Читать книгу The Dreaming Of... Collection - Оливия Гейтс - Страница 44
ОглавлениеREYES WATCHED HER expression turn from hesitant to erotically pleased as he cupped her breast and teased the hard nub.
The voice that told him he wasn’t giving her room to change her mind was ruthlessly squashed. His hunger for her had flamed higher than every other need. And just as he’d taken her in Rio, he intended to let nothing stand in the way of his claiming her tonight.
He resumed his exploration of her body. Much to his very male satisfaction she arched her back and purred. And grew increasingly, pleasingly demanding.
She grabbed at his clothes and he hurriedly undressed. He yanked away her panties and positioned himself between her legs.
‘Yes. Please...now,’ she cried hoarsely.
Reyes surged inside her with a guttural roar. Sensation exploded all over his body at her wetness, her tight heat. She embraced him, rolled her hips in helpless abandon as pleasure overtook her.
He established a passionate rhythm she matched with enthusiasm. Much too soon, he was following her into bliss, shouting his ecstasy as he emptied himself inside her.
He watched her as they caught their breaths. Her face glowed with the flushed aftermath of sex. Reyes had never seen a more beautiful woman. His groin stirred. Her eyes slowly widened.
Smiling, he pressed a kiss against her heated cheek. ‘You have that effect on me.’ He pulled out of her. They both groaned at the sizzle of electricity.
Tucking her against his side, he caught her free hand in his, kissed her soft palm. Almost inevitably, his hand slid over her flat stomach. He heard her breath catch and searched her face.
A look of wonder, much like what he was experiencing at that very moment at the thought of his child growing inside her, passed over her face. For several heartbeats, he held her gaze. Then she blinked.
‘Reyes?’
‘Sí?’
‘I know you’re a prince and all, but please tell me you’re as terrified as I am at the thought of getting it wrong with this baby.’
‘I will not discuss my silent mental breakdown with you, except to mention that it’s very acute. And very unsexy.’
She laughed. The sound filled his chest with pleasure so strong, he forgot to breathe for a minute.
When he had it under control he moved his hand, explored some more. When he grazed a scar, he glanced down at her.
‘Tell me what happened here.’
She tensed and he pressed his mouth against her palm again. ‘Everything, Jasmine. I want to know everything. Before and after Stephen.’
Indecision blazed in her eyes for several seconds before she exhaled.
‘Have you heard the saying that some people are just born bad?’
She shook her head at his frown and continued. ‘For a long time I believed I was one of them. You know how my mother handled our situation. I just kept rebelling whenever I could. I think I wanted my mother to see me, deal with me. When she pretended like I didn’t exist, I turned truant at a young age. Fell in with the wrong crowd.’
‘What happened?’
‘I just...spiralled out of control for a long time.’
‘You were trying to get yourself heard the best way you could.’
‘That’s no excuse. I was a brat with a mother who didn’t care whether she lived or died and I lashed out.’
‘That’s not the end of your story though, obviously.’ He trailed his mouth over her palm again.
‘No.’ She shivered in his arms. He reached for a cashmere throw next to the fireplace and settled it over them. She snuggled into him and that alien feeling in his chest expanded wider. ‘You remember that turf war I told you about?’
Reyes nodded.
‘I was the turf they were fighting over. It happened a few months after I came out of juvie. Each side wanted me to join their gang. I seriously considered it. But I knew I would be burying my pain with destruction. So I refused, and all hell broke loose.’
He reared up and stared down at her. ‘Dios. How did you get out of that?’
‘I let myself be arrested again. I reckoned the police station was a safer place than the street. It was where I met Stephen. He was an MP then, touring the police station and I...’ She stopped and grimaced.
‘You what?’
A dull flush crept up her cheeks. ‘I may have tripped him up when he walked past me.’
He couldn’t help his smile. She answered with one of her own. Unable to resist, Reyes kissed her. When he lifted his head, she was breathless and her delicious mouth was swollen. ‘I presume that got his attention?’
She nodded. ‘He could’ve filed charges against me for assault. Instead bailed me out and he took me out for a coffee. We talked for hours. He delivered me home and met my mother. Then he started visiting us every week. A few months later I started taking on the gangs myself. But instead of knives and guns, I used words. I managed to mediate a truce between them and even extracted a promise from the leaders not to recruit children to run drugs for them.’
‘That’s where you got your passion for mediation from?’ he asked.
‘Yes. I returned to school, made good grades and got my first job at twenty-one. Stephen married my mother, and I guess the rest is history.’ Her eyes met his and shifted away. ‘Until Rio, that is. I’m so sorry about that, Reyes.’
Catching her chin with his finger, he tilted her face. ‘I know you are. I forgive you. I judged you harshly before I knew the truth behind your actions. You tried to protect your family the only way you knew how.’
‘But I ended up making things worse for you and your people.’
‘You’re here now, helping to fix it. That matters to me. With a new council in place, Mendez will no longer be able to play his games. The route may have been unfortunate, but perhaps it achieved something positive in the end. So from now on, we’ll consider Rio another lesson we’ll both learn from. Agreed?’
‘Agreed,’ she replied tremulously.
He brushed away the tears forming in her eyes. His head swimming with sensations he could barely grapple with, Reyes slanted his mouth over hers. When he was kissing her like this, he didn’t have to think. Didn’t have to wonder why he craved her even more with each kiss, each heartbeat.
He didn’t have to wonder why he wished they were already married and this were their honeymoon.
A stomach growled. He raised his head. ‘I believe that was you.’
She grimaced. ‘Jet lag kept me asleep through lunch, and I think we missed dinner.’
Reyes reached for his discarded trousers and took out his phone. He sent his chef the appropriate instructions and hung up.
‘Dinner is coming to us?’ A smile that seemed to grow more breathtaking each time curved her lips.
‘Sí. The perks of being a prince. You will command equal power once you’re my princess.’
A shadow passed over her face. He wanted to demand to know the reason behind it. Something stopped him.
Her fingers drifted over his brow and down to his cheek. ‘What will we do after we eat?’
‘I will bathe you and you will let me explore the rest of your scars.’
* * *
Jasmine woke in the middle of night. Although the bedroom in the wedding-cake house where they’d relocated to boasted a fire, Reyes hadn’t lit it when he’d carried her in. They’d had more urgent things in mind.
Now the room had cooled and she shivered. Glancing down, she realised why. The covers had slipped to the floor and the only things keeping her warm were Reyes’s muscular thigh and arm. Which left the rest of her body chilled.
Carefully sliding away, she picked up the nearest sheet and walked into the bathroom.
After using it, she came back to the bed.
Reyes was snoring softly, his face even more relaxed in sleep than it’d been this evening. A lock of hair had fallen over his brow and she itched to smooth it away but stopped herself.
Over and over tonight, her heart had filled to bursting when he’d made love to her. Somewhere around midnight, she’d finally admitted that she’d fallen in love with the Crown Prince of Santo Sierra.
She loved a man who had had his heart broken, not just by one woman, but by two. And while Anaïs’s betrayal had been short-term, his mother’s had gone on for years.
Her heart stuttered and tears prickled her eyes. He stirred in his sleep.
She turned away and walked quickly out of the bedroom before he woke. She couldn’t risk him seeing her expression. He’d been too adept at reading her moods lately. She couldn’t afford to let him see that, while she was certain he’d love their baby, she could foresee herself yearning for a love he could never give her.
Going to the window, she gazed out at the twinkling lights of San Domenica. This place was now her home, for better or worse.
She intended to do everything in her power to make sure it was the better.
She was going from delinquent to princess. Was she being selfish in asking for the icing on the cake?
Yes! She wanted it all.
Tears slipped down her cheeks before she could stop them.
‘You’re crying. Tell me why.’
She whirled around.
Reyes stood a few feet away, dressed in only his boxers, intense eyes scouring her face.
‘I wasn’t crying.’
One eyebrow was raised at her wet cheeks. ‘Unless it’s raining in here and I’m not aware of it, I beg to differ.’
‘I never cry. Tears are for the weak.’
His eyes narrowed. ‘Who told you that?’
‘A gang leader years ago.’ She shook her head. ‘I’m sorry. That whole trip down memory lane has dredged up things I’d rather forget.’
He stepped closer, cupped her cheeks. ‘And that’s what woke you?’
About to nod and let that assumption hold, she hesitated. And spoke the words that scrapped up from her shredding heart. ‘Are you sure you’re making the right choice, Reyes? Not for your people, but for you?’
His eyes grew wary. ‘Why the sudden introspection?’
‘I know we’re only doing this primarily for the baby, and for your people. But we’ll be in this marriage, too.’
Jaw clenching, he paced in tight circles in front of her. ‘What are you saying?’
‘That you need to be sure before we take a step we can’t retrace.’
He froze. His nostrils flared as he jerked his fingers through his hair. ‘What’s going on, Jasmine? Why are you crying? Are you having second thoughts?’
She swiped at her cheeks and grappled with what to say. Settling on a half truth, she met his gaze. Slowly, she nodded. ‘Yes, and I think deep down you probably are, too.’
His brows clamped together. ‘Don’t put words in my mouth.’
Jasmine would’ve given anything not to utter the words. ‘Then tell me in your own words.’
He stared at her for a long time. Then shook his head. ‘I don’t have the luxury of being whimsical about this situation. It is what it is.’
The vice tightened around her heart. ‘What about love, Reyes? Surely you have a view on whether you want love in your life or not?’
His hand slashed through the air. ‘My father married for love. Look where that got him.’
‘Are you saying if you fell in love and were loved back, it wouldn’t be enough for you?’
‘I’m saying love is never equal, no matter what anyone says. Someone always loves more, and that person has the most to lose.’ Shadows flickered in his eyes before he turned to pace the room again.
Her beautiful eyes clouded. ‘You really believe that, don’t you?’
Striding to her, he grabbed her arms. ‘I don’t believe in fairy tales. And my reality speaks for itself.’
She pushed out of his arms and padded to the window. Tugging the sheet closer, she wrapped her arms around herself.
Reyes watched her, the action both angering and disturbing him. ‘Jasmine?’
After a moment, she turned. ‘How is your father?’
He frowned, struggling to keep up with everything she was throwing at him.
Waking up to find her gone, he’d had a chilling sense of déjà vu, before he’d remembered he was back home, in a place where Jasmine wouldn’t be able to escape him easily. Except she was trying now. The woman he’d gone to sleep certain of spending the rest of his life with was having second thoughts.
And probing subjects he didn’t want to discuss. Yet he found himself answering. ‘As well as he can be considering his heart and organs are days away from failing.’ The throb of pain the thought brought made his breath catch. His father had had a good day today. Straight after his council meeting, Reyes had gone to see him. They’d talked for a full hour, during which Reyes had stumbled over himself in his plea for his father’s forgiveness for treating him so harshly.
His father had merely smiled and said, ‘Finally, you love,’ before he’d fallen asleep.
‘Can he speak?’ Jasmine asked.
He shoved a hand through his hair. ‘A few words when the medication isn’t strong enough to make him sleepy.’
She nodded. ‘Can you do me a favour? The next time you see him, ask him if he’d do it all over again. Love your mother with unconditional love.’
His insides clenched and he exhaled. ‘I don’t need to ask him. I know he would.’
‘Do you think that’s foolish? Those brief moments of happiness to balance the pain and the betrayal?’
‘Jasmine—’
‘Just humour me. You have no idea how many times I wished for my mother to just tell me she loved me, or for her to remember it was my birthday without the shopkeeper down the road having to remind her. Was it always that bad between your parents?’
Reyes thought back to birthdays, skiing holidays, family gatherings. His mother had made an effort on those rare occasions. Those were the happiest he’d seen his father. But as with all things, the happy moments were fleeting, the painful moments lingering the longest.
He shook his head. ‘It wasn’t, no. But it was a life...so-called love...without trust and respect. And to me that’s no life at all. Do you not agree?’
Her shoulders slumped. A flare of panic lit his insides.
‘It doesn’t really matter what I think, does it? You’ve made up your mind. We have a wedding to plan and a baby to look forward to.’
She was staying. The panic should’ve abated, yet it escalated. ‘We can make this work, Jasmine.’
Her dejection grew even more palpable. ‘Reyes—’
He cupped her shoulders. ‘We will make it work. That is my edict.’
Her chin rose and although her eyes filled with more tears, they didn’t spill. But they spiked her lashes and clung like tiny diamonds.
‘I know you’re the Crown Prince, possibly soon to be King, but I’m really tired of you ordering me around like I’m some type of minion. Get over yourself already.’
She flung away from him, trailed the sheet to the bedroom and then reversed her trajectory back to the living room to snatch up her gown.
Watching her try to manoeuvre the dress on while keeping hold of the sheet tugged a reluctant smile from his lips, despite his churning feelings.
She saw it and glared at him. ‘You think this is funny?’
‘Firstly, I don’t think I’ve ever been told to get over myself before. Secondly, I suggest you stop hopping around like that before you fall over and break a bone. Or worse.’
‘Firstly, I think it’s high time someone told you to get over yourself. Secondly—’ She yanked the dress up, dropped the sheet, and tripped over her feet. He lunged forward, all mirth gone from the situation, and caught her in his arms.
‘You can let me go now. I’m done putting my dress on.’
His chest tightened again, harder than before. ‘And where do you propose going at three in the morning?’
‘Back to the palace, of course.’
‘No. If you’re upset we’ll talk about it now.’
That look of inevitable acceptance of defeat crossed her face again. Dios, what was going on? ‘You can’t will something into place that doesn’t exist, Reyes.’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘We’re only marrying because of the baby. I think we should focus on that and not fool ourselves into thinking this can ever be something more, okay?’
Something more. A part of him wanted that. The part that wanted to say to hell with everything and jump in blind. But he couldn’t afford to do that. This time the stakes were much too high. ‘Jasmine, I can’t give you what—’
She held up her hand and shook her head. ‘I know. I’m not what you wanted. You don’t need to spell it out.’ She turned away. ‘I’d really like to return to the palace now, please.’
He dressed. Made sure she was warm enough in the pre-dawn air as he settled her into the buggy. All the while feeling terrified that he had lost the most important battle of his life.
