by Riley Pine
I nod and fight the urge to hug him.
Nikolai and I have an ally. It is not a solution, but it is hope.
“Thank you,” I whisper instead, but I grab his hand, pressing it between my own. “Thank you so much.”
I decide not to overstay my welcome. I don’t want to worry Nikolai if I’m gone too long. But as I’m walking away, Benedict calls after me.
“You may very well secure his heart,” he says, and I pause midstep. “Just remember that if you do, it is not only yours to cherish, it is yours to protect.”
I don’t turn around or respond but instead continue on my way.
He knows I heard.
He knows I understand.
He knows Nikolai might just secure my heart, as well.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Nikolai
KATE RETURNS FROM her walk in a pensive mood.
“Everything okay, Pet?” I ask with no small concern. Her cheeks are white as marble.
She presses her lips into a grin, but it doesn’t quite reach her eyes. So I make that my singular purpose for the hours ahead, to wash away whatever plagues her and get her beautiful blue eyes to smile again.
Today is the sole day in the month when tourists flood the palace and our extensive grounds. Social media shall soon be filled with #royalday #palacelife #princenikolaiwhereareyou #princenikolaihereicome posts.
And the women who flock inside aren’t lying.
Invariably, a few overenthusiastic subjects attempt to break into my royal suite. Once, a coed from the University of Edenvale evaded the guards and made it all the way to my door wearing nothing but a yellow rain slicker and a pair of Wellingtons. Luckily, X was brushing up on his Japanese ninja star throwing skills in the antechamber off my residence, and the sight of him clutching a deadly iron shuriken halted her explorations and sent her fleeing for friendlier environments.
But today, I don’t want to mix among my subjects. Nor do I want the public world to have a peek at the intimacy developing between me and Kate. All I want is to whisk her somewhere far away from prying eyes, and thanks to my helicopter, this is an entirely plausible option.
“I have a surprise,” I tell her, picking up a woven brown picnic basket. X would normally be happy to carry such items, but I want this date to be all from me. For the next few hours there won’t be any sign of bad boy Prince Nikolai putting his signature moves on a woman. Instead, she will be with a man who is taking a wonderful woman to a place that couldn’t match her vibrant beauty, but comes close.
“We’re having a picnic?”
“I made the sandwiches myself...and got lost trying to find the palace kitchen,” I admit with a rueful grin.
She giggles, half in horror and half in amusement. “Please tell me you are joking.”
I shrug. “In my world, you ring a silver bell, and whatever you need appears.”
She stares at me with her signature intense gaze for long enough that my heart pounds. Does she see me as nothing more than a spoiled, overgrown brat?
“So if you tinkle your little bell, your wishes all come true.”
I nod. “The palace staff pride themselves on this point.”
She glances around the room. “Would this magic bell work for me?”
A thought scuttles through my brain like a menacing cockroach. Does she value your worth more than you? I stomp the passing notion into a million unrecognizable pieces. This is Kate. She isn’t a gold digger. She could never be. “But of course. It’s there on the table, beside the chaise lounge.”
She eyes it and gives her chin a musing rub. “What if I ring for Hugh Jackman? The Wolverine version.”
I choke on my breath, coughing into my fist.
“What can I say?” She stares with wide-eyed innocence. “I like my men with a sharp edge.”
I cross the room, settle my hands on her hips to pull her as close as possible to me and my rapidly thickening needs. “You want me to snarl?”
“Maybe,” she says, her voice lilting, teasing, driving me mad.
“You are playing with fire, Pet.”
She nods. “Are you saying that I make you burn?” She rocks herself against me with a wink.
I nearly groan aloud. “Come, before I ravish you here and waste all these Nutella sandwiches.”
She claps her hands. “You made Nutella sandwiches?”
I grin. “With bananas from Hawaii sliced over sourdough imported from San Francisco.”
Her eyes brighten, finally, and the sight of her unencumbered joy makes my heart race.
“Nutella sandwiches with banana are my favorite. How did you know?”
“I may or may not have perused your Facebook account. You don’t post often. I was hoping for a few more selfies.”
Her mouth makes a perfect O, utterly adorable and unassumingly sexy as hell.
“The profile About Me section says...” I clear my throat. “‘The quickest way to my heart is through a Nutella sandwich.’”
“Guilty as charged,” she says with a giggle. “If you read the rest, you’d see it says you’d capture my heart forever if you added bananas.” She raises a brow.
“Does it now?” I ask, and she merely shrugs.
We start to walk before I hold up a hand. “Wait, I need to get you something.” I open the hallway closet door and pull out two hangers, one with a brand-new sundress and another with one of my jackets. “X procured you fresh garments for our journey, and I want to make sure you don’t get cold on the way.”
She smiles at the floral printed dress, but her brows knit together when I hand her the jacket. “You’re planning on blasting the air-conditioning in the Rolls?”
I click my tongue. “No, we’ll be flying at ten thousand feet.” I smile into her uncomprehending face. “We’re taking my helicopter to a little place I know.” I lean over to kiss her forehead. “Me, you and the most beautiful place on Earth. What can go wrong?”
Kate
Nikolai fastens my seat belt and affixes the helmet strap.
“Are you shaking, Pet?” he asks, planting the sweetest of kisses on my nose.
I inhale a trembling breath. “I guess now wouldn’t be the best time to tell you I’ve never flown before?”
He grins. “In a helicopter, you mean.”
I shake my head. “I’ve never gone farther than a train could take me, and even then I never left the outskirts of Edenvale,” I tell him, almost ashamed of my words. My fiancé was the adventurer, but he always took that to the extreme. It was never my desire to join him. Plus, Gran’s health has been declining for years. “I don’t know,” I say, not wanting to burst Nikolai’s bubble of excitement. Then I shrug. “I guess I’m the kind of girl who plays it safe.”
Until I let my country’s future king pleasure me in the royal gardens.
My head spins. My world is so small compared to his, and each revelation of my upbringing must remind him of this.
He rests his hands on my hips, so strong and reassuring. And as ridiculous as I must look in this helmet, he kisses me, his lips a promise that he will keep me safe.
“I want to show you so much,” he whispers against me. “I want to give you the world.”
I suck in a sharp breath. “I want that, too,” I tell him. And with one more kiss, he hops from my side of the helicopter and makes his way to his own.
His helmet on and seat belt fastened, he flips a few switches and grips what looks like a very complicated gearshift. And then my stomach plummets from my body and probably through the cockpit floor as the ground drops out from under us.
I yelp.
“Shit. Are you okay?”
Concern laces Nikolai’s voice as it pipes through the small speakers close to my ears. It’s then that I start giggling.
“This...is...amazing!” I squeal as th
e palace shrinks beneath us—as all of Edenvale, the only home I’ve ever known, begins to disappear. I turn to him, eyes wide in amazement. “Nikolai.”
He nods. “I know, Pet. I know.”
We rise above mountains and valleys. The outskirts of our country’s rolling green hills spread out before us like an emerald blanket.
“Grab the cyclic,” he says, nodding toward the joystick next to my leg.
I shake my head violently.
“Don’t worry. I won’t let us fall.”
I swallow and do as he says. He flips another couple of switches and then grins at me.
“Now—tilt it ever so slightly to the right.”
I do it, my hands shaking yet gentle on what will either fly us in the direction he wants or be the instrument of our doom. To my surprise, the helicopter veers right, and I squeal with delight.
“I’m flying it!” I cry.
“You’re flying it, Kate.”
My heart surges at his utterance of my name. Though I enjoy his term of endearment, something about him calling me Kate makes whatever today is all the more real.
Nearly two hours later we land in an open field that is lusher and greener than any I’ve seen. Nikolai leads me several yards away to a country road, a motorbike parked on the gravel beside it.
“How did you—?” I start, and Nikolai answers me with a kiss so deep and full of need that my knees buckle.
“Careful there, Pet. The day’s only just begun.”
My grandmother, I think, the real world intruding on the fantasy about to begin. “Nikolai, I need to get back—”
He kisses my nose. “Let go of home, if only for today. I promise to get you back to your life...and me back to mine.” There is regret in his tone. “Just give me this day.”
I nod and swallow back the threat of tears.
He fastens the picnic basket to the back of the bike and once again fastens a helmet to my head. He helps me onto the seat and then hops on in front of me.
“Don’t let go,” he says as I wrap my arms around his waist, and I squeeze him tight, my silent promise to obey.
The hills we ride are bumpy, on the verge of treacherous at times as we wind through the mountains. Nikolai has not told me where we are, but when we arrive at our destination, I know without the day having really begun that it will be the best one of my life.
“Nikolai,” I say again as he helps me off the motorbike. I open my mouth to say more, but tears prick at my eyes, and I am left speechless, staring out over white rocks and turquoise water, a small bathing pool with a cascading waterfall at its end.
He removes his helmet and then my own as I continue to gape at the site before me.
“I wanted to bring you somewhere as beautiful as you,” he says. “Such a place doesn’t exist, but I do believe this is the closest I’ll get.”
This time I’m powerless against the few tears that fall. I don’t recall knowing happiness like this.
He pulls the basket from the bike and then lifts a small hatch beneath the basket’s perch, pulling out a pair of socks and hiking boots.
I laugh as I look at my ballet flats. Sensible shoes, yet not sensible enough for the terrain we are about to traipse.
“Your glass slippers, Cinderella,” he says, and I lean against the vehicle, allowing him to lace me into the boots. On the second one, his hands travel up the length of my leg, and his lips trail sweet kisses in their wake.
I give his head a playful tap. “Not until I get my Nutella sandwich,” I say, though if he truly wanted to, he could have me right here on the side of the road.
We make our way to the pool, and Nikolai spreads a blanket upon an embankment.
“Are we the only ones here?” I ask. “And by the way, where is here?”
He retrieves a sandwich from the basket, removes it from its parchment wrapper and tears off a small piece.
“We are in the secluded hills of western Rosegate.” He pops the sandwich bite into my mouth, and I hum my approval as chocolate, hazelnut and banana converge upon my tongue. “And I can assure you that no one will be visiting this pool today.”
I swallow. “How—how deep is it?” I ask, and Nikolai’s eyes soften.
“Not more than four feet, even at the deepest end. We don’t have to go in. I knew you might not want to, but I also knew I couldn’t not show you this place.”
I shake my head, wanting to be brave for him—to be brave for me. I’ve been in water before—willingly. I just don’t remember knowing how to swim.
“You’ll keep me safe?” I ask.
His hands cradle my cheeks. “God, yes, Kate. Of course. Always.”
His gray eyes bore into mine, and I know he’s telling the truth. It’s that last word, always, that seals the deal.
I back away from him and kick off my boots. Then I pull my dress over my head, revealing my one surprise for him today.
“Where—where are your undergarments?” he stammers, and I beckon for him with my index finger.
“You’ve already given me the world today. I wanted to give something to you.” As he steps closer, I begin to unbutton his shirt. “I want to tell you something. I—I hadn’t been with anyone else for a couple of years before you.” I squeeze my eyes shut and wait for the embarrassment to subside. When I feel his fingertips caress my cheeks, I open them again to see nothing but pure adoration in his gaze. “I was engaged and—he died. I didn’t say anything before because—”
“It’s okay,” he says, surprising me with his reassurance as his hand still cradles my face. “I guess we are more alike than we thought.”
He means Victoria. And maybe he’s right. Maybe our worlds aren’t so far apart after all.
I nod. “What I’m trying to say is... I’ve been on birth control the whole time. Because it was easier...because I hoped that maybe someday...”
He grins. “I’m clean,” he says, knowing what I’m trying to ask. “I may be a wicked rake much of the time, but I’m always careful. If you want to know how many times a year I get tested...”
I shake my head, deciding to trust him rather than wonder how the frequency of doctor’s visits factors into the ratio of women he’s been with.
“I want to be with you, Nikolai. Like this. If you want to be with me.”
“There’s only been one other I’ve been with—like this.” He growls softly in my ear. “And there is nothing I want more right now.”
So I free him of his clothes, marveling at his naked body—each ridge of his muscles, the black ink of his tattoos.
“Tell me what it means,” I say, tracing the compass with my finger as I’ve done before.
He brings my hand to his lips, pressing a kiss into my palm.
“It means I was lost,” he says. “But I’m not anymore.”
I nod, unable to speak. So we step carefully from our perch, down the rocks and into the warm crystal waters below.
“Make love to me,” I say, wrapping my arms around his neck, his hard cock already nudging me open. I am slick and ready—just from his words—to take him in.
He pushes inside, and I cry out as my legs wrap around his hips. I am weightless in the water. Weightless in his arms. Gravity no longer exists.
And I never, ever want to come back down.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Nikolai
MY COCK SHEATHES itself inside Kate, her intimate muscles clenching my length, and a single word hits like a punch to the soul. Home. I have traveled the world, set foot on every continent, skied sky-kissing alpine slopes, explored tiger-filled jungles and indulged in exclusive VIP sex clubs in most major cities, yet I’ve always felt adrift, empty, as if I live my life surrounded by an invisible moat.
Kate might never have set a single stiletto beyond our small kingdom’s borders, but when we lock gazes, it is
as if the whole fucking universe is in her eyes.
She is my home.
I withdraw, take my hard cock in one hand and press the tip to her clit, stroking her hot wet center in a slow, hip-grinding circle. This realization makes me dizzy. I knew she’d attracted me, then entranced me. But this feeling requires me to get out a thesaurus, search for superlatives. And yet it might be simple. So goddamn simple.
Her lips part as her pupils dilate.
“Good, Pet?” My voice is husky with emotion. I want to make her come so hard that the memory of the pleasure imprints on her skin, engraves in her bones.
“Amazing, but...” She trails off, lowering her lids.
I smooth a strand of fiery hair from her cheek. “No secrets between us. No barriers. I am here, raw, skin to skin. I demand no less from you.”
“I need you back inside me.”
The urgency lacing her plea is almost my undoing. “Your wish is my command, m’lady.”
I hike her off her feet and position her slender thighs around my hips. She tries to wiggle lower, but I hold her firmly as I begin my trek toward the waterfall.
“Please. Nikolai. In me. Now.”
I intend to bury myself in her so deep that I no longer know where she ends and I begin. But first she needs her surprise.
We pass under the fall, and the intense pounding rush is nothing to the thundering pulse of my blood in my ears.
Inside the cave there is a small crack in the ceiling, and a shaft of perfect buttery sunlight sparkles over the crystal walls.
Kate gasps. “What is this magical place?”
I bury my face in her porcelain neck and breathe in her essence, the faint hint of Chanel No. 5. “The Grotto of Diamonds,” I rumble. “Stunning, isn’t it?”
Her chest heaves against me.
“Absolutely breathtaking,” she says.
I cup her chin, refuse to let her grow demure, to be shy. “Wasn’t talking about the grotto.”
With a pump, I am back inside. Fucking Christ. My ass muscles clench. She feels softer than spun silk, tight, wet and perfect. As much as I want to lose myself in a series of punishing, dominating thrusts, this is for her. This day. This trip. This moment. So I take the time to ensure every stroke glides over her clit in the slow, steady rhythm that she craves. When I settle her ass against a smooth rock, she hisses with pleasure.
