Page 87 of Twisted Royals

“Ah, right. Okay, let’s see.” I didn’t know how I felt about the fact she hadn’t instantly jumped up and run for the door, but I wasn’t about to let her off easy. “I suppose you could be ordered to drop to your knees and take his cock in your mouth and suck until he comes down your throat, or he might bend you over a bench or some apparatus as he takes you from behind. Then again, he might?—”

“That’s a hard limit!” she practically shouted as she grabbed the clipboard I’d left unprotected on the desk. The sound of pages flipping fast matched the quick breaths she was taking as she searched for the page listing her limits. “See? It’s right here!” She slapped the clipboard down and stabbed at a page. “Absolutely no penetration!”

I leaned forward the tiniest bit to peruse the page, then said, “I never said the penetration would be vaginal.”

“Well, where else would it be?” she demanded, risking ruining her manicure by stabbing the page yet again.

She wasn’t just a newbie; she had just confirmed she was about as innocent as they came. Arching my brow, I didn’t immediately respond and I knew the exact instant when the answer dawned on her.

“No! I mean, um, I don’t, he can’t… I need?—”

“What you need, Mia, is a long, hard spanking to remind you that no matter how much you might think you want to play, you don’t have a clue as to what that actually entails, now do you?”

I expected her sass, or her anger or even her assurance she wanted what she’d written down. What I was unprepared for was the glimmer that suddenly appeared in her eyes. Shit, I’d never been able to handle her tears when she was a gangly kid, but now, knowing I’d been the source of them, I felt the first fracturing of my plan. Still, she was no longer that kid, she was a grown woman. To the world at large, reaching her majority might make her an adult finally old enough to drink, but in her world, it simply meant her time of childhood was over and it was time to set idleness aside and take on her duties. And for a Debari princess, that meant she would be preparing to walk down the aisle with the man chosen long ago to be her husband… and that man was me.

Did I really want our marriage to start off this way? Granted, I’d not put a ring on her finger, but if I allowed her to step out of this office, I would put her in a world she had no tools to traverse.

I’d withstood fistfights in my youth. I’d survived the battlefield when serving my country and had beaten down barriers encountered when facing my own parents to convince them that if our kingdom was to persevere, much less prosper, archaic beliefs had to jump forward a few centuries. I’d spent years at my father’s side with his court to work on moving in that direction. When I graduated from university, my parents had informed me that I wasn’t returning to rule… not yet. I’d protested, stating I’d already been away for most of the past four years, and I was ready to take on more responsibility, but they’d held fast. It had been a doozy of an argument, but my Grandfather Peter had quietly sat me down and told me he’d made the same request of my father when he’d been young. When he stated I needed to actually experience the world if I was to be any good at guiding our people through it, I understood. They weren’t rejecting my leadership, they were preparing me to be King.

Nathan hadn’t needed to be persuaded. We’d shared adventures ever since his father had begun to work with mine. When I called to inform Nate that I’d capitulated, he’d chuckled and told me his bag was already packed. The two of us had made our way across the continents, learning more with every new place, forming bonds that would last a lifetime. We’d kept our families informed of our whereabouts as agreed but didn’t share every detail of our travels.

New York had been our first stop in the United States, and we’d enjoyed our time there, but when we stepped off the plane in the Lone Star state, we knew this would be our home away from home. We’d gone on to push against boundaries of the repressed to buy and build Revelation, securing a place to play for others who couldn’t survive their names being dragged through the mud. I’d always known the day would come when I’d sign over my half of the club to Nathan and return to fulfill the role I was born to. I was proud of what we’d accomplished, but none of that mattered now, not when the sight of the first tear escaping to slide down Marcie’s cheek almost brought me to my knees.

“Don’t cry,” I implored, rising to round my desk, snagging a tissue from the box on my credenza on the way. I didn’t wait for her agreement, simply dropped to one knee and wiped the tear away. “It’s going to be all right.”

“No it’s not,” she countered, her bottom lip quivering. “This was my only chance to…”

“To what?” I asked when she didn’t continue.

Swiping a hand across her face only managed to partially dislodge an eyelash. Forcing myself not to grin, I reached out and gently pulled it free.

“Oh god, I’m a mess,” she said and burst into a flood of tears that no amount of tissues was capable of stopping.

“Shit,” I muttered, standing and scooping her into my arms in one smooth motion. I took her chair and held her as she sobbed into my shirt. I stroked her back, the silk soft beneath my fingers. I might be holding her, but that didn’t stop the image of removing her dress and seeing her in all her glory from my mind. Hell, I was only human after all. If I could admit I had a soft spot for her, I didn’t see any reason to ignore the truth that I also had something quite hard for her as well.

It was time to come clean and tell her I knew exactly who she was and could offer a good guess on why she was so desperate to spend her birthday playing with a man she had never even met. Hell, I even understood it. My father had slowly but steadily dragged his country kicking and screaming into the modern ages, but I couldn’t say the same for hers. Women in Emberly Isles were still seen in a far different light. They had but two duties. Marry and bear heirs who would ensure continuance of the royal lineage.

Even as I opened my mouth to make my confession, she brought my gallant thoughts to a screeching halt.

CHAPTER 4

Mia

“I hate men.”

Even in my present state, I was aware that this man’s arms went from holding me tightly against his chest to loosening to the point I feared I might topple to the floor. I shifted, ready to brace myself when they once again pulled me close.

“That’s not what your form says.”

“You and your stupid forms,” I said, struggling a bit to sit straight so I could look at him. “Not everything can be answered on a piece of paper.”

“Considering your form, I will concede that is true, but I would argue that doing a complete one-eighty on your preference of gender warrants another look,” he rebutted, eyes the color of burnished steel meeting mine.

“Okay, you’re right, but I still hate men.”

“Hate is a very strong word.”

“Not strong enough,” I countered, then gave a sigh. “Okay, I don’t mean all men.”

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