Royal Stripper

by Sienna Valentine

  "I hear the lobster here is sensational." Matthias picked up his menu and stared at it interestedly. "Though I can't say I've ever been fond of the smell."

  We had to order eventually, so now wasn't the best time to continue needling him about his personal life, but I resolved not to forget to circle back to the subject. I was more than happy to take a page out of Matthias’ playbook and keep poking at him until he broke. But for now, I was happy to figure out what I was going to eat at this place. After all, a good meal was really all that I had planned to get out of this date anyway, wasn’t it?

  The first thing I noticed about the menu was that it had no prices on it. I'd never been to a restaurant with no prices.

  As if sensing my discomfort, Matthias dropped his own menu down and sent me a warm smile. "Pick anything you want. Don't worry about the price, or lack thereof."

  It was impolite to ask questions about his generosity, but I really wanted to get to the bottom of this. Did stripping pay that much? Or was this guy just horrible with money?

  With no answers to my unspoken question forthcoming, I threw myself into the task of choosing something to eat. It took me until the server returned to make my decision, but then it was back to just Matthias and me.

  No menus between us. No more distractions.

  Suddenly, I wished there were. Not because it was uncomfortable. The opposite, actually. Matthias' full lips were curved in a friendly smile, so unlike the one he used when he was trying to make me uncomfortable. His eyes invited me in, and a warm gooey sensation spread through my body. Everything I’d resolved to ask about, the idea of taking control of the conversation and turning it back on him, seemed to dissolve from my head.

  Things were not going as planned, and we hadn't even eaten yet.

  "What are you thinking about now?" he asked.

  "You ask that a lot."

  "I wonder what you're thinking a lot." His smile grew, eyes crinkling at the corners. "Humor me."

  I avoided answering truthfully again, but this time I was careful enough to choose a more typical—and hopefully more believable—dinner topic than my taxes.

  "I was just thinking about work," I said.

  "What about work?"

  I shrugged. "Just about how much I don't want to go in tomorrow, I guess." Not completely untrue. I reached for my wine and took a sip. Even though all wine tasted essentially the same to me, I concluded that this one was better than average.

  "Trouble at the library?" Matthias mirrored my action, reaching for his glass as well. "Or do you just dislike the job on a whole? It’s not exactly what you said you wanted to do with your life, the night we met."

  I was surprised he remembered that. "Right, I guess that’s mostly it. I don’t hate it, it’s just a bit annoying."

  "You find the library annoying?" He raised an amused brow.

  "No, I just mean that it’s not what I want to be doing, so in a way it’s keeping me from that. Which is annoying."

  Why was I telling him all this? It wasn't supposed to go like this. If he were normal, he would have asked only enough to use as a jumping point back into talking about himself. Didn't he know that that was how these things usually went?

  "Ah. So your own need to pay your bills keeps you from your desire to help disadvantaged people.” Matthias' expression turned thoughtful. “I can see how that would be frustrating, if not somewhat sadly ironic."

  I blinked in surprise. Even Candace seemed to have little interest in what I really wanted to do with my life—how had Matthias remembered all these details after I’d only casually mentioned it to him once. And after he'd been drinking, no less.

  "Is that all that stops you? Having to pay your own bills by working at the library, thus not having the time to go out and help people?" He leaned back in his chair, looking more comfortable there than a king on his throne.

  Nobody had ever asked me what was stopping me before. Usually when they found out what my aspirations were, they more or less just nodded along and told me that "was nice", not really taking it seriously.

  "Well, that and lack of experience or background, I guess, There are some courses I could take that would help me get started, but I don't have the money for those, either." I answered. "I've been trying to put money away to get started, but something always seems to come up. Like, my car breaks down or I get sick and have to take some time off or pay for the doctor visit. So then I dip into my savings because I have no other choice and all of the sudden I'm back to square one."

  "That sounds frustrating."

  I sighed, taking another sip of wine. "It's life."

  "I think your dream is very admirable though. You should keep working toward it."

  "I will. One day the stars will align and I'll make it, but until then I'll just keep slogging through the mud." Sensing an opportunity to shift the topic back to him, I jumped on it. "What about you? Any ambitions that you just can't quite reach yet?"

  He seemed to mull this over for a moment. "I suppose there isn't much in my life that I haven’t been able to reach for any reason beyond lack of desire."

  "What do you mean?"

  "You have ambitions," he explained. "And I simply have expectations that I do not wish to fulfill."

  Now we were getting somewhere interesting.

  "What does that mean?"

  He smiled. "I'm supposed to help with the family business back home. My family thought that my trip to the United States would be a temporary sojourn—the simple restlessness of a young man needing to experience the world before settling down back at home where he belonged. But they're beginning to realize that I have no intention of returning anytime soon. If ever. And it's making them antsy."

  "What kind of business is it?"

  "Nothing exciting," he shrugged, turning his gaze away as if searching for the server. "It's more management than anything else. It's something that I was always expected to do, and so I never looked at any other options."

  I chuckled. "And then when you finally got the freedom to choose, your first instinct was to take your clothes off?"

  "My first instinct is always to take my clothes off."

  The heat in his gaze sent a shiver between my legs. Should he have been able to do that with just one look?

  14

  Ally

  I coughed and looked around, as if waiting for our food. Matthias leaned forward in his chair, unwilling to release me from his stare.

  "I still want to know more about you, Ally." He spoke my name like he liked the feel of it in his mouth, and I'd never wanted to hear someone repeat it over and over again so much before. And not only because of how sexy his slight accent made it sound.

  "What do you want to know?"

  I willed myself to meet his eyes, plunging into their hypnotic depths.

  "Enough talking about careers. I want to know more about the things that you like."

  I raised one eyebrow. "Like what kind of TV shows I'm into and stuff?"

  He nodded. "And stuff."

  There isn’t much more stuff. God, I’m so boring. Prepare to be disappointed.

  "I like to read, as you could probably tell by my job. I'm a sucker for John Hughes movies, and watch Sixteen Candles at least once a year."

  "I've never seen it."

  I grinned. "You should watch it. It's a great movie."

  "Perhaps we could watch it together," he suggested.

  "Sure."

  My grin fell from my face when I realized what I'd just agreed to. His easy enthusiasm at the mundanity that is my life had caught me off guard. This was supposed to just be dinner and then goodbye. No making future movie dates.

  That mental reminder was more disappointing than it should have been.

  We got our food and dug in, which helped limit the amount of further conversation. I felt like each time Matthias started talking to me, he somehow managed to pick the lock on my defenses, unleashing the floodgates and causing me to talk about things I normally kept to myself
, or agree to things I wouldn’t normally do. I just couldn't stop myself.

  He didn't need to know that much about me, though. Especially if I had no intention of ever seeing him again after this evening. That was still my intention, wasn’t it?

  After we finished, the server offered us dessert menus. Matthias accepted them gladly.

  The main meal had been so delicious that I found myself excited by the prospect of dessert. We ordered their house cheesecake and settled back into our seats to wait.

  Of course, if I had just declined dessert, as I normally did, I could have already been on my way home. Could I be looking for excuses not to end the night?

  I let my gaze wander around the room as I pondered that question, absently scanning the crowd of well-dressed and wealthy diners. I still felt underdressed compared to most of them, but then my attention latched on to someone else that seemed out of place.

  A modestly dressed woman with a baseball cap and sunglasses was hunched over her menu, dining alone. From what I knew of the dress code here, her outfit barely qualified. Our eyes connected, as much as they could behind her shades, but then she looked away. I quickly turned back to Matthias, embarrassed at being caught staring.

  "There's a woman over there in a baseball cap and sunglasses," I said, subtly pointing her out to Matthias. "What do you think that's about?"

  She looked familiar somehow. Was she a celebrity?

  Matthias shrugged. "Rich people can be eccentric at times. Perhaps she's too recognizable without her disguise. Or maybe that’s just her favorite outfit."

  I glanced back over. She was looking in our direction again.

  "Is she watching us?"

  Matthias looked from me to the woman, then back to me. His expression told me before he even opened his mouth that he thought I was being ridiculous.

  "She's just here to eat her dinner, chérie. But if you're worried, I can go talk to her." He winked. "I'll rough her up a bit for you."

  I sighed and shook my head. "It's okay. I'm just being stupid."

  "You're not being stupid. You're being curious." His hand covered mine, and I looked up in surprise. "And being curious isn't a bad thing."

  "Curiosity killed the cat."

  My throat felt oddly dry, and the place where his hand covered mine was blazing hot.

  "You know, many people use that expression, but most don't realize that that's only the first part." He withdrew his hand. "Curiosity killed the cat, but satisfaction brought it back."

  I raised both eyebrows. "Interesting. I never realized there was more to it than that."

  "I'm sure you'll find there's a lot I could teach you, chérie."

  Aaaand, the Matthias I’d first met was back. Yet for some reason that didn’t bother me.

  Matthias was interesting. Sure, he was cocky and a bit arrogant, but he was also exciting and new. How long had I spent pursuing safe and boring? Where had that gotten me? Maybe there’s a reason everything had seemed so bland lately. Maybe safe and boring wasn’t what I wanted anymore after all. Maybe I needed something different.

  And I had a feeling that if you looked up different in the dictionary of Ally Dylan, there would be a big smiling picture of Matthias staring right back at you.

  When the bill showed up, it surprised me. We'd spent so long chatting about our lives and our interests that the time just seemed to slip out from under me.

  Matthias paid without so much as blinking. It was a shame he was so obviously irresponsible with money. Unless he had some sort of crazy secret, there was no way he could afford to eat out at places like this on a stripper's budget. Not that I knew what that was in the first place, but I knew it definitely didn't include super fancy restaurants.

  I didn't like that he was bad with money. But what the hell? It wasn't like I had to marry him.

  When we finally stepped out the front doors, it felt like re-entering the world of reality after spending an hour in a fantasy world.

  But Matthias was apparently determined not to let the fantasy end just yet. He pulled me toward him without even saying a word. I opened my mouth to ask what he was doing, only for him to crush me against him in a passionate, panty-melting kiss.

  His lips moved against mine with expert precision, once again reminding me of how little experience I had in this area. I did my best just to stay standing, though my feet kept threatening to start floating. Did people always feel this when they kissed someone?

  In the past, kisses had been more often awkward and uncomfortable. It was like I wanted something, but was given something completely different and had to make do with it.

  But not with Matthias. He knew what I wanted before I even knew I wanted it. Our tongues met and danced away and his hands gripped at the small of my back, urging me closer. My fingers responded by tangling through his hair.

  Then his teeth nipped at my lower lip and I was unable to suppress my moan, which brought reality crashing back. I slowly pushed him away.

  His eyes were dark, watching me. I expected a cocky grin, but instead his lips were parted slightly in a way that made my core flush with heat. His hair was mussed up where I'd run my hands through it.

  God, he looked good.

  "I should go," I said.

  My voice sounded hoarse and thick. I knew he heard it, because then his lips did curve into a small smile.

  But he didn't stop me.

  "I've had a nice night, chérie." He grabbed my hand, raising it to his lips to press a delicate kiss to the back of it. "I'll see you again."

  It wasn't a simple statement. It was a promise.

  One that, despite myself and all of my original intentions, I was hoping he intended to keep.

  15

  Matthias

  The date went far better than I could have ever imagined, though didn’t end as I’d expected.

  Most of my previous dates ended up in one of our beds. Or against the side of a building. Or in a bathroom.

  Point being, I hadn’t expected to wind up back home alone. Yet strangely, I didn't mind.

  Sure, that kiss had left me hard as a rock, but I could wait. Ally was skittish, but I had time.

  One thing I knew for sure was that I needed to see her again. It was all I could think about the next morning, lying in my otherwise empty bed, imagining her there beside me, naked body stretched out under the sheets.

  I needed to find a way for us to meet again, even though we still hadn’t exchanged phone numbers and I had no idea where she lived.

  I walked out into the hallway, heading for the shower. Veronika was at the kitchen island, sipping a coffee and reading the newspaper.

  "You weren't very subtle last night," I commented.

  Veronika shrugged. "It's not my fault the girl likes to stare at strangers."

  "You did look out of place, to be fair."

  "So did she."

  I narrowed my eyes but knew this line of conversation wouldn't get us anywhere.

  "Just be a little subtler in the future, would you?" I asked. "I'd rather her not start worrying that I have a stalker or something."

  Veronika shrugged. That was as close to agreement from her as I could hope to get.

  I got into the shower and let the hot water sear away all my frustration at Veronika, leaving only the frustrations I still held against myself.

  Despite my desire for Ally, I still knew it was a bad idea and admonished myself every time I thought about seeing her again. In a way, it would have been better if the date had ended in disaster. The worst thing that could have happened was for the reality of Ally to measure up to the version of her that I had in my head.

  And it did.

  Which only left me even more interested and intrigued by her than ever.

  I knew why, of course. The reasons were so numerous that there was no guesswork needed. She was beautiful, kind, smart. She was clever and witty, and could hold her own against me. And there was a sense of innocence about her that I found deliciously sweet. Even more
intriguing was her selfless desire to help people. She barely had enough of her own money to scrape by, yet her only regret about that was how it kept her from helping others. I’d never met anyone like her.

  In a way, she was everything I'd ever wanted in a woman.

  And that was the problem.

  I wasn’t looking for a relationship. I’d fallen into this trap before and been burned. I couldn’t afford to trust someone again, which was part of the reason I’d left home in the first place. The pressure to marry and start a family was so great that it almost fooled me into making a huge mistake, and only by coming to America, far from the influence of my parents and the expectations of being a Prince, was I sure that I could live my life in my own way. Do what I wanted to do to make myself happy.

  And so far, “my own way” involved bedding a different woman almost every night of the week, never seeing the same woman more than once or twice.

  That suited me perfectly.

  It meant I never had to trust anyone again, because they were never around long enough for it to matter.

  A relationship was pretty much the opposite of all of that. It meant letting someone in. Trusting again.

  So I just had to make sure that this wasn’t becoming a relationship. Maybe all I really wanted was to fuck her again. Once wasn’t enough, especially given the hurried circumstances. I probably just needed to do it again, properly.

  Yes, that’s all this was. One more lay would get her out of my system.

  I scrubbed my body with a vengeance. What I was doing with Ally was just a fling. Nothing more. Even if it did feel different than all the others, that was all this could ever be. I was just letting all of the other things about her cloud my judgment.

  But now I had my priorities straight again. One more fuck, even though that alone was probably still a bad enough idea. As long as I didn’t let her into my head, though, I’d be fine.

  With all that sorted out, the only thing left to do was engineer a way to get more time with her.

  After my shower, I toweled off and booted up my laptop. Finding the number of the manager of operations for her library branch, I settled back into my pillows and dialed.