Kendal"Well, Mother... I'm in New York with Dana. I took your advice. We're going to sneak around for the time being until we figure out what our best course of action is.""Nice!" His tone changed immediately. I was still in trouble, no doubt, but if Damon loved anything, it was to be right, and this time, he was spot on. Dana and I did belong together."It's been great. I'm not sure what we're going to do for the next eight months, but-""Take it day by day. Get out of town when you can and be smart about your relationship. If things go south, you always have a job with me. You know that." It was good to hear his voice and to be reassured by his position on things."I appreciate that buddy." I moved back from the window and glanced around for my shoes. Going down to Central Park and walking around in the coolness of the morning would be romantic. I wanted to be that guy for Dana. The one that swept her off her feet and left her heart racing every time I walked into the room. I wasn
Dana"It's beautiful out here." I breathed in deeply and intertwined my fingers with Kendal's as we walked down the main path in Central Park. A slight breeze blew along my neck, tickling my skin and leaving me feeling like I could take flight."Most beautiful thing I've ever seen." His eyes were on me.I rolled my eyes and snuggled against his side. "Thank you for coming here with me. I really needed this.""Don't thank me. I'm enjoying myself a lot. I feel like I can breathe for the first time in a long time." He released me and moved over to sit down on one of the many benches around us. "Come here and let me hold you.""I like the sound of that." I moved toward him and turned, sitting down beside him and leaning into his warmth. "Were you really going to walk away from us when you saw my name on your schedule?""Absolutely." He let out a slow sigh. "I didn't feel like I had a choice. I still feel a little off having to sneak around behind the school's back, but Damon was right. I
DanaI yelped and turned around, smacking him playfully. "You're horrid!""You love it." He seemed so full of himself, and sadly enough... I did love it. I could see why working at the college was so incredibly dangerous for him. "You ready for the spiel, you naughty little TA?""Lay it on me."His eyebrow lifted and he shook his head before clearing his voice. "I'm thirty-one. I'm not a model, nor do I care to be. I'm a guy that loves math, football and I'm an extreme stickler for the rules. I don't date students or TAs, so keep things staunchly professional between us, or I'll dismiss you."I couldn't help but laugh out loud. He was beyond cute."If you really think that's going to keep someone away, you've lost your mind. That would make me want to get closer.""That's because you're a bad girl pretending to be innocent." He pulled me close again. The thick press of his arousal against my stomach forced my body to grow warm."You think so?" I wrapped my arms around his neck and pul
KendalThe flight home was a bit of a blur after staying up most of the night before making love to Dana. The way she took me left me wanting to promise her the world, but I held my tongue. We would be together soon no matter how it happened. I could be mature enough in our new relationship to take things day by day. That was the only way Damon and Bethany were surviving.It would work for us too.I left her and Jackie at the airport in Dallas and spent the rest of the evening lying around my place, reliving the weekend in my head. Monday morning couldn't come fast enough. At least by being busy, I could force myself to think about something other than being drastic and leaving UT. Having her in my life left me wanting to consider all the possible options to us moving forward. I felt like a basket case by the time the alarm went off Monday morning.I showered quickly and changed into a pair of slacks and a pressed button down shirt before heading to the campus on my bike. It wasn't ex
KendalEliza stiffened and smiled before getting up. "Well, I still think you should take some time for yourself, Kendal. It's a lot to put on anyone... even you.""Thank you." I stood up, wishing like hell that she wouldn’t go. I wanted to know what happened with Daisy and why she was so fired up. "I'll come see you later?""Yes. If you can catch me around." She moved around Heather without a word and walked out into the hallway."I don't think the old bat likes me." Heather shrugged and moved to stand in front of my desk. She leaned over and pressed her balled up fists to my desktop, opening her blouse beautifully for anyone who might want to see what she looked like under her clothes."She's a good woman. She's just got a lot going on. Don't call her names." I turned my back to her and worked to pull the rest of my papers from my briefcase."Oh. I hit a nerve.""What did you need?" I forced a calm into my voice that I didn't at all feel."There's a BAP event on Wednesday afternoon.
DanaThe last thing I wanted to do was go over to Mrs. Delmaz's house to find this Larry character, but there was no way I was showing up at the hospital empty handed. Her throwing a fit wasn't necessarily my worry, but her not trusting me would mess up everything. She needed someone at the hospital that she was comfortable with while she was slowly losing her memories. I wanted to be that person for her.I walked up to her home and knocked on the front door. Nothing. I waited a few more minutes and knocked again. The hospital wouldn't approve of me coming to a patient’s house, and they had her keys locked up with the other things they'd gathered from her when she was admitted by one of her neighbors. The poor woman had been walking around in her nightgown in her front yard at three in the afternoon, lost as to where she was or who she was."Really?" I groaned and lifted to my toes to see if maybe there was a key above the front door. I yelped and moved back as something sharp stung m
DanaI finished up my shift feeling like a million bucks. Working as a nurse wasn't just about helping to heal the human body, but offering occasional balm to the human spirit. Watching Thelma come alive for the hour that I let her sit in the courtyard with Larry was worth all the trouble of having to go get the damn bird, including the tetanus shot that Dr. Lewis made me get.He wasn't excited about me stepping outside the boundaries of the hospital to risk going to someone’s private residence, but when I fully explained my reasoning behind it, he softened a little.I should have gone home after my shift, but I wanted to see Kendal. I could make the trip about checking in with Nurse Barry on my new schedule and accidently being in the business building around his classroom if needed, but either way, I wanted to check in on him.After circling the parking lot for what felt like forever, I finally squeezed into a compact car spot and made my way toward the center of campus. I smiled at
KendalI had far too much work piled on my desk the night before to chase after Dana like I wanted to. Her coming to my office was a little too risky, and yet there was no way I was going to get onto her about it. The woman was willing to turn her world upside down to try and have me beside her as soon as humanly possible. It meant the world to me.The only thing that could fuck things up for sure was Heather.After shoving a piece of toast down my throat the next morning, I drove to the school in silence. I had to talk to Mark. He was the only one who could pull Heather off my back. I could do it myself, but it would be ugly as fuck, and I'd be cleaning up the remnants of that conversation for days.I pressed the button to call Damon as I turned onto the freeway."Sup, buddy? You headed to the office?" He sounded far too chipper for six o'clock in the morning. Being with Bethany changed everything for him."Yeah. I'm going in to talk with Mark this morning. Heather is all up in my fa
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