Stealing Beauty

by Madison Faye

  Shit, I was glad to go.

  Shana’d thrown a fit when I enlisted. When she found out where I was going, she’d been livid. I didn’t leave for war on a happy note, let’s say that. But I thought I’d loved her, so I’d tried to make it work. I’d called a lot when I was overseas, wrote every day, all of it.

  I even surprised her with an early trip home, skipping the last month of duty to make it home and try and work things out with the woman I’d once loved enough to marry.

  The surprise was on me, though, when I’d walked in on her on her hands and knees in our bed with our neighbor, balls deep inside of her.

  Yeah, that’d sucked, even if “balls deep” wasn’t exactly saying much with that douche.

  Another man might have made a scene. Or killed even. Me? I just decided I was done. That was it; case closed. I’d ignored her yells and shrieks, grabbed whatever shit of mine I could fit into a bag, and left.

  End of scene.

  And honestly, I was happier after that.

  There wasn’t the constant nagging to be something I wasn’t. The ink was dry on the divorce a week later, and after that, I threw everything I had into the guard. I moved rank fast, because, well, I didn’t really do anything else. I was still living in the city, but I spent every weekend working on the house on ten acres I’d bought out in the woods, building it from the ground up with my own two hands.

  Soon after, of course, the insurgency had started — separatists from a rogue political party within Berne that wanted to secede from the country. That was one thing, but when they’d started raiding farmlands and trying to plant bombs on busses, it was time to act, and the guard stepped in.

  We had them out in the woods now, basically confined to the hills on the very edge of the country borders, which is where I’d been that day. We were camped out near the base of the hills, and since I was always good for a long hike through the woods, I’d told my junior patrolman I’d take his shift for a long patrol south of camp.

  It was hot as fuck that day, and it wasn’t long until the heat of the forest and the sun coming through the trees had me soaking with sweat. I’d stripped my shirt off, cause I could.

  That was the beauty of rank.

  I also knew about a mountain spring a few clicks away that no one knew about, which is where I’d been going when, well, when my life had changed. When I’d bumped into my porcelain skinned, dark-haired goddess. With lips like red blood and eyes like blue diamonds.

  The perfect swell of her breasts, the rosy pink of her nipples, the sweet curve of her hips, and the honeyed opening between them.

  Fuck.

  The Princess of Berne. That’s who’s she was.

  And I’d fucking fingered her. If she told anyone, I was dead — literally dead. She was so off limits, and shit, so much younger. I mean Jesus, eighteen to my thirty-five was all sorts of wrong, and I knew it.

  A lesser man might have thought seriously of deserting, and running from Berne after what’d happened today. But fuck that. I’d barely made it back to camp before my mind was set.

  Run away from the girl of my dreams?

  Run away from the woman I’d been in love with in my head before I’d even ever met her?

  Not a chance.

  Damn the consequences. I hadn’t fought in a war, and then fought insurgency back home to be a pussy. I hadn’t ranked up the fastest in Berne Royal Guard history to run away from something I wanted.

  If there were consequences to the insanity in my head — and I had no doubt there would be — then so be it. Running from this, and running from her? I’d never be able to live with myself. Because I’d seen what I wanted in life. I’d seen the woman who’d be mine.

  And there was no way I was going to shy away from that.

  My blood was pounding as I put in my request — a week back at the main barracks in the capital. I was a good, loyal soldier, and I was already a month past my rotation out of the insurgency zone anyway, because that’s just who I was. And the Major in charge had faith in me. Of course the request was approved.

  The road was quiet as I took a guard jeep back to the capital surrounding King Lorne’s castle. My heart roared. Blood pounded in my ears. My cock was hard enough to dent steel between my legs.

  Fuck the rules. Fuck the consequences. Fuck this being inappropriate or “not okay.”

  I’d tasted Princess Adele, and now I’d have more.

  5

  Adele

  We made it on time for the dress fitting — barely. I’d even had time to duck into my room and put on some damned underwear, thank God. Anya pressed me most of the drive and after we arrived at the castle, still peering at me with that detective look of hers as if trying to piece together why I’d been so quiet on the ride home. But of course, she couldn’t know that it was because a rough, gorgeous, much older man — one straight from my dreams, had kissed me, and then touched me in ways no one ever had before.

  Of course she didn’t know that, because of course I couldn’t tell her.

  I’m not sure why I didn’t, to be honest. Anya and I had confided secrets in each other our whole lives. But there was something about this one that just felt like it was mine to keep. It was my dirty little delicious secret to hold onto, and let tingle through my whole body.

  After the dress fitting, which went fine, I headed back to my room. I was barely aware of the dress I’d been fitted to wear to this stupid ball in Avlion, and I couldn’t remember a single thing I’d talked about with Susan, the dressmaker. Anya had left right after we’d started, which was lucky because she would have had a field day with my blank answers and conversation.

  Who knows what Susan thought of it.

  The door to my room shut behind me, and I sank against it with a sigh.

  I wanted more of him. Leaving those woods earlier that day had been horrible, since leaving them also meant leaving him. And I knew, after him putting together who I was, there wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell I’d be seeing him again.

  I slipped the sundress over my head and tossed it to a chair in the dark dimness of my quarters. Nearly naked, I shivered again as I thought about his hands touching me like that. I remembered the feel of his strong, powerful hand cupping my ass, the other on my hip as he pulled me into him. I remembered the way his lips had tasted — like sweat, and woods, and man as he’d claimed my mouth.

  And I thought of the way that thickness in his pants had pressed so hard into me, as his big finger had dragged through my soaking wet—

  I screamed. Or rather, I would have screamed, if not for the hand that suddenly shot out of the darkness and covered my mouth. The adrenaline spiked through me, my body going rigid as another powerful arm snaked around my middle and pulled me tight against a rock-hard body.

  “Shh, Princess.”

  I froze, and then instantly melted against him at the sound of that deep, growling voice in my ear.

  Damon.

  All of a sudden, I was enveloped by him — by the feel of his arms around me, the manly, woodsy scent of him, the growl from his lips as he purred into my ear. I shivered against him, panting through the hand still covering my mouth. I didn't know how he’d managed to get here, or into the castle, or here into my quarters, but I didn’t care.

  Somehow, the man who’d shattered everything I knew in one second, who I never thought I’d see again, was standing in my room, holding me in his arms.

  “You know why I’m here,” he purred into my ear.

  I nodded, panting, my heart pounding in my chest.

  “I know who you are now,” he growled, his hand pulling me a little tighter into him.

  “Will you scream?”

  I shook my head, and then gasped as he suddenly flipped me around, pulling me into him. I whimpered, feeling how hard his body was, feeling the warmth of his hands as they moved to my hips and slid over my near-naked skin. One thumb traced the edge of my panties back to the small of my back, a single finger dipping inside to stroke m
y bare skin.

  “I know I shouldn’t be here, before you say it.”

  “I wasn’t going to,” I said quietly.

  “You think I should be here? Princess, beyond the fact that I’m twice your damn age, I fucking work for your father.”

  I swallowed thickly, the wrongness of this washing over me so deliciously. “I know you shouldn’t be here, but I want you to be.”

  I almost couldn’t believe I’d said it.

  His eyes narrowed. “And why is that?”

  “Because…” I trailed off, and not because I didn’t know, I just didn’t know how to say it without it sounding silly. This man did something to me. He ignited something inside I’d never felt before, and him even being near me made me feel alive in ways I never had before.

  His fingers crept across my skin, and I could feel my breath hitching in my throat.

  “Tell me, Princess,” he growled. “Why do you want me to be here, when an innocent little girl like you should be terrified of a man like me?”

  One of his hands slid up over my ribs, and I gasped as I moved closer into him.

  “Because…” I whimpered.

  His hand moved higher, cupping one breast through my bra as his thumb brushed my nipple, making me moan.

  “Tell me,” he husked.

  “Because you do something to me,” I gasped, pressing my body against his.

  “And what do I do to you?” he growled. He knew, and I knew it. But I also loved that he was making me say it out loud. It was so dirty, and possessive, and I loved that.

  “You make me feel alive.”

  “And?”

  “And you make me…” I swallowed, and then moaned as his fingers moved to the top of the cups of my bra. Slowly, he pulled it down, baring my nipples to his hungry eyes. He brought his thumb up to my lips, and I parted them without even thinking. My tongue touched his thumb, teasing it and making him groan before he pulled it back. His hand dropped, and the thumb — wet from my own tongue — circled my nipple.

  “You turn me on like nothing ever has,” I gasped, melting into him. “It’s like — I don’t know, it’s like you turn a switch on inside of me, and—”

  “And it’s like nothing you’ve ever felt before,” he growled.

  I nodded, moaning as his thumb swirled over my nipple.

  “I know,” he husked. “I know because you do the same damn thing to me.”

  Before either of us could say another word, his lips crashed into mine.

  I lost myself in that kiss, moaning into his lips as his tongue found mine. His body pressed hard against me, and suddenly, his hands were pulling the bra away from my skin. His lips seared against mine, hungrily claiming my mouth as he reached down and pulled his own shirt up. He tossed it aside, and my pulse skipped a beat as I felt the hard, hot, coiled muscles of a man’s chest against my own for the first time.

  His hands scooped me up spinning me and then pressing me against one of the large stone columns that held up the vaulted ceiling of my chambers. I whimpered as his hands slipped down to my ass, grabbing me tight and lifting one leg up to his hip. I could feel that hard, throbbing thickness in his pants pressing right against my tight pussy, my panties soaking through as he ground into me.

  A hand traced over me, delving down between us to run a finger over my sticky panties.

  “I know you’re a virgin,” he said, almost tenderly this time as his hand stroked me and made me moan. “I know that, and I won’t just take you, here, like this.”

  His lips fastened to my neck, making me gasp as he bit and sucked his way to my ear. His fingers curled under the front of my little panties, pulling them tight.

  “But I am going to make you come.”

  I gasped as he suddenly pulled, yanking the lace panties down my thighs in one quick motion. Instantly, his hand was back between my legs, and this time I cried out as his powerful hand cupped my delicate, slippery folds. One big finger curled up, stroking between my lips up to my clit. I moaned loudly, stars dotting my vision as he rolled my little pearl with his finger, his lips still on my neck.

  One of his hands moved to his own pants, and this time, I shivered as he started to undo his belt and the top button. I whimpered, scared and yet hungry for this as he slowly undid the zipper and pushed them down. The front of his black briefs tented obscenely, throbbing and twitching and barely holding back his cock. My eyes went wide at the sight of that bulge, at how huge it was.

  “Reach inside, Princess,” he growled. “It’s yours to take.”

  Taking a deep breath and trying to hold back my shaking nerves, my hand slid over his rock-hard abs, and down to the front of his briefs. I let my fingers trail over it, moaning slightly as I felt the thick muscle of his cock flex beneath the cotton. Damon’s finger eased against my opening, and as he slide one big digit inside, I swallowed the last of my fear, grabbed the waist of his briefs, and pulled them down.

  Holy. Shit.

  I’d never seen a cock before, but I knew enough to know that the rock-hard, pulsing-hot one throbbing in front of me was enormous. My breath caught in my throat, my hands still on his briefs as my eyes just locked onto his shaft.

  “Touch it, Princess,” he growled, punctuating his words by pushing his finger deep inside my pussy. I whimpered, my tongue darting out to wet my lips as I slowly brought my hands to him.

  I shuddered.

  He was hot to the touch — silky soft skin over throbbing hard iron beneath. Damon groaned as both of my small hands wrapped around him, my fingers and my thumbs not touching, and so much more of him than fit in my hands still showing. Slowly, I moved my hands up and down, gasping as he twitched in my fingers.

  “Fuck, just like that, honey,” he groaned, his mouth coming own to my neck again. “Stroke that big dick while I make this sweet little pussy come.”

  I cried out as he pushed a second finger inside, curling the two of them up and forward. His palm ground into my clit, and I could feel my juices dripping over his hand as he worked his magic on me. His mouth dropped to my breasts, his lips closing over one aching nipple and sucking hard as he started to pump his fingers in and out of me. I whimpered as his tongue swirled over the nipple, his palm rubbing against my clit and making my whole body shiver in ecstasy. I lost myself in the incredible new feeling slamming through me. My whole body clenched tight, aching for more and never wanting him to stop touching me like this as he worked me higher and higher. His fingers stroked in and out, my pussy gripping them tight as my desire coated his hand.

  My own hands moved faster and faster, shuttling up and down his throbbing hard cock. The feeling of him pulsing under my fingers and somehow getting even harder as I touched him only got my blood pumping faster and made me wetter. Damon moved against me, and I gasped at the feel of his hard, hot shaft pulsing against the skin of my tummy as he plunged his fingers in and out of my pussy.

  Slowly, I started to let go. And slowly, I could feel the beginnings of something big and explosive welling up inside of me.

  “I want to feel this tight little pussy come all over my fingers,” Damon growled into my ear, sending shivers through my whole body. I cried out, my hands pumping his big dick faster and faster against my skin, feeling him swelling up even bigger. His fingers curled deep inside of me, a thumb rolling over my clit again and again, and I knew there was no stopping it.

  “Come for me, princess,” he husked into my ear. “Come for me now.”

  His mouth covered mine before I could scream, swallowing my cries as his fingers sent me shattering over the edge. My whole world spun as my very first orgasm from someone’s hand other than my own slammed through me.

  I could feel his cock throbbing even harder in my small little hands, and I started to stroke him faster as I heard him groan.

  “Fuck, Adele,” he groaned, my name from his lips sending my head spinning.

  “If you keep doing that, I’m going to—”

  “I want to feel it.”

&n
bsp; His lips crushed against mine, his thumb rolled over my clit, and suddenly, I felt him explode. He roared into my mouth as his big cock throbbed in my hand, and I gasped as I felt the hot spurts of his cum splashing against my bare belly. I kept stroking him, his fingers rolling over my clit. I could feel his hot, sticky cum running down my belly and over my lips, and when he growled rubbed his own cum into my aching clit, I screamed as I came all over again.

  The world slipped away for a moment as I tried to catch my breath. I could feel his hand moving away from me, and then his arms wrapping and me and pulling me tight.

  “I would’ve found you no matter who you were” he said quietly, and I melted into him as I buried my face in his chest.

  Suddenly, I jerked my head up. “What time is it?”

  I glanced at the clock above my desk and almost screamed as my heart jumped into my throat.

  “Oh my God, I’m late!”

  “For?”

  “I’m suppose to have dinner with my father and stepmother like ten minutes ago!”

  My eyes darted to him, almost apologetically. “I’m sorry, I—”

  “You have to go.”

  I nodded. “You being here, this is so surreal.”

  “I’ll be back for you, you know.”

  I swallowed, shivering as the heat pulsed through me. “Back for me?”

  “Tell me not to, Princess,” he said quietly. “Tell me not to come back and I won’t. Or else?”

  He moved against me, and I moaned as his lips crashed into mine, kissing me fiercely.

  “Or else there’s no way I’m ever walking away from you.”

  This time, I kissed him, as hard as I could, with my heart soaring.

  “When?” I panted. “When can I see you again?”

  “Soon. And when I do, Princess?”