KendalI should have stayed home, but I wanted to see Eliza to have someone to talk things through with. After spending the day pacing the floor at my house, I'd finally resigned myself to needing to see Dana. I had to tell her what the hell was happening. At least if we met up at Damon's and things went to shit, I could get drunk and drown myself in the pool."One step forward and three steps back." I pulled open the door of the accounting building, praying like hell that I wouldn't run into anyone, especially not Mark. Heather was on leave for three weeks because of the trauma of everything. Fucking lying bitch. I should have put her in her place the first time she showed up in Mark's office. Now I was the villain.It seemed like that was always the way my stories ended. Me holding the bag, broken hearted or the false villain who ruined lives and ripped panties. Crazy."Dr. Tarrington. You weren't in class today. Everything okay?" One of my senior students stopped me as I jogged up
Kendal"Hey. What's the big deal with standing me up?" Bethany walked into the kitchen where Matt and I stood. Damon was on the back patio with Karen and Kent, working on getting the grill started."I'm sorry." I lifted my hands and walked toward her, pulling her into a quick, friendly hug. "Heather Turner claimed rape on me and I'm back where I started two years ago. I've been warned not even to be seen with anyone at UT. Adult, child, bookshelf."Matthew laughed. "I'd pay to see you with a bookshelf.""Heathen." I glanced over my shoulder and gave him a look as someone knocked on the front door. "I got it.""Expecting someone?" Bethany called after me."Yeah. Dana." I walked to the door, forcing myself not to jog. I was terrified of losing her again, but I had to explain myself. She needed to know what the hell was going on.I opened the door and lost my breath. She stood there, looking like a sex kitten in a pretty blue dress, her legs going on for what seemed like forever. The dai
DanaChill bumps covered my exposed skin, and I stifled a moan. My mind had been playing horrible tricks on me the last day or so. After not getting to see him on Sunday or Monday, and then having my older sister basically confess that of course she was still in love with him. I was a hot ass mess."I'll be right back," I stuttered and turned, hoping to catch up with him. Did he say second or third? Right or left.I yelped as he reached out and grabbed me from an open door. "Kendal." I swatted at his chest as he laughed and closed the door.The bathroom around us was elegant. Beautiful."Sorry, baby. I didn't want you to pass me by." He slid his hands down my sides and squeezed my hips before pulling me in close. "I missed you.""Why didn't I get to see you yesterday?" I lifted to my toes and brushed my lips by his, loving the taste of lust on his tongue.He didn't respond, but deepened the kiss, leaving me weak to whatever he wanted from me. "We only have twenty-eight minutes and I h
DanaHis expression tightened. "What about me?"I was expecting a different response, but I got somewhere between tense and put off. For some strange reason, it agitated me. Maybe I just needed to be direct with him. He was my lover, my boyfriend and soon to be my best friend. I wanted everything clear between us."I'm moving past the shit with my sister for you. I'm thinking about transferring for you. So we can be together before May. That's too long. You know it is." I reached up and brushed my hair back, trying not to lose my nerve. "Are you getting past the rules of the university for me?"He moved past me and opened the bathroom door. "It's not that easy. I'll explain."I took his hand when he reached for me, because I wasn't sure what else to do. I'd just opened my legs like a whore in the bathroom for him. Sure, it was all for my own pleasure, but to have him not respond to my admission of love and then say that he wasn't going to reject the University rules for me?Shit. Mayb
Kendal"Dammit, Dana." I walked around my living room, my kitchen, the back yard. Nothing. Nothing calmed my nerves. She wasn't answering her phone. She wouldn't open the door the night before. What the hell?Anger burned through me, and I began to question everything.Maybe she was too young for me. I was thirty-one and Dana was in her mid-twenties. Maybe the difference was too much? A grown-ass woman would have picked up the phone by now. Or returned a call.Karen had told me that Dana had cut her finger and ran out like she was missing half of it. Why the fuck wouldn't she call and let me know that she was okay?Surely she knew that I cared. That I wanted to make sure she was good. I would have taken care of her. Waited on her hand and foot.I growled loudly and walked back into the house, letting the back door slam. "Think!"What happened? What could have messed up the evening to the point of her running from me?I ate her out in the bathroom, doted on her as much as humanly possi
KendalMark stood by the window in his office as I tried to slow my racing heart. We had to shut Heather down before she shut Mark down. I hated to kick the guy in the crotch when he was helping me out as much as he could, but he was a bastard. Sleeping with one of our fellow professors for kicks and rejecting her the minute he was done? Sickening. And he had a pregnant wife at home?My heart goes out to his wife and Daisy. What the fuck was wrong with people?"Alright. So I explained the situation to Lance after I got off the phone with you. He had one of his staff dig deeper into Heather's record. Looks like she's done this before. At her former college. He's going to ask her a few questions and let her go. Eliza called and told me about her picking Daisy apart, promising her a job at the other university for more exposure too. We need her out of here. She's a disease."I nodded, a little surprised to hear that Eliza called Mark. "Heather talked Daisy into quitting.""Yeah." He turn
Dana"Are you okay, dear?" The sweet older woman beside me on the plane reached over and handed me a tissue."Yes, ma'am." I took it. "Thank you."I couldn't stop tearing up. My whole world was behind me and I was running. Again. Maybe I was overreacting, but it just didn't feel like it. It felt like the beginning of another relationship where I was pulling the weight, where I was the only one bending and breaking and changing. I couldn't go through it again.I needed to matter to someone enough for them to change a little too. It seemed like too much to ask."Anything I can do to cheer you up?" She gave me a smile.I forced myself to smile back and blotted my eyes. "No, ma'am. I'm headed to see my best friend in New York, and I wish it were for a good reason.""Care to share?""I fell in love with a really great guy, but it turns out that maybe he's not so great." I let out a painful sigh, not truly convinced that I believed my own words. Kendal was a good man. I was just looking for
Dana"Hey!" Olivia walked up as I made my way down the baggage claim. She pulled me into a tight hug and squeezed. "I missed you so much. Why can't you just call for once and ask me to bring a U-haul?""Would you?" I moved back and pulled my phone out, holding it up. "Do you have a charger?""Um, that's like three upgrades ago, Dana. We need to get you a new phone.""Right. Charger?" I smiled and moved to grab my bag off the turnstile."No, but we can get you one. Let's go up to St. Mark's and do a small tour. I talked to one of the doctors that Luke is friends with up there. He's going to get us in to see Dr. Crawford.""What? No. We don't have to do that. Dr. Lewis hasn't even set anything up yet. I told you all about this just to get it off my chest." I grabbed my bag and gave her an exasperated look."Give me that and hush. You're my best friend and like a sister to me. I'm going to do everything I can to get your ass up here when you graduate." She looped her arm into mine. "Luke
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