Chapter 36 Theo
THEO
THINGS I NEVER thought I’d admit to liking:
Being taken care of.
Learning what made Shep laugh and smile.
Catching Shep looking at me when he didn’t think I was looking.
Being the one to make Shep groan in ecstasy.
And right now, I really loved the seclusion of the jungle.
Why? Because while I was laid out on our rooftop deck in my birthday suit, Shep was swimming laps in the pool beside me wearing his. And trust me when I say there wasn’t a person on the planet who wouldn’t want to trade places with me to take in that view.
It was amazing what a few weeks could do to one’s perspective, not to mention their dating status, when an incredibly attractive man who seemed hellbent on “getting to know me” whisked me off to a safe house in order to save me from certain death.
Usually, I’d find that kind of thing annoying, maybe even slightly suffocating, but when it came in the form of my tall, controlling second-in-command, the only thing I found it…was hot.
I’d gone from resenting having a bodyguard to wanting him guarding my body twenty-four seven. And if he could do it as he was dressed—or not dressed—that would be preferable.
But it went beyond that and, if I were being honest, had for a while now.
The time we spent naked and tangled with each other was sexy and fun, but it was the time out of the bed that had been the true shock.
I wasn’t easily entertained. As a prince, I had anything and everything at my fingertips, so keeping my attention was difficult—something past lovers had found out quicker than they would like.
But with Shep, I found myself enjoying the quiet moments as much as I did the ones full of action—and with our lives, there was plenty of that.
“You didn’t fall asleep up there, did you?”
I lifted my head off my arms and reached for my glasses, drawing them down my nose until I could eye him over the top of them.
“Non, just baking my buns to perfection.”
Shep ran a hand through his damp hair, then made a show of looking past me to said buns. “Be careful, you don’t want to burn them.”
I glanced back at my oiled-up cheeks to see they already had a nice tinge to them. “They’re fine. I’m keeping an eye on them.”
“So am I.” Shep planted his hands on the edge of the pool and hauled himself out. As I turned back to see the water sluice over his body, my jaw hit the ground. “But maybe I should look a little closer.”
As he straightened in front of me, the water ran down the delicious V of his pelvic bone to his strong thighs, then to his calves, and I couldn’t help but lick my lips.
“Be my guest,” I said, and wriggled my ass in the air as he strolled alongside me, stopping when he reached my backside to shake his head.
I gasped at the feel of the cool water spraying all over my hot skin.
Shep moved down to his knees on the towel beside me and trailed his fingers over the curve of one of my cheeks. “They’re a little pink. I think you should turn over.”
I chuckled and shifted to my side, to see him grinning at me. “Why, Mr. Winchester, are you trying to get me on my back?”
Shep moved to his hands and leaned in to brush his lips over mine. “And if I am?”
I rolled to my back and placed my hands behind my head, giving him a full, unobstructed view of my naked body. “I’d ask what took you so long.”
Shep chuckled, his eyes roving over me and leaving a scorching path that was hotter than the sun. “I keep asking myself the same thing.”
My stomach tightened at the serious line of his lips. When Shep got like this, so focused and zeroed in, it was all I could do to stop my heart from skidding to a halt.
He was so intense, so different to me in the way he approached things, including us. Where I was all about the tease and the cheekiness of a moment, he was all control and potent sex appeal.
It was seriously fucking sexy.
“Come here,” I said, and crooked a finger, needing to touch him in some way and remind myself that he was real, that this was. Otherwise I might start to believe I’d been blown to kingdom come in that explosion back in Wales and this was all just a dream.
Because seriously, was I really enjoying being stuck in the jungle?
Shep stretched out beside me, his golden-tanned skin sprinkled with droplets of water, and I moved in to take his face between my hands and press a kiss to his lips.
I’d meant it to be flirty, fun, a way to take our minds off things. But the second our mouths met, the mood changed.
I sipped at the cool water dotting his lips, teasing and tasting until he opened for me and I slipped inside, taking my sweet time to enjoy him.
The kiss was lazy and unhurried in a way that said we had forever to explore one another.
When Shep’s soft groan met my ears, I gently pushed him to his back and rolled with him.
As he settled onto the towel and stroked his hand down my back, I ended the kiss and moved in under the crook of his arm, resting my head on his chest.
Add that that to the list of things I never knew I liked.
“This is nice,” he said in a way that told me he was as shocked as I was at just how nice it felt. “Feels…”
“Right.” I turned my face up to see Shep craning his head to look down at me. When he reached for my sunglasses to take them off, I almost protested.
“Strange, isn’t it?” he asked as he put the glasses down beside him, and I nodded.
“A little. I keep wondering how I—” I frowned, looking for the right way to put everything I was thinking, when I barely understood it myself.
“How you what?”
“How I never…saw you before.”
Shep’s lips pulled into a smile so big I felt my cheeks heat. When he started to chuckle, I went to sit up.
“I don’t think so,” he said, grabbing hold of me and pulling me tight to his body. “You aren’t going anywhere.”
I struggled in his hold, my embarrassment rushing through me as he kissed the top of my head. “I swear, if you don’t let me go, I’m going to kill you.”
“No you won’t,” he said in a voice that told me he was all too pleased with himself. “You look really fucking sweet when you blush.”
I glared up at him, and he winked at me, making my cheeks turn even hotter.
“Oh yeah, I like that.”
“You’re not going to like it when—”
Shep ran his fingers down my cheek and took hold of my chin, cutting off any and all thought. He pressed a soft kiss to my lips. “You know what I was thinking?”
“How impressive I look both coming and going?”
“That we’ve known each other for so many years that you’d think we’d know everything there is to know about each other.”
“Is this your way of telling me you’re hiding secrets from me?”
He grinned. “Not intentionally.”
“If there’s something you wanna know, ask away. I’m an open book.”
Shep ran his fingers through my hair, and it felt so good I could’ve fallen asleep right there. “Why don’t you tell me something no one else knows?”
“I think People magazine caught that scoop years ago.”
“I’m serious.”
“Yes, we’ve established that’s your default mode,” I teased.
“You won’t think so when I throw you in the pool.” When his arm tightened around me, I knew he wasn’t bluffing. “Give me just one thing.”
I was tempted to make a joke about that, but he was looking at me so earnestly that I wanted to give him what he was asking for.
“I never learned how to ride a bike.”
Shep blinked at my admittedly random comment, and then his forehead furrowed. “Wait, really?”
“Really. I always had a driver. All the other kids biked to school, but because of ‘security reasons’”—I rolled my eyes at that—“I got chauffeured around. One time I had a few friends over and they all brought their bikes to ride around the palace grounds, so I had to fake injuring my ankle so we couldn’t go out. ”
“Saving face,” Shep murmured. “I’m surprised you didn’t put your mind to learning after that, being such a stubborn ass and all.”
“Hey, rude much?” I went to shove him, but he’d already braced himself from my wrath, his chuckle vibrating through my body as he held me close.
“I’m just saying, once you put your mind to something, nothing stops you,” he said. “So you must not have wanted it that much.”
“Eh, you’re right. I much prefer someone giving me a ride.” I waggled my brows at him, making him laugh again. “Okay, your turn. What don’t I know about you?”
Shep cocked his head and seemed to think that over. “I was terrified of sleeping at the White House. That’s why I didn’t stay there during my time at Georgetown.”
“What?” I wriggled out of his embrace so I could sit up and look at him to see if he was lying. “I don’t believe you.”
“Trust me, you’re the only person besides my parents I’d ever confess that to, and that was only because I needed to give them a reason to fund my apartment.”
“Not even King knows?” As soon as his name left my lips, I wanted to take it back, but Shep just shook his head.
“It’s not exactly something I’m proud of, but goddamn, some of those rooms give me the creeps.”
I cracked a smile, dying to know more about this new bit of information. Shep wasn’t scared of anything, so what was it about that seemingly harmless place that had him running away? “Mon Dieu, are there ghosts? Is that what freaked you out? Did you see one?”
“One?” he scoffed. “I saw them and I heard them laughing late at night when I tried to sleep. Once I heard someone playing a violin, and I swear to God I searched the entire house top to bottom, and not one violin anywhere.”
“Maybe it was the radio?”
“No way, it was in the Yellow Oval Room, which we used as the family parlor when we lived there. I was studying, and out of nowhere someone started playing, like they were right there in the room.”
“What did they play?”
“Something sad and eerie as hell. That was the last straw.”
“Huh,” I said, looking at Shep through new eyes. “I think I like this little game of yours. What else?”
“Oh no, it’s your turn.”
“Right, okay, let me think. Um… I once started a food fight in prep school.”
Shep busted out a belly laugh. “Now that sounds like you. I’m surprised that’s a secret, though. Didn’t the press stalk your every move at school?”
“Oui, but there were a few times my family had to pay them off,” I said with a proud grin. “And, in that instance, cover a lot of dry-cleaning bills.”
“Such a menace.” He brushed his thumb over my lower lip and then leaned back on his hands. “My first kiss was with someone famous.”
I waited for him to finish that confession, to spill the tea, but when he didn’t, I said, “Don’t leave me hanging. Who was it?”
“It might surprise you.”
“You’re killing me over here. Don’t make me guess or we’ll be here all day.”
“Carrie Cabrera.”
“What?”
“Told you. It was right after she won the Oscar for Runaway Train.”
“So you were, what, twelve?”
“Thirteen.”
“Wait a second,” I said, holding my head so it wouldn’t explode. “I didn’t realize you dated girls. How many others did you kiss, you naughty boy?”
“Just the one, and that was all the confirmation I needed.”
“Aw, poor Carrie. At least she has Oscar to sleep with.” I tried to picture teenage Shep making out with America’s little film star, and while it sounded good on paper, I just couldn’t see it.
I thought back to my past relationships, wondering what I could give Shep that he didn’t already know.
It wasn’t like they ever lasted long. Whether that was because I got bored or they couldn’t handle the pressure of being with a public figure, it didn’t matter.
There was one undeniable truth, though it made my heart beat a little faster to admit it.
“I’ve, uh…” I swallowed and then just fucking said it. “I’ve never told anyone I’ve been with that I love them.”
Shep’s lips parted, but there was no judgment clouding his blue eyes like I half expected, and that made my apprehension over telling him ease a little.
He stared at me with a thoughtful expression before saying, “Noted. Thank you for telling me.”
The air around us grew thick with tension, this time not the sexual kind, but something deeper. An underlying emotion, an understanding between us, maybe. I didn’t feel judged or awkwardly vulnerable. There was a comfort here that made me want to tell him everything and anything.
But we had plenty of time for that.
“One more truth,” Shep said as he shifted to the edge of the pool to dangle his legs in the water. “I never competed professionally, but I could kick Michael Phelps’ ass in a race.”
“Now you’re just talking crazy.”
Shep arched a brow, the dare in his eyes clear. “I could kick your ass in a race.”
Oh, the man wanted to play, did he? I was down with that.
“Careful, Shep. I’m fueled by obstinance.”
“Perfect,” he said. “I’m fueled by winning.”
And then, before I could say another word, he wound his arms around me and wrenched us sideways into the pool.