Bethany"You okay?" Damon asked her for the tenth time as they walked into one of the Sunday school rooms.Bethany laughed. "Yes, baby. Are you okay? You keep asking."He was a little wide-eyed. "I think so. You were just shaking in there. I was worried.""I was nervous." She slid her arms around his waist and pulled him in tight. "Your vows were beautiful.""Shit..." He scoffed. "I should have known better than to give my beautiful wife a challenge. You blew me out of the water. I worked on mine for a fucking week, and you had twenty minutes and took me down fast."She lifted to her toes, and he moved down, pressing his lips to her as his strong hands gripped her lower back. She relaxed against him, enjoying the feeling of him holding her up."I feel so damn sentimental." She moved back and wiped at her eyes. "It's driving me crazy.""It's just gratitude." Kent walked in behind them. "When you get something in life that makes your life better, you're overwhelmed with gratitude." He sh
Bethany"Well? That was a hit." Bethany reclined in the back of the limo beside Damon as they pulled away from the reception. There had been far too many people to keep track of anyone. After hugging the hundredth person, the faces and conversations started to blend together."It was incredible. I'm fucking beat though." He reached over and touched the side of her face. "How about a quick shower and bed?""How about a long shower and bed?" She moved closer, pressing her shoulder to his as they slumped against the soft leather behind them."I like the sound of that too." His fingertips skimmed down her cheek. "Our flight leaves at ten in the morning, so we need to get up at six or so-"He paused as Bethany sat up and moved into his lap, her huge wedding dress billowing down the sides of his legs."Stop talking about all the to-dos on our list tomorrow. Tonight is our first night as a married couple." She ran her hands down his firm chest and purred. "I don't want to focus on anything b
KendalI'd never seen Damon look so dejected, so fidgety, so lost."What can we do to fix this?" I leaned back in my chair and let my hands drop into my lap. We had ordered lunch, but it had yet to be served. Where I'd usually love to hang out with my best friend for an hour, today wasn't one of those days. I was sliding into a dark place in my own life, and watching Damon head-dive into depression wasn't helping much."Nothing." He glanced up from staring at his hands and shrugged. "I fucked up.""Everyone messes up, Damon." I reached for my water, enjoying the coolness of the glass in my hand. Life was a torrential accumulation of painful fuck-ups, but I thought it was only my life that told that story. It would seem that I was wrong."Right." He chuckled and let out a sigh as his eyes moved around the quaint restaurant in front of us. "All these women and any one of them would be mine with very little effort.""But you don't want any of these women." I took a quick sip of my water
Kendal"No, you idiot. Listen to what I'm saying and stop reading into it a million meanings. She was nice and I took it as a come-on because I'm hyper sensitive to women as I should be. I can't tell you the number of innocent looking college girls that basically throw their panties at me. It's disturbing."Damon's turn to laugh. "Wait, are you saying that all these women are attracted to you, and you, being the upright citizen that you are, turn them down?""Of course I do, asshole." I picked up my burger. He was getting to me... though I promised myself he wouldn't. "It's not like I have a choice. I don't own my company, and my fingers aren’t stuck up my dad's ass, timing his pulse for the right moment to seize the opportunity.""Oh shit. I hit a nerve." Damon laughed and glanced around the room. "You assume these women are stealing glances at me, Kendal. What if they're not? What if it's you they’re looking at?""It's irrelevant." I worked on my burger while he glanced around as if
DanaThe loud crying that filled the hallway broke my heart. I quickly finished tying my scrubs and tugged my shirt over the top of my pants before jogging that way. Amanda Tarrington was one of my favorites on the floor, and I'd only been at the hospital for a few weeks. My internship with Memorial was turning out to be an overwhelming and eye-opening experience, if nothing else."It's okay. I'm right here, Mandy." The deep rumble of a male voice rolled over me as I stopped just inside the hospital room. Two nurses were standing on the far side of the bed, one giving the thrashing girl a shot while she wept loudly.The handsome man leaning over the top of her had to be her brother. I'd yet to meet him, but the girls on the floor spend half the damn nights talking about how handsome and good-hearted he was. From what I could see from behind, handsome wouldn't exactly cover it.I moved back out into the hall and took a shallow breath before turning and heading for the nurses’ station.
Dana"Liar. You haven't sounded happy since high school and you know it." I smiled at the memories we had from high school. Growing up sucked seeing that it took away your excuse for being a relationship-idiot. I was still floundering around on the topic of making a relationship work. It would seem I was handicapped in that area, as I'd always been."Don't start this again. Luke and I are going to get married eventually. It just works.""It? What's it?""Him and me together." She cleared her throat. "Enough about me... how are things at the hospital? You started your internship, right?""Yeah." I glanced back as the door opened and three nurses I didn't know walked out. "It's good. I love the work and the patients. The nurses are bitches, but I guess that happens to some people after years of working around misery. There has to be some way to protect yourself from feeling too much.""I can see how you might get emotionally wasted by it day after day.""I love it here." I stood up and
KendalThe dark-haired beauty that calmed Mandy walked out of the room, and I was grateful for the quiet. My baby sister slipped into a restful sleep as I brushed my hand down the back of her hair and rocked her as best I could. Every part of me hurt for her, longed for a way to transfer my good health to her and let me take on her disease for her. It wasn't going to happen, but it didn't stop me from wanting it.I laid her down and moved back from the bed as my heart ached in my chest. She was the perfect replica of our mother at twenty-four. Long brown hair and green eyes, pale skin and a huge smile that pulled everyone in to see what she had to say. Too bad I hadn't seen it for the last two to three years.I glanced over my shoulder, wanting to chase down the nurse that had the power to calm my sister. I needed to thank her, and truth be told, I wanted to study her unabashed. Her long dark hair was a beautiful accent to her tanned skin and hazel eyes. She had to have been a head sh
Kendal"It's obvious." She crossed her arms over her chest, accentuating just how full her breasts were. Need pulsed through me as my mouth grew dry. How nice it would be to make love to a woman and feel her body bend to my will, to touch her and taste her in ways that left her begging for more. There wasn't much I wasn't willing to do for the girl I took to my bed, but it had been too long, and I was almost too needy. Damon would have had a field day giving me shit over my sensitive nature should he have known about it."How so?" I slipped my hands into my pockets and tried to turn my attention to anything but her. I failed in my efforts and decided flirting wouldn't be a bad thing necessarily."I could just tell." She shrugged. "Your sister is a great girl. I'm sorry for all she's going through."My bravado waned a little. "Yeah. It's been a long life for her.""You as well." She tilted her head to the side a little. "Are you always having to fend off women?"I chuckled. "More often
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