“What are you going to do after college?”
“Take over the family’s businesses, of course.” She laughs. “That’s my major. Economics. I’m going to make Moldavia the jewel in the EU. We already have the second highest GDP per capita in Europe. We need to be the first.”
Marie Vassar is certainly ambitious. She has great plans to make Moldavian economy soar more than ever before. We go for walks down the Riviera, where bathers soak themselves in the sun and splash in the silvery Mediterranean waves. Paparazzi follow us, but are kept at arm’s length by our bodyguards. I have since learned to ignore these distractions.
“Look at this.” She waves her hand around the beach. “We need more tourists, more hotels, more casinos, more land. Moldavia can be twice as rich as it is. We’ll surpass Singapore.”
The press would caption us as ‘The Princess and her future Queen?’ So even if we have not leaked out news of our (informal) engagement, the world is already speculating that Alex and I would marry in place of Alex and Tatiana. Poor Tatiana. She’s completely out of the picture at this stage. But this is not a pity party. I’ll do anything to be with Alex but I’ll do it the correct way – without guile or stabbing anyone in the back.
Already they are calling Alex ‘the most eligible bachelor in the world’. It’s true. He’s a new King. Handsome as the gods themselves. Hunky, delectable, rich beyond most people’s wildest imaginings. And single.
Still.
I should be so lucky. And I am, but not because Alex is the most eligible bachelor alive. But because he’s Alex, and he loves me.
Alex is genuinely happy that at least one member of his family doesn’t think I’m pond scum.
“I’m glad you’re seeing her,” he remarks.
“You make it sound like I’m having an affair,” I complain.
His eyes sparkle dangerously. “Do you know what I would do if I ever caught you having an affair?”
I breathe. Alex still has the ability to make me runny in all my most erotic spots.
“No,” I whisper, “what will you do?”
He moves closer to me. So close that we are br**sts to chest, so close that if he tips his head just two inches towards me, his lips will seize mine.
He says, “I would put you over my knee, hogtie your wrists behind you and spank you.”
A delicious goose bump trail simmers down my body.
“You wouldn’t dare,” I tease.
“Oh? Try me.” He grins, that dangerous stare still mesmerizing me. I can look at Alex forever. No King has ever been so fine.
“Kiss me,” I beg.
“No.”
“But why?”
It’s ten at night, and we are alone in the East Wing parlor.
“Because I want to show you something.”
My gaze dips down to his very obvious erection. He wears jeans, but the bulge is very prominent. The denim practically strains to burst forth, contained only by three stretched buttons.
“I’ve seen it before, Your Majesty,” I say in a husky voice. It seems strange to be calling him that. It was only something I reserved for his father.
“Well, I want to show it you someplace else.”
Oooooo. The plot thickens.
“Where?”
“If I tell you now, it won’t be a surprise.”
“But you continue to surprise me every day, Your Majesty.”
“Not like this.”
He moves to an antique half-moon table and pulls out a drawer. He retrieves a red silk scarf and holds it up.
“Turn around,” he says. No . . . orders. His tone is all at once commanding.
He has never been like this before. I shiver, and I can’t decide if it’s out of pleasure or fear at this new Alex. Has his sudden elevation to kinghood changed him?
My lips moisten and part as I obey him. I turn my back to him, my skin prickling in anticipation. His shadow moves towards me. The scarf comes around my eyes and he wraps it tightly around my head.
“Don’t peek,” he whispers. His breath is hot and sweet against my ear.
As I stand there, trembling, wondering if he has been changed for good, he runs his palms across my br**sts and belly. My ni**les tense at his fluttery touch. Oh, how he knows every inch and every pore of me. He knows exactly how to excite me and leave me wanting more.
My breathing quickens.
His hands roam down to massage my bu**ocks. He avoids my sex, already moistening at the anticipation of pleasure. My clit clenches in its throbbing need. My pu**y muscles tighten, already imagining the heat of his hard, pulsing cock.
Oh Alex, Alex. I want to kiss and roam my lips over every inch of you.
With one hand, he pulls up my shoal of dark hair and holds it aloft. His lips flit to the back of my neck, kissing my skin, grazing me with his teeth as though to claim me. He nibbles and sucks at my earlobes. My senses are more primed than if I had sight. His subtle touch is simultaneously tantalizing and ticklish.
He places a wet suction pressure upon the side of my neck.
“Ohhh,” I gasp. “You’re not giving me a love bite.”
“Why not?”
“Because it will show up in photos!”
See how my life has changed? Three months ago, such a thing wouldn’t have bothered me because no one would have wanted to photograph me. But three months ago, I wouldn’t have had been receiving love bites from the most eligible bachelor in the world because I wouldn’t have believed myself capable of attracting anyone, let alone such a man.
I can’t see, but I can feel him grinning as he applies the love bite on my neck anyway, as though to claim me: You are mine, mine, mine.
He murmurs, “I’m going to lead you by the hand. Don’t trip, OK?”
I try not to as I follow him. I’m trusting in him completely not to let me fall.
He leads me through a maze of turns. I swear I will never be able to find my way back blindfolded. A tiny frisson of uncertainty fleets through me. Has Alex really changed? Or has he always been this way and he’s showing his true self to me for the first time? I don’t doubt that we love each other, but I’ve always wondered about Alex’s dominant side. The side he showed when he took me and slammed me against the bathroom wall for the very first time when we met.
Later, as we became lovers, we became more giving to each other. More solicitous of each other’s needs. More loving. But I’ve always wondered about the side of him he showed me that day. I’ve thought about it often. Even fantasized about him taking me in a very public place once again.