The Royal's American Love (8 page)

At a red light, he put on his blue-tooth headset and called
Philip Lagana.

“Good evening,” Nikolos said. “You’re not going to like
what I have to say to you.”

“That’s…remarkably foreboding,” his mother’s assistant
responded. “What’s happened now?”

“I’m going to be unavailable for the next two days or so, I
think. I don’t want to be called, I don’t want to be brought in unless there’s
some kind of emergency.”

“Thank you, I’ll make a note of it.”

Nikolos frowned.

“That’s it? You’ll make a note of this? Philip, you are
making this shockingly easy.”

He could imagine the older man shrugging.

“I don’t think you realize the extent to which you have
changed over the course of the past week or so,” he said. “Having some notice
ahead of time before we look up and see that you have disappeared is simply
exotic.”

Philip hung up, and with a half-rueful smile, Nikolos did
the same.

He glanced at Marianna sleeping in the seat next to him. Relaxation
had smoothed out the worry and the exhaustion a bit, but her mouth was still
turned downward in an unhappy curve. It took everything he had not to lean over
and to try to kiss that frown away.

He sighed. Despite the inauspicious start to the day, he
still had hopes it was going to go well.

He had driven for a little while when he felt a soft touch
against his hand. Startled, he looked at the sleeping woman in the seat next to
him. In her sleep, she had reached out to touch his hand. He noted that her
frown had disappeared to be replaced by a gentle, almost tentative smile.

“All right,” he said softly. “This’ll be good. It’ll be
fine, I promise.”

* * *

In Marianna’s dream, she was wandering through a jungle,
chopping down the undergrowth with a rusty machete. She knew Nikolos was
somewhere ahead. If she could just get to him, she would be safe. She just
needed to find him. She knew he was in there somewhere.

The more she chopped at the undergrowth, however, the more
tangled she became. They twisted up to grab at her legs, her arms, to wind
around her waist.

She started to panic. If she didn’t get to Nikolos, he
would leave without her. She knew he would. She had to get to him.

To her dismay, she heard the whine of the airplane engine
rising up out of the ambient noise of the jungle around her. The whirring sound
started low then became higher and louder. She struggled forward, so tired, but
determined.

She stumbled into the clearing, looking up into a clear
night sky. The plane hung in the darkness like a steel bird. She couldn’t stop
a cry of sadness from escaping her lips. Her eyes followed the plane, as if her
entreating gaze would make it come back.

“Oh Nikolos,” she whispered.

“Yes, sweetheart?”

She spun around, and there he was, an inquiring look on his
handsome face, and she was so happy he hadn’t left that she woke up.

Marianna blinked. Nikolos was indeed looking at her with
that curious grin, but they weren’t in the jungle. Instead, they were in a
small but luxurious plane. She was leaned back in a reclined seat, and he sat
next to her, checking the news on his phone.

“Where…what’s happening?”

His half smile was sweet and slightly rueful.

“Before we go any further, I want to remind you that you
gave me permission for this. You agreed to let me drive, and I took it a little
further to arrange for us to fly instead.”

“But where are we going?”

“We’re going to Ojo Azul.”

Marianna shook her head. “I don’t understand…”

“It’s one of my family’s vacation homes. It’s lovely, and
it has always been my favorite. I grew up on Ojo Azul as much as I did anywhere
else, and I wanted to show it to you…”

She bit her lip, remembering the argument that had come
before this with a wince. “I don’t… It doesn’t matter what you did with the
duchess. I was completely out of line to be so angry, and I’m sorry.”

He nodded.

“Thank you for your apology, but I can see where I was
wrong as well. I don’t know why I didn’t tell you about Grace and what we did
before, except perhaps that I was afraid. I am not used to being afraid. I don’t
want to lose what we have…or are you going to tell me that we don’t have anything
at all?”

She was shaking her head before the words were even out of
his mouth.

“No, it’s not nothing to me,” she whispered. “It’s…it’s
just complicated.”

He nodded. “Many things are, but perhaps for the next two
days, it does not need to be?”

“The next two days? I thought we had our schedule set for
us.”

His grin was sweetly boyish. “I decided to change it up a
little. We’re staying at Ojo Azul for the next two days. When we return, things
can be complicated. Right now, though, we’re just going to be ourselves.”

The idea struck her with the force of a lightning bolt.
They could stop. They could simply be themselves, and leave the world behind.
The idea was so simple and so attractive that she nearly burst into tears.

Instead, she smiled, and she took his hand. It was warm,
and she clung to it as the little plane began its descent.

Chapter Eight

Ojo Azul was a large Spanish-style hacienda built right on
the beach of one of the smaller islands off the coast of Greece. Nikolos told
her there was a very small village on the other side, but half the island
belonged to the royal family.

“It’s quite safe. My siblings and I ran all over this place
when we were young. We played at all sorts of adventures as my mother hunted
seashells on the beach and my father napped in the sun.”

She could imagine it. She could see Nikolos and his
siblings, browned from the sun and wild. She could see his elegant mother in
the surf, and his lordly father drowsing in the shade. Just a normal family
that loved each other very much.

Her writer’s brain reminded her it would make an excellent
addition to her piece. The rest of her only admired the fact that Nikolos had
such a lovely memory.

The rear of the house butted up to a sparkling white beach.
When she looked out the wide French doors, she could see the waves, still so
blue but darkening as the sun set.

Nikolos came down the stairs carrying an armful of fabric.

“One of these dresses should fit you, and before you start
to get suspicious, they’re dresses that my sisters have left here. They’ll be a
little more comfortable than what you’re wearing, I think.”

She felt startlingly shy when she ventured down the stairs
wearing a floating white dress. It was delicately embroidered, and the light,
lovely skirt floated around her as she walked. When he saw her, Nikolos’s eyes
widened. He held out his hand to her, and when she took it, he led her out to
the dark beach.

“I want to tell you about my weekend,” he said.

Marianne tried to keep her voice completely even. “It would
help my article, I’m sure.”

He laughed, and she realized she had been completely
obvious.

“Grace is an old friend of mine. We’ve been linked in the
tabloids for years, but for some reason, we’ve never gone that way. I could
never go and live in the UK, and she would never leave. That alone would stop
us. She called me right after we had our conversation on Saturday, and it
sounded like the best thing in the world to simply sit and talk. We went to a
resort that my family owns because it’s an excellent place to relax, hit the
spa, and simply eat good food. It was a good weekend, but the whole time I
wanted to be with you.”

Marianna drew in a soft breath, nodding. There was nothing
in his speech that told her he was lying.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry.”

She bit her lip against what she had been about to say. She
wasn’t ready to talk with him about what Satya had accused him of…not yet.

“You’re still holding something back,” he observed. She
wasn’t even surprised he had noticed.

“I won’t, not forever, just for now.”

He nodded, and his expression was not sad, merely wistful.

“Take your time, then. Only for my sake, perhaps make it
sooner rather than later?”

She nodded, because she owed him that much at least.

They walked along the beach, their bare feet shuffling
softly on the sand. Darkness had fallen with remarkable speed. Though the water
gleamed from what light was left in the sky, the cliffs and forest to the
landward side already looked dark and menacing.

“Sometime, I should come back here and build a large fire
on the shore, just as my brother and I did when we were young. It grew so high
and so hot, but it was beautiful…so beautiful.”

“I would like to see it,” Marianna stated before she
thought about what she was saying, but he only smiled.

“You will.”

Marianna smiled at his certainty, and at how he was so
pleased to simply be with her. As they walked back to the house, she wondered
what it would be like if this was her real life. What would it be like to
simply be with this charming, amazing man for the rest of her life? Simply
being with him for a week had been intoxicating.

By the time they got back to the house, the moon had risen,
casting a silvery light over the beach.

Witchlight
, Marianna thought.
Magic light.

When Nikolos made to go inside, she tugged on his hand.

“Can we stay out here for a little longer? Just a little
bit?”

He nodded, and guided her to one of the benches on the
stone deck. It was wide enough for both of them to sit comfortably, but he headed
inside the house. While she waited, slightly confused, he returned with a thick,
white blanket.

“Come on. I’ll show you something else that we did.”

He led her back out to the sand, where he spread the
blanket down and beckoned her to lie down with him. It seemed like the most
natural thing in the world for her to rest her head on his biceps, her body
curled toward his side as he lay on his back.

“Look up at those stars,” she said softly. “It makes me
think of all the people who have lain here just like we are, staring up at
those stars, telling each other stories.”

“I would listen to your stories for the rest of my life,”
he said, and there was something serious in his tone that made her look at him.

“What are you saying to me?” she asked. “Nikolos, I am so…I
am so afraid. I don’t know where you stand… I don’t know what is going to
happen to us or what we should be doing.”

She trembled when he rolled to his side to face her. His
hand came out to touch her face, stroking the curve of her cheek. There was a
soft shiver of pleasure that echoed through her body, remnants of the single
night they had spent together that told her how much she wanted him and the
pleasure he could give her.

“My mother once told me something, when I was very small. I
was afraid of something that was going to happen. She took me aside, and she
said that I couldn’t ever affect what was going to happen, all I could do was
think about what I wanted to do in the moment. That was all I could ever
control. I couldn’t control the past. I couldn’t control the future.”

“What do you think I should do?” she asked, her voice soft
and tremulous.

“I think that you should do what you want to do right now,”
he said. “Let tomorrow take care of itself. Be who you are and who you want to
be right now.”

He fell silent, but his words echoed in her head and in her
heart. Tomorrow could take care of itself. There were things that she wanted
right this moment, and oh god, but she wanted it so much.

Nikolos did not flinch at all when she ran her hand down
his chest. His eyes only grew darker and more intense. She could feel his frame
shiver a little at her touch, but she knew he would not do a single thing until
she gave him a sign.

So she did.

She cupped her hand behind his neck, tangling her fingers
into the inky strands there. She drew him close, and she kissed him, boldly and
deeply in the way she had dreamed about since their night together. The kiss
sent a bolt of electricity through her, making her cling to his arms.

“Please,” she said throatily. “Right now, what I need is
you. What I want is you. You are all I can see.”

The breath from her words fanned across his lips, making
him shiver. In response, he dragged her as close to him as she could be. She
could feel the tension that strung through his body like violin wire, and then
all she wanted to do was pluck the strings.

Nearly drunk with the pleasure of his body, she tugged at
his shirt.

“Please, take this off, I need to feel you. I need to have
your skin next to mine.”

“Yes, sweetheart, yes, please. You are what I want. You are
what I have always wanted.”

With the consummate grace of a dancer or a fighter, he
stripped his shirt over his head before skimming off his shoes, trousers, and
underwear. He was bare in the night, as unashamed as a god, and the look on his
face was pure hunger. She felt like a sacrifice left for some dark deity,
hoping it would convince him to spare her village.

“Take your clothes off,” he said, an unmistakable note of
command in his voice.

Hurriedly, she stripped off her borrowed dress and then her
underwear. Finally, she kicked off her shoes, naked as she never had been
before while so completely outside in nature. Despite how vulnerable she was,
she had never felt safer. She knew that here in this place. Nikolos held the
real authority. Nothing would deny him. Nothing could.

“I want to give myself to you.”

She barely knew what she was going to say before she heard
the words come out of her mouth. The only indication that Nikolos gave that he
heard her was a swift intake of breath.

“Get up on your hands and knees, just like you were that
night,” he growled, his voice rough with sensuality.

With a shiver, she did as he said. At least that night, she
had been wearing her underwear. Now she knew he was able to see her most
intimate, sacred flesh. She knew he was looking at her more deeply than any man
ever had before.

“God above, but you are so beautiful…”

He came to kneel behind her, his hands splayed lightly on
her hips. She shivered when he ran his palms from her shoulders to her waist,
raising goosebumps along the way. She whimpered, pushing her body against him.
Her rear brushed against his leg. She could feel the rough hair there, and when
she adjusted her position slightly, she could feel the hardness of his erection
against her skin.

“Do you like the way that feels?” he crooned. “Do you like
how it feels when I am so desperate for you?”

“Yes, yes,” she whimpered. “I want you to…to take me.”

His grip tightened on her hips. For a moment, she thought
she had broken his control. She had a dizzying image of his hands holding her
still as he started to plunder her body, thrusting in and out of her, desperate
with need.

After a moment, though, his grasp loosened, but she knew he
was still on a precarious edge.

“I’m not so desperate for you as all that,” he said softly.
“I am not so desperate that I would not make you feel good first.”

She started to ask what he meant, but then he shifted so
the smooth head of his cock was sliding against her furrow. She could feel him
teasing her opening gently. Every time she thought he was going to enter her
fully, he drew back. She didn’t realize she was making any noise at all until
she finally groaned with pleasure.

“Oh, you’re almost there,” he crooned. “You’re so close,
but you’re not there yet.”

He reached around her hip, finding her clit with an almost
unerring accuracy. He gave her absolutely no mercy as he manipulated her needy
flesh, drawing her pleasure to the surface of her skin and setting her clit on
fire.

The sensation was so intense she started to whine,
thrashing and begging and needy. He was far stronger than she, however. He held
her in place, his cock tantalizingly close to her entrance, even as his hand
worked its magic below.

“Oh…oh god, please!”

On the final word, she broke. The fire blazed through her
so brilliantly that she wasn’t sure there would be anything left of her after
it was over. She trembled, burying her face into her hands. She shook so hard
that she knew she would be sore the next day, her muscles were clenched so
tightly.

Finally, finally, she went limp. She managed to stay on all
fours where he had placed her, but a stiff breeze could have blown her over.

Slowly she became aware of Nikolos stroking her back,
whispering encouragement and endearments into her ear.

“So beautiful, so lovely and so mine…”

She tried to tell him she felt the same way about him, but
all that came out was a soft whine. He chuckled in response.

“Now you’re ready.”

She felt him gather himself, sliding deep into her with a
single motion. She was so wet and so ready for him that there was no resistance
at all. He groaned with pleasure when he sank into her fully.

“You feel perfect,” he whispered. “So perfect…”

When he started to thrust into her, she felt as if she were
finally complete. This was perfect. This was what she had needed from the
moment she met him. She was a part of him, and he was a part of her.

She felt his motions speed up, she felt his breath grow
rougher. Now she was a vessel for his pleasure, and surprisingly , it increased
her pleasure as well. She started to rock back against his body, allowing him to
drive deeper and deeper inside her.

She felt him start to lose rhythm, and then he thrust deep
inside her with a deep cry of pleasure. She could feel his release inside her,
feel the essence of him flood her body.

He trembled for a moment, going stock still, and then he
let his weight push her down to the blanket until they were resting side by
side. There was something primal about the moment. They were doing a thing
people had been doing since there
were
people, and it struck her deep to
the heart.

With a soft grunt, he pulled her close to him as the sweat
dried on their bodies. His breath was warm in her ear, and when he kissed her
neck, a shiver of pleasure ran through her body. It was a gentle thing, however,
more peaceful than passionate.

She knew tomorrow as waiting. She knew that eventually,
they would wake up and have to deal with the things she had found out. Right
now, though, she was in his arms, and nothing more mattered.

They were here. They were together, and the love between
them burned as hot as a brand.

It was enough. It had to be.

* * *

The next morning, she woke up before Nikolos did. The first
rays of dawn were beaming through the window, bathing the plush bedroom in a
golden light. She watched his smooth face for a long time. She felt a deep
sadness as she gazed at his restful features. There was a chance she would
never be allowed to do this again. The thought tore her heart, but she knew
that she had to do what she was going to do.