The Reluctant Wife: A Bodyguard – Princess Marriage of Convenience Romance (The Davenports Book 4)

He rushes me out of there, sidestepping those who try to stop us, shouldering past others. The curiosity on their faces is too much for me to bear. Not right now, when my heartbeat hasn’t returned to normal, and my pulse drums at my temples and at my wrists. Every beat of it trying to convince me that he’s safe. That I’m safe.

I’m unable to stop trembling and realize what I mistook to be shots fired catapulted me right back to when he was shot, to when the bullets narrowly missed me. A pressure grips my chest. My throat seems to close. I try to breathe, but my lungs burn. I realize I’m hyperventilating and, rather than allow people to realize what’s happening to me, I turn my face into his neck and draw deep breaths of his scent. So familiar. So safe.

My heartbeat finally slows. While my pussy begins a different kind of trembling. I hear voices. Viktor’s, asking the guests to let me pass. Then my father’s, asking if I’m okay and saying I can’t leave without bidding people goodbye. To which my husband firmly says that I’m not feeling well and I’m in no shape to stay. Then, we’re stepping out into the corridor, and I hear his footsteps and those of someone else up ahead. We reach the entrance to the palace and step out. Cool air flows over my skin. I shiver; he pulls me closer. Then, there’s only the rustling of the breeze, and I realize we’re walking toward our place.

I look up to find Viktor walking ahead of us. Cole brings up the rear.

We reach my husband’s house—our house—and Viktor opens the door for us. As we pass, he presses my shoulder. ‘Rest up.’ He exchanges nods with my husband, then steps back. The door closes behind us.

My husband carries me up the stairs, down the hallway, to the open double doors at the end. He steps through, walks over to the bed, and places me on it. When he begins to straighten, I shake my head and grab his hand. ‘Don’t let go.’

‘I’m not.’ He kisses the back of my palm, then sinks to his knees and slips off my stilettos. I sigh and wriggle my toes.

‘Better?’ he rumbles.

I reach for his tie, but he squeezes both of my hands. ‘Let me take care of you first, baby.’

His gruff voice brings tears to my eyes. And I let them slide down my cheeks.

He reaches up and wipes them away. ‘Does this mean you don’t need space anymore?’ His throat bobs as he swallows.

I cry harder and he holds me and rocks me until my tears slow. I sniffle, and burrow further into his chest.

He reaches behind me and unzips my dress. The fabric slithers down my shoulders. I rise to my feet, and it slinks down to catch around my waist. I shimmy out of it until it pools around my ankles. The tendons of his throat flex. He drags his gaze up my thick thighs, over the roll of my stomach, to the valley between my breasts, then the hollow of my throat, and to my face. Little flickers of heat arise in his wake.

‘You’re so beautiful,’ he whispers.

‘You make me feel beautiful,’ I confess.

He scoops me up in his arms and walks toward the ensuite bathroom. Putting me down, he runs a bath, dropping in a couple of my favorite bath bombs. The scent of honeysuckle, vanilla and strawberries fills the air. He walks around lighting the candles set up at strategic locations around the bath, and when he switches off the light, a soft golden glow fills the space.

‘It’s so gorgeous,’ I murmur.

‘Not as much as you.’ He turns to find I’ve removed my bra and panties and tossed them aside. Even in the shadowy light, his green eyes glow. Color smears his cheeks. He reaches me and bends to kiss, first one nipple, then the other. I shudder, then gasp when he presses little kisses down my stomach to my belly button and further down until he reaches the space between my legs. He licks at my clit, and the burst of pleasure in my veins threatens to undo me completely. My knees knock together, and I dig my fingers into his hair for support.

Already on his knees, he sinks to his haunches and urges me to part my legs. Then he swipes his tongue up my weeping slit, and I cry out. He licks and sucks and holds my pussy lips apart. Then curls his tongue around the swollen nub between them. Shivers of ecstasy course up my body. And when he squeezes my butt cheeks and bites down on my cunt, I cry out.

The orgasm hits me so quickly, my lungs burn. My nipples tingle. My scalp feels like it’s splintering into tiny pieces, each of which carries his name on it. As I slump, he rises to his feet. He holds me up until he’s sure I’m able to support myself, and then he strips.

I take in his magnificent chest planes, the dog tags, the scar from the bullet he took for me—I swallow. The sight of that will never cease to affect me. It’s proof of how much he loves me. But the scar isn’t as obvious as I thought it would be. It’s partially covered by a tattoo— A tattoo? I blink. Then reach over and trace the name he’s carved into his chest over his heart:

Empress of my Heart

Wow. I swallow. ‘Is that…’

‘It’s so I always have you with me, wherever I go.’

I rise up on my toes, and he picks me up like I weigh nothing. He always makes me feel so small, so delicate, so protected. He gets into the bath and lies back, places me between his legs, then reaches forward and shuts off the water.

In the silence that follows, I sink back against his broad chest. And when his arms come around me, the weight is so reassuring, so right, I know I’m home. ‘I love you.’ I place my hands on his and squeeze. ‘I love you so much.’

He tucks my head under his chin. ‘I can’t live without you. You’re my heart. My soul. My everything. Without you, I’m nothing.’

I turn my chin into his chest, relishing the vibrations of his voice across his ribcage. ‘When I heard those shots—well, what I thought were shots—the panic that gripped me—’ I shake my head. ‘I thought something had happened to you. Not that the shots had been fired from inside, but in that moment, I remembered how it’d been to see you on the ground and bleeding. To hold you in my arms as you struggled to breathe. To feel like I was going to lose you, and knowing I could not go on without you. It was at that moment I realized my life as I knew it could be over.’

I sense him stiffen and look up to find a quizzical expression in his eyes. I sit up, and when my breasts jiggle, his gaze drops to them. His breath quickens, and a sense of elations fills me. To know that this powerful man is so affected by me, that he feels so much for me, that he loves me, and respects me, and thinks the world of me, fills me with immense joy. I feel so light, I could be floating.

‘I’m stepping back from my duties to the Royal Family.’

His gaze widens, and he seems momentarily stunned. ‘But⁠—’

I put my finger on his lips. ‘I want to do this. I need to do this. I’ve needed to do this for so long… and what you said earlier struck a chord with me. You gave me the courage to accept that I don’t enjoy what I do. I don’t want to wake up every day, dreading the next official engagement. I don’t want to be in the public eye. I want to live for myself, and for you. I want to be safe, and I want you to be safe.” I draw in a shuddering breath. “That’s not possible as long as I am in the public eye. As the Duke of Verenza, you will be at my side at these public functions which puts you in danger—and that”—I shake my head—“that I cannot bear.”

‘I can take care of myself. And I can take care of you,’ he growls.

I trace the outline of his mouth, and the pulse at the base of his throat speeds up. ‘I know you can. But so long as I’m in the public eye, it’s inevitable that there will be danger associated with my movements. Which puts you in the line of fire, as well. If something happens to you, I won’t survive. I can’t live with the specter of god-knows-what hanging over us. I can’t, Ryot. I choose you. I choose us. I choose my freedom.’ When his cock throbs against my core, I know I’ve said the right thing.

He cups my cheek. ‘Are you sure?’

‘I am.’ I nod. ‘I’ve done my bit, getting you and the Davenport group to invest into Verenza. It’s up to Viktor to steer the country to the next stage.’

‘You shouldn’t do this for me—’he begins, but I shake my head.

‘I want to do this for us. So we can have a future together. So we can have a life where we can build a family’—I swallow—’if that’s what you want…’noveldrama

The creases around his eyes relax. ‘I want you. I want a family with you, baby.’ He lifts me up until I straddle him and lowers me onto his erect cock. The swollen head breaches my entrance, and I groan. I grab hold of his forearms and dig my knees into the sides of his waist. He throbs against my seam, and when I try to lower myself down further, he shakes his head. ‘Not until I allow you.’

I pout—’But I wanna”—then gasp when he squeezes my butt. Sensations course up my spine and back down to my throbbing clit.

‘Who do you belong to, baby?’ he growls.

‘You—’ I swallow. ‘Only you.’

‘That’s right.’ His grip on my hips grows almost punishing, and I can feel the brand of every single fingerprint on my skin. I feel the swollen head of his cock at my slit. I want so badly to tilt my hips and take him in, but if I try to do that two things will happen. Number one, he’ll stop me and he’s too strong for me to override him. And two, he’ll make me wait longer for my orgasm, and damn, I won’t be able to.

I dig my fingernails into his forearms and wait. I wait until he jerks his chin as if coming to a decision.

‘You do as I say, you feel me?’

I nod.

‘Good girl.’

His praise shoots liquid heat through my veins. My thighs tremble, my entire body turning into a storm of need, of desire. Of needing him inside of me. And just when I think I can’t stand it anymore, he punches his hips up and impales me.

‘Ryot,’ I cry out as he begins to fuck up and into me.

His forearms bunch, the planes of his chest turn to stone, and he grunts as he, once again, kicks his hips forward and slides in to the hilt. ‘Jesus, baby, you feel so bloody good.’ He holds me in place, so I can feel every throb of his cock, every ridge, every hard inch pushing against my walls. He feels so thick, so big, enough for little pain-filled pockets to radiate out from where we’re connected.

‘Okay?’ he asks through gritted teeth.

I nod, focused on how he’s filling me completely. He stays there for a few more seconds, giving me a chance to adjust, then he begins to move again.

He fucks me in earnest, pushing in until his monster cock hits the spot deep inside of me. The explosion builds up my legs, up my spine, and I’m so close.

Oh, god. ‘Ryot,’ I whimper.

‘With me, baby; stay with me.’

He thrust into me over and over again, and the orgasm grows bigger, larger than life, filling me, stretching me, becoming something so much more immense, so much more everything. The shudders speed up my body, increasing in ferocity, pushing me higher and higher, and when it peaks, I cry out. The climax crashes over me, my orgasm spinning me through a funnel and spitting me out the other side. I feel his guttural cry as he pours hot streams of cum inside of me and follows me over the edge.

I come down from the high and slump against his chest, becoming aware of the warm water lapping around us, of his arms banded around me, of his shaft pulsing inside me. He rises to his feet and, still joined, steps out of the tub. I struggle to open my eyes and when I look up at him, my eyes at half-mast, the ferocity of coming together still clinging to my senses, he smirks. ‘I am going to fuck you again.’