CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER TWELVE
Jasiri’s mouth slammed down against Reigna’s and immediately silenced every reasonable thought that told him he was flagrantly traipsing on dangerous ground.
Dangerous and torturous, to be precise.
He’d intended for the first press of their lips to be gentle, reassuring. But he was a fool. Things had never been gentle between him and Reigna.
His mouth on hers was like a clap of thunder in the sky, its rumble hard enough to shake their mooring, forcing them closer together for purchase.
She met him with equal fervor. Her arms wrapping around his waist in the familiar way they used to anytime their bodies found each other near. It anchored him, made him feel like he was strong enough to take on the world as long as she held him close like this.
He threaded his fingers through what seemed like a million tiny box braids, each one pulling him back into the memory of what it felt like to have them slide across his chest, his stomach, his thighs.
Jasiri’s fingers tightened as his mind gave him a quick glimpse of the moments where she’d owned his body, his mind, and his manhood hadn’t suffered the least bit because Reigna touching him always meant pleasure so pure and overwhelming, all he could do was experience it.
When his fingers scraped her scalp, she moaned, her voice thick with need. He took advantage of her parted lips to lick inside her mouth, tasting the remnants of the sweet confection they’d had for dessert. She held him tighter, and his heart pounded behind the cage of his ribs.
He could feel himself thickening in his slacks, and it appeared so could she, because she tilted her hips up, touching the ridge of him, taking him from semierect to full-on hard with just one motion.
He tore his lips away from hers leaving them both gasping for air as they stared at each other. Her pupils were wide from arousal. As his own need pulsed in his aching flesh, he was certain if he looked in a mirror, his would be near blown.
“You’re playing with fire, Reigna.”
His voice was raspy, like sand against gravel. If he could focus on anything but Reigna and the way her heavy breasts pushed against the fabric of her button-up shirt, he’d clear his throat and use all those comportment lessons that taught him how to modulate his voice and tone depending on the situation. Being near Reigna messed with his head and therefore with his ability to exert control over himself and the situation at hand.
“Heat was always my thing, Jay. Or have you forgotten?”
His hand rested at the base of her throat as his thumb pressed against the excited pulse that thumped at the base of her neck. The mention of her nickname for him was always like a switch she flipped at her leisure to make him forget everything he’d been taught about how a proper royal should behave. It stripped Jasiri down to his elements where he was just a man, her man.
“I’ve forgotten nothing.”
Before either of them could think about what they were doing, he had her pressed against a nearby pillar. The minute her back was against the structure and it stopped their motion, all bets, all rules, and every bit of common sense either of them possessed was gone.
Reigna’s fingers were rough against the silk of his shirt, and if she kept raking at the material, he was certain she would shred it. She must have come to the same conclusion, because she pulled at the soft material until it was free of his waist and her hands clamored underneath until her nails reached his skin.
Talk about fire.
His skin lit up from her touch as if a torch has been placed against it, searing him with her brand. Jasiri had never wanted a tattoo, but the idea of being branded by Reigna made him ache with need.
He let his hands wander away from the safety of her neck and face. Not that they’d prevented them from crossing the line they were racing closer and closer to. He’d fooled himself into believing if his hands remained above the rest of her body, he’d protect them both from letting their passions get the better of them.
No such luck.
The need he had for her burst free of the iron cage he’d kept it behind for the last two years. As soon as the lock gave way, it rushed forward, overtaking him, leaving him unable to do anything but feel.
They moaned in unison when his palm surrounded and caressed her heavy, cloth-covered breasts.
Reigna was so sensitive there, and if they were in the confines of his bedroom where he could be sure he would be the only one to hear her moans, he’d rip her shirt open and close his lips around one taut peak and then the other.
Instead, he kept his hands moving. He was tempted to swipe the blazer she wore from her shoulders, eager to have every part of her bared to him. But they were outside, and even though he knew they were in a part of the garden that held a small blind spot from security, that blazer would provide them with some cover.
His hands reached the button of her jeans, and the realization sobered him just slightly. He was caught up in his need for Reigna. He needed to check in with her to make sure they both wanted this.
His eyes locked with hers as his fingers hesitated over the metal button. He saw heat and need there that would match his own, begging for him to give them both what they wanted. When he stilled his hands, she nodded, granting him permission to continue. Wasting no time, he flicked his fingers, separating the placket that gave him entry to what he wanted.
Jasiri had always been a thorough lover. That was doubly true with Reigna because he could never get his fill of her. This had to be quick, though. There was the threat of discovery that heightened his need to bring her to climax quickly. There was also his fear that his practical mind would finally reign in his lizard brain, and he’d have to think about what would happen beyond the moment she broke apart for him.
Before he could let his thoughts interfere with his movements, his slid his fingers beneath the lace of her panties until he met her wetness at her slit.
He groaned, his length twitching as blood rushed even faster through his veins making him ache with the need for release.
“Dammit, Reigna. I’ve barely touched you and you’re already dripping for me.”
He dipped his fingers between her folds, twisting them in a circular motion, drawing a beautiful moan from her lips. He smiled down at her, loving the glassiness in her eyes as she met his gaze.
He leaned down to her ear, stilling his hand as he spoke.
“We can’t be seen here, but the cameras can pick up sound. I don’t want anyone else knowing what you sound like when you’re coming for me.”
He let his fingertips graze her nub and she tremored.
“Be a good girl and keep quiet. I promise I’ll make it so good for you if you do.”
She tugged her bottom lip between her teeth and that was all the confirmation that he needed that she would comply. To add to the running list of everything that was sexy about Reigna, the fact that she was so eager to please him in bed was like a match to gasoline taking his desire from a simmering boil to an outright explosion in minutes.
She was a strong woman who knew her own mind and ran her life and her business with the confidence of someone who knew what she wanted and made no apologies about it. The fact that she trusted him enough to let go when she was with him, to let him take the reins, giving her a reprieve from carrying the world on her shoulders, made his chest swell with pride. Last night, she’d been that for Jasiri, allowing him to lose himself in her and lay down his worries for just a few precious moments. Tonight, he would be that for her, removing this burden of pretense from her. Like him, she would have to face the fact that there would never be a time where they didn’t want each other. Tonight, he would ease her need to fight that realization. Perhaps, if they both admitted it, they’d find the combined strength to overcome it.
* * *
Jasiri’s hand began moving again and Reigna had to shut her eyes as she damn near bit a hole in her lip trying not to make a sound. The feeling of his thick fingers sliding against her slick flesh had her hips bucking and chasing the pleasure he was giving her.
When he slipped one finger inside of her, she dropped her head to his chest, needing to be closer to him, needing the lull of the thumping of his heart to soothe her, but also needing his strength to keep her from dissolving into a liquid mess at his feet.
Soon, he’d added another finger, stretching and filling her walls just like she liked, just like she needed. His thumb circled around her nub, and she could feel herself getting closer to her peak. She tried to back away. She didn’t want it to be so quick she could hardly remember it.
She no longer held any illusions. She wanted Jasiri so damn bad every inch of her ached for his touch. His previous retreat from her stoked her need to savor every stroke, every touch that this moment had to offer. If he refused to touch her again, she’d only have last night and this impromptu moment in the garden to hold on to.
Jasiri was having none of her hesitation, though.
“No retreating,” he crooned in her ear. “I want it. Be my good girl and give it to me.”
Why this man calling her his good girl twisted her up inside into a raging ball of pleasure, she did not know. She truly didn’t care. All she knew was that her nerve endings sizzled with need and raced toward a delicious end every time those words graced his lips.
She bucked her hips again, and he rewarded her with another finger, three now. They rubbed furiously against that hidden spot that held the trigger to her release. A few more strokes, and she was rooting against his chest, biting down through the fabric, and not caring if she left a mark on the material or him.
It was his own fault if she did. No man had the right to be this goddamn sexy. He had no right being able to bring her to such heights with his hand and his voice. It was criminal, sinister, and she was here for every damn minute of it.
Before she could breathe her next breath, her body seized with release, and air ceased to move in and out of her lungs.
She buried her nails into his arms, grateful that they were covered with fabric that would keep her from breaking his skin there…probably.
She broke apart for him, writhing against his body, riding his hand desperately like she would him if they were horizontal. As good as this was, she knew it would never be enough. This stolen moment in the royal gardens had reaffirmed what last night had revealed. This thing between them was living and thriving, and it refused to be shoved into the dark depths of her emotional closet where she could pretend she didn’t remember it or want it anymore.
Reigna had been telling herself a bold-faced lie that she couldn’t deny any longer.
As her release crested and shattered her, her sheath pulsing in rhythmic waves as her climax controlled every muscle she possessed, she decided if she couldn’t ignore it, she wasn’t going to allow Jasiri to ignore it either.
“There’s my good girl,” he whispered, prolonging her climax and his control over her.
When her release finally ebbed, he pulled his fingers from her, sliding them inside his mouth and licking them clean. Before she could get lost in how the sight of him licking her release from his flesh made her sex clench, he pressed his lips to hers, letting her taste her on him, and it was the headiest flavor of spice and sweetness, making her ache for more of him, more of them.
She slipped her hands down his sides and to his front. Not caring about her lack of finesse, she shoved her hand into his pants, needing to feel her hand wrapped around his girth.
“There’s my eager girl, ready to take what she wants.”
Need trembled through him as she stroked him through his clothing. She needed him to experience more so she could experience more.
Getting Jasiri off wasn’t just about him reaching release. It was about knowing she could turn such a controlled, refined man into a rutting beast if she touched him the right way or swiveled her hips in the right direction. That kind of power was addictive, and after he’d laid waste to her in a matter of a few moments, she needed to return the favor in spades.
She opened his zipper; her fingertips just having made the edge of his underwear when a knock from a distance shattered the spell they were hiding in.
“Your Highness, please forgive the intrusion.”
Panic welling up in her as realization took root. She was standing in a garden, at a palace no less, allowing herself to be debauched and just as eager to do some debauching of her own, where anyone could’ve walked in on them in the act.
She pulled back her hand as if fire had scorched it. She tried to pull away from Jasiri, forgetting there was a pillar behind her. But even if there weren’t, Jasiri’s strong hands on her shoulders would’ve kept her right where he wanted her, plastered against him.
“What is it?” Jasiri replied. His tone not hiding his annoyance.
“The guards will be making their mandatory rounds soon.”
The disembodied voice said nothing else. It didn’t need to. This was the royal security giving them their privacy even when the nature of their way of life provided little of it.
“Thank you” was all Jasiri said and the same loud footsteps that had drawn their attention in the first place receded.
“It seems it’s time for us to leave.”
He adjusted her clothing and then buttoned her jeans, then did the same for himself.
He stepped away from her, and the space between them, even though small, felt like they’d been ripped so far apart a chasm could exist between them.
With his shoulders squared, he pulled himself to his full height. When she looked into his gaze, the fire that had burned between them only moments ago was being replaced by cold reason. Whatever fantasies she had about them continuing where they left off before they were interrupted was over. Prince Jasiri, the man she was in a business partnership with, had now returned.
She straightened her own shoulders in response. Prince Jasiri may have returned, but Reigna Devereaux was here now, and she’d be damned if she was the only one who was going to deal with this thing between them that wouldn’t die.
He held out his hand to her and said, “Shall we go?”
She gave him a confident smile before placing her hand in his. “We shall.”