Page 67 of Mercenary Princess

Chapter 23

London, England

Viktor lay with his princess in his arms, absently stroking her silky shoulder. After another night apart, his need for her had only increased.

So had his desire for answers. Simple things such as where she practiced climbing shouldn’t have been a difficult answer. Lying about a climbing wall in her palace had been easy enough to confirm. Though not all the facts of the palace would be common knowledge, it still seemed doubtful her family would have had such a thing installed. It added to his unease that she would lie about such a small aspect of her life.

If she hadn’t looked ready to dart away at his questioning, he would have demanded to know more. He didn’t like not knowing what he was dealing with. He only knew something was wrong… off. The fact that her family seemed content to gift her to a monster like Jean Luc only added fuel to his protectiveness.

She’d jumped into his arms as she’d entered the room mere hours ago. There’d been no talking, and he’d had no time or desire to coax information from her. He had a suspicion her urgency had been at least partly to do with keeping her secrets—secrets he planned to learn whether she wished it or not. He intended to find out why his princess was setting off all his warning instincts. Not for himself, but for her.

He felt the moment she woke. Her soft cheek rubbed against his chest, making his lips quirk at the feline way she moved. He’d never been as tempted with intimacy as he was with her. Having her in his arms pleased him in ways he never questioned.

She seemed determined to force every single sexual experience into the time she mistakenly believed they had together, and he had no intention of discouraging her. Let her mark it all off on her naughty little checklist.

If that made him a bastard, he didn’t care. Giving her things he instinctually knew she’d never had with another gave him a primal sense of satisfaction. He wanted everything from her. And he intended to have all of her for far longer than the end of her London trip.

He hated the stony look in her eyes as she’d left him each morning. The expression said how much she dreaded leaving his bed. She didn’t want it to end any more than he did, but for some reason she’d convinced herself it had to.

She was becoming his, whether she realized it yet or not.

He stared up at the ceiling, unconcerned with how fast it had all happened. He’d never been a man who questioned his desires or instincts, and they all said she belonged to him.

“What time is it?” The soft murmur against his skin roused him easily.

He didn’t need to glance at the clock. “Two.”

The pleased little noise she gave made his lips curve. Her warm fingers roved over his chest and down his stomach, lightly teasing the line of hair she seemed to love.

“I’m going to tell you a secret.” Her whispered words held a hint of something he couldn’t decipher without seeing her face. It was her eyes that bared her thoughts to him, but if he had to guess, he would say she was being playful with him.

“Mmm. Tell me.”

She moved, sliding over his chest to stare at him with a crooked smile on her beautiful lips. “I have fantasized about you since I was a teenager.”

His brow rose at her admission, and he couldn’t help but smile at her expression.

“Ever since that first time I saw you get out of the helicopter to see Feliks at La Couronne, I may have become a little obsessed.” She shook her head ruefully and diverted her gaze from his eyes to his chest. It was more confession than she’d likely intended. He would’ve bet she’d meant the words to be teasing.

He quickly assessed the math. “You would have been sixteen.” It had taken him nearly six years to end things with his uncle and cousins while building an empire of his own. He’d moved his brother to several boarding schools through those years, but around that time, he’d been free to spend more time with Feliks. Their mother had died not long after their father, leaving Viktor to keep his brother safe.

Any threats that had come toward his sibling had been dealt with swiftly and violently. In his family’s world, brutality had been the only language that held meaning.

She nodded at the assessment of her age during that time.

He watched her closely. She seemed to want to share more, yet she’d stopped herself.

“I asked Feliks about you that night in Paris.”

Her mouth gaped prettily. “Why?”

“Because I’d spent the night before watching you climb a four-story building like a thief in the night. You were nearly interrogated as a security threat by Ivan and me.” He shook his head before continuing, “I was equal parts furious at your recklessness and impressed by your skill.” He was cajoling her because he wanted her trust.

“What did Feliks say?”

“That he thought you’d had a crush on me.” That was not all his brother had said, but the rest wouldn’t have made her cheeks flush so prettily.

She frowned. “The whole school probably knew it if Feliks did.”

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