“One more thing, sir. You asked about a certain tram card activity,” he said, and his voice sounded distant, like he was afraid of his next words.
“Yes. And?”
“And she left this morning. About an hour ago.”
“Her destination?” Nervous energy buzzed through my veins while I waited for his response.
“The Bellizzi Estate.”
An hour ago. That estate was about three miles away, meaning it would take less than ten minutes to get there by train. She’d been gone an hour. Why? Why the fuck was she visiting this dickmunch? Did she know what he was doing? Did she know who he was? Or did she just miss the farm that fucking much? I was tempted to buy it back for her, to keep my little sheep away from the real wolves, the ones who would tear her open and eat her alive.
He cleared his throat. “Sir, there’s something else.”
For fuck’s sake, what next?
“She wasn’t alone.” He paused. “She left with Keaton Valetta.”
Fuck. That.
I ended the call then headed straight for her villa to wait for her to get home. If I was lucky, she would stroll through the door with Valetta on her arm. I could beat his ass and spank hers all in the same sitting. Going to her old house to meet with the man who wants my throne was one thing. Going to her old house to meet with the man who wants my throne with a man who wants my queen?
That just changed everything.
My lungs burned. My heart throbbed. My tears blinded me. My legs were so sore and unsteady they felt numb to the pain that shot through my ankles. My clothes clung to my skin, and I had tiny black remnants of asphalt embedded in my bare feet. I left my sandals somewhere on the side of the road. It hurt. Everywhere. I’d never run three miles in my life. As soon as I made it past the east gate and to my villa, the adrenaline that had pushed me forward left my body.
I crawled up the stairs because it hurt too much to walk, leaving a trail of clothes behind me. I leaned against the cool tile and let the hot water rain over my body as I picked tiny pieces of road from the bottom of my heels. I was in too much pain to process what I’d been running from yet. I just knew I needed to run.
Once my body was soothed—and clean—and I caught my breath, I wrapped a towel around myself and headed downstairs for a cup of hot tea. I just wanted tea and silence. The voices in my head had gotten too loud.
He gathered people… thousands of them… to fight with him.
We know the king is dying… When he does, before his son has a chance to take the throne, it will belong to us.
I always thought it was because he was so ill. Maybe he wasn’t in his right mind. But now… Now I’m not so sure anymore.
Prince Sutton requested an intimate dinner in his private chambers.
I think we’ve both had enough moments for one day.
Too many voices, and I wanted to silence them all.
When I reached the bottom step, my heart stopped. Sutton sat in my favorite corner chair, one arm splayed across the back, legs stretched out in front of him with his tie unknotted and his shirt unbuttoned in that sexy way that said screw appearances, I do things my way. His eyes held a storm, raging like the sea but with a sliver of something else behind them. Vulnerability, maybe. Contemplation, probably. Sutton Thorne was never vulnerable. He never moved, not even when I took the last stair and walked across the living room to stand by the sofa.
“How did you get in?” My voice was hoarse from the air that burned my lungs, from my mouth being dry, from sheer and utter defeat.
“Did you think I wouldn’t know the security codes for every building on this property?”
I leaned a hip against the sofa and clenched the top of my towel, securing it around my body. “Right. Your castle. Everything belongs to you.” I repeated the words he’d said the first time we met.
His eyes narrowed. Before I took my next breath, he was out of the chair and across the room. He stopped right in front of me, and his gaze seared me to the core. “So, you do remember what’s mine. For a second I thought you might have forgotten.” It had only been one day since we were this close, but I ached for it. I wanted it. My need for him had become its own heartbeat pulsing between us. Throbbing. Pounding. I found my fix, the one thing that took away the fear, the hurt, and the anxiety. It was him. Sutton was my drug.
He trailed a finger from my shoulder to my wrist. “You said you wouldn’t run to him anymore.” Back up to my shoulder. “What were you trying to prove?”
He knew I was with Keaton. Of course he did. He was everywhere, all the time. I couldn’t escape him if I tried. Did he know about Jonathon too?
Before I had time to ask him, he let his eyes fall from my face to where I clutched my towel to keep it from coming undone. He ran his fingertips along my collarbone, stopping at the silver cross that I never took off then moving to wrap around my throat. He squeezed hard enough to steal my breath but not hard enough to scare me. His sharp jawline clenched, and his eyes darkened. I wondered if I’d gone too far, if I had finally provoked the predator into destroying his prey.
His gaze turned feral. “Were you trying to prove that we’re just a moment? That you aren’t mine?”
My breath came in heavy bursts, lungs emptying then filling, heart racing, core throbbing. He leaned forward and hovered his mouth a breath above mine. He loosened his grip and brought his hands to cradle my face.
His voice calmed. “Everything belongs to me, Katie.” He breathed in as though he were trying to fill his lungs with my scent. “Especially you.” He brought his mouth to my neck, and my nipples peaked against the cotton towel. “No more running away from me, little sheep.” One hand slid from my face to the split in my towel then between my thighs. “No more pretending this isn’t real.” He drew soft circles on my pelvic bone with his thumb while his other fingers slipped between my folds.
I let go of my towel and grabbed his tie to yank him closer. I wondered if he felt what I felt, this desperate, clawing ache, a white-hot tension knotting in the pit of my stomach, an animalistic need. I hoped he did. I wanted him twisted up and lost like I was.
“You walked away.” You shattered me. Just like he said he would.
He slid his hand farther between my legs. His thumb rubbed my clit while another finger slipped inside me. His teeth grazed my neck, then he bit me. Hard. And I tilted my head to one side because I liked it. A lot.
“I gave you what you said you wanted.” He kissed the spot his teeth just marked then looked me in the eyes. “Now I’m giving you what you’re too afraid to ask for.” Another finger.
It wasn’t the asking that I was afraid of.
A moan tore past my lips. One look at the confident set of his jaw and unapologetic hunger in his eyes, and I knew. The tension, the ache, the burn—he felt it too.
“Why do you keep running to him when we both know it’s me you crave? My mouth on your clit. My fingers fucking you. My cock between your legs.”
All Sutton would ever have to do was talk to me that way, touch me the way he was right now, look at me with his hypnotizing eyes, and he would own me. He was right. I belonged to him. I was his—mind, body, and soul, no matter what.
“You don’t have to answer with your mouth. Your body tells me all I need to know,” he said, adding a third finger, stretching me. Filling me.