The Rogue Prince (18 page)

“I can’t feel my bones,” Jasmine giggled. “My whole body is numb.”

Reid grinned. How could he not?

“Did you…?” she asked, peeking up at him through her lashes. “Was it…?”

How could she even ask that? Reid rolled over, unable to bear the look of insecurity on her face, but glad that she didn’t hide her body from him. He got much pleasure from looking at her. Before he could stop the words, he found himself honestly answering, “It was the best sex I’ve ever had.”

Jasmine blushed, even as she tried to protest. “You don’t have to say that.”

“But I do mean it,” Reid answered. He stroked her face.

Jasmine smiled, placing a light kiss on his palm.

“Jasmine,” he whispered, overwhelmed. “I love … having sex with you.”

She laughed, a light, breathless sound. “Does this mean we can do it again?”

Reid smiled and nodded. Leaning over, her nipped at her mouth. “Anytime you want.”

“How’s now sound?” she asked.

Despite his recent climax, Reid felt his body easily stirring for more. Being Var, he could naturally go several times in one night. He allowed her to push him over onto his back and begin exploring. He fondled her breasts, fascinated by how sensitive they seemed to be. With just one pluck of her nipple, he felt cream dampening his stomach where she rubbed against him.

“Can you…?” she hesitated.

“What?”

“Do that eye-shifty thing again?” Jasmine blushed. Reid grinned. Out of all the things she could’ve asked for, he didn’t expect that. He let his eyes flash with green. Instantly she shivered and gave a little moan. Nodding as she leaned over to kiss him, she whispered, “That’s really sexy.”

Reid growled as their lips met. His body had been insatiable before, but he was sure he’d never get enough of this woman.

Chapter Ten

“What is the possible function of that outfit?” Jasmine asked, staring at the dress Reid laid out for her. It had a very short, tight skirt with cross laces on the sides and a deep cleavage-baring bodice. She shivered, knowing she might be better off just wearing the blanket she had wrapped around her naked body. Almost mournfully, she thought of the ripped bra and panties that were now in the stove--along with the baggy ill-fitting dress she’d worn the day before. Shaking her head, she refused to pick this new outfit up.

“You’ll look damned sexy in it, that’s what,” Reid said, his voice dipping. The morning sunlight streamed in behind him, lighting the room. He was handsomely tousled from their night of play.

“It’s the most impractical thing I’ve ever seen,” Jasmine said, affecting a haughty tone.

Reid’s eyes glinted as she looked him over. Jasmine felt her body melting to him. Damn him! She should never have admitted to thinking his eye shifts were sexy. There was just something dangerous and powerful about the way his body could transform itself. Now, every time she looked at him, he did it. And every time she felt herself dampen between the thighs. By the very smug look on his face, he knew it too.

“Or,” Reid’s grin widened, “you could just wear nothing at all.”

Jasmine gripped the blanket tighter to her chest. He’d pleasured her thoroughly the night before and she had to admit she was a little sore, even though she’d enjoyed his attentions. After letting her ride his tight body, he’d shown her things she’d never even thought of. He put her on her hands and knees before him, taking her from behind like an animal. Jasmine wasn’t sure if men usually took women like that, but there was definitely something quite primitive and fulfilling to the position.

Jasmine knew she was a little naïve, but with each climax her confidence grew. Reid didn’t seem to mind her ignorance and even appeared to enjoy instructing her. After, she sat on his lap in the bath. The warm water caressed them as he slowly lifted her up and down on top of him.

Not like Chad’s ‘just lay there’ method,
Jasmine thought bitterly. She had to look away, not wanting to think of Chad when she was with Reid. When she was alone, she’d have time to think about all of that. It wasn’t like she was really cheating on Chad. All they had between them was a worthless ceremony. Theirs had stopped being a marriage seconds after they’d left for the honeymoon. She just didn’t realize it. Now that she could feel, she never wanted to be under someone else’s control like that again.

“Jasmine?” Reid asked, his voice concerned.

Jasmine turned back to him, coming out of her trance. Seeing the look in his eyes, she quickly said, “Food. We need food.” As if to punctuate her words, her stomach growled loudly.

Reid sighed, but nodded. “I’ve been gone so there’s not much in the kitchen and you’ll have to make do with what’s there. I’ll do some hunting later.”

“
I’ll
have to make do?” Jasmine asked, raising a brow. She didn’t mind cooking, but there was something in the way he said it that made her bristle.

“Yes, you are the woman,” Reid answered.

“I suppose you’d like me to clean as well?” Jasmine asked, irritated. She’d been Chad’s slave for four years. She’d be damned if she was going to be Reid’s now. She was tired of cooking and cleaning and waiting on a man hand and foot. When was it her turn to be waited on? Jasmine lifted her chin, but didn’t say a thing. She was rational enough to know she needed to think things out before she wildly started accusing Reid of ‘crimes’ he hadn’t committed.

“I do have a few women who come from town to clean, but if you like, you may clean as well, yes.” Reid grinned, nodding as if he was bestowing a great gift on her.

“All right then.” Jasmine didn’t say another word on the subject. She turned to the bed, again eyeing the garment. He’d pulled it from the bag he’d gotten off the front step the evening before. Leaning over, she rummaged through the bag’s other contents, finding a pair of pants and a tank shirt with cross laces.

“But,” Reid protested, watching her slip the pants on while remaining hidden by the blanket. “I already found you a dress.”

“That one is too revealing,” Jasmine said, matter-of-factly.

“Ah, yeah, that’s the point,” Reid sighed. He glanced at the dress then back to where she struggled to put the shirt on without dropping the blanket. Reid reached over and snatched the covers away, just as her breast got stuck in the tight cross laces. Her arms were trapped along her head as she gasped and tried to wiggle the shirt down. She managed to peek at him from just over the edge of the dark material.

“Reid,” she protested as he pulled her hips closer to his body. Leaning over he lightly licked her nipple where it poked through the laces. Instantly, she forgot her irritation with him. “
Ah-ah
, stop that!”

“Stop what?” he asked, pulling her nipple more firmly between his teeth. “Stop this?” He brushed his mouth lightly over the swollen bud. “Or this?” He nibbled her sensitive flesh just around it.

Jasmine’s growl of protest turned into an instant moan of arousal and she couldn’t help but think that maybe they could do it just one more time.

“Mm, or maybe you want me to stop doing this.” He sucked her hard, letting his whole mouth pleasure her with its intense heat. She gasped and he pulled back. As she stared at him, shocked that he hadn’t finished what he started, Reid tugged her shirt down over her head and straightened it to cover her.

“I’m hungry,” he said, turning to walk toward the stairs.

Jasmine’s body stung with arousal as she watched his back. Then, gritting her teeth, she made a move to follow him. Oh, so he wanted to play games, did he? Well then, she’d play.

* * * *

There was something freeing in having all her emotions back, and also something a little scary. When Jasmine felt, it was like she felt to the fullest extent of the emotion. She’d been dead inside for so long that now her feelings were rushing to catch up. The only time she felt completely centered was when she was having sex with Reid. And even then she was so driven with passion and so controlled by her need for him that nothing else mattered.

Reid didn’t eat before leaving to hunt. He said the hunger would force him to work harder and faster. Jasmine didn’t understand the logic but, as she watched her lover’s beautiful body shift into a tiger, she didn’t think to question it. There was something a little too arousing about the whole shifting thing. She watched him run off, his streamlined body gracefully moving through the trees.

After he left, Jasmine made herself something to eat. He was right. There wasn’t much to choose from and she ended up eating handfuls of nuts and dried berries.

Alone in Reid’s home, she had a lot of time to sort things out. Chad slept with everything that walked. He hit her. He verbally abused her. He drugged her with unnecessary medication; convincing her she had a weak heart and could never leave him. The medicine had even taken away her will to want to leave him. She’d been apathetic for the most part, in a walking coma. In fact, he’d given her that medicine when he’d been her doctor, before he even mentioned marriage to her.

Did that mean he’d planned their sham of a marriage from the beginning? When she said ‘I do’ was it because she was manipulated into doing so? Had she been so emotionless, so uncaring as to her future, that she had married Chad because he’d influenced her to?

The realization hit her like a blow to the head and she gasped, her heart squeezing in her chest. Her wedding had always been a blur of a memory, but it was coming back to her now. She’d always assumed the fuzziness was because all brides were said to be nervous. Now she knew it was because she didn’t feel enough to be nervous. In fact, right after the wedding was when Chad lowered her dosage and she’d become a little more coherent.

At first, thinking of Chad and what he’d done, she got angry, so angry that she couldn’t see straight and ended up punching Reid’s bed until her body was so weak she couldn’t move. Then, she felt sadness. How could Chad have done that to her? Why had he taken away everything that she was? He’d said he loved her, but is that what love was? Control? Possession? Manipulation? Knowing that Chad didn’t love her, probably never had, stung as well. She’d been nothing more than Dr. Chadwick St. Claire’s trophy--a wife he could show off to other doctors, a wife he could control. She’d not even been a wife, but an unpaid, unwilling personal assistant. She’d cleaned for him, cooked for him, waited on him and his friends. She’d smiled and simpered and wrote his speeches for him. She filed his charts and scheduled his appointments.

I love you, Jasmine.
Chad said it everyday. Every single, damned day!
I don’t know what I’d do without you.

“I know what you’d do,” Jasmine hissed, punching the bed anew. “You’d have to iron your own clothes and get your lazy ass up off the couch to the food simulator to make your own drinks. You’d have to laugh at your friends’ stupid doctor jokes all by yourself.”

At least Prince Reid was honest with her. Not once did he make promises, try to woo her with pretty compliments and flowery words. He didn’t buy her expensive gifts--gifts that were no more than bribes. Reid said he loved having sex with her. At the time, the words had sounded odd, but the more she thought of it, the more she could appreciate the honesty of them.

Reid loved having sex with her.

Jasmine sighed. He didn’t love her. He loved sex with her. It wasn’t what most women wanted to hear, but she wasn’t most women. She’d been told she was loved for years and where did that get her? Nowhere. If Jasmine never had to face a man’s love again it would be too soon. Right now, sex was enough. In fact, she loved having sex with Reid. She’d been suppressed for so long, it was time to live her life and she planned to do just that. Reid wasn’t the type of man who’d want to commit to one woman and she’d already technically had a multiple woman marriage. If she were to ever try the marriage thing again, which she highly doubted, it would be just one husband to one wife.

No. This arrangement with Reid was perfect. She didn’t want commitment and neither did he. They both loved sex with each other. What more perfect arrangement could there be? And, the best part was, they didn’t need to talk about it. It was what it was.

It was decided.

Then why did her heart skip around at the thought of Reid not caring for her beyond friendship? It wasn’t like she loved him. It wasn’t like she wanted a serious relationship. Did she?

“No,” Jasmine said aloud. “I’m just confused. All these new emotions just have me confused.”

Jasmine refused to think about
it any longer. Chad was a rotten, no good bastard. There was no reason dwelling on what couldn’t be changed. Reid was not the type of man to commit and she wasn’t in the position to be committed to. The less she thought about it, the better for her sanity. Reid was her lover. She was finally a free woman--who would not be doing Reid’s cleaning and cooking for him.

It was decided. It was what it was. It was figured out.

Then why was she still thinking about it?

Groaning, Jasmine looked around Reid’s room. It really was huge, covering at least half of the square footage the downstairs did. She wondered if there was more carved beyond the bedroom wall, or if they’d only made this one room on the second level. She didn’t see a door, so assumed it was just the one room. Then, eyeing the giant viewing screen, she said, “Viewing screen on.”

It didn’t turn on. She frowned, looking around. There was a small remote on a table by the bed. Reaching forward, she pushed a button. The screen blipped and a menu came up that said, ‘Action. Good movies. Women’s films. Documentaries.’

“Apparently women’s films didn’t make the good category.” Jasmine laughed. Pushing the first option, she read the list she found under the title of action, ‘Large Explosions. Mass Fighting. Hand to Hand Combat. Funny Old Futuristic. Swordplay. Mild Explosions. Miscellaneous.’

Jasmine laughed harder. Exploring some of the titles and movies, she discovered they were basically just old Earth films classified into what kind of action they had in them. The funny futuristics were full of space ships and zipping lasers. Some of the old Earth people’s ideas weren’t too far from the truth. Others were so far away from it that she couldn’t imagine how anyone would think it believable.