Chapter 11 #2
“Your father would tell you, wouldn’t he?” She grasped at a straw in the face of such self-doubt.
He considered that a moment. “He can’t allow me to fail. The consequences would be too difficult to clean up.”
Now it was as though her helicopter had lost its tail rotor, except that problem she would know how to deal with. This conversation was at a level she was unprepared for.
“I think most Calevans see you and your father as a team. Maybe he’s the senior partner and you’re the junior one, but people feel secure about the country’s future knowing you will be the next king.
” Trying to come up with what else she could say to reassure him, she fiddled with one of the buttons on the shirt she wore. His shirt.
“Do you really think I can measure up to King Luis IV? The historians are already calling him one of the greatest kings of Caleva. That’s not at all intimidating.” He balled up a handful of the sheet in his fist.
Mierda! How did she convince him that he would be just as good? She knew nothing about ruling a country. But she wanted to soothe his anxiety away, to make him understand how amazing he already was.
“That’s probably why I chose to fly, not swim.
I felt like I couldn’t compete with my heroic father.
” And she hated the water. She plucked at the button again.
“But you don’t have to compete. You’ll be building on what King Luis has accomplished in his reign.
You’ll be taking Caleva into a future that holds God knows what, especially with the speed at which technology is changing the world.
You’ll face different challenges that will set you apart from your father. ”
That made sense to her.
He released his hold on the sheet. “I have some ideas about technology for Caleva.”
She jumped on that to keep him moving toward the positive. “Talk to your father about them. I bet he’d be thrilled to let you handle that aspect of things.” She hoped. “I’m sure the king is very tech savvy, but he’s…the older generation.” Had she gone too far?
“It’s true that he has no idea how to change the ringtone on his phone.” A flicker of amusement crossed Raul’s face.
“And you know that how?” Relief rushed through her at the lift in his mood.
“When I was about twelve, I thought it would be funny to make his ringtone that song ‘SexyBack.’ He wasn’t happy when it sounded during a meeting with the Portavoz del Consejo.”
“Not to be critical, but doesn’t he silence his phone during important meetings?” In fact, she assumed someone else always answered the king’s phone first.
“Ah, you’ve caught him out,” Raul said. “It was a ruse to cut the meeting short. His assistant called after thirty minutes because the portavoz tends to be very verbose.”
She choked on a laugh. “Couldn’t he just say, ‘I’m the king, and I’m out of here’?”
Raul shook his head. “You have to use that line sparingly or people get pissed off. It’s better to have another meeting that you have to get to…which is usually the truth. However, that has never shut up the portavoz , so more drastic measures were required.”
“I’ll bet that your father secretly thought it was pretty funny,” she said.
“Possibly, but he couldn’t admit that to me. I got a sharp lecture, which I deserved.”
“Ask him now. He’ll confess that he loved it.” Being disciplined by your father was tough enough. Raul also got reprimanded by a king for nothing more than a typical kid’s prank. That was like squashing a fly with an anvil.
Raul looked thoughtful. “He might.” Then he picked up his fork and stabbed the perfect square of brownie he’d cut, lifting it to Erica’s lips. “Time to finish dessert because we have better things to do afterward.”
The heat in his eyes flared over her skin, but regret also spiraled through her.
He had given her another tantalizing glimpse of the man behind the royal facade, and she liked it, liked him.
But now he wanted to shut down the conversation.
Maybe that was safer for her. She was getting drawn into deep waters that threatened to swamp her resolve not to get any more involved with this enthralling man.
She took the bite of brownie off the fork with deliberate slowness, making sure some of the whipped cream got on her lips. She chewed and swallowed and then licked off the whipped cream with her gaze locked on his face.
“The hell with dessert,” he said, stacking the plates and champagne flutes on the tray before he shoved it onto the bedside table. “I want to taste you again.”
She started to unbutton the shirt, but he wrapped his fingers around one of her wrists. “Leave it on for now. I like knowing that my shirt is touching your skin. It’s almost like touching it myself.”
His words made her feel every place where the fabric brushed against her, so her nipples hardened.
“I’ll agree for now,” she said, “but it’s coming off soon because I prefer to have your actual hands on me.”
“Oh, you will have my hands, my mouth, and other parts of my body on you and in you,” he said, throwing off the sheet to reveal his erect cock, the carved muscles of his thighs and calves, and the high arches of his bare feet.
Desire to touch and be touched by this man seared through her like a brushfire.
He rose onto his knees facing her, pulling her in for a long kiss that sent arousal coiling down into her belly. “Now lie back and let me feast on you.” His voice was a low purr.
Her breath caught, and she sank back onto the bed, uncurling her legs so they lay on either side of his knees.
He ran his hands down over her breasts, pausing to briefly circle her aching nipples.
She arched into the delicious friction of the cotton under his palms. He skimmed lower until he reached her thighs, sliding his fingers between them and pushing them apart before he crouched lower and lifted her knees onto his shoulders.
A flush raced up her neck and into her cheeks as he stared down at her most private place.
“ Ay, I want to tongue you and fuck you at the same time,” he growled.
“How about alternating?” The idea made her even hotter.
His lips curled into a smile of pure lust. “That is creative thinking.” He leaned forward to yank open the drawer of the bedside table, pulling out another strip of condoms, ripping one off with his teeth, and rolling it on. “Which one first?” His eyes blazed. “Taste or fuck?”
“Tough choice.” She was already wet just at the idea. “Taste.”
He shifted his stance so that he could bury his face between her legs. When his tongue hit her clit, she almost levitated off the bed. “Oh, yes! There! Oh God, yes!” The friction and heat as he licked and sucked drove her arousal into high gear. “Now, fuck me!”
He pulled at her clit one more time, shooting sparks through her belly, before he shifted again to bring the head of his cock against her. Instead of thrusting hard, as she expected, he pushed into her slowly so she felt every inch.
“You are so wet, so ready,” he rasped, his gaze again on where they were connected. “You feel so good around me.”
Once he was fully inside her, he flexed his hips to grind against her sensitized clit, making her whole body jolt at the delicious contact. “Don’t come,” he ordered. “Not yet.”
He pulled out and slowly entered her again, letting her savor the stretch and fullness of his cock. It was exquisite, and it was torture because she was holding back her orgasm.
He withdrew and brought his mouth down on her again with a long, sucking kiss.
She bucked against him because she couldn’t stop herself. Her body craved release. “Oh God, you had better fuck me right now, because I’m going to come.”
This time, he drove into her hard and fast, triggering an explosion that sent electric pleasure racing to her fingertips and toes. She clenched around him over and over again, shouting his name.
He pulled back and thrust deeply one more time before he threw back his head, answering with her name as he pulsed inside her.
“ Ay, I wanted that to last longer,” Raul said when they both quieted. “But you are una chula muy caliente. I can’t hold back.”
He thought she was very hot, this man who dated supermodels. She squeezed her internal muscles around him as a thank-you.
He groaned out a laugh. “I appreciate the thought, but I’m done for now.”
He still held her legs over his shoulders, his hands gliding up and down her thighs as he softened inside her. “I don’t want to let you go.”
“I’m not going to run away.” Yet.
He kissed the inside of first one knee and then the other before he pulled out of her and eased her legs down to the bed.
While he stripped off the condom and wrapped it in a tissue, she watched the fluid movement of his muscles that made the fierce dragon seem to writhe up his rib cage. Her legs were still spread apart by his knees, and the vulnerable position made her nipples go hard again.
He made her insatiable. Because every time might be the last one in this relationship.
As he leaned over to toss the condom in the trash, it dawned on her that the large stash of condoms in his drawer wasn’t there to show off Raul’s machismo.
He had to be prepared at all times because he couldn’t afford to accidentally get a woman pregnant.
Any child of his would have a claim to the throne.
That put a whole added weight on having sex.
For a moment, she wondered what it would be like to have a child with Raul, and then she shoved the insane idea away, wondering if she was truly losing her mind. Luckily, he had no idea where her thoughts had strayed.
“And now that shirt needs to come off.” He unbuttoned the top button, pushing the fabric aside so he could drag his fingertips down her bare skin to the next button.
“Your skin here is like warm silk.” He feathered his fingers between her breasts, making her suck in a breath at the sensuality of his touch.