Tabloid Princess, page 22
Every touch was new. Every gasp of expectation a sound I hadn’t muttered before.
In the back of my mind, the promise of our conversation jangled a bell.
This was all new for me. It wasn’t for him.
The red-hot heat quickly cooled.
“You promised to tell me what happened.” I murmured against his mouth.
“I was hoping to distract you.” His lips curved against mine, beautiful and intoxicating.
“Close, but not quite.”
His hand dropped, his fingertips trailing across my throat. “Sure?”
I swallowed hard. “Yes.”
Dropping his touch, he caught my hand again, our joined grasp swinging between us as we walked back to the glass wall and stepped through into a modern and bright kitchen.
“This house is amazing.” I stared about me.
“Thanks.” He shrugged.
I took a deep breath. I might as well rip the plaster off and deal. “Would you and Charlotte Macclesfield have lived here if you’d married?”
He snorted a rueful laugh. “Greystone wasn’t big enough for her.”
I glanced at the echoing depths of the open plan house. Yikes.
“You told me before you don’t get to give away kisses. How did you get to be nearly married before you realised it wasn’t right?”
He flinched but didn’t say anything. Instead he went to a cupboard and pulled out some glasses before going to the fridge and getting out a carton of juice.
The silence was deafening.
“The press are desperate to know what happened. How have they not found out, when they knew my name within twelve hours of you touching my hair?”
“She was bought off. Her family were also suitably reimbursed for their inconvenience.”
The poison in his tone caused me to wince. “Why?”
“Charlotte was always destined to marry a prince. Her family set her on the route while she was still in nappies. It wasn’t hard to make sure she socialised in the same circles as me. Hell, back then everyone knew where I socialised, what I did. I hardly kept my life secret.”
I thought of the headlines I remembered. They were hazy and distorted by my youth. While I’d been struggling to stay in school and feed myself, Prince Oliver had been falling out of clubs and brawling with journalists.
“It was easy for her to end up at the same university as me, on similar courses.”
“That’s a bit cynical; couldn’t it have been a coincidence?”
He gave a small shake of his head. “No, I don’t think so.” He pushed a glass of juice towards me and I slipped my hands around it. “By the time university started she was on her end game. And, from my side, the match was actively encouraged. She was media friendly. It was considered that with time and some coaching she’d engage with the people.”
“The people?”
His gaze met mine, deadly serious. “Leia. The future king can’t marry someone whom the people won’t love.”
“Oh.”
Those twelve words crushed into my chest.
His gaze didn’t waver, but whatever thoughts whirled in the depth of his stare he didn’t verbalise.
“So what happened? It sounds perfect.”
“She slept with John.”
I nearly dropped my glass. Quickly regaining my control, I placed it carefully on the marble worktop. “What?”
Why would she do that? Oliver was everything. I’d known him weeks, but my soul told me he had no parallel.
“I told you. She wanted a prince. I don’t think she cared which one.”
“So that was it?”
“Oh no. It was expected I should get over it, that the wedding would continue.” He paused, his face turning to the window. “I refused. It took me a while, but then I had to say how I felt. Her family were made very comfortable to just disappear.”
“Shit, Ollie, if the press knew about this...”
“I know.”
He reached a hand for me. “I’m sorry they printed that you were the cause. They are desperate to find a story.”
“Wrong story.” I managed to force a smile on my face.
“Oh my goodness.” I had a blinding moment of clarity. “This is why you came to Bright Futures. Why you were splitting the charities. It was because of what John did.”
I processed this for a swift moment.
“We wouldn’t have met if it hadn’t been for that.”
“I think if I’d met you, even before what she did, I think you still would have made me pause.”
“Don’t be silly. It would have been completely different.”
“Not for me.”
His words made the world tilt at a dangerous angle.
I needed to say something. The monster ridiculed me.
“You know I have zero experience, right?” My cheeks flamed. “At that kind of thing.”
“What kind of thing is that?” His lips curved into a delicious smile.
“Uh, you know.” He shifted towards me, but I slipped out of his reach. “Stuff.”
He laughed, almost folding over at the middle.
“It’s not that funny,” I grouched.
“Leia,” he whispered my name, crooking his finger in my direction. That instant desire to follow his command kindled within me. I stepped up, heart thudding. “I just want you.”
His tone told me everything. He didn’t want me to stand in his kitchen and drink juice. He didn’t want to talk, to make small aimless conversation.
He wanted me.
The way that I wanted him.
Like my existence hinged on the expectation of his touch.
Twenty-Two
It was late before we got back from Guildford. He’d made everything so normal, for Daisy especially.
My heart did a strange thing in my chest where it expanded and grew.
The car idled in the darkness with the lights off. He should leave before anyone saw, but I desperately held on to any time with him. Daisy slept on the backseat, occasionally filling the car with her gentle snores.
“Thank you for a great day.” I turned in my seat to meet his gaze within the dark shadows.
He lifted a hand and slid it around my cheek, cradling my face in that way that made my heart stutter, his thumb brushing across my cheekbone. “Thank you for letting me in. I know what this means for you, and I know you have reservations about Daisy.”
I wanted to tell him my reservations had reduced from the Berlin Wall down to a white picket fence, but I held my words in.
“She loves you already.”
“I’ll win you both over.”
I memorised his face in the darkness, the curve of his lips, those cheekbones. “Well, I’ll talk to her about keeping it secret again tomorrow. I think the pony might have been a test too far though.”
He shrugged. “Would it be so terrible if people found out?”
My mouth fell open. “Yes. And you know why. Nothing about me is what the press want to know. Or your people.”
“Maybe they will see you like I do.”
“Oliver, please.”
His hand found mine squeezing hard. “What are your plans for this week?”
“Well I might go to work, burn dinner, that kind of thing. Why?”
His lips curved. “I’ve got some plans.”
“Oliver, if you come back to the office, I’ll kill you.”
He mock gasped. “And I thought you liked spending time with me!”
“I do. But we’ve got to take this slow with Daisy. I can’t mess this up for her.” I sighed and pressed back against the headrest. “Seeing her today with you. God, Ollie, it nearly killed me.”
He moved closer, his gaze intent. “In what way?”
I didn’t want to say, but then at the same time I couldn’t hold it in. “It made me consider what we could be… you know if you weren’t the prince and all that.”
He chuckled but his eyes burned with intensity. “All that. It’s an issue.”
“Listen, I wanted to say something.”
“That’s sounds ominous.”
“No. I was just thinking about Charlotte and what she did to you. You are too good a person to have that happen to you. And not just because of being a prince, but because of who you are. And for the record, Daisy and I love Greystone.”
His smile almost blinded me. “I’d take that utter humiliation with Charlotte over and over again if it meant I could be free to meet you.”
We’d been parked out on the street for too long. “Oliver, you should go. I don’t want you being headlines again.”
His lips curved a little. “No one will take a picture of me here.”
I narrowed my gaze. “How can you be so sure?”
He shrugged. “It’s like I told you. People don’t see what they don’t expect to see.”
I chuckled. “I hate to tell you, Oliver, but everyone can see this car and knows someone important is inside.”
His shot me an enigmatic smile. “I’ll take my chances.” To prove his point, he shifted forward to me. Before he did, his gaze flickered, not to the window to see who was watching, but rather to Daisy to make sure she was asleep. It made my insides all squishy.
His kiss intoxicated me. Kiss drunk. Was that a thing?
“Hm.” He pulled away.
“What?”
He shook his head, but his distracted thoughts were on his face. I didn’t want us to part like this. “I don’t want to leave, but I know I should.”
The monster agreed with his first sentiment, not so much his last. It lashed inside me, begging me to ask him to stay.
I glanced back at Daisy to ground myself.
“I have my burner phone?” I reached out into my bag and with a chuckle pulled out the phone he’d given me earlier. According to his security team, my own phone wasn’t safe. I couldn’t think about it for too long because it made me shiver. “You could text me. Assuming the prince texts.” I smirked.
“Sexting only.” The glint in his eyes made my belly tighten.
“Well, I’m the wrong girl for that.”
He lifted an eyebrow and then swept forward to softly kiss my cheek. I wanted so much more, things I didn’t even know, things I didn’t understand. Secrets I’d never allow myself to contemplate.
“I’ll see you in a couple of days, Leia.”
I nodded, my cheek still against his, my heart hammering as my head swirled with spice and leather. “Sure.”
I slipped out of the car and then opened the back door to Daisy’s seat, pulling her into my arms. He didn’t get out to help, although I could almost sense his burning desire to do so.
Once she was in my arms, I gave him a small wave and shut the door, and then I turned for the house.
We’d been careless to stay out here so long.
It was good the prince was going to be busy for a couple of days. Some space might help bring back some clarity to the situation.
My heart laughed at my head.
Yeah, right.
With Daisy in bed, I sat in the lounge feeling deeply unsettled. Every so often I’d jump up and pace the living room. Then I’d sit. Then I’d stand.
An unsettled discomfort niggled. Every so often I peeked out the windows sure someone was out there. I knew they wouldn’t be. Oliver had explained that the restraining order while extreme, was the most powerful way to control the press; no paper wanted to go to court for contempt. It didn’t help.
Eventually I slumped on the sofa and admitted the real problem.
I craved him.
The monster didn’t want to sleep, not alone anyway.
For a while I sat with his phone on my knee. I could have called, and he would have come back. But then I’d be breaking all the rules I had in place to protect Daisy. The ones I’d already smashed were enough.
A while later, I grabbed my own phone and dialled.
I stood outside the black door. I didn’t even know if he’d be here, but I knew I couldn’t not come. It had taken Nana ten minutes to drive, just enough time for me to shower and shave my legs.
If he answered this door, I knew what would happen.
The last few weeks had been this collision already on its course.
I couldn’t deny it.
I couldn’t deny him.
I knocked once the taxi had pulled off around the corner. My hand shook—not even my hand; my whole arm, my whole body.
I trembled like the last petal falling from a rose at the end of summer. Quivering and delicate I was about to fall.
My air rushed out of my lungs as feet fell on the other side of the door.
“Leia?” His voice lilted my name as he opened the door.
I shivered uncontrollably and he physically had to grab my elbows to lift me over the doorstep so he could shut the door. “You shouldn’t be answering the door. I could have been any nutter.” My lips shook.
His concern was scorched into his gaze, the set of his lips. He knew why I came. Why I trembled like I was in the hold of a deep fever. “Leia, I have no expectations from you. I thought I made that very clear.”
Despite his gentle rebuke, his fingers lifted, almost automatically, travelling across their favourite path along my collarbone.
“I know. But I do.”
It took a split second for my whispered request to filter into his consciousness.
He lifted me into his arms, brushing me against his chest. His breath gasped with a ragged edge as he pressed my back into the wall.
The monster danced—ecstatic and wild.
“I want you so much.” His words slipped into my mouth, hot and demanding. “But I’m not taking you until you’re sure.”
His words didn’t calm me. They made my shaking worse. I couldn’t leave here until I’d satisfied the monster.
He let me go, sliding me down his body as he grabbed my hands and led me up the stairs to the warehouse. I stumbled after him, my heart crashing with my foot fall.
At the top he pushed open the door and waited for me to go in. On the kitchen island was a single glass of wine half drunk.
It steeled my resolve.
Two people both lonely and cut off from the world.
Two people who needed one another; to hell with the consequences.
My thoughts were dangerous, but I couldn’t stop them. I’d take it all for him.
“Leia. Would you like a drink?” He turned midway to the bottle of wine.
I shook my head silently. “No.”
A frown flickered across his face. I didn’t want to see a frown. I wanted him to kiss me. Wanted his hands on my skin.
“I realised something,” I whispered, and his hands fell at his sides, almost helpless.
“What was that?”
“I was thinking about Lady Jane Grey. I was thinking what I’d trade my soul for; what I’d risk everything for.”
Tension snapped the air.
“What is that, Leia?”
“You. I’d risk my heart for you. I think I already have.”
His steps towards me didn’t make a sound, but then maybe I couldn’t hear a thing over the rushing of my pulse in my ears.
“I’ll never hurt you, Leia. It’s the only promise I can make you.”
I brushed my mouth against his, once, twice, until he claimed it for his own.
Hard and incessant, his tongue pressed into my mouth, tangling with desperate strokes against mine. His hand tore against my clothes, the edge of my T-shirt stretched as he pulled it tight, anchoring us together. My hands slid into his hair, my breath on his skin, my body burning with expectation.
Without breaking the kiss, he lifted me, and my legs clamped around his waist. My kisses came faster, desperate.
He lowered me onto the mattress, his lips still attached to mine, while my hands clawed up his back, my body arching to touch his.
Through his jeans, his arousal pressed into the sensitive skin of my thigh and it spurred me on. Lowering a hand, I grazed tentative fingers along the encased hardness. He shivered almost impulsively with my touch. Leaning back, he met my gaze. “You need to tell me if you want me to stop.”
“Ollie, I’m not a virgin.” I almost giggled, but then his hard-on pushed against me and it didn’t seem so funny.
The flash in his eyes said it all. His head dipped, his lips pressed against my throat. One of his hands slid along my side, running under the stretch of my T-shirt. The monster went wild at the heat of his hand. I arched more, willing him to explore more.
Deft fingers pulled at the shirt, pulling it over my head and discarding it on the floor. His lips travelled along my throat and down the cleft of my breasts. His fingers unhooked the shoulder strap of my bra, pulling it down my arm.
Fixated, I watched his dark head dip lower as he sought out a budded nipple, pulling it gently into his mouth.
The monster shouted with glee and I gasped loudly. Oliver’s eyes darted up to check my face but seeing only pleasure there, he returned to my nipple. I ran my fingers through his hair, shivering at the little darts of pleasure zapping over my skin as the cool air from a ceiling fan heightened my sensitive reactions.
I lifted slightly, reaching behind my back to unhook my bra. His body shifted alongside me, his lips back on mine, his tongue teasing as it explored my mouth. His hand skimmed my stomach, dipping between my legs, making me gasp as he pushed at the apex of my thighs.
Gently edging me down, he sat up and undid my jeans, pulling them down over my hips, leaving me in my simple—not suitable for a prince—white knickers.
“You have too many clothes on,” I grumbled as I took in his still clad body.
“Easily dealt with.” He flashed me a crooked grin as he pulled at his own T-shirt and then tossed it after mine. I watched utterly fixated as he unbuttoned his jeans and pushed them down.
Holy Jesus bloody Christ.
The T-shirts so didn’t do justice to what lay underneath. Smooth olive skin curved over defined but slender muscles.
He really was a work of art.
“So now I’m naked, you’re naked.” I lifted an eyebrow.
“Leia.” He pounced forward. “Please shush.”
I didn’t get much choice. His lips were back on mine hard. All thoughts left my head on an express train.
