by A. C. Arthur
“There was complete chaos then as you can imagine everyone came running to see what was wrong with the princess. I stood stoically then and put each of the spiders back into the jar. I was punished for the duration of the evening,” he finished.
She propped her elbows on the table and watched him intently as he spoke, as if she was thoroughly amused.
“What did you do during your punishment?”
“I sat on my bed and stared at that jar of spiders, giggling every few minutes at the look on Sam’s face when she saw them. In the morning I felt bad and went to Sam’s room before breakfast to apologize to her. She hit me with her pillow and then made me sit through a private tea party with her special dolls.”
“But you were okay with that because you got the chance to do something fun,” Landry said thoughtfully. “You didn’t have much time for fun growing up, I suspect. Just like you don’t now.”
He sat up straighter then, feeling as if too many eyes were on him and he wasn’t at his best, or rather his guard had been lowered, when it shouldn’t have been.
Clearing his throat, Kris looked at her directly. “I have a duty. The rest is secondary.”
In the next moments he gave a nod of his head and the staff were moving to clear the table. He’d asked if she wanted the rest of the pizza and when she’d nodded, he instructed the staff to box it and another one to go.
“Are we returning to the palace?” she asked when he’d stood and waited for her to join him.
Kris looked at her then. He recalled the way her cheeks lifted when she smiled and the sound of her voice as she laughed. He’d watched her lick her lips after each bite of her pizza and frown over the bitter taste of the beer. She’d listened to his story with complete attentiveness and had hit the nail squarely on the head with her assessment of why that memory meant so much to him. She was getting to him; he knew it. He didn’t like it, but he couldn’t deny it.
“No. Not yet,” Kris told her.
* * *
Landry giggled as she walked barefoot along the shoreline. Night had fallen, only slithers of moonlight bouncing along the water’s edge.
She had no idea when was the last time she’d giggled. Probably never. Landry had always been on a mission to prove to her older brothers that she was just as strong as them, just as resilient as anyone else. She was a girl, but she was not a ninny. How many times had she told them that? She’d lost count.
Yet when she’d tripped over her own stupid feet and almost fell into the rolling tide, Kris had easily wrapped an arm around her waist, saving her from inevitable embarrassment. His grip had been strong and her feet had left the ground almost immediately. It wasn’t necessary, but he’d swung her around then, so that the cooler evening breeze brushed over her cheeks and lifted the ends of her hair.
He’d wrapped both his arms around her and held her tight to his chest and as she’d let her head fall back and giggled, he’d chuckled too.
She stared at him as he slowly let her slide down until her feet once again touched the sand. He seemed darker out here, they both did, Landry supposed. But there was something else. A shield had been lowered. She could see it in the lift of his lips and the light in his eyes.
“What? Why are you staring at me like that?” he asked, his hands slipping away from her arms.
“You’re different,” she told him. “Relaxed.”
He immediately stopped smiling. “I’m on the beach and it’s getting dark,” he replied.
“Are you afraid of the dark?” she asked as she stepped closer to him.
She liked being close to him. Liked it way too much. She’d had one beer in comparison to his two, still Landry felt like it must be going to her head.
“I’m not,” he replied.
Landry nodded. “You’re not afraid of anything, are you, Kristian? Not afraid of anything, can complete any task, handle any catastrophe. You’re all that, but still, right here and now, you’re still different.”
He sighed then and looked away.
“You don’t have to say anything. I just mentioned it,” she told him. “I know I can be pushy sometimes, but I’m really not trying to be.”
When he didn’t respond Landry wondered how she was going to get out of this uncomfortable situation she’d just created. Why couldn’t she have just kept her mouth shut and continued with the spinning and giggling?
“You don’t treat me like everyone else,” he said quietly as he took a few steps back from her and then turned to face the ocean.
“You’re not like anyone else I’ve ever met,” she admitted, her voice almost as quiet as his.
The waves seemed much louder then; the wind and every little thing around them seemed bigger, more pronounced than just a few seconds ago. She lifted her hands to push her hair back behind her ears while she tried to figure out why.
“Because I’m a prince?”
Landry shook her head. “And because you’re much more complicated than I first realized. There’s more in there, isn’t there? You walk so tall and hold your head so high. You rule and you organize. But do you live?”
She’d had this very same thought since the days that followed their tryst in the changing room. When Kris had left her alone after apologizing and telling her that it—they—would not happen again, she’d told him that it would. Later that night she’d thought that perhaps she should not have said that. Kristian appeared to be a decisive man, something Landry thought came with his title and upbringing. Then she’d dreamt of him, of them making love beneath the warm Caribbean sun. He was smiling in that dream, touching her and enjoying her as she had enjoyed him. In the morning she’d tried to forget the dream but that hadn’t worked and eventually her thoughts had turned to the man that would forego physical pleasure for the sake of duty.
He stood with his legs spread slightly apart. Before they’d climbed out of the car to enter the restaurant she’d convinced him to remove his suit jacket by saying, It feels like it’s near one hundred degrees out there. You’re making me hot just looking at you all buttoned up in that suit.
Surprisingly, he’d only given her an amused look before removing his jacket. A part of Landry hadn’t been sure whether he would simply direct his driver to take them back to the palace or argue his position with her. The silent acquiescence had caused a different type of trepidation in her where the prince was concerned.
Now, he’d even slackened the blue-gray tie he wore so that it hung loosely around his open shirt collar. He still looked out to the water, his hands calmly at his sides.
“I live the life I was meant to live,” he responded to the question Landry had nearly forgotten as she’d been so caught up in staring at him.
“Me too,” she said, looking out to the water as well. “You ever wonder if there’s more though?”
Again, Kristian didn’t answer right away. That was fine because Landry figured her mouth had once again gotten her into a strained situation. She now found herself thinking about her job and her life back home and if that was all she was ever going to have.
“My mother always wanted more,” Kristian commented after a while. “She was always bursting with energy and enthusiasm. I could look into her eyes every day and see a new plan for some outing or event at the palace. Something she wanted to do with children or to save the environment. Then, just hours later when I was finished with whatever my father had on my schedule for the day, I’d see her and Sam playing in Sam’s bedroom. There was so much pink in there, dolls and doll clothes, a huge doll house that had enough furniture for a human family to reside in it. Her voice was animated and Sam loved it. One day when I asked her how she managed to do all those things, she said simply, I love my life and I have love in my life.”
Landry nodded because she knew exactly what his mother had been trying to tell him. Not that this was t
he way she’d wanted this little outing with Kristian to go. She’d only intended to take his mind off the accident. And she definitely did not want to talk about falling in love and all the ties and rules that went with that.
She walked farther into the water, not really caring that the hems of her capri pants were now getting wet. When she decided she was far enough and Kristian had not said another word, she turned and began kicking water in his direction.
“I’ll bet your mother loved this water,” she said. “I’ve been swimming in the pool, but yesterday I finally had a chance to get down to the beach and it’s fantastic!”
He looked like he had when she’d asked him to take off his suit jacket and Landry figured she’d be the only one riding back to the palace with wet clothes on, until Kristian surprised her yet again. He didn’t rush over and dunk her beneath the water, which is exactly what her brothers would have done. Instead, he approached her, his own pants getting just as wet as hers, and cupped her face in his hands.
Needless to say, Landry immediately stopped kicking water. She may have actually stopped breathing as Kristian’s face was suddenly very close to hers. So close her lips parted involuntarily in anticipation.
“You’re not supposed to be here,” he said, his voice strained. “This is not supposed to happen.”
Landry didn’t know how to respond to that. What should she say? Or should she maybe just leave? Wade her way out of the water and back to the car that was waiting for them on the bank a short distance away. That would not be a very dignified exit, but it might put a stop to the struggle she heard so clearly in his voice.
Of course that’s not what she did because that would have been the easiest and most sensible thing to do. For Landry, there really was no choice.
She moved in closer, eliminating that small breath of space between them and touched his lips with hers. She did not go softly either. It was all or nothing at this point, she figured. Hell, she’d told the prince to take off his jacket, why not go all the way and kiss him beneath the moonlight too?
Chapter 8
Kris kicked the door to his private rooms closed and reached back to make sure the lock clicked into place. He still had an arm around Landry’s waist because he hadn’t been able to stop touching her the entire ride back to the palace.
The kiss in the water had unleashed something inside him, something he was more than tired of holding back. When they’d finally taken a break for air, Kris hadn’t hesitated when he scooped Landry up in his arms and carried her back to the car. She ran her fingers along the line of his jaw as he held her, staring up at him as if she knew exactly what he was thinking. He’d thought the same about her question about him really living his life. How could she have known the one question that haunted him every day?
He’d told her this wasn’t supposed to happen, that she wasn’t supposed to be here, but Kris was beginning to think that was all wrong.
Tajeo had stood stoically with the back door of the car open and Kris had gently set Landry inside. On the ride back, Kris had pulled her close, his arm locked around her shoulder while he stared forward. She laid her head on his shoulder and they rode in silence, consumed by their thoughts.
He wondered if she knew that his thoughts were totally focused on getting her naked and beneath him in the shortest amount of time possible?
At the palace, Kris walked them through the back door and stepped onto an elevator that the staff normally used. He guided her down the lengthy hallway to his rooms and now could only stare down into her eyes.
“If you don’t want this I need you to say so right now,” he said, the words tight in his throat, need burning in his gut.
He hadn’t bothered to turn on any lights, but several windows were free of the blinds he usually activated at night, so the moonlight spilled in, casting a sensual hue throughout the area.
“I want this,” was her simple reply.
Why did everything seem that way with her? It had been so easy for him to watch her night after night as she swam and even easier to lead her into that changing room with him. Even tonight, going to have dinner with her—pizza, of all things—had seemed so natural and necessary at the same time.
When her hand flattened on his chest, Kris touched her cheek once more, moving until he could kiss her again. Their tongues twined softly together, mixing in a gentle prequel to what he knew was going to be a long night.
She moaned softly as he kissed the line of her jaw, down to her neck. Her fingers gripped his arms as his tongue touched the smooth skin of her shoulder. Since he’d approached her at the pool earlier, Kris had been enamored by the line of her shoulders, now bared with the design of her blouse. The contrast between her complexion and the bright tone of the shirt was nothing short of alluring. While his hand cupped one shoulder, his fingers moving slowly over her soft skin, his tongue stroked over the other, gentle kisses turning quickly into suckling, nipping.
“Kristian.” She whispered his name as she leaned into him.
He’d asked her to call him Kris. She hadn’t. Not one time. He groaned and her hands moved until she was cupping the back of his head.
Desperate to see and taste more, Kris pushed the rim of her shirt until she let her arms fall to her sides and he could maneuver the blouse until it was bunched at her waist. She wore a strapless bra that barely contained the heavy mounds of her breasts. With movements so slow they were almost painful, Kris unhooked that bra and watched it fall to the floor. Using the back of his fingers he rubbed over both nipples until they were hard and enticing. Could they...or she, be more tempting than he’d already found her to be? He didn’t think so.
“I won’t break,” she told him, her tone a breathy whisper.
His gaze found hers quickly and he replied, “I’m afraid I will.”
She touched his wrists then, bringing her fingers down until they were covering his on her chest. She squeezed his hands, which resulted in him squeezing her breasts. She gasped; her tongue slipped out to stroke her lips. He squeezed again on his own accord this time, watching intently as passion filled her eyes.
“More,” she encouraged him and Kris felt as if the heat in this room might suffocate him.
She felt wonderful in his hands, more so than anything Kris had ever touched before. He knew the second his name fell from her lips again that he needed more as well. Bending slightly, he replaced one hand on her breast with his tongue on her nipple. Stroking it slowly, loving the pebble-hard feel of her flesh against his tongue. Opening his mouth he sucked deep, pulling as much of her into his mouth as he could, inhaling and exhaling to keep himself upright and focused. Squeezing and sucking, her hands tight on the back of his head, her voice telling him, “Yes. More. Please, Kristian,” crashed through his system like a torrential storm.
Kris picked her up then, cradling her in his arms as he bent down to take her mouth once more. She hugged him close, meeting the quick and hungry licks of his tongue with mounting fervor of her own. When his feet bumped the platform of his bed, he reluctantly pulled his lips away from hers; their breaths quickened as he rested his forehead against hers for a few seconds.
He placed her gently on his bed, bending immediately to remove the sandals from her feet. There was still a bit of sand there, on her toes, even though she’d wiped furiously with the towel Tajeo had provided for them when they’d returned from the beach. Kris brushed away the tiny sparkles, loving the twinkle of the fiery red polish on her toenails. Next, he reached up to undo the snap of her pants. She was watching him, her gaze intent on every movement of his fingers. Kris found that very arousing and continued.
She lifted her hips slightly off the bed so that he could pull her pants down her legs. His fingers brushed over her thighs and when her pants were completely removed and lying on the floor somewhere behind him, he returned his hands there. Kneading the soft
skin, loving the feel of pliant limbs beneath his palms. He pressed gently against her inner thighs and sighed with pleasure as she spread her legs farther for him. Again, his fingers moved over her skin, his pulse quickening as he watched his lighter-toned skin against hers. When his thumbs scraped the material of her panties, Kris had to pause. He closed his eyes, moving his fingers over the puffiness of her mound, and sucked in a deep breath. Closer, his mind roared. He had to get closer.
The shirt came next and Kris heard the distinct tear of material as he’d opted to pull that down her legs as well. He’d have to buy her a new one. A dozen more of this same design, in bright, vibrant colors that would make her skin glow and her smile seem magical.
She was naked now...no, she still wore white panties. The ones that came up high on her waist and were made of what felt like a simple cotton. They should have been too demure to be sexy, too plain to be memorable, but Kris knew he’d never forget them. Not the way they both highlighted and hid the part of her that he ached to see most.
When he reached down to remove them, she shocked him by pushing his hands away.
“Let me,” she said, her gaze trained on his as she hooked her thumbs beneath the rim of her panties and pushed them down slowly.
Inch by delicious inch she was bared to him and Kris’s mouth watered with anticipation. He wanted to taste and touch, to look and explore, to feel and be felt, all at once.
Moving close to the edge of the bed she reached up and worked the buttons on his shirt until she was able to push it free of his arms. His undershirt came next as Kris found himself watching her fingers in the same way that she’d previously watched his. Her hands were much smaller than his, but still they moved deftly over his body leaving his skin to tingle with warmth as she did so.
