EricaIt was odd how much I felt like I belonged at the table with Matt and his family. He made sure to pull me into every conversation and touched me in some matter over and over, almost as if he wanted to reassure me that I belonged to him, but did I?Of course I did. Why was I fighting it so damn hard?"I'll clean all of this stuff up," Karen spoke to Kent. "You guys just go have your meeting with Erica here. There is no reason for you to go all the way up to the office.""Sounds good." Kent stood and stretched before glancing down at me and then to Damon. "You guys okay with that?"Bethany and Martha picked up a handful of empty dishes, and I felt odd not helping clear the table."Yep. I'm going to start a fire in the living room and then we can talk. That okay?" Damon got up and moved away from the table."I'll help clean up and then join you guys." I smiled and stood, gathering plates and ignoring everyone fussing around me about me working on the dishes. "Hey. I like being invo
EricaThe meeting with Kent was over by the time Damon walked into the living room, sweaty and huffing like a freight train."We all good?" He panted and lifted his thumb toward us.I laughed, unable to help myself. I'd seen the more playful side of Damon Bryant a few times over the years, but nothing like he was around his little brother. It was comforting and depressing all in the same moment. My brother and I had a horrible, tense relationship. What I wouldn't have given for it to be more playful, or at least somewhat loving."We're good, and I should fire you and hire Erica here. She's the only one among you who doesn't goof off all the time." Kent stood up and glanced down at me. "You want a CFO job?""Not only no, but hell no." I stood up and twisted around, stretching my back."Well, damn. Never mind, son. You're stuck." Kent turned and handed me the final sketch. "I love the last one. Swing it by Mitch and let's get rolling on it. Great job, as always.""Thanks." I bent down a
MattAfter a few kisses the night before, I walked her back to the house and sat down on the couch to watch the fire die out. Where I wanted to sleep with her, I knew better. We were at a turning point. She needed to know that I had control of my hormones, unlike my big brother. His advice to fuck her every chance I got might be something that worked for him, but we weren't the same.I woke to someone popping me in the head - hard."Ouch. Shit." I jerked up and narrowed my eyes on Damon as I tried to come to. "I swear I liked you more when you were depressed.""That stings." He pressed his hand to his chest and frowned.I would have asked what he wanted so damn early on a Sunday morning, but he was dressed to play golf. My father walked in and stopped by the edge of the living room."Are you still sleeping? Get up. Tee time is in forty minutes." He shook his head, turned and walked back out."Hey. No one told me we were playing." I got up and stretched, feeling like I'd slept on a box
Matt"Try," she growled, pressed her hands into the meat of my chest and rolled her hips like a well-trained dancer. "I love how big you are. You fill me up and stretch me out. I want more of you. All of you."Where was this shit coming from? I wasn't sure, but I loved it."And your sweet little pussy takes it so well." I pushed at her shoulder, trapping her as far back as I could as I lifted my hips and pumped in and out of her.The sharp sting of her nails was nothing compared to the flood of wetness that covered my when she cried out and came. Lust like nothing I'd ever imagined wrapped around me, dragging me under its depths and suffocating me.I pulled her close to me and turned us, pinning her to the bed. "I'm falling in love with you, Erica. Did you know that?" I gripped the headboard and fucked her in long, hard strokes as she moaned in tandem with each delicious slap of our flesh."I want that. I want you to love me." She tightened her legs around me and cried out, coming aga
EricaThe weekend in Dallas caused something to shift deep inside of me. Why was I fighting against a relationship with Matt? I needed to talk things out with someone. I sat at my desk on Monday morning, trying to reason through how to force myself past the stone wall of fear that kept resurrecting inside of me every time Matt wasn't around. It was childish and quickly becoming an annoyance.Lanie would be in class, but maybe I'd catch her on her conference time. I picked up the phone and walked to my door, closing it and pressing my back to it."Hey. You okay?" She sounded a little out of breath."Yeah. Just wanted to hear your voice." I squeezed my eyes closed and took a shaky breath."What's up? You don't sound okay. You sound like you're on the edge of tears.""I am." I pressed my fingers to the bridge of my nose and slid down the door until my butt hit the ground. That I had on a skirt and my panties would be showing to the world outside my window was irrelevant. I was on the edg
Erica"All right guys. Great work." I stood up at the end of our team meeting and glanced around at my small think-tank. "I'm proud of you. All of you.""Thanks, boss." Lewis' smile forced him to squeeze his eyes shut a little. It warmed me. "We're going for a drink. You wanna come?""I'd love to, but I'm going for a jog, and then I promised my best friend that I would dust off my paint supplies and work on rediscovering a passion I let fall by the wayside.""Oh, nice! I totally want to see what you come up with." Mandy lifted her eyebrows and the rest of the group chimed in."Thanks. I'll bring it up here when I figure out what it is." I laughed and glanced up as someone darkened the open door of our conference room. "Mitch. Come on in. We were just wrapping up.""Hey, guys." He walked in, his smile warm and welcoming. I liked the guy as a friend and partner in our combined tasks at the firm, but I needed to tell him about Matt. I could only hope that he would respect my feelings. He
MattNot getting to see her most of the week left me with the sound conclusion that my life was shifting from Dallas to Seattle. I'd be letting go of my apartment in Texas before January at the rate things were going, and funny enough, everyone would be thrilled about it. By the time I got on the plane to fly back home on Thursday morning early, I was lifeless and fully depressed.Somewhere along the way of avoiding Erica, I fell head over heels in love with her. Maybe that above everything else scared me. I just needed to have a sit down conversation with her about my mom and dad's relationship and how dicked up it got over time. I couldn't handle handing her my heart and have her throw it in a meat grinder by cheating on me. It wasn't as if I had a choice in either matter, but a 'come to Jesus' meeting would help calm my nerves a little.I walked into M&B around ten and made my way to my office before walking up to see Erica. I figured it would be a little more prudent to stop by an
Matt"We should have dinner tonight and talk through everything.""You ready to do that?" I gripped her hand and pulled it from my dick before stepping closer to her. "I'm ready.""Yeah, I think so. Tomorrow is the big showing. Are you excited?" She leaned in and kissed me one more time before walking back to the other side of her desk and sitting down."I am. The painting is almost done. It's going to be beautiful.""I'm surprised he didn't want it tonight.""He did." I smirked and dropped down in the seat closest to me. "I told him tomorrow morning at seven. I need tonight to add a few highlights.""Don't add this, okay?" She brushed her fingers around her bruised eye.I growled. "I don't like that one bit.""I'll get some thick make-up and have it covered by tomorrow night. I promise.""That's not what I meant. You're beautiful to me no matter what, Erica. I hate that someone put their hands on you.""Yeah, well, let's move to another subject. That vein in the side of your neck loo
LukeWhen a knock sounded on my door a little while later, I glanced at the clock, and my jaw dropped. An hour had already flown by, and I’d checked off several items from my list.“Come in!” I called. Everyone knew that when the door to the study was closed, they were to knock and wait for my approval before entering. It was my sacred space in the palace, and it wasn’t a hard rule to follow. Though, I imagined bending the rules for our child—whenever we got around to having one—since Father had always done so for me.Sophia stood in the doorway for a moment before entering the room.“Hi,” I said to her. “What’s up?”“Do you have a minute?” she asked. Her hands clasped in front of her, as Mother’s normally were. The both of them were turning into clones of each other. I wondered if I should limit their time together or not. The thought made me smile. Neither of them would agree to that. They were two peas in a pod now.“For you? Always.” I stood up and stretched. For the last hour, I
LukeAs I perused the newspaper in front of me, Sophia and Mother discussed some upcoming banquet. Glancing over the top of the paper, I watched my wife of six months calmly eating her breakfast. Tilting my head to the side, I noticed something different about her. I couldn’t quite pinpoint it. I wasn’t sure if it was her outfit; today she wore one of the more traditional outfits of our country. Over the last months, Mother had been an excellent tutor to Sophia, teaching her about our customs, traditions, and the language.Even though Sophia hated when we went full immersion with the language, she loved it at the same time. It worked her brain like her reporting career did. I still felt a little twinge of guilt now and then for taking her away from her passion, but she had a full schedule since we had returned from our honeymoon. We both liked to keep busy, and that wasn’t going to change anytime soon.It didn’t take long for Mother to get on board with the new way of life around the
SophiaHe drove a finger inside of me, and I bucked my hips up to meet him. Falling back against the fluffy pillows, we moved as one, intensifying the pleasure within me. Adding more fingers and that circling thumb, my eyes fluttered closed and moans escaped my lips. If this was what it was going to be like for the rest of my life, I looked forward to every moment spent in this bed with Luke.After the drama that we had to deal with in such a short amount of time, I never felt so relaxed in my life. That part of our struggle was over, and even though there would inevitably be issues with the kingdom and Luke’s reign, there would never be a problem that we couldn’t overcome, especially if we came together like this as much as possible.The idea that I might have missed out on this life with him made me hold him close to me. I sat up, deepening his reach inside of me, and I grabbed his hardness again, thrusting all of my love and appreciation into the movements.His chin lifted, and his
SophiaEvery single point where our bodies touched lit me up inside until searing heat scorched every fiber of my being. Touching Luke’s face, feeling the stubble of his chin under my fingertips, added licks of heat to burn through me. I fell into the pools of his eyes, my love for him wanting to burst out of me. My panties were soaked through as his hand moved up the side of my body. His fingers brushed over the side of my breast. After getting out of my dress last night, I changed into a ratty old T-shirt. The fabric was thin and worn, which didn’t offer any protection from his touches. Not that I wanted any.His fingers lightly touched my neck. He put some pressure on my jaw, and I moved my head to the side. I loved when Luke kissed the sensitive part of my neck. It was one of his favorite moves. At least, from what I could tell.His soft lips touched my skin. With each movement of my body, he left a wake of warm invisible kisses along the way. He trapped my earlobe between his lip
LukeJoining her, the two of us brushed our teeth together. It was nice to get the stale taste of food and champagne out of my mouth. I watched Sophia through the mirror as she watched me. Energy crackled between us, and I could have dragged her into the shower to expend that energy. Knowing we were to be joined by several servants as they brought breakfast in the room for us made me kill the urge. For now.Even though it was the simplest of acts, the idea that I would brush my teeth at least once a day with this woman filled me with the most joy I’d ever felt. I wondered if only the birth of our children would rival that feeling.I finished before her and held her against me while she finished. With a shimmy of her ass against my crotch, I glanced at her. She leaned back against me, lifting her perky breasts higher. Slowly guiding my hand along her middle, I caressed the outside of her breasts.That was when I heard the door open from the other room. My hand froze before I removed it
LukeI never wanted my wedding day to end. Even though it was an intimate affair with under a hundred guests, the party went much longer than most banquets that I’d attended. Sophia and I stumbled into my bedroom in the wee hours of the morning.Even though I celebrated, neither of us drank heavily. I supposed we were almost drunk from the music and dancing, so when we arrived in a quiet and sacred space, the both of us passed out from exhaustion.The one thing I remembered as my eyes closed was the way she looked slipping out of her wedding dress. God, I was a lucky-ass man.***When my eyes finally peeled open, Sophia was already up and facing me. She had a big smile on her face, and her left hand propped on the pillow between us. The sparkling engagement ring glittered in the morning light that streamed through the windows. The night before, I’d barely gotten out of my clothes, so there was no chance I had been able to reach the blackout curtains before falling onto the bed.“Good
SophiaGia smiled and reached up to grab my veil. She pulled it down over my face, and the world turned a hazy shade of white. All but two of the servants dispersed, and Gia walked into the room, closing the door behind her.“You ready to get married?” Matt asked me.“Yes,” I said, lifting my chin. For a moment, I felt like Gia. Since I was to take her place as queen one day, it seemed fitting.A swell of music filtered out from under the doorway and the doors opened. It was a good thing the veil covered the surprised expression on my face. We’d planned for the wedding to be small and intimate, but I didn’t know that there would be more than immediate family at the event. Gia had mentioned some close family and friends that she’d wanted there, and I brushed it off, thinking there would be one or two extra people.All in all, there were only about fifty people, but when their gazes turned toward me, there might as well have been two hundred people there.Matt gripped my hand harder. “J
SophiaSince Gia put together the wedding in such a short amount of time, there was nothing Luke or I could say when it came to the night before the wedding. She’d let go of most of her traditional views but chose to hold on to the one that didn’t allow us to sleep together that night.While I wanted to show Luke how appreciative I was about what he’d done for me, we respected her wishes.After a wonderful rehearsal dinner with the people we loved, I took Matt around the palace while Luke and Maddox went off together. Maddox had mentioned something about the bachelor party, and Gia’s face had paled to the color of the tablecloth. I knew Luke didn’t plan on going out to a strip club—I didn’t think they had those here—but he went off with Maddox anyway, probably to defeat his best friend’s urge to flirt.Matt eventually dropped me off in the same bedroom that I’d slept in when I first came to the palace. We said goodnight, and I thought I saw excitement flash in his eyes when he asked w
LukeThe council members shifted in their seats. I couldn’t be prouder of my mother for standing up for me. It was something I always wanted but never knew that I needed. I didn’t care that she commanded the meeting space where I was supposed to reign. We were a family, and treating the kingdom like that would be my legacy.“When Erol and I chose to adopt a son, it was not something we took lightly. We knew we would change a child’s life and possibly be able to choose the successor to the throne.” She looked over at me and smiled, the way she used to when I was a child. When things seemed much simpler. When had I lost touch with that?“We picked a boy that we felt, in our hearts, needed us as much as we needed him. You all worked with my husband and the previous king. You saw how big of a heart he had for this country. You trusted his choices. Why are you turning your backs on him now? He wanted Luke to become king in his stead. What would you say to him right now, face to face, if yo