Chapter 3

3

Britta

I’ve been coming to this private inlet of water since I was a child, though it has been a while. Specifically, when I got breasts, I started coming here a lot less. I couldn’t very well go frolicking around in wet underthings with fourteen soldiers watching me, could I?

I’m not sure why I feel safe doing it in front of Rex.

Or maybe safe isn’t the correct word.

I find myself…wanting to be daring with Rex.

Last night, lying with a man who wasn’t my husband? That was incredibly daring.

It isn’t unusual for two young people to marry after being caught in such a compromising position…

Marry.

If I’d been caught with Rex, would my parents have forced a wedding to salvage my honor? Or would they have tried to cover it up?

Probably the latter, considering he isn’t a royal.

But it’s an interesting thing to ponder, isn’t it?

Marrying Rexington Monroe.

If anyone could keep a kingdom safe, it would be him, wouldn’t it?

He is certainly more than enough to keep me safe. His watchful gaze and poised posture tell me as much. His hand rests on the hilt of his sword, his deep brown eyes scanning the trees that surround the inlet. “You can relax, Rex,” I say, finally taking the crown off my head and moaning at the sudden loss of pressure in my neck. “No one is going to ambush us.”

“With respect, that’s for me to worry about, Your Highness.”

“Can you please call me Britta?”

“No,” he says, shaking his head. His attention narrows in on my hand where it kneads the sore muscles of my neck. “Are you all right?”

“Yes, the crown is just heavy.”

Rex grunts, his fingers flexing on his sword. Is he thinking of massaging me himself?

That thought sends an arrow of sensation straight to my nipples and they pebble inside the bodice of my dress, fuzzing the edges of my vision.

“Will you marry one of the princes, then?” Rex half-shouts at me.

“I haven’t decided yet. But it can’t hurt to meet them.”

He snorts.

I draw up short. “Are you angry with me?”

“No, love. Of course not,” he sighs, his knuckles white on the hilt of his sword. “I’m mad at the circumstances. I’m mad that you’re being asked to do something so ridiculous.”

“Why is it ridiculous? It’s a common occurrence, royalty marrying for the sake of an alliance. If my parents were still alive, it probably would have been arranged eventually.” Ignoring his thunderous expression, I toe off my slippers. “There are far worse reasons to marry than avoid a war and being responsible for casualties.”

“You wouldn’t be responsible,” he growls. “The king of Northstream would be.”

“No. If I have the power to stop him, I have to do it, or I would be responsible.”

Rex paces away with a curse, turns around and stomps back. “And since you asked, I’ll tell you what would be ridiculous. To marry some pretentious prince when you’re well able to rule the kingdom yourself.”

My lips twitch. “How do you know they’ll be pretentious?”

His expression is pure disgust. “They just will.”

I press my mouth into a straight line to keep from laughing. It seems Rex has more than one mode to his personality. Last night, he was sweet and comforting. Today he’s a grumpy bear. “Do you want to come swimming?”

He shifts uncomfortably, crossing his arms. “No, thank you. But I’ll ask you to be careful, Your Majesty.”

“I’ll limit my number of back flips.”

Now he seems to be the one battling a smile.

Rex turns his big body slightly, giving me a modicum of privacy, while still keeping me in his sights to protect me. Quickly, I strip off my dress, fling it into the grass and wade into the water wearing my slip.

The inlet is warm and clear. It welcomes me, beckoning me to sink down beneath the surface, and I do so, coming up to take a breath and let the sunshine warm my face. Yesterday was long, but today was even longer. But this place I used to come when I was a child soothes my grief with its familiarity. My parents and I didn’t have close relationship and they were often busy with political business, but we loved each other in our own way. Fondly. With respect. And I will miss seeing them in their thrones.

I’m about to sink beneath the surface again when I get a cramp in my toe.

“Ow!”

Rex is already throwing off his armor and splashing into the water, sword drawn. “Britta,” he rasps, panicked. “What is it?”

“You called me by my name!” I gasp, shakily.

A vein ticks in his temple. “You cried out in pain. What is wrong?”

“Just a toe cramp.” The kinked sensation promptly moves to my entire foot. “Oh. Ow!”

“Fucking hell.” Dropping his sword, Rex picks me up out of the water, holding me against his chest with his strong right arm, reaching down with his left to massage my foot. “Right here, love?”

I press my cheek to his chest with a gusty sigh. Lord, it feels glorious to be held by this man. The entire world could fall down and he wouldn’t let a speck of dust reach me. “Yes. Right there. Thank you.”

When I sling my legs up around his waist, I swear I do it so his arms won’t have to hold my entire weight. I’m trying to be helpful. But oh God, I don’t expect it to feel so good to have the thick trunk of his body between my legs.

“Oh my,” I whisper, nestling closer—encountering a thick ridge between our stomachs.

Rex goes very still, his breath rattling in my ear. “Ah, love. This isn’t suitable.”

“What is that?” I whisper, shifting my hips.

He hisses through his teeth. “That’s a part of me you’ll never have to worry about. I’m sorry. It’s very difficult to keep it from…reacting…when you’re clinging to me like this. Wet and beautiful and other things.”

It’s an erection. Of course. I’ve been learning about health and anatomy for years. It’s just that the diagram of the male body made the penis look so small. Like a thumb.

This has the thickness of my bedpost. The length of a milk jug.

“W-was it like this last night?” I whisper into his neck, unable to subdue a thrill.

I hear him swallow. “I’m ashamed to say, yes, Britta. I was…very hard with you pressed up against me like that. I couldn’t make it go away, no matter what I tried.”

Pleasure slides into my belly, sticky and hot. “You desire me, then,” I breathe. “You want to put—”

“Oh Jesus. Don’t finish that sentence,” he growls. “I am your guard. I shouldn’t even be holding you like this. I’ve no goddamn right.”

“But I like you holding me.”

Rex pulls back, his expression incredulous. “Why? Don’t you have eyes, Britta?”

My brows knit together. “What is that supposed to mean?”

He shakes his head. “Britta, I look like a beast of the bloody forest. Scarred and heavy and hairy—”

Ha! I knew it!

“And you’re…well, you have a mirror. You’re nothing short of an angel. Do you not see the differences in us?”

As he’s been speaking, his hands have begun to shape my calves, his palms running up and down the curves of each. As if unconscious of the movement. And I’m definitely not going to say anything to stop him, because the scrape of his rough hands is heaven itself, sending fiery tingles along my limbs. “I don’t understand. Are you saying two people have to be the same body type in order to—”

“Do not. Finish. That sentence.” His hands are coasting over my knees now, gripping me mid-thigh. “Let’s get you dressed and back to the palace, Princess.”

That’s what he says. But his eyes are zeroed in on my mouth.

“Maybe you should kiss me instead,” I murmur, tilting my face up toward his. “I think that’s what you want to do.”

“What I want doesn’t factor into this.” His touch coasts higher, dragging my drenched slip up toward my hip, his mouth dipping closer to mine. “I’m your servant.”

“Maybe I’ll order you to do it, then,” I whisper. “Just like last night.”

He holds his breath a beat.

I search his eyes, wanting to make sure the feeling is mutual and I’m not abusing my power over this man. But no. His pupils have bled into the rich brown and I sense the same hunger inside him that is purring inside of me. Maybe his is even stronger than mine. Yes, his hands clutch my hips now, molding me, learning my shape, and I roll my body on instinct, enticing his bulge with light rides of my sex. In response, he yanks me closer, his shallow breaths pelting my mouth. “Britta.”

“I hereby order you to kiss me, Rexington Monroe.”

I’m not prepared for the full force of this man, my guard. He makes a hoarse sound and goes to battle with my mouth, a rough angling of his lips, breathing, breathing, absorbing me. Pulling at my mouth with seemingly everything inside of him. He begins to walk us toward the shore, the water making rippling sounds around his legs, moving with more and more urgency as he goes. And he never breaks that first suctioning kiss. Not until he has me laid down on the grassy bank of the inlet and he’s blocking out the sun above me does Rex finally give me his tongue. He tastes me with it just as I’m running out of air, so I gasp into the determined intrusion, before recovering, lungs replenished, and I reach up, spearing my fingers into his hair, pulling him down for more.

I’ve read books and seen plays where the woman is overcome with lust, often destroying her life for one night, one experience, and I always thought it silly. But I never will again. I would trade chests of gold and ships and land for Rex’s kiss. There is no hesitation in him, just out and out hunger, gruff grunts coming from his throat while he licks that tongue into me, over and over again, his thick body settling in between my thighs, though never giving me his full weight. I mewl over that fact, trying to pull him down on top of me, but he resists and kisses me with even more thoroughness, distracting me, turning me into a writhing paramour beneath his thick, warrior’s body.

Finally, Rex tears his mouth away, burying his face in my neck, his breath sawing in and out. “Jesus, the taste of you. Perfect. Perfect girl. You have to stop me, Britta.”

“I don’t want to stop.”

He lifts his head, his eyes clouded with thirst. Some anger as well. “What are you offering me? Your virginity? The future king might have something to say about that.” He looks down at my body, on display in nothing but a wet, white slip, and groans, running his hand down the center of my breasts, my belly, stopping just above my mound. “My God. If there’s a female alive worth getting hanged over, it’s you.”

“No.” My breath stutters. “I would never let that happen. I’d never tell.”

As if compelled, his hips move more securely into the cradle of mine, his erection hot and hard against my core. With a bitten off moan, I wrap my bare legs around his hips and take a slow, involuntary thrust from Rex, both of us panting, panting, his fingers burying in the grass, ripping it up. “I was in your bed chamber last night. You’ve made me your personal guard. It might be insane, the beautiful queen taking a beast between her thighs, but they’d have no one else to blame. Worse than anything, you would be…ridiculed. I couldn’t bear it.” He pumps his hips again and bares his teeth at me. “I can’t fuck you, Britta. Bad as I need to.”

Reality comes crashing down on me.

He’s right.

He’s…right.

If we were found in this position, Rex would take the punishment. Not me.

How selfish I’ve been.

“I’m sorry,” I whisper, horrified. “I’m putting you in danger. I-I didn’t think—”

“Shhh, love.” Rex shakes his head. “I won’t have you feeling guilty over giving me the best moments of my life.”

“They were?” I breathe, smiling dazedly. “The best?”

“Yes, love. The best.” He stares down at me, conflict and misery waging war on his face. “Christ, but you’re sweet,” he rasps. “Britta, I could…”

“What?”

“God help me, I can’t just…stop. Not with you so flushed. Those nipples like little pikes.” That hand of his, still resting just above my mound, begins to gather the damp material of my slip. “I could pleasure you without taking your virginity. Would you like that?”

“Yes,” I say on an exhale, relieved we don’t have to be done. Still, I stop him from pulling my slip up too high, my hand grasping his wrist. “But I don’t want you getting in trouble.”

He pushes my hand aside and levels me with a dark, sensual look. “No screaming, then.”

My slip is yanked up roughly and a dull rush starts in my ears, my pulse clamoring with excitement. Nerves. This man, this big, beautiful man is looking at my private flesh with such awe, such disbelief, I almost wonder if something is wrong with me.

But then he scrapes a calloused palm over the rise of my sex and shudders, eyelids falling to half mast. “My queen.” He falls onto his generous stomach and presses his mouth to my cleft, groaning. “Making you come will be my life’s greatest honor.”

I furiously try to memorize the sight of Rex between my legs, my knees draped over his mountainous shoulders, my slip bunched indecently around my hips. His mouth rubbing against my folds in such a cherishing way, I almost can’t stand it. Can’t stand the perfection of his tongue parting me down the center, licking me in a most illicit way, visibly relishing every taste. As if I’m doing him the service, not the other way around.

He thrusts his hips against the earth, his broad buttocks flexing and straining inside his wet pants, his hands turning rougher on my thighs, holding them open, kneading them. And he grunts with every crude pump, laving his tongue against my opening, dragging higher, higher and—

I slap a hand over my mouth to trap the scream.

“There, there, there.”

Rex’s palms ride up my thighs to my hips, then up to my breasts, massaging them with possessive hands, the tip of his tongue now focused on that magnificent spot at the apex of my sex, licking it gently, then rough. Gently, then rough.

“Rex,” I gasp. “Don’t stop.”

Something is culminating inside of me. I’m not sure what. But if he leaves me off here, before I get there, I will scream the sky down. I’m sure of it. I barely know myself, this girl who twists her fingers in Rex’s black hair and drops her knees wide, bucking and writhing on the grass, sun beating down on her body. Is that whining sound coming from me?

His lower body slaps against the ground now, hot, punctuated breaths from his nostrils warming my wet flesh as his tongue works, works, works. I allow myself to imagine him on top of me, those big hips flexing and pumping frantically, and that image is what takes me away. My whole body seems to seize, my thighs trapped in a shaking fit, my throat raw from trying to hold in the screams. Oh, oh, it’s heaven and hell. This release coursing through me, gripping my muscles in a state of shock and delight, warmth coursing down toward Rex’s mouth, his tongue lapping at it, like he was after that singular taste all along.

And then he’s back above me, his face transformed. Strained and dotted with sweat. His hand is jerking back and forth inside his damp pants, his jaw unhinged.

“Just need to pretend…” He drops that stroking fist right on top of my sex, pressing down, and continues to buck into it. “Just need to pretend it’s that beautiful pussy I’m fucking.” His voice drops an octave, like he’s telling me a secret. “Order me to come, Britta.”

Ishe telling me a secret?

Does Rex like being my servant in more ways than one?

That possibility is a rush of blood to my head. My fingers flex with power in his hair, twisting it roughly, making him groan, abuse his fist faster and harder. He’s a giant. He could take anything he wants from me. I’m no match for his physical strength. Nobody in the kingdom is. Yet he grits his teeth and shudders waiting for my permission to relieve himself.

It’s exhilarating.

I lean up slightly and lick a path up his neck, dragging my teeth back down the way I came. “The queen orders you to come, Rexington.”

He heaves himself into a climax, choking curses into the air above me, his fist giving a few final violent tugs within his pants. “Britta. Britta. Britta. Christ.”

His mouth seals over mine and I revel in the privilege of being connected to him while he pounds through the throes of pleasure, his body shuddering on top of me. Until finally he falls to his side in the grass to my right, rolling onto his back and sucking down oxygen.

I adore the way he looks.

So big and rugged and thick, his wet shirt plastered to the large swell of his belly, giving me a peek at the black hair underneath. He is the most attractive man on this earth to me. I’m sure, I’m positive in this moment, that no one else will ever compare.

And I might have to marry someone else to save the kingdom.

That reminder makes my heart sink, but Rex reaches over and cups my cheek and it buoys itself right back up. “You have honored me deeply, love.”

There are shadows in his eyes, telling me he’s having the same troubling thoughts about my potential impending marriage, but all I want to do is ignore the future as long as possible. “No.” I curl up against his side, sighing when he pulls me into the crook of his arm and begins stroking my back. “You honor me.”