Page 18 of King of Wands

Chapter 7

Stand Beside Me

Itold King I’d meet him at the party. He demanded we arrive together. I proposed picking him up in the car Marcy arranged for me. He agreed reluctantly. I wasn’t ready to get into details with him, especially when he could barely make eye contact. And I suspected he wouldn’t take a simple explanation. He’d require a full blown, detailed analysis of why I didn’t ride with people I didn’t know.

Marcy’s driver, Ross, was wonderful. In his fifties he was capable and slow. He understood my issues and always drove with the utmost care. He was one of two people on the planet I would get into a car with.

The moment we pulled up outside the hotel King darted out. I’d wonder how he knew it was us, but the very expensive E-5K Evans was probably a sign. The car wasn’t exactly your run of the mill luxury sedan. It gave Rolls Royce and Maybach a run for their money.

He slid into the backseat beside me, his eyes catching and wandering over my exposed skin. The dress Jess picked out was gorgeous...and left little to the imagination. The dark blue fabric glittered and molded to my body, the bodice dipped low between my breasts putting them on display, and even though the skirt went all the way down to my calves, it clung to my thighs and had a slit that went very, very high up the front.

King blinked and then forced his gaze up to my eyes. “I like the makeup.” He slammed the door shut and buckled in.

I had a feeling what he meant to say was more along the lines ofthat dress is hot.

“Your suit is nice.” And it was. Very nice. Black with a slim black tie and crisp white shirt. It was stylish and made his muscular form seem larger than usual. So basically I wanted to strip him naked and lick him, but I also wanted to wrap my arm around his and be seen by everyone at the party. I wanted the best of both worlds. King nakedandKing in a suit.

He adjusted the tie and grimaced. “It’s suffocating. I’d rather be in full gear on the track.”

That was probably because he was comfortable on the track. It was his domain. Even covered in restrictive safety gear, shoved into a tiny cockpit, he was more comfortable there than in a roomy backseat with me.

I adjusted his tie and smoothed his shoulders. “That would be a travesty to women everywhere. You look good, King.”

To my complete shock, he grabbed my hand, very much like he had on the swing, and settled it on his powerful thigh. “So do you.”

Tension crackled the air like electricity on a hot summer night before a thunderstorm. I didn’t know where I stood with the moody driver but I knew where Iwantedto stand. In his arms with his lips on mine. I didn’t care if I barely knew him. I didn’t care if it was against the rules. There was something more here and that more made me want—for the first time in my life—to explore it.

I’d never been in a serious relationship because no one had ever seemed worth it. I met many nice men in college but most were my friends, not my lovers. I was so focused on school, on who I wanted to become, that a guy needed to be exceptional to make me want to spend time with him.

Needless to say, no one had ever taken my breath or made me fall off an elliptical.

That was all King.

This completely insane response fascinated me and I wanted to know what came next. Would my pulse quicken when we got close? Would my knees go weak if we kissed? Did I make him feel just as wild?

Nowthatwas really what drove me. More than anything I wanted King towantme. I craved seeing him weak because of me, not because I wanted to weaken him, but because it felt necessary to seduce him.

Necessary.

The drive from his hotel to the venue was only ten minutes, but in that time he never let go of my hand. He muttered about Ross’s slowness a few times which just made me happier I hadn’t accepted King’s invitation to pick me up. Ross was my speed. Slow, steady, and heck, he’d probably like my university basement filled with academics, while King was all speed and danger.

Speed and danger were sexy as fuck outside a car, not so much from the inside.

When we arrived King waited for Ross to open his door, then held out his hand for me, blocking me from the press lined up to take pictures. It was the perfectly gentlemanly thing to do. I knew how to properly exist a car in a skirt, but his care and attention did things to my insides. Flippy things.

“Thank you.”

He smiled, thenslipped my hand into the crook of his elbow.It was an altogether wonderful sensation. Possessive, warm, natural.Wrong.Whatever my lusty feelings might be alone in a car, they were not appropriate material for public consumption. I tried to pull free but he placed his other hand over top of mine and held it firmly in place. “Please?” He pleaded.

Pleaded.

How could I say no to those eyes? He looked at me like I was the one person in the universe who could save him. “Fine.”

My short reply amused him. He smiled and relaxed—just a little. The press line wasn’t like a Hollywood red carpet. They mostly took pictures and videos. A few called out questions like, “Are you ready for the race?”And,“Can you beat Yedlin?”King smiled and nodded, called out a few quick replies. He was poised, courteous, and gracious, reminding me that King was no normal twenty-one-year-old man. This was a very famous, very rich man with fans and expectations to meet. He had a heavy weight on his shoulders.

Was it fair for me to fantasize plans for seduction when in a few weeks I’d go back to my low pressure life of academia? No, probably not. I was lost in this internal debate when a question caught me off guard.

“Who’s the lovely lady? Are you a couple? Is King Reynolds taken?” A million flashbulbs went off.

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