Chapter 23 Shep
SHEP
WE DIDN’T SLEEP that night. The events of the shooting and the aftermath with Ari had left us too raw, opening up the wounds of the last few weeks and how close we’d come to losing each other.
Theo hadn’t said a word when he finally walked out of the room at Libertine last night, and I hadn’t asked for details.
I didn’t need them. I just needed the relief I saw on Theo’s face, along with the weight lifted from his shoulders, to know it was all over.
The nightmare we’d been dealing with had finally ended.
It felt more than a little surreal, though, that we wouldn’t be looking over our shoulders constantly. Or having to run away to a safe house in the middle of a jungle. Or hide away in my house…
Though the last didn’t sound like a bad idea at all right then, as I lay back in Theo’s arms on the couch, content to stay there forever. Lucifer played in the background, but neither of us had really been watching.
His lips were soft as he pressed them against my temple, and I closed my eyes. “How’s your arm?”
“Never better.”
He snorted. “Liar. I heard you moaning in your sleep.”
“Maybe I was dreaming of you.”
“Uh, I heard a whimper, so I sure as fuck hope not.”
I chuckled, even though the reality was that my arm was stinging like hell and it was past time to pop a few pain relievers.
Theo had called one of the physicians we had on staff to make a house call last night, and he’d had to stitch me up pretty good.
The wound would heal, but the most important thing was the bullet hadn’t gotten Theo—or pierced any of my vital organs.
“How’s your arm?” I said. “You took the weight of both of us when I tackled you.”
Theo tightened his arms around me as if to prove a point. “Never better.”
“Sure it is.”
Theo’s hand slid lower, beneath the throw blanket, his fingers sweeping over my hip, then down to the curve where hip met thigh. Not a grope, but something lazier. Intimate. Familiar. Like my body was his.
I inhaled slowly, heat stirring low in my stomach.
“If I wasn’t okay, could I do this?” His hand drifted even lower, moving down between my thighs to cup my covered cock.
“Oh, you could. Doesn’t mean you should,” I said, even as I arched my hips up into his touch.
“Who says I shouldn’t?” His fingers flexed, taking hold of me through my boxer briefs. “I’m a prince. I can do what I want.”
Groaning, I put my hand over his, fully intending on pushing him away, since we both needed to take it easy, but the pressure of his touch felt too damn good. “A prince and a menace.”
“Your menace,” he said, his cock hardening against my back. “Don’t forget, you asked for this.”
“Because you kept throwing yourself at me.”
“How the fuck could I not? Look at you.” Theo’s teeth grazed my naked shoulder as he withdrew his hand from beneath mine and slipped it under the waistband of my boxer briefs.
His long fingers were cool against my skin, and when they wrapped around the base of my dick, my head fell back against his chest.
Any other protests I had died on my tongue. It felt too good, and I wasn’t about to deny Theo anything.
As he began to stroke me to full mast, I tilted my head to the side, exposing my neck to him. He kissed his way along my shoulder, stopping to stuck the sensitive skin at the junction where it met my neck.
“You taste so good,” he murmured, giving my dick a hard squeeze that had me gasping. “How about you just lie there and let me lick you head to toe?”
I moaned my approval, my eyes closing at the erotic sensations coursing through me from his hands and his mouth, and he’d only just begun touching me.
A deep, throaty chuckle met my ears as he shifted behind me, and I forced myself to sit up so he could stand.
His cock jutted out from his tight maroon boxer briefs as he stood up, his incredible body on full display for me.
My gaze trailed down those powerful thighs and calves dusted with dark hair that he liked to wrap around my waist or use to propel himself deeper inside me.
His corded arms, though still healing, were strong and defined, his chest proudly displayed, those abs begging for me to trace with my tongue.
But that face… Fuck me, that face. The hunger I felt just looking at Theo had me forgetting all about the pain in my arm as desire took hold, strong and unrepentant.
I ran my hand down the back of his thigh, pulling him closer, and he looked down at me with heavy-lidded eyes filled with desire.
“I want you.” My voice came out in a breathy, needy whisper that had Theo cupping my face.
“You have me. Always.”
He didn’t make me beg, knowing exactly what I needed as he moved back onto the couch and then knelt between my thighs. He planted a soft kiss between my pecs and then began to make his way down, his lips never leaving my skin as they trailed down farther…farther…
Then—
Our phones buzzed on the coffee table at the same time.
I cursed. “Ignore it.”
Theo lifted his head as they went off.
“No,” I said quickly, sliding my fingers into his hair to guide him back to where I wanted him. “You better not stop.”
He laughed softly, his breath warm on my skin. “Bossy tonight.”
“You love it.”
“I do.” His lips brushed along the base of my stomach—
Buzz.
Buzz.
“Christ, our brothers are needy,” Theo said, before nuzzling into the cropped curls and pressing a kiss there.
“So am I.”
With the way our phones lit up in sync, it could only be the group text thread, and when it buzzed yet again, Theo sat up and snatched his phone off the table.
“Someone better be dying.”
I shook my head. “Too soon.”
He opened the thread and shared the screen.
LUCIEN
You two might want to check the news…
LACHLAN
You idiots are trending.
KING
Reminder: We have a “no fraternizing on red carpets during active gunfire” rule. Apparently we need a refresher.
BENOIT
Do we need to schedule a press conference or a wedding? Just checking.
ALESSIO
For the record, I had “they’re fucking” on my bingo card a long time ago. They’re way behind.
LACHLAN
Fuckin’ hell, Cooper said, and I quote, “America is entering its Slutty Prince Era, and I, for one, support it.”
I hate you both.
Theo clicked the link they sent, and it opened to an article with the headline:
Are America’s Son and the Prince of Monaco More than Friends?
It was followed by a photo of the two of us on the red carpet what seemed to be moments after the shooting, with me cupping Theo’s jaw as he looked up at me like…
Well, like he was completely, madly in love with me.
Theo glanced down at our hard-ons and back at the photo, a smirk on his lips. “More than friends, huh?”
“Theo…” My tone was a warning, all this teasing giving me some painful blue balls.
“I don’t know,” he said, turning his phone off and then slowly lowering himself back between my thighs again. “But let’s find out.”
He kissed the inside of my thigh and looked up at me with heavy-lidded eyes before taking off his boxer briefs, followed by mine. Then his fingers wrapped around my cock again and he lowered his mouth over it with agonizing slowness.
“Fuck, Theo—”
His hand tightened around me as his lips teased at the head of my rock-hard erection. My breathing was already uneven and he hadn’t even swallowed me yet. I found myself reaching down, threading my fingers through his hair, lifting my hips to chase his mouth.
I grunted when he pulled back, the teasing fucker. “You’re gonna kill me.”
“You survived yesterday,” he murmured, his breath on my dick making me shiver. “You’ll survive this.”
My head fell back against the pillow as I loosened my hold on his hair, letting him control the pace, since he was the one who’d started this.
His tongue dragging down my length was achingly slow at first, like he was drawing this out—or maybe just allowing himself the time to enjoy licking me the way he’d said he wanted.
There was still a hungry undercurrent, but it didn’t feel desperate the way it did before last night.
Like now we were safe, finally, and we could rediscover each other in a way we almost didn’t get to…
And then he was sucking me, greedy pulls that were warm and devastating, and fuck, I was losing every ounce of restraint I pretended to have. If his mouth wasn’t so busy, he would’ve teased me mercilessly for the sounds he was drawing out of me.
With my cock down his throat, he hummed around me, the vibration shooting straight up my spine, and my thigh jerked like my body wasn’t mine anymore.
“Oh God. Theo—” My voice cracked, and he lifted his head just enough to smirk against my skin.
“There something you need, Shep?”
“Yes—don’t stop.” I lifted my hips, chasing his mouth, and he sucked me deep inside, slow and intentional. My eyes practically rolled to the back of my head as every muscle in my body wound tight.
He knew exactly what he was doing.
He always did.
“Theo,” I said, breathless as I felt myself begin to tip toward the edge, “I’m close.”
I was seconds away from coming, seconds, when Theo pulled off me with a slow drag that nearly killed me. I choked on a curse, staring up at him, his hair tousled from my fingers, lips wet, and eyes dark with the kind of intent that promised I wasn’t done suffering.
He crawled up my body, slow and predatory, and straddled my hips. His hands traced up my stomach, my chest, and up my neck to hold my face.
“You wanna come?”
“You have no idea.”
“Oh, I do.” He kissed me slow and deep, letting me taste myself on his tongue. “I’m just deciding how I want you.”
A shiver of anticipation ran through me so hard I couldn’t disguise it, and when his name fell off my lips again, his mouth crashed back down on mine.
“Relax,” he whispered. “I’ll take care of you, mon amour.”
My heart skipped a beat as he reached for the lube in one of the coffee table drawers.
He got his fingers nice and slick and then shifted down just enough to kiss my stomach while his hand slid lower.
He coated me in slow, lazy strokes, dipping his finger just past my entrance before pulling it back out, tormenting me once again, and I moaned.
“Good?” he asked, as if he didn’t already know what every sound I made meant.
“You’re teasing me.”
“I’m enjoying you. There’s a difference.”
“I think it’s both.”
A hint of mischief swirled in his eyes, his pupils already blown to high hell from arousal as he positioned his cock at my hole.
I clenched at the couch cushions in anticipation, widening my thighs for an easy slide, and then I felt it, pressure as he punched inside, breaching the entrance and thrusting inside me inch by inch.
This time it was Theo who cursed, alternating between English and French as he continued to push inside. The fullness of him as he bottomed out, filling me so completely, had me losing my breath.
He stayed right there, shivering against me as he gave me time to adjust to him. “That’s it. Feel me.”
I grabbed his hips, not to control what was about to happen, but just to hold on. His skin burned under my palms as he rocked into me once, and my vision went white.
“Oh, you like that.” There was a dangerous curl to his mouth when I could see him again, and I couldn’t find the words, nodding instead for him to do it again.
He did, pulling out of me almost all the way before shoving back in with more control than I would’ve thought possible for how far gone I was. But then his breath hitched and he tilted his head back, exposing the long line of his throat and making him look like a man untamed.
“You’re incredible,” I said in awe. My hands went to his waist, my fingers digging into his skin as he looked back down at me. “So fucking perfect.”
Theo leaned forward, bracing his hands on either side of my head so our chests pressed together. He continued to thrust inside me, his pace demanding but so fucking delicious.
“I want to see you lose it,” he whispered against my mouth. “Let me.”
His cock grazed my p-spot, and I choked out, “I already am.”
He kissed me repeatedly as he drove into me, each one pulling a sound from my throat I couldn’t control.
Theo pulled back just enough to look at me while he moved, and when he changed angles, his movements faltered.
“Putain,” he said on a gasp as I wrapped my legs around him tight, forcing him to get as deep as he could, and that was when he broke. His nails dug into my shoulders as he thrust into me harder, faster, losing the last of his control.
Watching him unravel? Feeling it? It was enough to destroy me.
But then I heard him, his voice needy and his hips moving desperately over mine. “Shep, I’m gonna—”
“Come for me,” I said on a growl. “Come with me.”
Theo’s entire body went tight, his back arching as the sound he made punched straight through every defense I had left.
I could feel the rush of his orgasm filling me, driving me straight over the edge as heat tore through me.
My dick exploded in a white-hot jet between us that had my head spinning as I held tight to him.
Theo collapsed onto my chest, both our bodies shaking with aftershocks, his spent cock still lingering inside me.
I held him as our breathing synced, as the sweat cooled on our skin.
His forehead pressed into my neck, and I knew without a shadow of a doubt I’d never been this fucking satisfied in my life.
Finally, Theo spoke, his voice hoarse and a bit smug.
“Well,” he murmured, kissing my throat, “guess that settles the article.”
I huffed out a weak, wrecked laugh, brushing my fingers through his hair. “Definitely more than friends.”