Page 19 of Her Royal Daddy
Jesus. My hand over my eyes, I gave in. “Fine,” I said, nowhere near as angry as I’d been before, but now unbelievably tired. “You win. I’ll stay.”
In Osei, I meant, but in that moment, I just could not make myself stay in that room. Shoving away from the table, I walked out and was almost to the end of the hall when I heard Norah call after me, “Mazi, wait!”
Mazi, not Daddy. We were in public where anyone could hear her, so that should not have rankled me anywhere near as badly as it did, but I barely kept my temper. As much as I wanted to talk to her, I couldn’t deal with her anger now on top of everything else. I had enough of my own. I was going to explode, and I needed to be alone before that happened.
Unfortunately, she was very motivated and caught up with me at the stairs. When she grabbed my shoulder, I turned on her.
“Not now,” I warned, but her eyes were blazing and she was every bit as beyond reining her temper in as I was.
“You’re a damned prince?” she said incredulously. “When were you planning on telling me?”
“I’m not a prince. I’m just the king’s bastard son. I didn’t tell you because I had no intention of staying. This was supposed to be a vacation, a chance to meet my father, and quite honestly, to tell him where to shove it. He and my mother both lied to me my entire life, and now I’m supposed to save a country? How the hell am I going to do that? And before we get all caught up on me, when exactly were you planning to say your entire job was focused on outing my bastard, incompetent self to the rest of the planet?”
Her eyes widened and her face turned red. “That’s not what I—You don’t get to be—I—You—”
I interrupted her angry sputter before she could find an argument worth landing on. “If you wanted me to share what I was going through, you could have picked any moment over the last couple days to show up at my door. It’s not like you didn’t know where I was. But hey, I guess you were too busy cutting notches in your bedpost to talk to me. Let me know when you decide to write about that. I’ll buy an extra copy so I can scrapbook the article.”
In retrospect, I deserved to get slapped for that. To be honest, I welcomed the pain. It was both grounding and weirdly soothing, and it gave my anger an out that I could grab onto, both figuratively and literally. I had hold of Norah’s wrist before she could yank her hand back, appalled by what she had done.
“I-I—” she stammered, but I was beyond caring. She probably thought I was going to hit her back. Never. No matter how angry I was, I’d never hurt her like that. To be honest, I had no idea what I was going to do. I didn’t even realize we were moving until suddenly the wall was at her back, my grip on her wrists had both her hands pinned above her head, and suddenly my lips were on hers. I kissed her hard and punishing, ignoring her squeak of protest right up until she bit my bottom lip.
I yanked back. Her violet eyes flashed dark when she was this mad and her full cheeks were flushed hot pink. If she could have gotten her hands free, she probably would have hit me again. Maybe even more than once. I could smell mint toothpaste and coffee on her breath and the fresh lilac scent of whatever high-end shampoo she’d used that morning. And all I wanted to do was kiss her until we both forgot everything else.
I won.
She tried to bite me again when I closed the space between her body and mine. This time, I let her, but her intent didn’t last long enough even for the pain to register in my brain. She gave in with a mew when I let go of her hands and grabbed her hips instead, yanking the heat of her groin up against mine. I smacked her ass, once, twice... bad girls don’t get to bite Daddy... and she melted, throwing her arms around my neck and kissing me back every bit as hungrily as I now devoured her. She used her tongue like a seductive enchantress, advance and retreat, teasing me until my cock throbbed hot against the crotch of her jeans and all I could think about was how gorgeous her lips would look with my hand in her hair, ‘forcing’ her to blow me.
Maybe that’s what she wanted too, because she slapped me again. Not as hard as before, but hard enough. At this point, I couldn’t tell if she was still just that angry, or if she liked it rough.
At this point, Daddy didn’t care.
Circling my arms around her waist, I lifted her easily. Her shriek was little more than a squeak when I tossed her over my shoulder.
“Wait!” She smacked my back with her small fists, but it was a minor protest and certainly not one intended to actually convince me to stop.
Maids, groundskeepers, and security officers stared as I marched her back to my palace apartment, but nobody dared say a word. Apparently, there were benefits to being a prince. Something that pleased me right now, although I knew it would annoy me later.
“Mazi, are you crazy?” Norah smacked my back again, but hers were token struggles at best. “Put me down! Self-important, Neanderthal bastard, who do you think you are? Just because you’re a prince, that doesn’t give you the right to treat me like this!”
I unlocked my door the minute we reached my room and, still keeping a tight grip on her hips, relocked it again behind me. Carrying her across the suite, I waited until I’d reached my newly made bed before dumping her unceremoniously on top of it. Grabbing a condom from my nightstand, I threw that down beside her. As combative as she was determined to be, I doubt she even noticed.
“You’re a jerk!” she spat, coming up flustered and blushing, with her nipples just a little too hard for her to be as mad as she wanted me to think.
Again, I didn’t care. I had her right where I wanted her, and right where she belonged. Now all I had to do was convince her of that.
