I expected to see piles of dirty laundry or empty beer bottles scattered throughout, but it was surprisingly neat. This was his place. This was him. I’d seen him naked, tasted him on my tongue, and never even been in his room. How jacked up was that?
He nodded his head toward a door next to the dresser. “Bathroom.”
My eyes met his with a smile. “You’re missing the best part.”
“I already showed you the bed.”
I shoved at his chest. “I meant the kitchen.”
“We eat in the dining hall upstairs.” He took a step closer, letting his clean scent wrap around me.
I needed to make things right with Keaton because I couldn’t stand the thought of him being mad at me. “I’m sorry… about, you know… the other night.”
He shook his head then brought his hand to cradle my cheek. “Don’t. You’re above apologizing. Don’t do it.”
“But you need to know it’s not what he made it out to be.”
Keaton leaned his forehead against mine and met my eyes. “Did you fuck him?”
“What? No. God, no.”
He smiled, slightly moving his head so that our noses grazed. “Did he touch you?”
“No.”
He grabbed me by the waist and hauled my body into his, letting his erection dig into my stomach. He was shameless, vulgar, brazen. Then again, that’s what had always drawn me to him. As it turned out, I was seriously attracted to crude. Who knew?
“Did you touch him?” he questioned.
Crap.
My breath rushed out of me as if someone had punched me in the gut. We just found our way back and I was about to ruin it with the truth, because what Keaton and I had couldn’t be tarnished with a bunch of lies. We were always honest about everything. No matter what.
“Keaton, don’t do this.”
He pulled back, his eyes narrowing into thin slits. The smile I loved faded and his lips drew into a harsh line. “It’s a simple fucking question, Katie. Yes or no. Did you touch Sutton Thorne’s dick?”
I nodded.
Keaton slammed his palm against the door. Something dangerous flashed in his eyes, something I couldn’t name, something that would’ve scared any normal person. But I was nowhere near normal.
He stepped away, but I chased him. I reached for his hand, but he pulled it back. “It’s not like that. I swear. It didn’t mean anything. I just wanted—”
“What, Katie? You just wanted what?”
I threw my head back and glared at the ceiling. My body ached, and my brain hurt—physically hurt—from the stress of the last few days. “I just wanted him to leave me alone. I wanted things to go back to normal.” I let out a long, slow breath then dropped my head and looked at him. His face held so much emotion that I didn’t understand. We never fought. We’d never even had a disagreement. Not even with the pregnancy scare. Keaton and I had always been able to talk things out, to make it through with the truth. Then Sutton came along and flipped my entire world upside down. “I thought if I… if I gave him what he wanted that he would go away.”
Keaton barked a harsh laugh. “Are you even listening to yourself? Do you hear how ridiculous that sounds?”
I mean, now that I said it out loud, it probably wasn’t the best plan, but it made total sense at the time.
“I’m sorry.” I regretted every decision I’d ever made regarding Sutton Thorne. I should’ve slapped him that day in the kitchen and walked away. The fact that I didn’t should have been my first clue that he was the worst kind of trouble.
Keaton took a step forward, leaving nothing but inches of air between us. Tiny droplets fell from his still damp hair and landed on his perfect chest. “I know.”
“You’re right, though. It probably wouldn’t have worked anyway.”
He chuckled. “Of course I’m right. Any guy in his right mind wouldn’t be able to leave you alone.”
I smiled. “Don’t do that.”
“Don’t do what?”
“Try to pretend you’re charming.”
He laughed then grabbed me by the wrist, lifting my arms above my head and holding them against the door with one hand. His strong arms caged me in as his body hovered over me. I wanted nothing more than to go back to the place where the rest of the world disappeared when Keaton kissed me. It didn’t, though. Not even when I gave in and arched my back into his touch. Something was missing. It felt empty. The white-hot flame I felt with Sutton made what I had with Keaton feel like nothing but flickering embers. I used to burn for Keaton. And I hated Sutton for taking that from me.
“What’s this?” he asked, nodding toward the paper in my hand.
Shoot. The email. Somewhere between the abs and the apologies I forgot the whole reason I came here. Now probably wasn’t the best time to bring it up. I should lie, tell him it’s nothing. But I was born without that filter between my brain and my mouth—the one that told people when they should talk and when they should keep quiet.
“I need your expertise.”
“And I’m about to give it to you.” He leaned down and nipped my neck.
I closed my eyes, willing my body to want this, praying away the growing ache for challenging words and the devil’s eyes. “Not that expertise. Your ex-military hacker expertise.”
Keaton stopped in the middle of kissing my neck to look up at me. “Why would you need that?”
“There’s an email I need you to trace, but it can wait.”
He let go of my wrists and took a step back, and I mentally slapped myself. “What kind of email?”
“Nothing.” I leaned forward and grabbed his shoulders then kissed his lips. “Seriously, it’s nothing. You can do it later.”
His body tensed beneath my touch. The moment was officially ruined by my big mouth. I didn’t know if it was relief or disappointment that washed over me. I hoped it was disappointment. I needed a hot bath and a good night’s sleep, and all would be right in my world again. Sutton Thorne would be a distant memory. I would make sure of it.
“It’s not nothing if you came all the way here to ask me about it,” Keaton said.
I admitted defeat, unfolding the paper Sutton gave me and handing it to Keaton. He read the two lines, then read them again, then looked at me.
“How did you get this? Did you… Katie if you found a way to get into the king’s email, I can’t—”
“I didn’t sneak into anyone’s email. And I never said a name. How did you know that was the king’s email?”
He shoved the paper in my face, pointing at the top. “It’s right fucking there in the email address. Jesus, Katie, who do you think I am?”
God. This was ridiculous. I was ridiculous. I was losing it. All because an entitled prince decided to act like the kooky butler in a twisted game of Clue.
“Where did you get this?” Keaton asked, his breath evening out.
“Someone gave it to me.”
“Someone?”
I nodded.
“Someone, as in the prince.” When I didn’t answer, Keaton rolled his neck, staring up at the ceiling. I swallowed the thickness in my throat and watched as he turned away and walked across the plush carpet to a large chestnut dresser, slamming the paper on top. Thirty seconds ago, he was so close I could taste his breath on my lips, and now it seemed like he couldn’t get far enough away from me.
He reached into a drawer and pulled out a pair of shorts. “So, even after all the shit he put you through, after all the things he said, you’re still talking to him?” He dropped the towel and slid into the shorts.
I wouldn’t say that exactly. Sutton and I didn’t talk. We dueled.
“He thinks I sent it.”
“Did you?”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“Look, Katie. I wish I could help. I do. But this…” He grabbed the paper from the dresser and waved it in the air. “Stay away from this. Leave it alone.”
“You say that like you know something I don’t.” Keaton
closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. I folded my arms across my chest at the sudden chill of betrayal in the room. “You do. You know something.” I darted across the room and stood next to him, daring him to lie.
He hooked his long fingers around my biceps, his eyes pleading with mine. “Leave it alone.”
I backed away from him and headed toward the door. “So many secrets. I’m so tired of it all. I’m actually starting to think the only person who cares enough to tell me the truth is Sutton.”
Sutton never sugarcoated what he said about my dad. He never sugarcoated anything. He never pretended to be something he wasn’t. As a matter of fact, Sutton Thorne was the only person so far that hadn’t been afraid of telling me the truth. Why was I just now seeing that?
“You think he tells you that shit because he cares?” Keaton laughed. “He does it to hurt you! And if anyone else, including me, is keeping anything from you, I promise it’s because we’re trying to protect you.”
“Protect me from what?” The chill disappeared, replaced by a burning rage. There was suddenly a mountain between us, and I wasn’t sure if there were enough stolen moments in libraries to ever make it move. “I’ve been through hell and walked out with the devil’s pitchfork. I don’t need you to protect me. I can handle the truth.”
“Not this time, Katie. Not this truth.”
Keaton’s words followed me out the door. There were enough secrets in my life to fill a stadium, and I had about all I could take for one day.
Sutton was waiting for me at my villa. Leaning against my front door, hands in his pockets, feet crossed at the ankle. Like he knew exactly when I would be back. I couldn’t go inside. I couldn’t even unlock the door without getting past him.
I was fully convinced it was days like this that turned people into alcoholics.
Thirteen
Katie was either one hell of an actress, or she knew nothing about the email. Her reaction was too raw, too real. There was too much emotion in her eyes. She was lost, maybe. Angry, even. But I wasn’t convinced she was lying. However, she was still the daughter of my enemy, and now she knew things—official Crown things—that she had no business knowing. I handed one of our secrets to her on a silver platter. I didn’t think straight when it came to this woman. If my father knew what I’d done, he would tell me I had no business being king.
The first time Katie asked me to meet her in the library, she confessed to only being there to get this thing—whatever the hell it was—between us over with so that we could both move on. She was right. This pull, this force, this fucking natural disaster waiting to happen wasn’t going away no matter how much we both willed it to. I knew this because during our little confrontation a minute ago, there was no denying that I was hard as a fucking rock and she was so wet I could almost taste it. I didn’t have to touch her to know that. It was a gift, a sixth sense, my very own superpower. I always knew.
She was under my skin, an itch no amount of scratching would relieve. And God knew I tried. I’d clawed until I bled. I needed to find this girl and fuck her, and I needed to do it fast. Get the poison out of my veins and let the blood start flowing back to my brain for a change.
The first place I checked was the kitchen. She wasn’t there, or in her mother’s office. She wasn’t wandering the halls of the East Wing admiring artwork and asking about sealed off doors. Outside of the castle, the sun began to set, casting orange and gold across the sky like flames, which made total sense because I was burning for the chance to touch her. She wasn’t in the South Garden or at her villa. There was only one other place she could have been, and I wasn’t about to let her go to bed with Keaton’s touch lingering on her skin instead of mine. So, I waited.
I walked around to the back of her villa and looked out over the sea, watching as heaven kissed the earth. The waves crashed steadily on the sand carrying a soft breeze with them. If I turned around and looked the other way, everything as far as the eye could see would soon be mine. My kingdom. My domain. But standing right here and looking at this view, at the wide, open vastness that spread to the rest of the world… I felt small. To Torryn, I would be king, but to the sea, I was just Sutton. I understood now why Katie liked it so much back here. I didn’t spend nearly enough time with the sea.
As soon as I walked back around front to wait at her door, I saw her walking through the garden. The sun had disappeared behind the horizon, leaving only the moonlight to guide her path. The closer she got, the more I noticed her long blonde hair was a mess and her neck and cheeks flushed with heat. She looked like hell. Like she’d been fucked hard and put up wet. I hated how much it bothered me. Part of my soul, the dark, sadistic, and hungry part, wanted to pin her against this door and fill her so full there wouldn’t be room for anyone else.
One night. I only needed one night with her. No expectations, just mutual gratification. Then she could do whatever she wanted with whomever she wanted. Everything would go back to normal. That’s a lie. You didn’t get to sell your soul to the devil and walk away without any scars.
“Is this how it’s going to be now?” I asked her when she spotted me.
“Is this how what’s going to be, Your Highness?”
She curtsied, and it had my blood boiling and my dick perking up all at the same time.
“Oh, so we’re back to that?” I didn’t hide the amusement in my voice.
She planted her hand on her hip and smirked. “Unless you’ve stopped being the prince at some point…”
The feistier she got, the more I wanted to fuck her smart mouth.
“No. I’m still the prince.” For now. I straightened my posture and kept my tone cold and unwavering.
At six foot three, I towered over her. Katie was small but not petite. If I had to guess, I’d say she was five foot six with legs that any man would kill to have thrown over his shoulders. She was thin, but still curvy in all the right places. The moonlight made shadows dance across her face.
She was the centerfold kind of perfect that teenage boys jacked off to under their sheets after dark. What was I talking about? I’d already nearly rubbed blisters on my dick because of this woman, and I was far past my teenage years.
I trailed my fingertip along the outline of her chin. “Are you going to run to him every time I make you wet?” I needed to stop touching her like this, but I liked it too fucking much.
She almost leaned into my touch but stopped herself, as though she suddenly remembered she wasn’t supposed to want this.
It’s okay, sweetheart. I’m not supposed to want it either.
She didn’t answer. It wasn’t a confirmation or a denial, and it suddenly dawned on me that her silence was her protection. Katie didn’t lie. She wasn’t wired that way. If she were, she would have denied that shit like a priest caught with a choir boy. She hated me too much. She’d rather eat nails than admit that she wanted me naked. So, she kept silent to avoid the lie. It was a rare gift, and I admired the hell out of it. Unlike her father, the King of Lies, Katie hated dishonesty. I didn’t know why I hadn’t seen that before now.
“May I go inside, Your Highness?” Her voice was calm, quiet, close to a whisper.
Her refusal to answer was my answer. I had made her wet… and she had run to him. It was probably better that way. I wasn’t the nice guy in this scenario. She wasn’t Cinderella, and this wasn’t a fairy tale. My eyes caught hers, and for the first time ever, I saw the vulnerability in them, the concession, her white flag. An unsettling awareness gripped my gut, as though she’d just cut me open and crawled inside. I stepped away from the door.
“Thank you,” she said as she punched in her security code. The soft light from her living room lamp poured into the entryway where we stood. She turned to face me before going inside. “And to answer your question… No.”
“No?”
“No. I won’t be running to Keaton. Not anymore.”
Not, “No. You didn’t make me wet.”
Then she closed the do
or, leaving me alone in the darkness and once again wondering what the fuck just happened.
The days all ran together lately. Between my dad living on borrowed time, my impending ascension to the throne, and whatever the fuck was going on between me and Katie, I hadn’t slept worth a shit in over a week. It was beginning to take its toll on my body, not to mention my mind.
“Hey, Dad.” I took my father’s hand in mine. “You really threw one on me this time,” I said with a chuckle even though I felt anything other than humor in the situation. “This is worse than when you let me sit in on that meeting with Parliament then put me on the spot when they asked about your military decisions.” My thumb skimmed the raised veins in his cold hand. He was always cold now. The strong, intimidating man I’d spent my whole life looking up to was growing weaker and more fragile by the day. He could hardly walk without becoming short of breath. How was he supposed to stand and rule a nation?
He wasn’t. That was my job now. Soon, everyone would know it.
“I need more time. I’m not ready. I don’t think I can do this.” He couldn’t hear me. He had safely escaped into one of his morphine naps.
His eyes opened slowly, like they were made of lead and it took all his strength just to look at me. He blinked a few times before speaking. “Sutton.”
“You’re awake.” It was both a realization and a question. He did hear me.
He squeezed my hand. “I know you’re worried.” He took in a weak breath. “But you’re going to be a good king.” Another breath. “Your entire life has been spent building up to this moment.” He took a minute to steady his breathing. “I should know.” His gaze lifted to meet mine. My heart broke at the pain I saw there. “I’m the one who stole your childhood to make sure of it.”
Crown of Thornes : a modern day royal romance Page 9
