“Yes,” she whimpered, stroking her hands over his back.
“Mine.” He drove himself home, burying his cock inside her with a broken groan.
Shea lifted her hips to meet him, her muscles relaxing to let him in. Bryan was a big man, but she wasn’t complaining. The sensation of him stretching her, filling her so completely felt too incredibly good.
Wrapping her legs around his waist, she locked her muscles, wanting him to stay connected with her, yet wanting him to move. “Fuck me,” she finally demanded.
“I love it when you talk dirty to me,” he said with part amusement, part desperation. He moved his hips, pulling his cock almost completely out of her and then plunging again. She ground her pelvis up against him, encouraging him to go harder, faster.
As though he had finally snapped, Bryan thrust hard the next time. And the next. Unceasingly, he buried himself inside her over and over, faster and faster. His mouth covered hers in a breathtaking kiss. Tasting herself on his lips made her even hotter, wilder, and her tongue dueled with his as they moved together. Their bodies slick with sweat, Bryan continued to pummel into her, grunting with satisfaction as Shea came. She clenched, clamping down on his cock as the wall of muscles in her sheath spasmed, milking Bryan of his orgasm. He groaned her named and shuddered as he released himself into her warm heat.
“I thought I never forgot how you felt, but I was wrong. I remember now, and it’s even more damn magical than I recalled,” he told her in a husky voice as he claimed her lips.
He kissed her boldly, tenderly, his embrace aching sensual and possessive. Moving to her side, he gathered her body against his, as though he was afraid to let her out of his reach.
Exhausted and sated, Shea fell asleep cuddled against his warm body, her hand resting against his heart.
Chapter Five
If I didn’t respect you, I swear I’d pound the two of you into the ground right now,” Bryan bellowed angrily at his father and Simon, pacing back and forth in the great hall once again; this time, though, Xander was also present. “You ignored my wishes, put Shea and my daughter in danger. I cannot tolerate that.”
He and Shea had been released earlier in the day, after both of them had lied through their teeth about having come to an agreement…which they hadn’t. When Bryan had woken up this morning, Shea had been in the kitchen fixing breakfast. She’d looked so beautiful that it had taken every ounce of control he had not to drag her back to bed. One night hadn’t been nearly enough. Unfortunately, that opportunity had been quashed when Simon had come knocking on the door.
Shea had been taken to their daughter immediately. Bryan had been torn. He’d desperately wanted to meet Hayden, but he needed to confront his father and Simon to make sure both Shea and his daughter stayed safe. He was relieved to find that Xander was now in residence.
“I don’t condone what Father and Simon did, Bryan. But I also want you safe,” Xander commented in a calming but demanding voice. “Marry the woman to keep her and your child from harm. I had hoped that I could neutralize the situation, but things are still too unstable with the rogue Arcano.”
Xander had been briefed by Simon and his father about what actions they’d taken to get Bryan married as soon as possible, and his elder brother was now trying to diffuse the volatile situation.
Bryan wasn’t pacified. He was still damn angry.
“It’s not that simple,” Bryan told him roughly. “Shea has taken care of our daughter all by herself. She doesn’t know our country, and being drugged, kidnapped, and imprisoned hasn’t exactly made her like or trust any Rubarians except me. I don’t even think she understands that Hayden is now a princess, even though it’s only a courtesy title.” He hesitated before adding unhappily, “And she doesn’t take royal demands very well or very seriously.”
Bryan saw the stern look on Xander’s face change, his lips curving up in a small grin. “Reanna was the same. She’ll adjust.”
Bryan stopped pacing and faced his brother who was standing against the bar. “You think so? How well did Reanna adjust? Does she always obey your royal commands?”
“Only when she chooses to do so,” Xander admitted with a frown.
If he hadn’t been so furious, Bryan might have laughed at the disgruntled look on his elder brother’s face. Reanna was a wonderful woman, but she kept her husband on his toes. Xander hadn’t spent as much time in America as Bryan, who still wasn’t certain that his sibling completely understood his independent wife. Americans didn’t revere royalty, but Reanna respected her husband as a man and a leader. However, his sister-in-law was far from being completely compliant to the King of Rubare Collina, even if he was her husband.
“American women are different,” Simon mumbled quietly from his chair across the room.
“We need to stop kidnapping American women,” Bryan’s father said with an agreeing nod of his head. “They’re…difficult.”
Bryan let out an irritated snort. “We need to stop kidnapping any women. If a Rubarian female were treated in this manner, it would mean a long prison sentence for the male who dared to do such a thing.”
Xander shrugged. “We’re royalty,” he answered casually, as though that explained everything for him. “It’s tradition. What is really wrong in the old traditions is the Arcano, and the death sentence if the woman refuses to declare herself to a prince.”
Bryan shook his head. At one time, all of the brothers had agreed that the marriage traditions were outdated and archaic. Maybe getting the woman he loved because of those traditions had mellowed Xander on his beliefs. “I don’t think Shea is going to follow tradition. She was understandably angry about being drugged, kidnapped and held against her will. I had no chance to court her, much less to make her love me.”
“Drugging her was wrong,” Xander agreed emphatically, shooting an irritated glance at his father and Simon. “It was also not right that she was brought here in the manner she was, and without your approval of her as your choice. I believe Simon and Father were concerned about the death threats, and wanted you to be safe. Do you care for this woman, Bryan? Might she have been your choice had you had a say? You obviously cared about her, or at least you desired her. You created a child together. And Hayden does belong here. She needs to take her place as your daughter, a princess of Rubare Collina. She’s my niece, a child I didn’t know about either.” Xander shot another annoyed glance at Simon, as though he was irritated that the royal advisor hadn’t informed him of his niece’s existence. “Hayden should have what’s due to her as a Demande, as your child.”
“I never forgot Shea,” Bryan confessed to Xander, ignoring the two men who made his blood boil. “I met her right before Father became ill with pneumonia and you called me home from America. When I went to seek her out again, she was gone. She had to move to be capable of supporting our child. I was never able to locate her again. She had dreams, ambitions, but she sacrificed them all to have Hayden. She might have been my choice had I been free to have one, but I would never have willingly brought Shea or my daughter into danger.” He glared at Simon. “How did you find her? How did you know about Hayden?”
The elderly man averted his gaze. “There’s nothing we don’t know. Just because you were in America anonymously didn’t mean you didn’t have undercover guards. It really wasn’t that difficult, Your Highness. With our connections in the United States, we were able to check out anyone you spent time with. When it became time for us to find you a bride, we looked up the women that you spent time with, including the women in America. We didn’t know about your daughter until we had located Shea again. If we had known, we would have told you. She had to be your chosen. She’d already had your daughter.”
“You spied on me?” Bryan asked angrily. “You actually kept a damn list and investigated any woman I slept with?”
“We were protecting you.” His father spoke up in Simon’s defense. “They acted on my orders. You were young, and America is very different than life here
in Rubare Collina. You were protected here. I wanted you safe during your time there.”
“America is definitely…different,” Xander agreed reluctantly.
Bryan rolled his eyes, knowing he’d never convince his father that he hadn’t really needed protection. America was different, but it wasn’t as if it were a third world country. “Why didn’t you just tell me that you’d found Shea? Why wasn’t I given a choice before you kidnapped her…and me? If you’re so mired in your tradition, I should have technically had that choice.”
“You would have refused,” Simon answered simply. “Since you know about the Arcano now, you wouldn’t have put Shea in danger by seeing her, even if you wanted to. It would have meant that you would continue to be in danger, that the death threats would get more serious until there were attempts on your life. We couldn’t risk anything happening to you.”
“I ordered it done. Blame me. I don’t want to see the death of yet another loved one because of the Arcano,” his father said solemnly, sadly.
