Now
I was awake. “Are you jealous?” I gasped, blinking at him.
“No, of course not,” he lied, averting his gaze and grabbing my cock to distract me.
The fuck he’s not. Hell, that gives me hope.
“Who were the men I smell on you?” Torr purred as he fondled my dick. “You can tell me. Samantha said I was letting their scents cloud my judgment when it came to you, being a predator and all.”
“That’s not all you need to be forgiven for, Torr,” I grumbled even as I spread my legs for him. “Nice of you to tell Ty that you were fucking me as if embarrassed how I please you.”
He froze and met my eyes, blinking at me before resuming his pleasing me. “That’s not what I meant at all. Decades of being the one sinking his cock into people and when we were
faking
our encounter to lure in an
assassin
that’s what popped into my head first. You please me, Hadley. You know that.”
“That’s fair,” I agreed. “I can see that.” I reached up and cupped his cheek. “I am sorry about your cousins. I’m not some psycho killer, Torr. I was protecting you and—”
“I know. I was taking their treachery out on you and that wasn’t fair. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for embarrassing Konrad. I was angry.” His breath hitched and his voice weakened with every word spoken. That told me all I needed to know.
He truly meant it.
“I get being angry at your cousins and confused over all this, taking it out on others,” I conceded as the tension I hadn’t realized I had in my muscles dissipated.
“Not just that,” he sighed before letting go of my cock and getting back off the bed. I watched with rapture as he let his robe slip off his shoulders and fall to the ground. Then he shocked the hell out of me by moving back on the bed and straddling my lap, my cock nestling against his firm ass. “You wouldn’t let me tend to you. Protecting me had your insides coming out and you’re yelling at me to duck like a coward.
“Do you have any idea what that does to a person, Hadley? I cowered behind the bed because you asked me to instead of
helping
. I should have been tending to you and pointing the gun at the door. I’m not an invalid.” He held up his hand when I opened my mouth. “You don’t know my training so you have to assume I have none, Samantha made me see that when I calmed down. But it was more than that. My life is
not
worth more than yours.”
“But it
is
, Torr. We both know that. Your people need you and—”
“And if you want to knock me out of the way to save me from getting shot, fine. I understand why I’m needed to keep order, but that doesn’t make me more
valuable
. And that definitely doesn’t make it any more sensible that you’re bleeding out while I’m hiding. I could have helped. You should have
let me
help, trusted me that I could handle it.”
“I’m not dismissing what you’re saying,” I hedged as I rubbed my hands up his arms. “And I appreciate that you still did it even though you didn’t agree with me, knowing that it could cause more confusion and a worse outcome. I think Samantha nailed it on the head. If it had been Director Woodrow I was protecting, I would have given him the gun and let him take over. I don’t know what you’re capable of.
“I only saw a threat to you that you didn’t acknowledge because it was family. I couldn’t take the risk more family came through the door and you’d let them slide, getting us both killed. Tomorrow we can rectify that and you can show me what you can do.”
“Deal.” He smiled at me as he leaned down and kissed me gently. “And I was being an idiot about my cousin. It’s just, Ty was a fool and never the brains of any operation. I could
totally
see him having come to talk to me privately without all the eyes of court and thinking he should come armed, not understanding how that would make him a potential threat. I’m
glad
you handled things and overruled me.”
“So is you sitting on my lap naked my thank you for saving your life?” I asked when he squirmed a bit.
Again.
I’d been trying to ignore it during the conversation but it was getting really hard—and so was I. Yeah, yeah, blood loss, and the rest of it was now in my groin. Stupid pun. Whatever. I wanted sex.
“Actually, I came to apologize and was so turned on by what you were saying in your sleep, I decided to put in the toy and see—” He yelped as I rolled us over and flipped him onto his stomach.
“I want to see,” I growled as I palmed his ass. “Oh fuck, Torr. That’s hot. You look
hot
with a plug in, stretched out and ready. Did you get ready for me, babe?”
“Yes,” he hissed, fisting the sheets, and he pushed his ass up into my hands. “You were talking so dirty, begging me to dance on your cock in your sleep. I want that. I want to please you. You don’t need the men I smell on you.”
I froze, realizing I would really need to address that issue. I wanted to snap about what I’d learned from Ty about the women Torr had been with, but instead, I tried to be patient. I was the first man he’d ever been with, and it made sense he would doubt his ability to please me.
But the opposite was true for me since he’d only ever been with women… If that made any sense.
“Before I had a random hook up with Chicago and Aurelo—who are a couple in love and brought us the news we gave on the USB drive—it’s been years since I’ve been with anyone, Torr. They wanted to try playing with a third in their bed and I was lonely. Sure, they were hot and I was attracted to Chicago especially, but I’d been beat up, almost getting killed, and Chicago saved me. He was sweet and saved me, our world even, with what he found out—”
“He’s the hacker that discovered all of this?” Torr froze and looked at me over his shoulder. I gave a quick nod, not sure what else to do or how to read his reaction. “And he saved you. Was he a sexy little thing too?”
“Yes.” My heart skipped a beat even as I admitted it. This conversation was going downhill instead of assuring Torr that I didn’t want anyone else.
“Probably better in bed than me,” Torr grumbled and pulled away.
That was an easy statement to disagree with, and it gave me hope we could turn the situation around. “No.”
Torr was fuming as he sat up and scooted to the edge of the bed. “Right, of course he was. Adventurous enough to have a ménage and offer more than I could. He’s probably—what?” His head snapped to mine as what I said sank in.
“He was the best sex I’d ever had until being with you.” I grabbed him around the waist and dragged him back to me as I rolled us over again so he was on top. “And I
do
want to see you dance on my cock. I wasn’t moaning Chicago’s name, was I?”
“No, no, you weren’t,” Torr breathed, understanding shining in his eyes. “You really prefer me?”
“Let me sample your perfect body again just to be sure,” I teased.
“Ass.”
“No, I want in your ass. Right.
Now
,” I snarled as I grabbed his hips. He nodded, reached behind him, and pulled out the plug, the epitome of decadence as he moaned at the sensations. I lowered him onto my cock, waiting until he adjusted to my size and then smiled up at him. “Dance for me, babe. I want my thank you.”
6
Torr rode me all right. Damn that man had moves. When we were spent, I mounted him from behind and fucked him stupid once more—just for good measure. Then we collapsed down to the bed, tangled together and sated.
And he didn’t pull away from me. I thought it was a good step. A move in the right direction that maybe he could let someone in. Granted, I didn’t assume it was going to be me. Or even that I wanted it to be me. I didn’t know the guy all that well, and I had no way of being able to tell if it was serious yet or not.
Now if I could convince my heart of that. Because I looked at Torr and I saw my future.
Dumb. Ass. That was a great way to set myself up for heartbreak. Fuck. Tard.
So then I really felt the fool when I woke up the next morning—alone. I growled and rolled out of bed, storming into his bedroom only to find it empty.
“Son of a
bitch
!” I found some clothes I could use in the main part of his suite with a note from Samantha that they’d get me more soon. I took the world’s fastest shower, wanting all scent of Torr off me before going in public.
And the remaining dried blood of mine. Couldn’t forget that. There wasn’t much, but yeah, I found some and it was gross.
Then I yanked on the clothes and bolted out of the room no more than ten minutes after I’d woken up. I almost felt bad for the first feline I saw. “Where is King Torrance?”
“Umm, are you going to calm down before you get to him?” the woman asked, glancing at her friend.
“Probably not, but I’m his bodyguard, and he fucking ditched me while I was recovering from an injury saving his ass. So I have
every
reason to be pissed,” I seethed as my hands clenched into fists. When she didn’t speak, I was twenty seconds from pulling out my hair. “Want to get yourself added to my shit list?”
“No, but I won’t send you off to my
King
so angry,” she snapped.
I took a few deep breaths, remembering that this wasn’t her fault, and she was doing right by Torr. “Fair enough. I’m not going to hurt him. I only yell.”
“Oh, I would pay to see that when he’s sparring with Samantha,” the friend chuckled. “They go at it so hard that there’s competition and adrenaline coming off the room. I swear I don’t see why they just don’t admit how they feel about each other. She’d make a wonderful consort for the King.”
“I’ll make note of that,” I bit out. “And glad
you
can keep a secret.” When they both stared at me, I rolled my eyes. “If he’s sparring with Samantha, you just told me they’re in the training room or gym.” I turned on my heel and headed in the general direction I’d been told the day before.
I asked a few of the guards I recognized, and they pointed me to the right room, probably realizing that it wasn’t the time to screw with me. When I got there, I was thrown for another loop by the crowd watching.
“She shouldn’t have tapped him on his ass when he was down,” one guard muttered to the other. “Every time she pushes his buttons like that she ends up losing in spectacular fashion.”
“No way. He’s distracted. I’ve got fifty on Samantha,” his buddy argued.
“Deal.”
Torr ducked a blow from his friend and swung out, clipping her in the chest with his arm. She went back down on the mats hard, rolling with the hit and flipping onto her feet. Then Samantha landed a tired roundabout to the King’s face.
It was still a good hit because he turned around as he fell down, landing on his hands and the balls of his feet. Torr did a back flip and kicked her on the way to righting himself. She kept her feet and wiped the blood from her nose with the back of her hand.
“Well I won that part,” Torr taunted as he danced around, light on his feet in a way any boxer would be impressed with. “I drew first blood.”
“Yeah, yeah, you’re
fabulous
,” she growled, before punching him in the face. He blocked the next blow and gave her an uppercut that knocked her back on her ass. “Okay, you win. That hurt. I think my nose is in my brain and we’ve been going at this for way too long.”
“You questioned if I was winning my fights because the Royal Guard was going too easy on me during training. I wanted to make my point clear.” He offered her a hand up, both of them panting.
“And your
best
friend
would be any tougher on you?” I called out as I stepped through the group. “I find that hard to believe.” I pulled my shirt over my head before yanking off my shoes since Torr was barefoot.
“It’s not fair for him to fight you when he’s already been fighting,” someone called out, recognizing the challenge.
“And I was seriously injured last night and haven’t had the time to fully heal,” I shot right back, staring them all down. “War is not
fair
. There’s no time-out or rotating people out because someone got tired. Battle is balls out, fighting for your life, and the people you are sworn to protect no matter what. Injuries don’t matter. Tired isn’t a word that factors in.”
“Your point is valid,” Torr agreed as he got into his fighting stance. “And if this is what it takes for you to understand I’m not deadweight as King, then so be it.”
“Guys, we were sparring with some taunting. Hadley’s pissed and your pride is coming out,” Samantha argued as she started to move back into the ring. We both shot her a dirty look, and she backed off, sighing as she held her ribs from one hit or another. “This is a disaster in the making.”
“Yeah, well, he wasn’t supposed to go anywhere without me and still snuck out while I was recovering without informing me or letting me know if he had a proper security detail the morning after two felines tried to kill him,” I snapped.
“This is something for private, Hadley,” Samantha tried again.
“I’m not a child,” Torr shouted at me, ignoring her.