His Royal Prize (11 page)

She leaned limply against the seat and reached down to unzip his pants. He quickly pushed them down over his hips along with his underwear and drew her over the console to straddle him.

She shifted on his lap, reaching down to position him at the center of her body. Then she impaled herself on him. She pulled his mouth to hers and he kissed her briefly, wanting to taste her breasts. He leaned down and took her nipple into his mouth, licking and sucking her.

He pulled strongly on her breasts with his mouth as she moved up and down on his erection. He loved the way she felt wrapped around him. He couldn’t get enough of her.

She moaned his name and clutched at his shoulders.
He put his hands on her hips to hurry her movements as he felt his orgasm building.

He was about to spill himself into her but he wanted to make sure she came again. He bit down on her sensitive nipples to push her to the brink.

She tightened and called his name just as stars exploded behind his eyes. He groaned loudly and rocked up into her body three more times before he felt drained.

He rested his head against her breast and held her tightly to him as they both caught their breath.

Here in her arms he didn’t think about the fact that they might be too different to make this work. He didn’t think about the fact that obsessions could burn out and leave behind nothing. He didn’t think about anything but the way she felt in his arms. And how each breath he took was filled with her.

He knew that he should address the attitude of Edmond and others who thought Amelia Munroe wasn’t good enough to run a business or associate with him.

G
eoff’s sisters were waiting for him when he came home from work on Friday. He was exhausted. After two days of having the paparazzi follow him around, he was getting seriously tired of the spotlight that Amelia lived in—nothing was going to make him comfortable with it. He had to find some way to escape from the constant attention.

He’d been dodging calls from Edmond and his mother all day long. And now to find Gemma and Caroline here—he was tempted to get in the Veyron and drive away, away from the city and away from everything.

But he’d never been a running away kind of man and he wasn’t about to start now.

“Hello, brats.”

“Hello, hypocrite,” Caro said.

“Is this about Amelia?” he asked.

“Yes. Why is it you can date someone and have your picture in the papers every day but I’m not welcome to bring Paul to your place on Sunday?”

He rubbed his hands through his hair and took a deep breath. “Bring him if you want to. I would enjoy talking to him.”

“You have to be nice, Geoff, or I’m going to grill Amelia.”

“Go ahead. She can handle herself. Can you say the same for Paul?”

She smiled at him. “Yes, I can. He is a professional.”

“Enough, Caro. Geoff, I want to talk to you about Mum,” Gemma said.

The older of his two sisters had always been the more serious of the girls. And she also had taken the role of mother hen at a fairly young age.

“Is she okay?”

“I’m not sure. She called me last night to discuss how you are with women,” Gemma said. “I think the coverage of you and Amelia is reminding her a little of her relationship with your father.”

Geoff didn’t like that. The relationship of his mother and his biological father had set his mother on the path to seclusion from the world. It was only when she’d met and married the girls’ father that she’d started to come out of her shell again.

“I think meeting Amelia this weekend will help ease her mind. I’m not Malcolm and I’m not toying with Amelia,” he said.

“Good,” Gemma said. “Now that that is settled. Who should I bring this weekend?”

“Who is on the list?” Caro said.

“You don’t have to bring a date,” Geoff said. He hadn’t been planning on having a huge party—just his mother and sisters and Amelia.

“Well, if Caro is bringing Paul, I should have someone,” Gemma said.

“Do you want me to invite someone for you?” he asked. He had already started going through the list of men he thought would be suitable for Gemma to date.

“No. I’ll find someone. What time should we be at your place on Sunday?”

“Around noon,” he said.

The girls left and Geoff went into his study. He had never thought of himself as Malcolm Devonshire’s son, but he knew he resembled his father—more than the other two sons did. They all had Malcolm’s eyes but Geoff had his features, too.

For the first time he thought about how that may have affected his mother. She’d always loved him, but seeing him as a grown man must be hard for her. And now, with the media glare on his relationship with Amelia, it seemed to be sending her into a panic.

It became doubly important to him to keep the hounds at bay. Not only so that he could have Amelia to himself but also so that his mother didn’t have to relive what had been such a hard time in her life.

His phone rang and he answered it on the second ring.

“Devonshire,” he said.

“Geoff, this is Edmond. We need to meet.”

“I can probably squeeze you in on Monday, but you’ll have to speak to my secretary.”

“This can’t wait.”

“I can’t see you this afternoon,” Geoff said.

“I’m not going to be put off,” Edmond said.

The last thing Geoff wanted was to meet with Edmond this weekend to discuss the older man’s views on Amelia. They’d done their best to avoid the media and Everest Air was showing a profit.

“Does this have anything to do with the airline?”

“No, it’s about Amelia Munroe. I have already warned you about continuing to see her.”

“I’m a grown man, Edmond, you can’t tell me what to do. Since the airline is performing better than expected, I don’t see what you have to complain about.”

Edmond let out a long breath. “Very well. I need to see you this weekend. I have some papers for you to sign.”

“What papers?” Geoff asked.

“Your father—”

“Malcolm.”

“Yes, well, he had heard about your relationship with Amelia Munroe—”

“The business one? That’s the only one that concerns him,” Geoff said.

“No. This one is with Auggie Munroe according to my sources. Anyway, Malcolm wants a sworn statement from you specifying that you will not be romantically involved with Amelia Munroe.”

“I’m not signing that, so save yourself a trip.” If he needed further proof that Malcolm Devonshire was an ass, he had it.

“You’re backing yourself into a corner. If you don’t sign it, you will lose all rights to your inheritance. That
will nullify your half brothers’ inheritance as well. Your father plans to ruin you if you ruin his plans, Geoff.”

“Let him try. I’m my mother’s son, Edmond, don’t you ever forget that. My reputation is beyond reproach.”

“Amelia’s isn’t,” Edmond said.

He didn’t like hearing Edmond threaten Amelia, and that was a threat, pure and simple. “Malcolm might be used to leaving women in his path like roadkill but I’m not. And I’m certainly not going to let you threaten her. I’m not signing any papers.”

He hung up before Edmond could say anything else. He knew that his relationship with Amelia was going to have to either go to the next level or end, because the media and his biological father were doing their damnedest to tear them apart.

Amelia was surprised when she answered her door on Friday evening and found her brother standing there. He looked tired in his faded jeans and worn silk shirt. She stood there for a minute before stepping back to let him in.

“Do you have time for me?” Auggie asked.

That was the first time he’d ever asked her anything like that, and she wasn’t sure what he wanted. She glanced at her watch. “I’ve got about forty minutes.”

“Good. I talked to the board yesterday about your idea for making me the face of Munroe Hotels and they went for it. I am going to start by promoting the partnership agreement that you’re working on with Everest Air.”

“That’s great, Auggie,” she said. The board had of course already notified her but she didn’t see any reason to tell him this.

“I’m here because I think that I should take over brokering the deal. I think that Devonshire will probably deal better with me man-to-man, and with you dating him, it doesn’t seem appropriate for you to be doing business at the same time.”

Amelia couldn’t believe that this was coming from Auggie. “I’m not going to do anything to compromise the deal. And it’s actually not official yet anyway.”

“Fredrickson told me that unless you and I wanted to ruin the entire Munroe Hotels business, I need to step up and take control of this. Don’t be upset,” he said.

“I am. I’ve been running things behind the scenes for years and now because I’m dating Geoff, someone thinks I can’t do it anymore? That’s insulting.”

“That’s life,” Auggie said.

“Men can be pigheaded.”

Her brother laughed. “True, but until Fredrickson retires or gets booted off the board, there is little you or I can do about it.”

Auggie sounded like he was ready to run the company for the first time in years. “You sound different.”

“I am different now.”

“Why? Does it have something to do with why you needed a week off?”

He shrugged. “I took time off because…well, let’s just say I was dating someone but it didn’t work out.”

“A girl dumped you.”

“Not a girl, Lia,
the
girl. And the only way I’m going to get her back is to straighten my life out.”

“I’m glad to hear you say that. I hope you win her back,” she said.

“I will. What about you and Geoff? Are you serious about him?”

“More serious than I’ve ever been before. But I have no idea if it’s going to work out or not. I know that he doesn’t like all the media attention and to be honest, I think I’m sick of it, too. But how do I make it go away?”

Auggie pulled her into a hug. “I have no idea. If you figure that one out, let me know.”

“I will. Have you spoken to Father?” she asked. “About your new direction?”

“No. If I talk to him, he’ll make me doubt myself. I think I need to do this on my own for once.”

“I think so, too. If you need me, I’m here.”

“I know you are. But I think I’ve leaned on you enough throughout our lives.”

“I didn’t mind it,” she said. She liked knowing that she was the one who took care of Auggie. He was the one person in the world who’d always known what she really had to offer.

“My time’s almost up. I think I’ll go,” he said. “Do you need anything from me?

“Two things, actually. Would you mind taking Lady Godiva for the weekend? I’m going out of town,” she said. “I was going to have the dog-walking service take care of her, but I think she’d be happier with you.”

“I don’t mind at all. I could use the company,” he said. “What else do you need?”

“One more week working on the deal with Everest Air. I’ll finalize the terms we’ve been discussing, and then I’ll turn it over to you.”

“Okay,” Auggie agreed. “But then you let me do my thing.”

“Agreed.”

A few minutes later he left with the dog in one arm. “Bye, sis.”

“Bye, bro,” she said as Auggie let himself out of her apartment.

She finished packing her bag for the weekend away with Geoff—she was meeting him in the parking garage in less than ten minutes. She was both looking forward to this weekend and dreading it.

She didn’t know what his mother expected from her. This was the first time she’d met anyone’s family. Normally the men she went out with were long gone from their families and lived in her world, the jet-set world where no one owed anyone any loyalty.

And that went double for her. But Geoff had a family and they wanted to meet her. She wondered if he was going to want to meet her family.

Doubt washed over her and she wondered what she was doing with Geoff. But she pushed it aside. When they were together, everything always felt right. She was with him because she liked the person she was in his eyes.

And he trusted her and believed in her. That’s why they were doing business together. If he had any doubts, he never would have proposed the joint venture.

She liked the quiet moments that he found for them. And she loved the way he made her feel. He was in serious lust with her and she enjoyed every second of their lovemaking.

But that didn’t mean that they belonged together or
that they’d last longer than it took for the passion to burn out between them, did it? What if she wasn’t “the one” for him? She wanted to spend the rest of her days with Geoff and she was very afraid that no matter how things ended between them, she’d never be the same again.

She shook her head to clear out the thoughts—she was starting to drive herself crazy.

Amelia looked pensive when he picked her up. They didn’t talk much as they drove out of the city. There were no cars following them, maybe because he was in a black Audi and not his flashy Veyron. Amelia was wearing a sexy outfit that was making it a little hard for him to focus. But he could tell something was wrong.

“What’s on your mind?” he asked her once they were out of traffic and moving steadily along the highway.

“My brother stopped by tonight before you came to pick me up.”

“And?”

“He talked to the board and he’ll be taking over the partnership with Everest Air after we hammer out the details.”

“Why?” Geoff asked carefully.

“The board didn’t think it was appropriate for me to be dating you and doing business with you. I think they’re afraid that if you dump me, the deal will fall through.”

“That would never happen,” he said.

“Dumping me or pulling out of the deal?” she asked.

He glanced over at her. She had large-framed black sunglasses on so he couldn’t read her expression. But
the tense way she held her body let him know that she was anxiously awaiting his answer.

“If our relationship ends, it’s going to be because we both agreed that we’d taken it as far as we could.”

She pushed her sunglasses up on her head and turned to face him. “Where do you see us heading?”

“I’m not sure. I just know that I don’t like the thought of being without you.”

“Me, too,” she said. “When Auggie told me the board’s concerns, I had to wonder if your own board wasn’t saying the same thing to you.”

Geoff shrugged, he knew if he told Amelia about Edmond’s threats, she’d start to doubt herself and the business deal they’d carefully worked on. And Geoff knew he was more than capable of handling Edmond and Malcolm. Those two were mainly concerned about the bottom line, and as he’d told Edmond, he was his mother’s son.

He’d ignore the media. With Amelia doing the same, they’d be okay. He didn’t want to take a chance on doing something that would cause her to disappear. If Auggie took over the deal between their companies, it meant he wouldn’t have a reason to see her all the time. And though the deal was being kept under wraps now, he wanted to let it out of the bag. He wanted to let the world see what kind of woman Amelia was and that she was his.

“I don’t answer to anyone,” he said.

“We all do.”

“Everest Air is not the most important thing in the world to me.”

“But it’s your father’s company.”

“I never knew him. I still don’t. He contacted me and the other heirs because he’s dying.”

“Oh, Geoff. I’m sorry. I didn’t know he was sick. Does he want to make up for lost time?”

Geoff shook his head. “Hardly. He wants to make sure his company lives on long after he’s gone.”

She frowned at him. “God, that’s cold. You deserve better than that from him.”

“He’s a stranger to me, so it doesn’t bother me.”

“Good. It’s his loss. You’re a fantastic man and I’m sure your brothers are as well. I can’t believe he has never tried to get to know you all.”