Page 46 of Royal
How much worse must it have been for Maxence as a child, when no one reallyhadcared enough to notice that he’d been kidnapped?
When Maxence had washed every intimate part of her and then steered her back into the shower stream to rinse her off, he lifted the showerhead and hose off the hook that it hung on, rinsing every part of her with the spray.
As he reached for the shampoo, Dree grabbed him around the waist, holding on again.
He held her in his arms again and murmured, “No matter what I have to do, I will make sure no one ever takes you again. We have private bodyguards now, Rogue Security. If you would like your own private mercenaries hanging around you for the rest of your life, we can do that. Even though I am assured Magnus Jensen will ferret out anyone who has been brainwashed or blackmailed from Monaco’s forces, I will hire whomever and however many separate security people you need so you will feel safe.”
Because no one had ever done that for him. His parents had chucked him back into boarding school in Switzerland, and no one had made him feel safe.
Dree whispered, “I’m okay. I’ll be okay.”
Maxence said, “You will. I’ll make sure you’re okay.”
He tilted her chin up and kissed her, his mouth caressing hers in the warm spray from the showerhead.
Max washed her hair gently, his fingers massaging her scalp and then rinsing the shampoo out while his fingers trailed lower, sometimes cradling her against his big male body while her fingers traced over his muscular thighs and arms.
He soaped up and rinsed quickly. Dree tried to help, but he was too quick. After they got out, he dried her off and wrapped her up in a big fluffy towel, tousling her hair so that it fell in waves.
Then Maxence carried her to the bedroom and laid her down in the sheets, crawling in next to her and pulling the comforter over them.
Dree wound around his body, her arms and legs finding his warm, hard flesh to tendril around.
He held her for what felt like hours because she could have sworn that she’d heard a thousand of the two-stroke beats of his heart under her ear, and his lips touched her temple as he murmured that he loved her.
His first whisper was so soft that she almost didn’t hear it.
Maxence had told Dree he loved her before of course. He’d announced it to everyone in the middle of the Sea Change Gala, and he’d listed things about her that he loved. He’d said he loved her spirit, that he loved her laugh, and that he loved the wiggle of her chubby ass.
But this quiet exhalation that carried his voice was different. “You’re my entire world. When we watched the surveillance video from the Sea Change Gala, where Kir Sokolov grabbed you and dragged you off with him, I couldn’t imagine living without youbecause I love you.”
His fingers brushed her shoulders and her breasts, and her soft body molded against his hard flesh.
He whispered, “I was empty for those moments that felt like a lifetime when I couldn’t find you. It took twenty minutes to find the pings from my cell phone and for the computer to render Kir Sokolov’s face so we knew what had happened. My chest was hollow, and yet, I was bursting with desperation to find youbecause I love you.”
Dree moved to lie on top of him, her body finding and taking him into herself. His hands rested on her hips, encouraging her to move on top of him, and his eyes closed.
The tips of the broken feathers from the tattoo on his back trailed over his shoulders and arms, and she wanted to brush them away and tell him he was an angel, not a fallen one.
His skin gathered between his brows, and his next breath was almost a gasp. “The sea and the sky fell away. I couldn’t fathom creation without you in it. We’ve only had a few months together, and yet this time we’ve spent iseverythingto me. I’ve lived my whole life in these last few months. I want to make a new life with you. I want every minute of my life to be with youbecause I love you.”
His words in her mind and the friction of their bodies overwhelmed her.
She was a spark and a gasp and a billowing swell of her heart returning his words, and her body became light and soared.
When she settled, Dree found herself lying on Maxence’s chest, his arms tightly clutching her.
She whispered, “I love you, too.”
Chapter Seventeen
HEAVEN
Maxence
Maxence had traveled from his own personal definition of Hell on the ship this morning to his conception of Heaven in six hours.
Dree’s soft body pressed him into the mattress, and he was surrounded by one of the few places he’d ever thought of as home.