The Prince: The Young Royals 1

by S. A. Gordon

  At the restaurant they had a main course and David insisted that she have a dessert while he chose to have some cheese. They shared a bottle of wine and ended with espresso. Caitlin could not remember ever having an evening out with a man that flowed so smoothly. Her earlier evenings with David in New York had come close but this had definitely been the best so far. New York seemed like a remote island to her now although she knew she’d have to return very soon. She’d only taken the rest of the week off work. Not that David had mentioned her flying home. Not that she had raised it either. But she knew she’d have to go back. To what, though?

  As they left the restaurant David offered her his arm and Caitlin blushed—he was still making her blush despite the amount of time they’d spent together. She smiled and hooked her arm through his, and he bent down to kiss her on the cheek just as a photographer’s flash exploded in their faces.

  David swore and looked to his left, where Caitlin knew Stan was hovering.

  “Who’s this, then, David?” yelled the paparazzo. “Your new bird?”

  “Keep your head down,” David said under his breath to Caitlin, pulling his arm out from hers and wrapping it around her back instead. “If they don’t get our faces the shot isn’t usable.”

  Caitlin’s heart started beating so fast she lost her breath for a second, and she had no idea what was happening around her because she wasn’t looking up. The flash destabilized her, but she could feel David’s arm around her and she knew that she just needed to go where he directed her.

  “Lift yer head, sweetheart,” the pap shouted. “I need the money shot.”

  “The car is right ahead of you, sir,” she heard Stan murmur.

  “Thank you,” said David, and she marveled that he could keep his manners while the paparazzo was still walking backward ahead of them, getting off shot after shot. Caitlin was glad that she’d worn such nondescript clothes—black trousers, black sweater, black coat. Just the clothes she’d brought from home, and nothing that could identify her as being anyone in particular, let alone anyone who worked at a fashion magazine. But now she wished she’d worn a hat, realizing exactly why David did.

  Before she’d taken another breath, a car door was open in front of her and David had released her to guide her into the back seat.

  “Look at the floor,” he said, almost mechanically.

  Within seconds the door was closed behind them, Stan was in the front passenger seat and they were being driven away at speed, the flash still going off behind them.

  “How the hell would he have known we were there?” David said to the front seats. He sounded calm but Caitlin could see that his jaw was grinding slowly.

  “I don’t know, sir—perhaps one of the other patrons recognized you.” Stan looked over his shoulder to Caitlin. “Are you all right?”

  She nodded, but she was also hyperventilating.

  “My love,” David said, taking her in his arms. “I’m so sorry. It’s such a shock when it first happens. We’ll be home in a minute.” He kissed the top of her head.

  “Don’t say it, Stan,” she heard David say.

  “I wasn’t going to say anything, sir.”

  “You’re thinking it.”

  “I’m not, sir, I can assure you.”

  “Oh, come on. I knew it was a risk. I thought it would be all right—no one knew Caitlin was here.”

  “True, sir, but a picture of you dining alone with anyone is worth money to those people.”

  David sighed heavily. “I don’t suppose I can pretend that Caitlin’s a distant relative?”

  Caitlin heard Stan chuckle. “Do you really want to?”

  “Didn’t I fire you, Stan?”

  “No, sir. That was the last Stan.”

  “Right.” David hugged her tighter and kissed her cheek. “I really am sorry about that. I’ve never really grown used to it.”

  Caitlin nodded and leaned her head on his shoulder. “It does feel a bit like that, yes,” she said softly. “How do you put up with that all the time?”

  “It doesn’t happen too often, fortunately. I don’t often do anything much that interests them. But it was one of the reasons I was spending time in the States.”

  “Don’t we have paparazzi there too?”

  “Yes, but they’re different ones. I needed a change.”

  Caitlin lifted her head and saw him smile.

  “Look, we’re home,” he said.

  Caitlin couldn’t remember ever feeling so relieved.

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  As the car pulled up outside David’s apartment, he put one hand on Caitlin’s leg and felt his throat tighten as she looked at him, vulnerability mixed with uncertainty plain on her face.

  “Are you all right?” he said softly. “I know how upsetting that kind of experience can be. It feels …” He took her hand. “It can feel like being punched. Not that I hope you know what that feels like.”

  “Do you?” she said, her eyes almost hidden in the dark interior.

  David nodded. “I do. Some of the boys I was at school with seemed to quite like boasting to their friends that they’d beaten me up. In order to do that they had to actually beat me up.” He shrugged. “Boys will be boys, I guess.”

  “But that’s awful!”

  He smiled wryly. “It’s life.”

  “But couldn’t someone have stopped it?”

  “Why? Because my father is the King?” He shrugged again. “My father thought it would be good for me. Besides, the bruises were all nicely contained within the borders of my school uniform. They never hit me anywhere a teacher could notice.”

  Caitlin placed a hand on his face. “I’m sorry that you had to go through that.”

  David pressed his cheek against her hand and then kissed her palm. “Well, you know that saying, that living well is the best revenge?”

  She nodded.

  “I’d say that sitting here now, with you, means I’ve had a very good revenge.” He smiled and opened the car door. The interior light caught her eyes, which were glittering at him, saying something that he’d wanted them to say ever since he had met her.

  Caitlin’s door was opened from the outside and she turned away to step out.

  “I’ll walk you to your door,” David said, coming around to her side of the car.

  “I thought …” She placed a hand on his chest. “I thought I might come to your place for a while,” she whispered, casting a quick glance at Stan.

  David cleared his throat.

  “Stanley, Caitlin’s going to join me for a cup of tea.” He shot a look over his shoulder at his protection officers.

  Stan nodded once and swiftly walked to the front door of the apartment, which was opened from within. A minute later it closed behind David and Caitlin.

  David could hardly believe that he felt nervous. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt nervous about being alone with a woman. It was probably the first date he’d ever been on, while he was still at school. He was fourteen years old. She was sixteen. Lady Davina Calthorpe. Her title had been enough to make him trust that she would understand that she wasn’t to speak about him to anyone. But she hadn’t understood—or, worse, she’d decided that she’d rather capitalize on the currency of their brief involvement. He’d never know which it was, because after the story of their “torrid affair” —in truth, a few sloppy kisses and some ineffective groping—had appeared in her godfather’s newspaper, he never saw or spoke to her again. Occasionally he wondered if she minded being known as “Prince David’s First Love;” the phrase invariably appeared whenever she did in the social pages. He minded, because his love she certainly had not been. He’d known it then, but he was even more sure now because his love was here, sitting next to him on his new couch, her arms wrapped around him.

  David kissed Caitlin’s neck slowly, inhaling the perfume she always wore. It was one of the less-popular Chanels—Cuir de Russie, he was almost sure of it. He knew that he would never smell it again witho
ut thinking of how soft her skin was, of the sound she made as his lips reached the base of her throat and his hand moved over her belly and between her legs.

  “Is this okay?” he said.

  She nodded. “Of course.”

  “Because I don’t want to do anything you don’t want me to do.” He looked down at her, with her eyes shining and her heart showing, and remembered all the times he’d wanted to love someone so much that he felt he could take on the world for her—that he would fight for her, protect her, take care of her and love her all his days. He had met so many women in his life and he had come to believe that there was no one in the world who could make him feel that way. It was a fantasy and he’d have to put it to one side and make a rational match—find someone who fit his lifestyle, not his heart. But here she was: the woman he thought he’d never meet. The woman who saw him as just David and didn’t mind the rest that came with it.

  “I don’t ever want to do anything that hurts you,” he said now.

  She frowned. “Why would you worry about that?”

  “Because you didn’t hear from me all that time. It was too long. I know it was hurtful.”

  “It wasn’t.” She kissed him quickly on the lips. “David, it was confusing. But I wasn’t hurt. I just missed you. And—and I wasn’t sure that I had any right to.”

  David took her head in his hands and kissed her, feeling her soft skin beneath his fingers and the shape of her lips against his. He felt her hands moving lightly up his back, her fingertips almost tickling him. He felt himself starting to grow hard and wondered vaguely if that was too much too soon for her, but he couldn’t really help it. He desired her, more powerfully than he’d ever desired anyone. And he knew why.

  Pulling back from the kiss, David held onto Caitlin’s arms and looked at her intensely.

  “I love you,” he said, and he was sure of it. He knew he was.

  Caitlin just stared at him and he felt nervous again.

  “I know we haven’t known each other long,” he said, feeling like he was babbling.

  “No, we haven’t,” Caitlin said, and David’s breath caught.

  “I—” he started but he didn’t have anything to say. He’d been presumptuous. He had no right to expect that she would feel anything so strong for him in return.

  Standing up, he walked to the side table and placed a hand on it, his breathing ragged.

  “Where are you going?” Caitlin said, and it sounded not unlike a command.

  “I’ve said too much,” he said over his shoulder. “I’m sorry.”

  “David,” she said, and now it sounded like a plea.

  He turned.

  “I was just surprised, that’s all.” She shrugged and he thought she had never looked so lovely.

  “I’m sure you were.” He nodded.

  “I love you too.”

  He stopped nodding. “You do?”

  Now she grinned—the biggest grin he’d ever seen on her face—and he moved towards her.

  “Of course I do,” she said, and her laugh was light.

  As he reached her, he grasped her arms and pulled her to him, kissing her harder than he’d intended, but she responded by taking her hands to his head and pressing him even closer to her.

  “Mmm,” she moaned, ending the kiss. “I can feel that.” She pressed back against his erection.

  He held his breath, suddenly unsure of what to do next.

  “Do you …” He breathed out. “Do you want to feel that?”

  She smiled and pushed some of his hair behind one ear. “Of course I do,” she said again.

  “I want to make love to you, Caitlin,” he said, and it felt like a confession rather than a seduction.

  “And I want to make love to you,” she said.

  Caitlin squealed as he picked her up and swept her into his bedroom.

  *

  Caitlin watched in amazement—and with delight—as David undressed. She lay on the bed, enjoying the spectacle of his body emerging from his clothes. He was so lean and muscular. He’d never mentioned doing any exercise whatsoever, but it was clear he was doing something.

  “Are you enjoying the show?” he said, half smirking.

  “Uh-huh,” she murmured, not even looking him in the eyes.

  “Great,” he said with a cavalier tone. “Then I’ll enjoy undressing you even more.”

  He seemed to savor every second of taking her clothes off, gazing down at her with something that looked like adoration, but she couldn’t really believe that. She couldn’t really believe any of it: this gorgeous man, this man who was so mindful of her, was here with her, naked. So gloriously naked. And now she was too. He bent down to kiss her, taking care not to press their bodies completely together, like he was saving it for some other time, even though she knew that he wasn’t, and nor was she. The time was now.

  “I really do want to make love to you,” David said after the kiss ended, “but I just don’t think I can be gentle and slow. You make me …” He blew air out of his mouth and ran a hand through his hair. “You make me want to ravage you.”

  “I want you to,” she said, and she reached for his cock just to make her intentions clear. She found it took up most of hand and her eyes widened.

  “Is that okay?” he said.

  She nodded, then said, “Let’s find out.”

  David’s smile wasn’t the grin she expected—instead it was an expression of tenderness, of affection.

  She held her breath again as she opened her legs wider and placed him just against her, so that when he thrust he would be inside her. She thrilled to the feeling of him there, anticipating that delicious moment when he’d enter her for the first time. Sometimes she thought that was the best part; maybe it had always been the best part because the other parts hadn’t been any good. She was ready to find out whether that was the case with him.

  She smiled up at him as he lowered himself onto her once more.

  “I want to kiss you,” he said, “as I fuck you.”

  She shivered.

  “Is that all right?”

  She nodded. He smiled and kissed her, so savagely that she felt like her lips bruised instantly. At the same time he slid a hand underneath her and pulled her up toward him just as he thrust down.

  He was inside her and he fit her so well that she thought that everything she’d experienced before now had been like an aerobics routine—the parts had moved, and she’d had a workout—but this, this, was something completely different. This was a dance—it was that tango now, really, in which David was completely in control and she was prepared to let him be. She moved to his rhythm and he intuited hers. They breathed together, they pulsed together—they cried out together.

  He knew just how to fuck her so that she could feel things in places she hadn’t realized were even there. She felt her body opening up to him as if it had just been waiting for his invitation all this time. He kept kissing her—over and over again—as he moved inside her. Her body responded and her heart thrilled to it all.

  She had no idea how long they had been like this—moving around the bed, dancing with each other, kissing, sliding, laughing, murmuring—when she felt a shudder begin at the base of her spine.

  “Oh,” she gasped.

  “That’s the sound I like to hear,” he murmured and thrust harder.

  “Oh.”

  “That’s it, my love,” he grunted. “I want you to come loudly for me.” He bit her ear lobe. “There’s no one to hear us but us.”

  As the shudder turned into a vibration, it spread throughout her pelvis and moved up her spine. She had the dim thought that if this was an orgasm, she’d never really had one before. This was taking over her whole body. She wanted to shout to the stars and pound the earth. Mostly she wanted to stay here with him forever, doing just this, being just like this with him.

  She cried out, over and over again, and he called out to her as he came in long, deep thrusts.

  More minutes passed before
they lay still on the bed, their sweat mingled, their breath ragged.

  “Wow,” she said.

  “Oh, so it was that good for you too?”

  She turned her head to look at him. “When can we do that again?” She grinned.

  He grinned right back at her. “In about ten minutes,” he said, and he rolled on top of her.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  The car pulled up in front of a grand manor house, its entrance framed by two large potted buxus trees, and what appeared to be a butler stepping forward to open the door.

  “Your Royal Highness,” the man said as he opened David’s door. Caitlin smiled to herself: it seemed that everyone knew the rule that any member of the royal family had their door opened first, and consequently David always sat on the side where he knew the door had to be opened, depending on where they were going. And if he didn’t know, someone else would have found out for him. It was just one of the many ways in which his passage through life ran smoothly; the small details were all taken care of.

  “Davide,” said a tall young man as he emerged from the building and stuck out his hand to greet the prince. “Terrific to see you.” Caitlin observed a small bow of the man’s head as the handshake finished.