King (The Reluctant Prince #4)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

Harrison

Fire Island, New York State

I watch Natalia sleep.

Her face is calm, almost a smile on her lips, and it makes me want to lean down and kiss her, but I don’t. I decide to let her sleep longer. We have a very busy day and week, and both of us need a break. But if I could, I would wake her with a kiss and more.

I can’t get enough of her.

Since we’ve been together, I’ve never been happier. Every day is a delight, and I think that, hopefully, our marriage will be real one day, and not just a ruse to get us both out of trouble with the FBI.

We’re staying at a cottage on Fire Island for a week to get away from it all.

Our week is up today, and I’ll really miss this place with its view of the ocean and the sound of the waves rolling in just a few hundred feet from our doors.

On my part, I have to go back to my father’s kingdom and try to set it right.

I don’t know for sure that I’ll be able to, but I’m going to do my best to get my family’s business out of trouble with the mafia and in the good graces of law enforcement, especially the FBI.

I turn over in bed and look at my clock on the bedside table.

It’s almost seven in the morning. If I get up and have a quick run along the beach, I can have a shower and be ready to pack up by nine o’clock.

We’ll hand off our keys to the rental office and then make our way into Manhattan to face the day and week ahead.

I stretch and yawn, and then I turn over and look at Natalia once more.

Her shapely form is revealed under her thin silk nightgown, and I feel a surge of desire for her.

But I put it off. I’ll let her decide when we next make love.

That way, I’ll always know that it’s me she wants and that she isn’t just trying to please me and play a part.

Once upon a time, the women I was with regularly pleased me because that was part of the mutual agreement. But with Natalia, I want it to be different. I want her to choose me.

To choose me.

I want to know for certain that it’s me she desires; it isn’t just being a good fake wife.

Even though we’re truly married, there’s still just a smidgen of doubt that she’s doing it to get the revenge she wants, and not that she truly wants me.

I have to push that smidgen out of my mind, but having her choose me makes me feel better.

One day, I hope there will be no doubt at all.

I get up from bed, and after a quick trip to the washroom, I pull on some sweats, tie my running shoes and then grab some EarPods for my run.

I select an audiobook and listen to it as I run along the beach, wanting to be as multitasking as I can.

The sky is still gray with only brief flashes of sun through the clouds on the horizon.

The darkness of winter is fast approaching, and with it will come cold weather.

For now, we have to put up with rainy days, but they are better than snowy days.

As I run along the beach, I think about Liam. He’s the reason I’m here, and the reason Natalia and I are together.

Liam. How I miss him. I feel like he’s my responsibility, his death is my responsibility, and I can’t escape it; I’m filled with guilt.

If I’d been closer to him, if I hadn’t focused so much on my business, and instead had spent more time with him, he wouldn’t have become trapped in my father’s life, and that means the Russians.

And Ethan is gone, too. My father’s dead; my brothers are dead.

All the men who were important in my life are gone.

I must take over my father’s empire and lead it, even if I would rather do something else and be someone else.

Because of what happened, I’m now in the grip of the FBI, and have no other choice but to cooperate.

Yes, I want revenge. I want to avenge both my brother’s deaths.

They’re dead because of me. Because I wasn’t there, or I didn’t do a good enough job to protect them.

Most of all, I worry about what it will do to me.

I’ve always been proud of my time in the military.

I don’t want that proud history to be destroyed by a reckless act of revenge.

I hope my work with the FBI and against the mafia will preserve that history.

I stop and stare at the incoming waves. Before Liam’s death, I thought I had it all figured out. I was my own man, free of my father’s empire. I was a businessman and a former Army Ranger. Now, I’m everything that I don’t respect.

The head of an Irish mafia family.

I trust that working for the FBI to clandestinely bring down a Russian organization involved in gun running will save my skin.

Before my father got involved with the Russians, his business was legit.

The building trade was very lucrative in Manhattan and the surrounding districts.

My father never had to become involved with the mafia.

He could have stayed legit, but someone found their way into his life and convinced him this was the best way.

It’s never the best way.

He told me once that he needed money for a debt he owed, and that’s why he became involved. “Once you’re in,” he said, “they never let you out except through death.”

Well, I was going to break free of the mafia, both Irish and Russian.

As soon as I possibly could, I would break all ties and all alliances.

I knew it would be hard because so much of my father’s business was wrapped up in theirs, but if we could take them down one by one, there would be no one left to hold anything over us.

Then I could be free.

We could be free, Natalia and I both.

I finish my run and come back to the house. When I open the door, Natalia’s standing in her little nightgown, and she looks so desirable that I can’t help but feel a surge in my groin. “You’re up,” I say, smiling.

She puts her hands on her hips and tilts her head to the side. “Why didn’t you wake me?”

“We’re going to have a very busy day,” I reply and wipe the sweat off my face with a towel. “I wanted you to sleep as long as possible.”

She comes over to me and slips her arms around my neck, standing on her tiptoes to give me a kiss

“You’re a very bad man,” she says with a smile. “You should’ve woken me so I could come for a run with you. I need to get in better shape if I’m going to keep up with you.”

I laugh. “You mean if I can keep up with you,” I say. “You’re the one who wants to stay up late at night working.”

“You’re going to have a shower?” She narrows her eyes.

I can’t help but smile even wider. “I am.”

“Care for some company?”

A surge of desire goes through me at the sound of seduction in her voice. “I thought you’d never ask.”

She grabs my hand and pulls me down the hallway to the shower. It is a fantastic bathroom, with glass doors and a window at head height so you can watch outside and see the surf while you shower.

For the next twenty minutes, we aren’t looking out at the surf.

Instead, we enjoy the hot water as it rolls down our bodies. Not to mention everything else that happens.

She chose me, and that’s the way I like it.

Later, after we dress, we sit at the kitchen island and drink our coffee.

We discuss what we have to do to get ready to leave and then start packing things up.

After a quick cleanup, we take our bags out to the waiting Pedicab and load them up into the trunk.

Before I get in, I stop and look back over the ocean.

I’ll miss this place. If I could do anything, I would live on Fire Island.

Maybe one day, when we’re both through with this FBI operation, and McDonald releases us from our obligations, we can move here and start a life together.

That’s my hope, but as my father used to say, ‘Hope in one hand and shit in the other and see which one fills up faster.’

I can’t rely on hope. I have to make it happen, and it will only happen if we satisfy McDonald’s demands.

That means getting deep into the Andropov family, learning their secrets, and then turning them over to the FBI.

Once that happens, we’ll be free of the FBI and McDonald.

Then, we can turn back to each other, and I can get my family out of the grip of the Irish mafia in New York State.

Natalia comes to stand beside me, her arm slipping around my waist.

“I hate to leave this place,” Natalia says with a sigh. “It’s so beautiful here and so peaceful.”

“It is,” I say with a sigh mirroring hers. “I love this place. We’ll be back when this is all over if you want. Next summer.”

She turns to face me and strokes my cheek with affection. “I want. How could you doubt it?”

I exhale. “You’re the one who faked the relationship. How can I know that you really want to be with me?”

She sighs heavily. “Oh, Harrison,” she says, her voice pleading.

“Do you doubt how my feelings have changed? When I first met you, I was out to get you for revenge for what I thought you did. But I was wrong, oh so wrong.” She shakes her head.

“When I got to know you, I realized what an honourable man you were. You are. I’m so sorry that I jumped to the wrong conclusion about you.

If I had been less judgmental and if I’d done some research, I might have realized the truth.

But we all thought Sherri was with you. She made us think she was with you, and why would she lie? ”

I hold a finger up to her lips and stop her from speaking. “I know, I know,” I say softly. “You’ve explained this before, and I accept your explanation. My only hope is that your feelings are real. Mine are.”

“How could you doubt it? I married you. I love you.” She slips her arms around my neck and pulls me down for a passionate kiss.

If we had more time, I would’ve taken her back inside, but we don’t. Still, her words are a salve for the doubt that still lingers in my mind

I hate to leave this peace, but Reynolds is waiting for us both.

The FBI cannot be denied.