in her shirt.
“We have to go,” she whispered sadly and stepped back.
“Of course, princess,” he agreed formally, even if his eyes continued to gleam with promises of what he’d do to her later. “We shall go whenever you’re ready.”
Daphne smoothed her blouse and straightened her skirt. Today should’ve been a nice break from the stress the king and queen caused her by hovering nearby all the time. Instead, she was stressed over her worrying about Agnes
and Dion. To think that her cousin told people she was on happy pills to cope with her sister’s death. It had happened so long ago, and she’d managed to get over it just fine without any drugs. But no one would know the truth, not unless she got out there and told them herself. Despite what Matt told her, it was hard not to want to repair her reputation. Between her parents and Dion, she wasn’t sure who was more at fault.
Matt waited patiently by the doors to her rooms, and once she’d taken a few deep breaths to keep her hands from shaking, she moved towards him. He opened the door for her to walk through, and Daphne led the way out, Matt trailing behind her as he always did, but this morning it wasn’t his heated gaze she felt on her back. Instead, his worry for her current predicament pushed against her, and with it, the dangerous undertone of the man she was quickly falling for. Matt didn’t scare her, but she knew he would scare anyone dumb enough to come after her or her throne.
The first order of business was to meet with the stubborn members of parliament dragging their feet on her education reforms. She reached the small conference room, but the man who stepped out the door was not one she’d expected to see.
“Dion? What the hell are you doing here?” she snapped before she could catch herself.
Immediately, Matt moved forward to stand by her side, and she saw his hand slip to his exposed holster. He still wore his clothes from the day before. There’d been no time to change. “Is there a problem, princess?” he growled.
“I should think not,” Dion scoffed as he straightened his suit jacket. “Princess Daphne, are you not happy to see me this morning?”
Daphne bit her tongue but didn’t smile, not this time. “Of course. I was startled. My mind is occupied on other matters. What, may I ask, are you doing here this early? You’re not part of this meeting today, nor is your mother here.”
“No. No, she’s not,” Dion said quietly as he looked from Daphne to Matt standing so close to her side. “Is it a casual day?”
“Excuse me?”
Dion nodded at Matt. “Your bodyguard is out of uniform. Curious.”
