“You’re mine,” he said huskily. “That’s what I’ll announce tonight.” He settled himself between her legs, spreading her wider for him. The tip of him teased her, entering her ever so slightly before he withdrew it again. Between kisses, he teased, “You belong to me now. Say, it, Reanna. Say you want to stay here with me.”
He paused his caresses and waited.
Stay with him? Reanna wanted to ask if he meant for a few more weeks, for longer, or forever, but it didn’t matter. She wanted whatever he was offering. And she wanted it with the same desperation that she wanted him inside her again. She writhed beneath him, whimpering with need. “I will stay here, Xander. As long as you want me.”
He thrust deeply inside her and growled in her ear, “Even if it’s forever?”
She wrapped her legs around his waist and rocked her hips up to meet his. “Oh, God, yes. Yes to everything, especially forever.”
Her answer sent him wild, and he let go of her hands, allowing her to hold him in a way that he could pound down into her. There was no gentleness given and none needed. Reanna dug her nails gloriously into the skin of his back as they rode toward a climax they reached together in an animalistic frenzy.
A short time later, wrapped in each other’s arms, Reanna caressed his chest again, wondering if she could possibly have heard him wrong. “Did you mean it about dinner tonight with your father?”
He looked down at her with such tenderness she stopped doubting it even before he spoke. “I did. My brothers will most likely be there as well. It will be a formal affair as my father prefers meals that way.”
Reanna froze. “How formal?”
“Tediously so.”
“What should I wear?”
Xander smiled down at her. “I will have someone bring you a selection of dresses.”
“I still have the ones you bought me, but I’ve never met a king. I won’t know which outfit to choose or what to say. Do I bow? Shake his hand? Will there be special utensils at dinner? I’d read up on all of this. Maybe you should give me a couple days to prepare. I don’t feel ready.”
He hugged her to his chest. “We use forks and knives just like everyone else. We will dine with him tonight because it is my wish. And you will be smiling and confident because I will have my staff instruct you on whatever you are not sure of. Is there anything else?”
Reanna bit her bottom lip and shook her head. “What if I get too nervous and forget everything?”
He kissed her lips gently. “I know how to cure that. I will arrange a day for you that will have you ready for tonight.” He rolled onto his back and pulled her so she was once again lying naked across him. His once again hard cock nudged against her slick slit.
Reanna laughed down at him. “This is your plan?”
He ran his hands warmly up and down her back, rolling his hips so the tip of his cock grazed her clit in teasing caresses. He laughed at her. “Not all of it, but when is a second orgasm ever a bad way to start a day?”
Reanna conceded the point, bent to kiss him, and lowered herself fully onto his shaft. How wrong could any day go that started with a second orgasm?
Their motorcade pulled up to the royal palace. It was as ornate and impressive as any European castle, but the large stone walls still surrounding it stood as evidence of a more violent time in the island’s history. In the late twelve hundreds, Xander’s family had fought Henry I of England during a time when England had teetered on losing its monarchy. Personalities had clashed, and the English king, who had promised Xander’s family great wealth in return for their loyalty, had said, “You think you can rule better than I? Here is your chance.”
He had given them what, at the time, had been considered a worthless island. Historians on both sides of the ocean agreed the abandoned land had been intended as a death sentence rather than a reward. The island had been overrun with pirates who had made it their stronghold, with enough force to be able to hold off warships. Likely, the king had considered it a win/win. Either Xander’s family would be killed fighting the pirates, or they would beat the odds and rid the area of a vicious blight. Either way, he had not expected a formal sovereign state to be born or for another royal family to join the European ranks.
No one had expected the Demande family to find wealth beneath the soil of the island or to parlay that discovery into a dynasty.
One of the Royal Guard led Xander and Reanna to his father’s library. His father and two brothers were seated off to one side, but all three stood when Xander and Reanna entered.
Xander put a hand on Reanna’s lower back and said, “Father, I present to you, Reanna Fielding, my official choice. Reanna, this is my father, King Francis.”
Reanna shook beneath his hand, but she didn’t question Xander’s claim. She curtsied before the king.
His father acknowledged her and looked her over. He didn’t hide his displeasure. “Recognizing her is simple since you have paraded her all over the country.”
“Had I not found a woman I wanted to wed before my thirtieth birthday, you would have been furious. Be happy I have found one so wonderful I could not help but show her off.”
Reanna glanced back at him with eyes as wide as saucers. “Wed?” she mouthed silently.
He gave her a curt nod, then returned his attention to his father. Reanna swayed a bit beneath his hand.
His middle brother stepped toward Reanna and said, “Father, if you keep glaring at the poor girl I believe she will soon pass out at your feet.” He moved closer and took her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Miss Fielding. My name is Bryan.”
His youngest brother moved to stand in formal formation beside Bryan. “The pleasure is also mine. My name is Christopher.”
Reanna bowed her head and said, “I’m very happy to meet all of you, also.”
Xander’s father said, “Please, do not think my displeasure is with you, Reanna. It is my son who attempts to claim the crown early by putting me in my grave before my time.”
Xander kept his hand protectively on Reanna’s back. “There is no issue, Father. It has all worked out perfectly, just as I assured you it would.”
The king studied Reanna once again. “You’ve agreed to marry my son?”
Reanna’s chin went up proudly, and she said, “He hasn’t asked me yet.”
“And when he does? What will your answer be?” King Francis demanded.
“I suppose it depends how well he does at asking,” Reanna said in her matter-of-fact way that momentarily left the king speechless.
Xander held back a chuckle. He saw his brothers doing the same.
After a tense moment, King Francis looked Xander in the eye and said, “Simon told me about this one. Too much intelligence in a woman can be a dangerous trait.”
Reanna tensed as if she were about to say something, but Xander answered first. “I want a queen who will rule beside me, not beneath me. Reanna has all the traits to be that queen.”
“I don’t think I like being spoken about as if I weren’t here,” Reanna said.
Christopher answered, “You get used to it. My father speaks like that all the time. You should see when he discusses the state of affairs with his advisor. You’d think the rest of us were still under the age of five.”
“Enough, Christopher,” the king corrected sternly.
Bryan nodded at Xander. “Xander can be just as bad as our father. If you can stand either of them, welcome to the family.”
Their father bristled. “When I was a child even princes were beaten for speaking so disrespectfully to the king.”
Xander entered the conversation again smoothly. “Reanna has no issues with me as I am, Bryan. And, Father, have a sense of humor. Being outspoken is valued by this generation.”
“It shouldn’t be.”
“But it is. Here in the castle, as well as out on the street, the world is changing. Even you cannot stop it, no matter how you may wish you could. Plus, I doubt a beating would cure Bryan and Christop
her. They’re too far gone.”
Christopher added, “See, Reanna. Get used to it.”
Reanna shot Christopher a conspiratorial look. “I’m working on an equation in my head where the necessity of an amazing proposal is directly proportional to the number of times either of them talks about me instead of to me.”
Christopher chuckled.
The king shook his head in disgust. “Perhaps all of this impertinence will be more tolerable to me after we have eaten.” He led the way out of the study. His brothers followed him.
Xander held back for a moment with Reanna. “Reanna . . .”
Reanna waved a hand angrily in his direction. “I know what you’re going to say, I should have held my tongue. I shouldn’t have made that joke. But you kind of blindsided me with this whole you chose me for the next queen talk. I thought maybe you’d tell your father we were dating or something. I never — ”
Xander turned her toward him, loving the fire in her eyes, and silenced her with a deep kiss. “I don’t want you to change, Reanna. You’re perfect for me, and my country, just the way you are. I should have better explained about today. I told you it would be my declaration. I thought you understood what that meant.”
She looked up at him, confused with wide eyes. “How could I? It’s all happening so fast.”
“Love often does.”
