Royal Inheritance

by McKenna James

  The burner phone rings, and my heart stops beating, then kicks back into gear at double time.

  “Make sure he doesn't leave. I'm on my way.” He hangs up without so much as a hello or a goodbye. All gruff and to the point, and dead sexy. To me he adds, “This is it. Let's go, but Princess? You're staying in the adjoining suite. You can't come in with me to confront Raul. I know you want to. I can see it in your eyes you've been trying to think of a way to talk me in to it.”

  Damn it, I have. The whole time I was in the bath I was coming up with a plan. Mr. Freaking-Know-It-All. “Gavin, this is my inheritance, my life we're talking about here. You can't expect me not to want to be in that room with the scumbag. Come on, be reasonable.”

  “It's not happening. I'm sorry, but no.”

  “What if I promise to keep my mouth shut?”

  “And when have you ever managed to do that before?” he says with a smirk. Bastard. I will not admit he has a valid point.

  “Hey! I can behave when the situation warrants it.” Which, in my mind, is usually never. “I kept my mouth shut when we checked in and didn't arc up about you being all demanding and bossy, when all I wanted to do was tell you to stand down and relax with the whole confidentiality agreements.”

  This makes him raise an eyebrow, and I want to pummel him.

  “We need to go, now. There isn't enough time to argue for you to win. You can listen on the other side of the door. That's final. ”

  And with that, he pockets his phone and grabs the room keys before heading for the door. He pauses with it open and waves me on, the implied move your ass noted.

  We’re both agitated as we ride the elevator down the three floors to Raul’s room and the adjoining one we have access to. Me tapping my feet, Gavin flipping the key card between his fingers; that is until the doors ding, and he shoves it deep in his pocket.

  Holy shit, this is it. I feel like I might be sick. We walk hurriedly down the corridor and let ourselves into the room next to Raul's where Gavin’s friend is waiting for us.

  He's nothing like I expected. Tall, clean-cut and very handsome. He'd easily be able to pull off hot business CEO if he put on an expensive suit. But it's in his steel-gray eyes the man under the exterior shines through. They scream fiercely intelligent, with a hawk-like attention and a don't-underestimate-me vibe. I'm pretty confident he’s clocked me in the first three seconds I've been in this room. I think he's found me wanting.

  “Gav,” the man says with a flick of his head, dismissing me without a second glance.

  “Darien. Good to see you again, brother.”

  They do the handshake-pull in-back slap-hug thing that men do, making me wonder if they teach that to boys in school or if it's just ingrained in all-male DNA at birth; like makeup and shoes are for most women. Me being one of the few exceptions. What do you even call that thing? The bro-hug? The happy-slappy? The we’re-too-lame-to-hug-like-regular-people-because-we’re-so-manly. I shake my head. Men.

  “You ready to do this? We get one shot.”

  “And blowing it is not an option,” Gavin finishes for him.

  “So how are we doing this?” I ask, the curiosity killing me.

  “We are not doing anything. You are staying right here. Darien and I are going in to break the man apart. The only thing you’re doing is staying put.”

  “Gavin, come on. Please.” I’m not above begging at this point.

  “Raina,” he says so exasperated that I miss the fact he used my name. He takes me firmly by the arms and squeezes, not hard, but not gently. “You are staying here, and that is final. This is too important to risk anything going wrong. I trust you, but I won't risk you or this interrogation. Stay. Here. And don't make a sound.”

  “Okay.” I am too stunned to argue.

  Gavin rarely uses his no-nonsense gruff tone with me. It means he's not budging. I'm not stupid enough to push him like this, no matter how much I want to. I know my limits, and his.

  He rubs his hands up and down my arms softly before he releases me, easing the slap of his no-nonsense.

  “Let’s go.”

  My breath gets lodged in my throat as they unlock the adjoining door and bust in without any preamble, my heart beating in triple time.

  “What the hell? Who the fuck are you? What are you doing in here? Get out.” The unfamiliar voice I presume is Raul’s.

  “Who we are is not important, and no, we are not leaving. We’re here to ask you a few questions. And you’re going to answer them to our satisfaction, or there will be painful consequences.” I hear Gavin demand as the door closes behind him with a resounding lock, and my breath rushes out so fast I’m left dizzy.

  The room falls quiet, making it impossible to hear clearly, so I rush to get a glass, having learned this trick in boarding school. I run back to the door and press the glass against the wall and my ear to the other end, and I listen intently. The sound is distorted, but I can make out the words clear enough.

  “I don't know what you're talking about? What missing money. Who are you?”

  I hear a faint sound of papers, and a slap against a table perhaps. It sounds too hard and firm to be a chest, or any other body part for that matter.

  “What's this?”

  “Proof you are connected to Edgar. The financial advisor for the Royal family. And that he’d been embezzling money for the last seven years.”

  “This is nothing; it proves nothing. I don't see how any of that means I have had anything to do with the fact of missing money. You've got nothing.”

  “Don't play coy with us. How do you explain having eight to ten phone calls a day with the man for the last six months at least? And your new beachside place, or your lavish spending in one of the most expensive resorts in the world? On a your meager wages? I think not.”

  “I’m an old man. No children, no spouse. I've been thrifty with my money since I was a boy. I've earned the right to spend it how I will now. Edgar is proof we don't live forever. I chose to embrace life and live a little.”

  “That's a copout, and you know it. No man calls another man eight to ten times a day casually. And we’ve done a background check. You've been working in banks since you were out of school.” This is news to me. “You don't earn enough to spend millions on property and thousands at resorts so willy nilly.”

  It goes quiet, and I wish I could see what is going on, damn it. I can’t handle the suspense of it all.

  “Alright. I'll confess”—holy shit—“I’m gay.” What? “Edgar and I have been lovers for years. My father would never have approved of our relationship and would have disinherited me if he found out. So we kept it a secret. My father died three months before Edgar, and I bought the property with inheritance money. It was supposed to be ours, Edgar’s and mine, but…”

  What the hell? This can't be happening. It can’t be that simple. Surely they'd have found proof of an inheritance in all their digging up of dirt. Yet I'm sure I wasn't imagining the note of distress in his tone. Shit. Shit. Shit! no, no, no!

  It’s quiet again. I hear a muffled noise through the glass, and I want to scream and throw it across the room. The next thing I know, the door is unlocking, and Gavin and his friend are coming back through.

  I keep quiet for all of a minute while they close the door and lock it from this side. Then I explode.

  “What the fuck happened?” I whisper-shout.

  “I don't think he’s our guy, Princess. He seemed pretty legit when he was talking about Edgar,” Gavin says rather loudly.

  “All choked up and everything,” his friend adds, agreeing.

  “That's … that's … crap!” I whine. “We’re back to square one, then?”

  “Maybe. We’ll keep looking into it, I promise. Make sure everything he said checks out. But until then, we’re back to square one,” he says much quieter.

  I want to cry, but I say nothing and bottle the emotion overwhelming me when I notice the frustration beneath Gavin’s mask of calm.
/>   “Let’s go back to our room.”

  The guys do the backslap-handshake-hug thing, then Gavin puts his hand at the small of my back and ushers me out of the room. I can’t help but watch Raul’s door as we head for the elevator, desperately wanting to bust in there myself and pummel the guy until he tells a different story. But, I don’t even bother trying. I’d never get more than a few feet before Gavin would have me over his shoulder and packing me away.

  We are quiet once more as we ride the elevator up to the top floor. I have no idea what to say. I'm so gutted, but I'm sure from how Gavin is acting, he's feeling the same. So I stay silent. Keeping my heartbroken thoughts to myself, not wanting to add to his in any way. If I didn’t know any better, I’d think he was eating himself up with guilt over this going wrong.

  Gavin unlocks our door and heads in ahead to check the room for monsters before he allows me to enter.

  “Gavin?” I finally whisper.

  “I'm sorry, Princess. This was a wasted trip. I failed you, and…”

  “And what?”

  I can see he doesn't want to say it.

  “If we'd never left, never come here, then none of this would have happened. We wouldn't have damaged your car, we wouldn't have gotten your ankle hurt, or been stranded in a cabin eating beans and a second-rate breakfast.”

  “And we wouldn't have spent the night together. You wouldn't have been my first.”

  I can see he's about to agree, not understanding what I was meaning, so I go on quickly.

  “You've got it all wrong. Whatever you are thinking and feeling, it’s wrong. You have never failed me, Gavin. Not once. And I've always wanted it to be you who I gave my virginity to. It was always meant to be you. I need you to know that I don’t regret one minute of the last few days.

  The time I got to spend with you, all of it was precious.” I walk into his arms, even though he never intended to hold me like this again, all the emotion and stress pouring out before I can stop it. “I am in love with you, Gavin. I always have been, and I always will be. And I need to believe that someday, somehow, we can have our happily ever after; that I can be with you and only you.”

  He shakes his head, pulling away slightly. “I’m not royalty. You know the rules, Raina. You’re being groomed to marry one of the princes from the ball. You have to accept that. We can't ever be together like that again.”

  I shake my head and press my face tightly against his chest. I can hear and feel his heart pounding in my ear as I press closer still, never wanting to let him go ever again.

  “I can't. I can't accept any of it. If the country isn’t in ruin, I bet that I can convince my parents to let me marry you instead. They trust and respect you. What more could they want for their daughter?” He swallows hard, like he's swallowing razor blades, and my heart sinks. “Oh, silly me. You don’t want to marry me.” How could I be so blind, so stupid, so damn foolish. I try to pull away, but Gavin won’t allow it.

  “Oh, Raina. Do you know how many times I have wished you were a normal girl—”

  “I am normal.”

  “Of normal birth and blood. Not royal, not next in line for the throne.”

  “I'd give it all up if I could. I'd give it all up for you, Gavin. You have to know that.”

  Before I can say more, Gavin is capturing my mouth in the most intensely passionate kiss I've ever beheld. I want to weep with the emotion behind it. Gavin really does love me too. I can feel it. In every sweep of his tongue, every brush of his lips. Every caress of his hands as they glide hurriedly up my torso to the buttons on my shirt.

  “Raina,” he whispers against my lips. He sounds pained, desperate.

  “Shhh.” I hush, taking the opportunity to pull his shirt over his head and throw it to the floor before I take his mouth in a rough kiss of my own.

  My fingers trail down his incredibly smooth and firm chest, flicking his nipples on the way to his belt buckle. I relish the way his body trembles under my hands, my simple, small touches driving him as crazy as he makes me. Gavin reciprocates, peeling my shirt slowly down my arms, his fingers grazing and tickling the bare skin in his wake, making me shudder.

  I love how he makes me feel. With barely any touching he has me wanton and beyond desperate for him. I need this man like I need air to breathe. He makes me feel whole without even doing anything. Just his presence alone is enough to make me breathe easy.

  But with that realization an ache appears and spreads inside of me at the mere thought of losing him, or never being with him like this again. The possibility, all too real, that once we get home, I’ll be forced to marry someone else, and my parents will never accept Gavin as an option.

  “Hey?” Gavin says softly, tilting my face up so he can stare directly into my blurry eyes. “Stay with me, Raina. Right here, right now. Forget everything else outside of this moment, and stay with me.”

  I nod, unable to speak through the conflicting emotions coursing through my body, and stand on my tiptoes to reach Gavin’s sweet lips. Pressing mine to his, I wrap my hands and arms around his neck, forgoing his undone fly, just needing to hold this complicated, wonderful man.

  He complies, slipping his arms around my waist, and lifts me off my feet. I wrap them around his hips and he walks with me clinging to him like a monkey, to the massive king-sized bed in the other room.

  Lowering me to the cloud-like bed, he continues to kiss me relentlessly, while grinding his erection into me with a desperate force and making my head spin. He slides a hand between us and undoes my zipper, then eases off me to slide my pants down my legs, before kicking off his own.

  “Gavin,” I pant, pausing his mouth before he can capture mine again. “My bag…” I’ve had enough foreplay. I am too desperate for him.

  He hastily presses his lips to mine and then climbs off the bed, taking the hint to retrieve a condom. I rush to remove the rest of my clothes, dumping my bra and underpants on the floor, and look up to find Gavin standing at the foot of the bed starring at me, his eyes glazed and hungry.

  “You’re incredible.”

  I blush and bite my lip, before pushing the covers down with my feet. Gavin chuckles. He slides his boxer briefs down, and it’s my turn to stair and gulp. He’s the incredible one. All hard lines and toned tanned skin. I lick my lips and clench my thighs as he slides the condom on, never taking his gaze from mine.

  I’m pulsating with need, and he hasn’t even touched my naked flesh yet. The things this man does to me, I never knew it was possible to feel this way. I never want it to end. I’m never giving him up. I don’t care what it costs me.

  Gavin must see something in my face or countenance, a possessive hunger perhaps, because his expression changes to something more carnal, more animalistic, more hungry, if that is possible. He climbs on to the bed and makes his way between my waiting thighs. He pulls me up by the waist, raising my ass in the air as he plunges deep inside me on one thick stroke.

  A high-pitched gasp escapes me, and a full-body shudder wracks through me from my hair follicles to the tips of my toes. Holy mother of God. Gavin thrusts into me again and again at this new angle. It’s deeper, fuller, and oh so intense. I can do nothing but take what he’s giving me as he pushes into me and pulls me on to him, using my hips as leverage.

  “Oh, god, Gavin.”

  The inferno inside me is going to explode. I’m about to catch on fire and combust. I’m almost there, so close I can taste it. Gavin changes position, pulling me up to straddle him as he sits back on his feet and grinds into me faster, harder, grunting and moaning his agreement, no doubt chasing his own climax. This … this, oh Lord.

  Then, the next thing I’m aware of, the adjoining door bursts open. My heart explodes into a dangerously rapid pace as I look away from Gavin to find my parents standing there, in the doorway, mouths agape, seconds before I’m about to scream Gavin’s name as I come for my country.

  Gavin pulls the sheet up from behind him and slides me off his lap, as we frant
ically separate and cover ourselves. Thank God the position we were in didn’t allow much of a view of their naked daughter, just Gavin’s glistening back and my naked thighs wrapped around his waist.

  My pending orgasm now lost to that allusive place all O’s go to die, probably the same place missing socks go, and I want to cry out with the frustration and humiliation of it all. The dread of what my parents just caught me doing has yet to sink in. But I’m sure it will, and soon, no doubt. I’m currently more mad than anything.

  “What the hell are you two doing here?” I demand, both mortified and utterly disappointed to see them, cursing their damn timing. One more minute…

  “After we received Gavin's call about Raul, we came as soon as we were able. We thought you two could use the help, but I see entrusting you both to the task was a big mistake. You take lying down on the job to a whole new level,” my father grits out, steam practically coming out of his ears.

  “Leaving you two alone together was an even bigger mistake in itself.” He continues to scald us both. He shifts his focus to glare at me, and I do my best not to shrink under the force of it. “You,” he hisses. “We will talk later. Now get dressed, both of you, immediately. I want briefs in the next two minutes, or someone is going to lose their head. ”

  I say nothing, for fear of what might come out. I awkwardly dress under the sheet, but in my mind, I don’t plan on talking at all, ever. Not about this. Not if he’s not going to listen to me, which is clear by the utter pure rage emanating from his eyes.

  There's an abrupt bang on the inner joining door, jarring our collective attention, then it bursts open, one of my father's guardsmen standing on the other side looking flustered and pissed off.

  “I have something you all need to see.” He addresses my father only, thankfully not seeming to notice what he’s burst in on.

  Perplexed, we all follow after the guard, my father in the lead, with Gavin and I only moments behind, using the moment of distraction to finish getting dressed. We walk into the adjoining room and almost collide into the back of my father and mother.