The Royal's American Love (5 page)

“I want to see you when you think I am watching. I want to
see you the way the people back there see you. I want to criticize you and see
how you take it, and I want to touch your heart and see how you take that as
well.”

She wasn’t sure where those words had come from, but she
knew in her heart they were true. In her years as a journalist, she knew there
was nothing to do with truth but to live with it. To accept it, and she did.

“I see. And do you want to do all of this because it is
your damnable job?” Despite the heat of the words, there was something
plaintive about them as well.

She had decided on telling him to the truth, and so now she
did.

“No. I formed a deep and personal relationship with Opal.
We will be friends for the rest of our lives. And when I look at you,
friendship is not what I feel.”

He took another step closer to her. His eyes were black as
night, and she could feel the heat of them on her, as if he wished to burn her
alive.

“If I am not your friend or your client, then who do you
want me to be?” There was a threat there, but shew knew it for what it was. It
was a plea, and she gave him what he was asking for.

“I want you to be you,” she said fiercely, looking straight
up into his eyes. She was not afraid of him. She never would be.

It was like a fairy tale. The moment she said those words,
she knew her fate was sealed. He took another step, bringing them right up to
each other. He caught her up in his arms, and kissed her hard.

The kiss they had shared in the car was a gentle thing,
something meant to teach them about each other. There was nothing instructional
or gentle about this kiss. It was nothing but need and fire. She could feel the
way his frame pressed against hers, could feel his muscles and the way he
trembled.

She had never been desired like this before, not really. But
the idea was not unwelcome, because she was not sure that, in all her years on
this planet, she had ever wanted someone this badly.. Her career and her
professionalism were on the line, but now she knew what she wanted even more
than those things.

She threw her arms around him, kissing him with the fervor
she’d been hiding for a full week. She didn’t care if he saw the truth of her.
She was open for him. She needed him. The pleasure of being in his arms swamped
her senses, making her feel light-headed.

His mouth ravished hers, then it moved to her neck and to
the tender spot behind her ear. She clung to him because suddenly it seemed as
if he were the only safe and stable point in the world. There was nothing she
wanted more than him.

Somehow, he was the one who was able to hear the footsteps
coming.

With a muffled curse, he pulled back from her, swiping at
his mouth to remove any traces of her lipstick and straightening her dress with
his free hand.

When the library director poked his head in, He saw only
that they were examining the book in the case, exclaiming over its size.

“Oh, that is our special beauty,” he said with a beam.

Oh, oh no, please don’t come in here
,
Marianna
thought desperately, and of course, he did just that.

“This is a text that dates back to the tenth century. The
work is all done by hand, of course, but what is truly exceptional is the
subject.”

“It said it was the biography of a king,” Marianna said, in
an attempt to hurry the older man up, and he beamed at her.

“Yes, but not quite. In fact, it was a story that was made
up by the king and his favorite wife. It told of his life as it never happened,
and portions of it were passed down to become fairy tales in their own right.
This was the story that they wove together over the span of his twenty years on
the throne. If you look very carefully, you will be able to see the gilt edges
and the fine embossing that was done on the leather before it wore away. It’s
quite a gorgeous example of both Byzantine craftsmanship and original
creativity that marked the reign of…”

“Oh, director, there you are!”

Marianna was relieved when an older woman entered the room,
waving the director down. He looked a little displeased to have lost his
audience, but as soon as he was gone, Nikolos grinned. It was a dangerous kind
of grin, one that made her blood sing.

She had known that tonight would not be an ordinary night.
One way or another, things were going to change, and she knew that she needed
to embrace it.

“So?” he asked.

“So?”

“So do you want to stay here and possibly be found by the
director again, or do you want to come home with me?”

Marianna knew what her answer was going to be, but she
couldn’t resist drawing her response out just a little longer, adding a little
more anticipation to the wait. Opal had often said it was better to travel
hopefully than to arrive, and though she didn’t quite believe the old star, she
could see why she might say it now.

“And what we would do at your home, Nikolos?” she asked,
her breath light and fast.

For a moment, it looked like Nikolos was going to take her
in his arms again, but then he stopped, a slight smile on his face.

“That’s something that we can decide together, but I do
have a few ideas,” he drawled.

“You do?”

“Yes. It starts with me undressing you until I can see all
of that beautiful pale skin that I know you have. It starts with me kissing you
until you can barely stand it anymore. It starts with me moving over you so
that we can feel every part of each other.”

Marianna swallowed hard.

“And that’s just for a start, is it?”

He nodded, and his eyes were never so bright.

“So what do you think?” he asked, and she didn’t have it in
herself to resist any longer, if she had ever been resisting at all.

“I think we should leave. Right now.”

He laughed, but before they left the room, he kissed her
lightly on the mouth. She almost melted into him, but footsteps in the corridor
pulled them apart.

“Oh, are you both leaving so soon?” asked the disappointed
director. “I wanted to show you some of the artifacts we have that are related
to this work…”

“I am very much afraid that we need to leave,” Nikolos said
smoothly. “But I will certainly remember your offer and take you up on it at a
later point.”

“That was nicely done,” Marianna murmured as they left
behind a visibly preening director. “You have a way with people.”

Nikolos snorted.

“I have a way of getting what I want. Let’s not forget that
most of the things I do have an ultimate goal.”

She knew his Ferrari was fast, but still it seemed to take
forever to get back to his penthouse. She was not surprised to see that he
lived in one of the most exclusive buildings in the city. She would have seen
the inside of the penthouse at some point, but there was a certain intimacy to
coming to it like this. As he locked the door behind them, she looked around at
the modern furniture and the spare, cold paintings on the walls. There was a
certain angularity to the look of the room, she realized, something austere and
restrained.

Her musings on his apartment were quickly dismissed when he
appeared behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her close.
She tried to turn to face him, but then he was nibbling on her neck. His lips
and his teeth sent deep vibrations through her body, making her gasp and moan.

“That feels amazing,” she sighed, settling back against
him. “
You
feel amazing.”

“It’s nothing to how you feel,” he purred, running his
hands up her sides. “So soft and warm and perfect. I can’t get enough of
looking at you, and now I definitely can’t get enough of touching you.”

She let herself fall into a pleasured fog as his hands
reached up to cup her breasts through her dress, squeezing softly.

The caress wasn’t for him, she realized. Most men she had
known touched women’s breasts for their own pleasure. From the way he was
lightly touching her, squeezing her, and stroking her, he was doing it for her.
The thought brought a rush of heat to her body. She wasn’t entirely sure about
what was going to happen tonight, but she knew it would feel so, so good.

“Will you come to bed with me, little beauty?” he whispered
in her ear. “Will you allow me to make you feel good?”

“Yes, yes,” she whispered, and then she yelped because he
scooped her up in his arms, holding her securely. She clung to him, first
instinctively because she was surprised, and then simply because he felt so
good. There was a power to him that made her strong, that made her want him more
than she had wanted anything in her life.

His room was surprisingly plain. It was large, but most of
the space was taken up by an enormous bed. When he lay her down on it, she
stroked the covers appreciatively.

“Silk,” she said, amused. “I should have known.”

“Does it please you?”

There it was again, that slight vulnerability, that small
bit of unease that made her want to throw her arms around him.

“It does. You do.”

This time, it was her turn to wrap her arms around his neck
and bring him down for a kiss. She tried to pull him on the bed with her, but
he pulled back with a grin.

“I want something first.”

With a strength she had really only guessed at before, he
flipped her over so that she lay on her belly. For a moment she was confused,
but then she felt his clever hands on the zipper at the back of her dress.

“Did you notice that there is a little glass gem hanging
from the zipper pull?” he asked conversationally. “Did it occur to you that it
would capture the eye completely, making anyone who saw it want to pull it
down.”

“I…I just thought it was pretty,” she said. The sentence
ended in a gasp because he kissed the soft skin between her shoulder blades.
She had never thought that that part of her would be so sensitive, but there it
was. He undid the clasp of her bra with deft, quick fingers, then he was
pulling everything up, stripping it over the top of her head, leaving her on
the bed in nothing but her lacy panties.

She wanted to roll over to face him, but something kept her
on her belly. She peeked over her shoulder at him, and saw his eyes widen with
desire.

“You are always such a direct woman,” he said softly,
running a dark hand down her smooth, bare back, “that when you look at me with
such coyness, it takes me apart.”

She was about to make some kind of retort, until his hand
slid down the small of her back up to the rise of her rear. His palm was warm,
and when he started to squeeze the flesh there, it made her moan.

“Like petting a cat,” he teased, and she started to ask
what he meant when she realized he was referring to her movements.

She had been pressing her rear up against his hand without
thinking about it. Now she was up on her knees while her weight rested forward
on her elbows. She blushed to think just how wanton she must look, but when she
went to squirm back down, his hands on her hips stopped her.

“No, stay where you are,” he murmured. “I love the look of
you just like this, so natural and so lovely.”

He ran his strong hands along her rear and down her thighs.
When he tickled her calves and her feet a little, she whimpered, because it was
just this side of unbearable, but it still felt so, so good.

When Nikolos cupped his hand between her legs, she sighed
with pleasure and need. She knew he could feel how warm she was through the thin
fabric. Without thinking about it, she pressed herself against his seeking
hand, looking for the sensations she knew he would give her.

“Take off your clothes,” she whispered. Her voice was soft
and husky. She could feel him respond to her command in the way his hand
paused.

“Is that what you want?” he asked, and there was a slight
shake in his voice that told her he needed this as much as she did.

“Yes,” she responded. “It’s what I want. Please, Nikolos,
please give it to me…?”

He groaned, standing up to tear his clothes off. She moved over
to her side of the bed, simply watching him. She had seen statues of Greek gods
before, but now she saw what they might look like if they were made flesh. He
was not thick-bodied, like a Zeus or a Poseidon. Instead, there was a leanness
and a grace to him that remind her of Ares and Apollo, perhaps even clever
Hermes.

When he was bare, he wasted no time getting back in bed
with her, lying on his side. For several long moments, they simply kissed as if
they were still clothed, but in fairly short order that ceased to be enough for
them. Suddenly, his hands were on her shoulders, pushing her back to the bed
and sliding over her.

Marianna thought about the words he’d said at the library,
and how he talked about how their bodies would meet, join, take joy in each
other. She didn’t want to wait any longer. She spread her legs, wrapping them
around his waist. She wanted to urge him inside her, but apparently Nikolos
wasn’t ready for that yet. She could feel the hardness of his erection pressed
against her belly, but instead, he shifted slightly so that he could slide a
hand down between their bodies.

“Oh…oh Nikolos!” she murmured, as his fingers slid inside
her panties. At first he merely toyed with the light fluff of hair there, but
soon enough, he was sliding his fingertips along flesh, making them wetter with
every pass.

When he slid his fingers deep inside her, she cried out,
but then he pulled them out again just as quickly. She moaned in protest, but
he brought the liquid from the deepest well of her up to her sensitive bundle
of nerves. He toyed with her clit as if he had all the time in the world.

The waves of pleasure started low in her body, lightly at
first and then growing in intensity until she was shaking. She clung to his
arms and whimpered when the sensation went from being a lovely pleasure to
something that was almost too much. At once she wanted the feeling to stop, yet
she wanted it to keep going on, and on, and on…