Page 19 of The Bodyguard

Chapter Nine

Kayne

I turn the heat up in the car, but she’s still shivering.

I know I’m driving too fast. She knows it too. I can see the way she involuntarily clutches on to the door handle.

She has no idea the amount of control I’m using to keep my fucking hands on the steering wheel and not on her body.

She doesn’t need that. She needs a comforting presence. I can’t supply that. I can’t be that person who’ll put her needs first. Not when my body can’t forget hers. Not when I want to hold her so tightly, I have to be inside her to get close enough. That’s the only way I can know she’s safe. Mine.

She doesn’t understand that beneath the surface, I’m a monster. If I give in, I will take her. I will brand her with my cum and keep her my prisoner for the rest of my life, just so I can look at her. She doesn’t know what I’m capable of if I give in.

I press down on the accelerator. She takes a sharp breath but says nothing.

We drive in silence, and I make the five-hour trip in three and half hours.

We enter the royal grounds, and I use the hidden entrance instead of the regular one.

She doesn’t wait for me to open the door for her. She disappears into the entrance of the kitchen. I follow, reluctant to have her out of my sight but knowing I have to leave.

We’re immediately met by her lady-in-waiting, her personal maid, her two bodyguards: Igor is one of them, and her father.

A blanket appears and is draped around her. Her father hugs her, and relief fills his face. Igor nods at me. I know how much he cares for the princess.

“I’m okay, Dad. I’m okay. I… I just need to check on Lia.” She moves out of her father’s arms, then glances at me. I know she does because I can feel her gaze on me; I don’t have to look at her to know she’s looking at me.

She’s perplexed by my coldness, but her pride wins, and she leaves the kitchen and enters the elevator with her lady-in-waiting, her maid, and her bodyguards.

She’s staring at me while the elevator door takes its time to close. She’s still wearing my T-shirt. Bloodstained now.

I can’t resist, and I let my gaze fall on her, seconds before the steel doors close completely.

I’m right. The king has aged, the stoop in his shoulders more pronounced now.

“I didn’t take her,” I say. He knows what I mean. I didn’t take her virginity. I didn’t bury my cock in the dazzling heat of her pretty little pussy. I didn’t fuck her. I didn’t cum inside her even though there were guns pointed at us.

The king’s rigid shoulders sag even more. He’s rewarded with another layer of relief.

“Kayne, in my office, please,” he says. He doesn’t wait to see if I’ll follow.

I want to turn around and leave. I want to turn around and leave Strohamden but owe this man, so I follow him.

“Johnsen?” I ask as we walk to his study.

“He was apprehended at the airport and is currently imprisoned. He will face charges of treason, and I will make sure he dies in prison,” King Ernst says with force. He doesn’t dwell on the fact that the man he trusted betrayed him. Perhaps he always knew this would happen. But maybe not on this scale.

We enter his office and are barely alone for half a minute before the duke of Burkings, Dennis Thompson, and his son, Roger, barge into the king’s office as if they’re already in charge.

“What is this?” the duke demands, throwing a tablet onto the king’s desk.

I see myself in the footage. Towering over her. Touching her.

“Dennis. It was a treasonous act by my brother-in-law. I assure you it’s all taken care of.”

“You can’t tell me it’s all taken care of. She is no longer a virgin. The arrangement is off.”

“She still is a virgin,” I say. It’s as if the duke sees me for the first time. He recognizes me instantly.

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