Page 25 of Out of Office Nights (Royals of Cartana #2)

She sighed, the memory of what came next slashing through her. ‘I came home…after. Jida was already sick, but she was still my rock. I think…all this heaviness I’m carrying is because I helped her as much as I could, but if I hadn’t been so preoccupied, maybe I could’ve done more.’

His silence when she finished speaking drew her to face him. His eyes were narrowed, his face set in enigmatic lines she couldn’t fathom.

‘You wanted to know. Well, that’s the whole sordid saga. Are we done with this now?’

He closed the gap between them. ‘Not quite, tesoro .’

She shook her head vehemently. ‘No, I’m done with—’

His fingers brushing firmly over her lips stopped her words.

Silver eyes burned into her as he quickly replaced his fingers with his mouth.

The kiss was hard, tinged with annoyance.

But it quickly morphed into something dangerous and familiar.

A deep, unrelenting craving that dragged her arms up to wrap around his neck.

That propelled her body that vital inch closer so she could plaster herself against him.

He reared back, strong hand gripping her shoulders. A sound left her throat, embarrassingly resembling a whimper. She swallowed hard before another one could follow.

‘Is it just misplaced guilt you’re carrying around, or are you struggling to burn the past sketches of your life where he’s concerned?’

‘Misplaced?’ she echoed.

‘From what you’ve said about your grandmother, I think she was a tough woman, but she obviously loved you. She probably forgave you long before she passed. So sí , I believe your guilt is misplaced. Now answer the second part,’ he pressed.

Her heart thudded dully. As much as she wanted to strenuously deny it she couldn’t. Nathan had coloured a large swathe of her relationships since. Or the lack of them, in truth. ‘Some things are imprinted too deep to burn away.’

His nostrils flared, his eyes hardening. ‘Shall we see about that?’

‘What—? Teo!’

He tossed her on the bed. Then launched himself after her while she was still bouncing on it. Strong arms grappled her into place beneath him, his eyes ablaze with lust and inextinguishable purpose.

Sabeen’s mouth gaped when she read his intent. Teo meant to erase every vestige of Nathan from her mind in the most carnal way possible.

A way that had her thighs falling in open and shameless invitation, even as her inner self shook her head with mounting despair.

He pulled away at the last moment, dragging a frustrated objection from her throat. ‘Beg me for it, Sabeen,’ he commanded thickly.

Oh God. ‘You think you’re that irresistible?’

His eyes scorched her. ‘I know it. So do you. Beg,’ he insisted.

Eyes locked on his, she raised her arms above her head, pinning her own wrists together. His eyes flicked upward, his nostrils flaring at her willing subjugation. Next, she raised her knees, taking care to slide over every inch of his outer thighs on the way to wrapping her legs around his waist.

He thickened so he was even harder, bigger against her. His breath truncated, sensual lips she was dying to taste again parting on slow pants. Still he commanded the words from her.

When her chest started to rise, he wrapped a hand around her throat, stalling her. His nose brushed hers, but his eyes never closed. His will bore down hard on hers.

Then he employed sinful tactics of his own.

With a deft angling of his hips, he brought the tip of his wide shaft to rest against her wet core.

Decadent shudders drowned her at the wicked promise of being filled.

Possessed. At the very thought that he could succeed in cleansing her of the remaining echoes of devastation and humiliation.

The very thought that she could finally be free… She swallowed then shuddered all over again at the possibility.

His eyes darkened on seeing her reaction. ‘ Dios mio , you drive me insane. Do you know that?’

‘Enough to give us both what we want without the royal theatrics?’

‘You think this is mere theatrics?’

‘What else can it be?’

He shook his head, brushing his nose across hers once more. ‘Give me what I want, and you’ll find out for yourself.’ Then he wickedly eased himself in a mere half inch.

Another whimper completely disgraced her. ‘Teo…’

‘ Tesoro …’

She bit the inside of her cheek, every inch of her body on fire. Deliverance hovered, one simple word away. And she wanted it…needed it just as much as she craved this delicious dance between them.

She squeezed her eyes shut.

‘No. Open your eyes. Look at me. There will be no mistaking what this is. Who I am.’

She swallowed, feeling the imprint of his hand on her throat. And moaned with helpless delight. In the end the word slipped out. Hot. Heavy. Freeing . ‘Please.’

A shudder moved through him. ‘Again.’

‘P-please.’

Colour scoured his chiselled cheek bones, the first sign that he too was unravelling. ‘Once more,’ he croaked.

‘Please, Teo. Take me! Fuck me! ’

With a primal grunt he drove into her with all the purpose of a possessed man, his mouth swooping that last inch to claim the scream that ripped through her as he gave her everything she craved. The hand around her neck held for another moment, then shot up to grip her still-crossed hands.

Hard chest to soft chest, hips locked in sublime coupling, he made good on his vow and drove every last thought of the past from her head.

The despised churning sensation that had sparked to life with each update of his father’s health grew as Teo stepped out of his residence. It was so much easier losing himself in Sabeen’s arms.

But the last twenty-four hours had been intense, and while she made a stunning picture passed out in his sex-rumpled bed, he wasn’t monstrous enough to interrupt her sleep.

Besides, he suspected his twin would invade his privacy if he ignored one more text. That sibling was waiting for him, silent and watchful as only a deadly ex-special operative could be as he tracked Teo’s approach.

Valenti said nothing as Teo slid into the passenger seat of the Mercedes sports car his brother drove when he was in Cartana, but it didn’t stop his brother from sending him probing looks on the short ride to the main palace.

‘What?’ Teo growled eventually.

‘You brought her here?’

He didn’t bother asking how Valenti knew. ‘What’s it to you?’

‘You usually keep them far away,’ Valenti stated the obvious, setting Teo’s teeth on edge.

He wasn’t sure which annoyed him more: having Sabeen lumped in with faceless past liaisons or the truth that he’d brought her here, to the heart of every accusation of his flaws he’d ever faced in his life. ‘You let her into your workshop too?’

He hadn’t yet, but since he was unnerved by the very idea that he wouldn’t mind letting Sabeen into his most sacred place, he kept his gaze pinned on the centuries-old facade of the place that had never truly felt like home.

‘And what if I did?’ His snap trumpeted his fraying control, but he didn’t care.

Valenti’s perusal sliced deeper. ‘You won’t even let me in there. Some would say you’re letting the twin code down,’ he said, his voice tinder-dry.

Teo’s breath whistled out of a tight throat. Hell, his whole body was tight. ‘Have you forgotten that she’s my creative director?’

‘Stop wriggling out of it. That place is your sanctum sanctorum. You flip metaphorical tables if anyone so much as looks at the door, never mind approaches it.’

Teo’s teeth set tighter. Valenti’s fingers drummed on the steering wheel for several seconds. ‘You don’t think I know what this is about?’

Teo tensed again but kept his lips sealed.

‘You could’ve set up your workshop anywhere on earth. You threw everyone off the scent by setting up the second-best one in Milan. Because of him.’

Him . Their father.

Something burned at the back of his eyes. He turned his head away, blinked rapidly to disperse the impediment. ‘You have no idea what—’

‘Your soul is here, Teo. Because you want him to see you,’ he said with such solemn conviction, the bottom fell out of Teo’s gut. ‘Did it occur to you that you made it easy for him by pretending not to want what you want?’

His gut clenched hard because hadn’t that already occurred to him?

That by assuming the very persona he had, he’d flipped the bird at the very thing he actually wanted?

‘What’s the fun in making things easy? Even absurd things my twin brother purports to think I want?

’ The joke fell as flat as the denial, both dying before they’d even been born.

‘If you say so,’ Valenti rasped as they arrived at the palace doors.

‘I do. So drop it.’

Valenti sent him one last, hard look and opened his door. In silence they entered the palace wing that led to their father’s residence.

Azar waited outside the double doors. When Teo reached him, his brother tugged him into a one-armed embrace. A fraction of his turbulent emotions settled. If nothing else, he’d always had his brothers’ unwavering affection.

‘About time you showed up. He’s been asking for you.’

It took a moment to realise Azar meant him . Teo’s heart flipped at the news then common sense reasserted itself. ‘Nice try, brother.’

Azar frowned before his eyes flicked to Valenti. Teo ignored them both. ‘Let’s get this over with, shall we?’

His muscles clenched tight as the valets opened the suite doors.

Old King Alfonse was laid up in bed, exactly where he’d been the last time Teo had visited several weeks ago.

Since then, though, his father’s health had declined.

It dawned on him then that with the old man’s health having bounced back so often from death’s door, their father’s sheer willpower always defying the odds, he’d believed it would repeat that pattern this time too.

He took solace in seeing that illness hadn’t diminished the former king’s formidable character. Or changed him, apparently.