Czech Mate

by Sloane Taylor

  Dragan stroked his hand along her arm, then clasped her hand and raised it to his lips. She felt like a queen when he kissed her lightly on her fingertips.

  And then reality hit her like a body blow from Mohammed Ali in the first round. Little common Southside Chicago girl Lacey Blake had the balls to be in love with Crown Prince Dragan Petrovič. That was something she’d have to deal with on the long flight home.

  “Come back to me, Lacey.”

  For a moment, she thought he had read her mind, until he caught her chin and tilted it to his face. She pushed up on her tiptoes and touched her lips to his. He deepened their kiss with such tenderness her body quivered. She never wanted this to end.

  He broke away and unbuttoned her blouse before he slid it off her shoulders and down her arms. A flick of his fingers undid her plain white bra and he smiled as if he approved of its utilitarian appearance. She slipped off her loafers as he glided her slacks over her hips. And there she stood in her white cotton panties and was shy with these shared new feelings that swarmed through her.

  “I wish to make love with you. Slowly. Throughout the night.” He teased a finger along her cheek, down her throat, then along the side of her breast before stopping at her waist. “Would you like that?”

  Her heart pounded like a drum in anticipation of his next move.

  A blink later, he had shucked out of his clothes and stood before her with his beautiful hard-on twitching against his abdomen.

  He took her hand and led her the few feet to the bed before he pulled back the comforter. “Please, lie with me.”

  She moved across the cool sheets toward the middle while he edged in beside her. Evening shadows billowed along the ceiling and made the room all the more intimate as if they were the only people in the world, or at least the only ones who had discovered love.

  He stroked along her torso and created wonderful shivers in his fingertips’ path. She rolled to her side and mimicked his movements. His muscles quivered beneath the light touch of her fingers, and a sigh wisped across her cheek.

  He gathered her in his arms for another of his sensual kisses that held the same gentleness as before. She curled into him and slid a leg between his, leaving enough room to rub his erection against her mons. He cuddled her closer and nuzzled her neck while whispering sweet-sounding foreign words into the soft spot at her throat. She pulled his rear to her and glided his penis into her body.

  This time she didn’t scream out with her orgasms or claw on his sweaty flesh as he moved inside her. What they had was deeper than just sex. They shared the tenderness and intimacy of which poets wrote and she had never believed existed.

  Euphoria washed over her, and her world was right once again.

  Chapter Twelve

  The next morning, Dragan sat on the edge of the chair and studied Lacey as she folded her clothes into the worn suitcases. He tried to maintain a blasé attitude. And he would have if he were able to squelch the sadness tearing at his insides.

  “I wanted to give you this.”

  She held out a wrapped package. Her solemn face was unreadable. Did her eyes have a tinge of unhappiness in them? Moisture?

  “Just a little something to remember me by.”

  The pastel paper crinkled in his hand. In a moment, he stripped away the curly ribbon and thin sheet.

  “This is beautiful.” He held up the crystal figurine of a small boy cuddled in his mother’s arms and traced the fine lines. The woman resembled his mother and he had an instant sense of her warmth wrapped around him. His hands trembled at the thought of that fine woman and all she had suffered to benefit her son. “Thank you. I will treasure it.” Just as I will treasure you.

  She smiled, but without joy by the fine lines that feathered out from her tight lips.

  “May I?” He reached for her pink boa and clutched it in his fingers while he inhaled her honey scent. “Another small reminder.”

  He wanted her to stay, needed her by his side. Why the hell had he turned into a coward at the worst possible time? He sucked in a breath and swallowed hard.

  She parted the heavy drapes and glanced out the window at the green-coppered domes high above the red-tiled roofs packed tight under gray clouds and waited for him to say something, anything beyond mundane words. She thought he loved her. He’d said so over and over. Reality slapped her upside the head. How could he say anything except good-bye when they lived an ocean apart?

  “Do not go.”

  His loud words startled her.

  “Stay in Prague. Whatever you want, I will and can provide for you.”

  “Dragan, I’m just starting out.” She watched his reflection in the glass pane. How could she give up a great opportunity with her career just beginning? Would she want to do that for him? And if she did, would she resent him? Eventually. Wasn’t there some way to satisfy all their needs? “I’ve worked hard for a long time to get my degree and what I consider the perfect job. I need to take this opportunity for me.”

  His fingertips were pressed together and nestled under his chin as if he were deep in thought. Then he nodded. “Clemmons has a hotel going up in Germany. Leipzig, I believe.”

  She snorted. “Like they’d give the new kid that job.”

  “I will call…”

  “No. I need to do this on my own.” She swallowed the horrid lump in her throat. Looks like all good things have come to an end.

  He nodded as if he understood all her reasons, but by those downturned kissable lips he didn’t like it.

  “Lacey, I want us together forever. I want to stand next to you in all your endeavors. Work with you to build us a loving home filled with children and laughter. Will you marry me?”

  Her jaw flopped, and she gapped at him.

  “Really?” She never expected a proposal to pop out of his mouth. Be his mistress, most definitely, but wife? Her heart zinged as his words finally sank in.

  His face paled. “Do you not wish to answer me?”

  “Oh, God, yes I’ll answer.” She launched herself into his open arms. “Absofreakinglutely, yes.”

  He plopped into a wingback chair, hiked her onto his lap, and opened his hand. “I am honored if you will wear this.”

  Her hand shook as he slid his mother’s sapphire wedding ring onto her finger. The platinum band sat as snug and comfortable as if it were at home once again.

  “Now my beautiful career woman, we must discuss a plan to make our future together.”

  She grinned and nodded, pleased with his take-charge attitude to make their crazy lives work.

  “Vic, my contract is short term. So much for the big career start.” She giggled. If the Clemmons hotelier liked her work, there could be a long future with him as he had indicated in the hiring package. The decision to accept was up to her. “I’ll be in Chicago for at least five months. After the new hotel is finished, I’m completely free.”

  “Oh, no, you are not, soon-to-be Mrs. Petrovič. And just so you do not forget, I will be at your apartment next month to remind you.”

  About the Author

  Sloane Taylor is the author of twelve contemporary erotica books released by Musa Publishing. Excerpts from her two series, Magnificent Men of Munich and Naughty Ladies of Nice and her stand alone books can be found at Musa Publishing’s website.