Page 87 of Royally Drawn

“Oh, Linnea is my niece’s name,” I said.

“I know,” Keir said. “It is a good name. But the press… they couldn’t drop the rope. They chased down leads and eventually found my mother’s sperm donor—a very famous British musician who was friends with my grandmother back when she was still modelling. And… he copped to it. He went on a publicity tour. The press ran story after story, and he kept trying to get the girls to meet him. My Aunt met with him, and the press tried to get her on record about it. Mamma never did. There was a rift there between them. This happened on the week of Mamma’s wedding. They did resolve it and still love one another, but the press nearly destroyed that bond and ruined my parents’ wedding.”

“I’m sorry for that. That’s unfair,” I said.

“This is why I am protective of you, baby.”

“Things have changed, though. Certainly, things are better?”

Keir shook his head. “Ask Leah sometime about them. Years before, her fathers confirmed her parentage to anyone in the family. It’s a sore spot with her. Uncle Patrick and Uncle George both had embryos. Uncle Patrick’s ended in a miscarriage. Uncle George’s survived. Leahnever confirms or denies which is her biological father. We know, but no one else officially knows. Yet, they bring it up nonstop.”

“Is it not obvious?” I asked. “She could be a dead ringer for your Aunt Natalie.”

“I know,” Keir chuckled. “And yet they will not shut the fuck up. That’s my point.”

I backed down, feeling a bit bewildered by his words.

“I don’t want them to chase you. I am so protective, Ingrid. I don’t want to stifle you, but I want to ensure your safety. I must leave you in a few weeks. I only have that time with you before I will be a long, long way off. Okay?”

I nodded.

Keir scooted closer, taking my face in his hands. He slowly placed a kiss on my forehead as if he was soaking me up. I tried not to think about what things would look like when he was gone for good—when there weren’t weekends of us tangled in sheets and where he was halfway around the world. I wanted everything to be like this—me feeling inventive by waiting for him naked in bed and him telling me he loved me over and over. I wasn’t ready for the summer to end.

“I don’t want to talk about you leaving,” I said. “Not now. Not ever.”

“Ingrid, it will happen.”

“I know. But I want to be with you until then. Let’s not focus on it. I’m gutted thinking about it.”

Keir kissed me, running his fingers through my hair and sucking on my lower lip. The covers fell around me, but I didn’t pick them back up. I focused on how it felt to have him here, pulling tightly on the roots like he never wanted to let me go. It was delicious.

Keir pulled back and smiled at me.

“Get naked,” I said. “I want you in bed. And you’ve drawn it out long enough.”

“You think you get to be demanding, Ingrid?” Keir asked, pushing me back on the pillows.

“When you won’t cooperate, I can only make demands.”

“Who says I will follow through?” He bent down, kissing one nipple, then sucking and moving to the other.

That same electric feeling took over—like a clap of thunder and a bolt of lightning all at once. I used my whole body to tell him how badly I wanted this. I shuddered as he ran his hand between my legs, finding me already wet. Keir continued getting me closer and closer, alternating between sucking and licking my nipple, all while he thrust his fingers in and out of my pussy.

I moaned louder and louder, hoping that Odette wouldn’t hear me about to cum on the other side of the wall. After a while—having gotten so close to ecstasy—I didn’t care who heard me anymore. The sound of his fingers thrusting in and out of my wet centre and his palm slapping against my clit picked up as I reached my high.

“Oh God, Keir. Oh God!” I shrieked.

My body shuddered, and my legs felt like Jello. The sweetest part was how he looked at me—first, with deep satisfaction for what he’d done, then with love and affection.

“You still make the most beautiful sounds when you cum,” he said. “I live for it.”

“You make it sound like a symphony.”

“To me, it could be,” Keir said, kissing me.

I melted as he parted my legs and pressed me to the bed.

“Get naked,” I laughed. “I want you to fuck me.”

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