Reign: A Royal Military Romance (20 page)

* * *

I
walk
with my parents back to the guest wing of the palace. The moment we’re out of sight of Svelorians, I make my parents wait for me to take off my shoes, then stretch my toes against the wooden floor.

“I don’t know how those women do it,” I say. “They’re robots, Mom. Robots with robot feet.”

She laughs.

“They’re just used to wearing heels,” she says.

“I gotta say, being a man is pretty great,” my dad teases. “No heels, no childbirth...”

“Shut
up
,” my mom and I say in unison.

Then we laugh again. We’re both slightly tipsy. I think she’s still relieved that the assassination attempt turned out to be nothing, and I’ve got my own reasons for being in a great mood.

We reach the junction of the hallway where they go left and I go right, and my mom gives me a hug.

“We’ll see you Tuesday,” she says.

“Tuesday?” I say.

“The King set up some meetings while he’s at the economic summit over the weekend and asked me to join him,” she says.

“I just wanted to go to Kiev,” my father adds.

It sounds vaguely familiar, so I just nod.

She hugs me again, a little tighter this time.

“Hazel, be safe,” she says. “And
behave yourself
.”

She emphasizes the last part just a little too much.

“Don’t I always?” I ask.

My mom just sighs, then relinquishes me to my dad.

“Stay out of trouble, freckles,” he says. “At least try.”

We head to our respective rooms. I shut the door and lock it behind me, then toss my shoes under the bed, and get the mask off my face and toss it on the dresser.

I hesitate for a moment, then reach into my dress, unstick the jellyfish bra, and throw it into a drawer. It’s not exactly a sexy look.

Then I wonder what I’m supposed to do while I wait.

After a while I settle for reading in a big leather armchair, but I can’t focus. I’m reading the same paragraph of
Alice in Wonderland
, the only English book I could find in the Kiev train station before I left, over and over again, listening for a knock on the door.

I read it again. Think about the dessert table. Squirm. Read the paragraph.

I want to take it off you with my teeth
.

Read the paragraph again.

There’s a noise on the balcony, and I freeze. Even though I’m on the second floor of a literal fortress, I reach up and turn off the light, then turn off all the lights as I move through my rooms, still in my formal gown.

Quietly, I walk to the French doors and stand behind the curtains. Part of me thinks I’m being crazy, and part of me is remembering that
someone
wanted the king dead. Maybe they’re trying again and they have the wrong room.

In the corner of the balcony, a hand grips the railing of the balcony, then another. I realize there’s a third option and I’m an idiot.

I swing the French doors open and lean in the doorway just as Kostya pulls himself up and over the stonework railing, then stands on the balcony.

His formal jacket is open to his white undershirt and he’s breathing hard from the climb, his chest expanding against the thin fabric. Slowly, he reaches up and takes a rose from between his teeth.

If this were in a movie, I’d roll my eyes, but as it is I’m breathless with desire, totally captivated as we stare at each other.

“I told you I was coming,” he says, just a hint of a smile on his face.

“I believed you,” I say.

Kostya walks toward me across the balcony and holds out the rose. It’s ragged at one end where he ripped it from the bush, and I take it from his fingers, my heart beating so hard I can feel it in the soles of my feet.

“You should have told me you were going to climb the balcony,” I say, holding the rose up to smell it.

“Why’s that?” he asks, but he’s smiling.

“I’d have let my hair down so you could climb it,” I say.

Kostya puts one fingertip in the hollow of my throat and then slides it down my sternum, still smiling, his eyes lit up like he’s laughing at some joke.

I shiver as his finger moves between my breasts, my nipples hardening instantly.

“
Zloyushka
, you’re impossible,” he says, his voice low and gravelly.

I want to lean back against the doorframe and
beg
him to put his hands on me. I feel like I’ve been waiting forever for this, and now he’s torturing me with one fingertip.

“Why?” I whisper.

“I climbed up a stone wall in my dress uniform, and now you’re making fun of me,” he teases, moving forward. He’s still warm from the climb and I can feel his body heat radiating off of him, making every inch of me feel warm and feverish.

“Don’t you think climbing a tower in with a rose in your teeth is a little too fairy tale?” I tease back.

He just chuckles, then wraps his hand around my back and pulls me to him.

“If you think I’m here to
rescue
you, you’ve got the wrong idea,” he whispers into my ear.

I
don’t know
what’s gotten into me. Maybe it’s that I’ve had just enough drinks at the ball to do something crazy and questionable, like climb up a stone wall to a balcony when I could just use the door.

Maybe it’s how crazy hot Hazel is, and how I’ve been wound like a spring for two days now. Maybe I needed to let off some steam before I saw her so I could take my time.

But maybe it’s the way she laughs sometimes and I don’t know why, but I laugh anyway because she makes me happy. Maybe it’s how she swears like a sailor and doesn’t bat an eye. Maybe it’s how despite all her missteps, the spandex pants and the vodka shots and smoking on the roof, she’s more than capable and poised when it matters.

I could have any girl I want, but I want to
win
Hazel.

“Then what are you here to do?” she asks.

I kiss her on
that spot
right below her ear, and she gasps softly.

“I already told you,” I say. “I’m here to take your dress off with my teeth, like I promised I would.”

I kiss her neck, and I can feel her pulse racing beneath my lips.

“And I’m going to take it off you slow and lick every single inch of your body until you’re wound tight enough to snap,” I say.

I nip at her collarbone with my teeth, and she makes a soft noise, her fingers clutching at my side. I can’t help but chuckle again.

“So you’re going to torture me?” she asks, her voice vibrating against my mouth.

“Only for a little while,” I say, and put my face to hers, our foreheads touching. “Then I’m going to make you come so hard you forget your own name.”

I kiss her and she opens her mouth under mine, like she’s desperate to have me inside her
somehow
. Even though my dick is already hard enough to cut glass I go slow, sliding my tongue along her bottom lip and into her mouth before I pull back, both of us breathing hard.

Hazel gives me long, burning look. Then she takes my hand in hers and leads me from the balcony through her living quarters and to the bedroom, her long dress swishing along the floor, her ass swaying from side to side in her dress.

She doesn’t usually walk like that, not even in heels. My mouth goes dry.

The second we’re in the bedroom I shut the door and pull her against me. She’s still facing away, her back against my front.

I run my hands up her torso slowly, reveling in every inch, over the bottom curve of her breasts until I reach the hard peaks of her nipples. I brush my fingers over them lightly, one by one, and Hazel gasps.

I do it again.

She reaches one hand up and puts it around the back of my neck, then arches against me. Her breasts press forward into my hands, and her ass is against my erection.

“Not bending you over and fucking you right now might be the hardest thing I’ve ever done,” I murmur.

As I say it, I pinch both her nipples between my fingers and she sighs.

“There’s nothing stopping you,” she says, her voice low. “For the rest of the night, every time I looked that that dessert table I got a little wetter. Now I’m always going to associate petit-fours with wanting you to fuck me.”

Dear
god
, I like hearing her say she wants to fuck me.

“I already told you what I’m going to do,” I say.

“You told me you’d take my dress off,” she says.

“Impatient,” I say.

“Torturer,” she says.

Her dress has an eye hook at her neck and then a zipper at her lower back, so I unhook the first with my hands and then hold it there as I get on my knees, take the zipper pull between my teeth, and slide it down, pressing my other thumb into the dimple in her back.

I plant kisses all the way up Hazel’s spine, and she arches it slowly as I work my way back to standing and finally let her dress fall to the floor. Now all she’s wearing is a thong, and she leans her head against my shoulder, then slides the flat of her hand against my aching erection.

I
growl
, the sound coming from somewhere deep inside my chest, and Hazel laughs softly. She does it again, her palm traveling from root to tip and this time her whole body moves in one slow, sensuous roll, my hands digging into the points of her hips.

I’m starting to wonder if I over-promised, because I don’t know how long
I
can last, my cock practically ready to explode. She does it again, her head against my shoulder, her eyes closed, and she bites her lip.

I lean over and kiss her while I slide one hand between her legs. She moans into my mouth, and her panties are so soaked that her thighs are damp. Her body jolts when I run my fingers over the fabric between her legs.

“Is this because of the dessert table?” I ask.

“You make it sound like tiramisu turns me on,” she says, sliding her hand down my cock again, her voice low. “It’s from looking at the dessert table and thinking about you fucking me.”

I rub her lightly through the soaked fabric, and a noise comes out of her throat. I rub harder, then slide my fingers underneath the side of the fabric and touch her skin-to-skin, pushing my fingers back and forth slowly over clit.

Now she’s stopped rubbing my cock through my pants and she’s just leaning back against my chest, breathing hard, like she’s surrendering. I rub her again and she makes a soft moan, her head turned to one side, and I withdraw my hand.

Before Hazel can move I spin her around and kiss her hard, then walk her backwards toward her bed, my mouth still on hers. I toss my jacket behind me without looking and she tugs at my shirt so I take that off too.

I push her further onto the bed and she squeals, then laughs as I bend over and kiss her fiercely on her stomach, expanding and tightening as she breathes, her hands on my head. As I work my way down, past her bellybutton, I can
smell
how aroused she is.

It’s intoxicating. Beyond maddening. I nearly lose control and bury my face in her, because what I
want
to do is lick her until she comes again and again. I want to hear her scream as I suck on her clit and I want to put my tongue in her pussy as she clenches around me, because Hazel losing control is the single most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, and I’d watch it all day if I could.

I take the band on her thong between my teeth and pull it off her to the sound of her soft laughter, then push her thighs apart with my hands and kiss the inside of one knee, then the other.

Hazel moans softly and I work my way up, my fingers digging into the soft flesh as I try to slow down and tease her, but I don’t know that it’s working. I don’t even know who I’m torturing any more, me or her, as I finally reach the juncture of her thighs and lick her slowly, the tip of my tongue just barely touching her lips before I roll it over her clit.

A tremor runs through her whole body when I do it, and I hear her breathing hitch.

“Fuck, Kostya,” she whispers.

I do it again and again until she groans, and then I force myself to pull back. I trace a circle around her clit with my tongue as she sucks in a breath. After a moment I repeat the cycle, lick-circle-lick-circle, and then I repeat it again and again.

Each time she gets louder, her breathing rougher, I can feel her body tensing. Finally she grabs my head with one hand and when I stop licking her, her fist closes around my hair.

“Fuck!” she shouts, and I can’t help but laugh, kissing the soft inside of one thigh as I watch her chest heave.

“I told you what I was going to do,” I say. “
Zloyushka
, I could tease you all day and never get tired of watching you come undone.”

I’m still wearing pants, and I’m so hard I think my dick might just fall off, but I can’t help myself. Watching Hazel like this does something to me I can’t explain, lights some fire so far buried inside me that I didn’t know it existed.

I lick her again and this time she just says, “Oh...” so softly I can barely hear it, but she lifts her hips toward me like she’s pleading with me. This time I take her right to the brink before I stop. Her toes are curled and she’s crushing her pillow in one fist, the other still in my hair.

I get my pants and boxers off in half a second and toss the condom from my pocket onto a pillow. She’s flushed, her hair wild, and her eyes are half-closed.

“You’re a sadist,” she whispers as I crawl over her.

“I warned you,” I murmur, guiding her hand to my cock. I groan as she wraps her hand around it, and then she strokes me as I kiss her deeply, kneeling between her thighs. I can’t keep myself from thrusting into her hand, and she wraps her legs around my hips.

I want to be inside her so bad I can barely breathe, but somehow, I resist.

I break the kiss and reach between her legs again, sliding two fingers into her wet, swollen pussy. I just barely bend them and her eyelids flutter the way they did in the stairwell, so I do it again. This time she grabs the back of my neck and pushes back against my hand, looking at me through half-closed eyes.

My cock throbs, but I force myself to ignore it. I move my fingers again and again, and Hazel’s hand drifts from my neck to my shoulder as her hips move faster and harder against my hand. She puts one leg over my shoulder and pushes back hard, like she wants me deeper.

I add a third finger and she groans, eyes closed and her head to one side. Now I’m barely moving my hand at all, because she’s doing all the work, moving her hips and fucking herself with my fingers, biting her lip, sighing and moaning.

It’s
incredible
to watch, so hot I’m a little afraid I’ll come without even getting to fuck her, but I can’t stop, like I’m hypnotized by how sexy she is as she moves more and more insistently. I can’t believe I’m lucky enough to be here, to be the one watching her fuck my fingers, and flexing her hips hard against my hand half-buried in her tight, warm pussy.

She moves like she
needs
this, like she’s barely in control of herself any more.

I bend over to kiss her and she opens her eyes in surprise, going motionless.

“Jesus, don’t stop,” I whisper. “I could watch you fuck my hand all day.”

She swallows, then moves her hips again slowly until my fingers are in her to the third knuckle and I flex them, just barely. Hazel bites her lip and arches like she needs
more
, giving me a look that’s so raw and needy it takes my breath away.

“Stop torturing me, Kostya,” she whispers.

I finally grab the condom from the pillow, tear the wrapper off with my teeth and unroll it one-handed onto my desperately-hard cock. Hazel watches me, hips working against my hand until the condom is on, and then she reaches down and takes the hand that’s in her by the wrist.

She keeps my fingers in her as she rolls over onto her hands and knees. I move my fingers inside her one more time, harder than before, and she rocks back into me for a long moment before I pull my fingers out and slide them over to take her by the hip.

I push Hazel forward until she’s on her knees, both hands around the post of the four-poster bed, hips back, and I’m right behind her. She reaches back and grabs the back of my head so I lean forward and kiss the corner of her mouth, the only part I can reach, and Hazel half-laughs and then bites my lip.

“Fuck me, Kostya,” she says

I growl at her and the the tip of my cock is at her entrance. She’s so wet and slick that I just slide along her lips, like it’s my first time or something.

I bite her earlobe and she reaches down, grabs my cock, and pushes the tip inside her.

I exhale and grab the bedpost myself, because I want to
bury
myself inside her right then. But I’m still afraid of hurting her, so I stroke her hip and pull back a fraction of an inch so I can slide in further, little by little.

But then Hazel pushes herself back and before I know it, I’m balls-deep inside her and I hear myself
grunt
into her hair, a primal, animal noise I didn’t even know I could make.

“Oh,
fuck
,” Hazel gasps. I open my eyes to see that her knuckles are white on the bedpost. Her pussy flexes around me so hard I can barely think straight.

“You okay?” I whisper into her hair, desperately trying to keep it together, just
hoping
I’m speaking English and praying I’m not hurting her.

“I’m fine,” she whispers, and clenches around me so hard I have to take a deep breath. “Fuck, I’m fine.
Jesus
, Kostya.”

She moves her hips forward an inch and then pushes back again.

“Oh, my
god
, I’m fine,” she breathes. She moves again, rocking her hips forward and then pushing back and each time she does she lets out a breathless little moan.

I lean my forehead against the back of her head and just watch my cock disappear into her, my thumb in the dimple on her back as I let her fuck me, trying as hard I as I can to stay in control.

It’s hard. It’s almost impossible, and it’s almost all I can do to close my eyes and press my face into her hair.

Suddenly she slides back and then stops, wrapping her arm backward around me. It’s a little awkward but I lean into her.

“This?” I growl, pushing against her.

Hazel just moans and moves her hips so I just barely move inside her.

“
Fuck
yes that,” she says, and then her hand is on the side of my face and she’s twisting toward me.

“Kiss me while you’re inside me,” she whispers.

I lean forward and she leans backward, and the angle’s not quite right but we kiss anyway as we move against each other. I can tell I’m nearly at the end of my rope, nearly out of whatever self-control I had left, and when I pull away from her I kiss her shoulder and pinch one nipple.

“I don’t have much longer,” I murmur into her ear, rocking against her. “I can only be inside you for so long before I explode,
zloyushka
.”

She moves her hips again, harder, and we both groan at the same time. Hazel leans her head forward until it’s resting on the bed post. We move together, and we start out slow and deliberate but it builds and builds until I’m driving hard into her with every stroke, pulling her hips back against me as if I can somehow get deeper.