The Royal Affair (The Palmera Royals) (13 page)

Guests stood back as they passed. She heard their whispers.

“The princess.”

“Her boyfriend?”

“Maybe her lover.”

“I heard they’re getting married.”

Words. All words. Rumors. Dreams. Unfulfilled dreams.

Jonas punched the elevator call button, and Marina refocused. “Stop! Where are you taking me?”

“To your room.”

“But…”

“You don’t want publicity, do you?”

Her gaze swiveled sideways to see a line of giggling Japanese tourists, cameras at the ready. The elevator door buzzed open, and, head down, Marina stomped into the elevator, relieved when the door closed and no one other than Jonas entered.

More fool her!

“Why did you come, Jonas?”

Hell if he knew. Actually that was so wrong. He definitely knew. “Had a change of heart.”

“You can’t do that.”

“Already have.” Twenty-four hours ago, he’d sent her away. Brutal, he knew, but it was called salvation. Then reality hit. He needed her. Needed to kiss her, hold her, make love. He’d made a decision. A temporary relationship would be best; that way, he could work her right out of every part of him.

“Do you think just because you crook a finger, I’ll come running?” she asked.

“You haven’t sent me away.”

“That’s because I’m about to commit murder.”

“You’re angry.”

She spluttered, and then stood taller, folding her arms across her middle as if she were trying to ward him off. To his mind, that was a good sign that she wasn’t averse to him at all.

“Dead right I’m angry. At the hospital, if you remember, you said sayonara, baby. Now you waltz up and throw your money around to look like the big man. Is this some sort of he-man thing you’ve got going on? I’m not interested. Go try it on someone else.”

“But we’re good together.”

“So are bread and butter.”

“Hmmm, food. Didn’t think you had a food fetish, but it could be interesting. Fancy trying chocolate?”

Marina rolled her eyes just as the elevator came to a halt at the penthouse. Lifting her chin a tad higher, she exited, and Jonas followed. She shot him a scathing glare over her shoulder. “I can see myself in.”

“I’m not going away.”

She scanned the length of the hall over his shoulder. “My bodyguards will be here soon.”

“And you’ll tell them to kick my sorry butt to the curb?”

Her sweet, kissable mouth opened, but no words came out, and Jonas knew in that moment he’d won her over. She didn’t realize it yet, but she would soon. Very soon.

Just then, another elevator dinged, and Pierre and Jacques exited in a rush.

“The boys have arrived.” He waved to her bodyguards.

Pierre stepped forward, one hand already slipping discreetly beneath his jacket.

“Now’s your chance, baby,” Jonas said. “What’s it to be?”

Uncertainty transformed her eyes to the darkest of sapphires as she hesitated and looked from one guard to the other. The tip of her tongue slipped between her parted lips, sliding over her bottom lip as the seconds stretched out.

Jonas bit back a groan as he watched that sweet tongue of hers, imagining it doing something similar across his body. Desperation hitched higher. “If you chuck me out, I’ll only serenade you from the curb.”

Her expression morphed into a look of horror. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“How do you know? Want to risk it?”

With a click of her tongue, she spun around to the door, swiped her key card and opened the door to her suite. She didn’t enter but stood with her hand still on the door handle.

“What about the big guys?” he questioned.

Her frosty gaze shifted toward her bodyguards. “Mr. Wilder is only staying a few minutes, gentlemen.”

To their credit, neither Pierre nor his off-sider offered a hint of displeasure, and with a crisp nod in their direction, Marina entered the suite, leaving the door open for Jonas to follow her.

He did, and ensured the door was firmly shut on the hired guns still standing in the hallway.

The moment the door closed, however, she rounded on him. “Jonas, what is going on? You don’t want me around, and now you turn up. This is getting confusing.”

“You’re here. I’m here.” Great, now he just had to convince her his plan was a good idea.

Marina tilted her chin up. He knew that look. Strong. Determined. “And?”

He stepped closer. “And we’re good together, so why not keep it going for a bit longer?”

“You’re talking about an affair.”

“Your schedule is busy, and mine, well, I have Suzie to consider, but I fly to Europe at least five times a year. We could meet up.”

“For sex.”

The way she said it, it didn’t sound so good.
“If you put it that way.”

“How else would I
put it
? It all seems rather convenient.”

“You like my kisses.” He took another step closer, and still she didn’t move. She didn’t tell him to leave either. Yeah, this was going to work. He reached out and drew a hand across her shoulder. She shivered beneath his touch. “You have such beautiful hair. Did you know I imagine it loose and flying in the wind?”

“It’s not loose.”

“Easily remedied.” He reached up and drew the clip from her hair, watching as it fell in a silken cascade around her shoulders. He sighed. “You’re riding a horse bareback along the beach, hair whipped by the wind.”

“Sounds fanciful.”

“A beautiful fantasy.” Threading his fingers along her nape, he tangled them in her hair. Her head arched back, lips parted as she gazed up at him.

“You know I’m going to kiss you, Marina.” He waited a single heartbeat before his mouth took hers, nothing tentative, but a kiss that he intended would convince her that his idea was perfect. For the time being.

Say no. Say it. Don’t hesitate.

So impossible when Jonas’s mouth captured hers, drawing her into his web. Her hands linked around his neck, tipping his head ever so gently forward so that she could kiss him right back.

And kiss him she did. Over and over, unable to stem the aching need deep down in her center that his touch spawned.

An affair. That’s all he wants. Nothing more.

Her nostrils flared as she inhaled his aftershave, the exotic fragrance filling her lungs with its intensity. His jaw grazed the side of her face, the scratch of his stubble a teasing aphrodisiac as he feathered tiny butterfly kisses over her eyelids, down to the tip of her chin. An unspoken acceptance passed between them. She wouldn’t send him away.

Jonas Wilder drugged her with his kisses, and she wanted more. She wanted…no,
needed
to feel him against her. Reaching between them, she pushed at his jacket. It slipped easily to the floor. Next she tugged at his shirt, pulling it from the waistband of his trousers.

“Do you know what you’re doing, baby?”

“Getting you naked.”

A deep groan rumbled from his throat, and his hands dropped to his sides. “I’m all yours.”

Marina fumbled with the buttons on his shirt, and then it joined his jacket on the floor.

Jonas kissed her deep, his tongue sliding between her lips, dancing with hers, slick and sensual. One arm tight around her waist, he walked her backward, and she came up against the dining table centered in front of the panoramic window.

Outside, the world turned. Lights across the city sparkled while the glitter of starlight reflected in the inky nighttime harbor.

Reaching behind her, Jonas fingered the zipper tag of her gown. It slid down effortlessly, accompanied by a long whoosh as Marina exhaled.
Only an affair. Remember that.

Standing stock-still, his attention darkly intense, Jonas stared at her, then, second by second, his gaze lowered, lingering as he took in the swell of her breasts above the scarlet bodice. “You wore red.”

“I wanted to be bad.”

“Oh, baby, you succeeded.”

Slipping the tip of one finger under each shoulder strap, he drew them down her arms. Her excitement escalated. Goose bumps dotted her arms, and a spiraling molten heat permeated every inch of her. As the dress slipped over her breasts, baring them to his view, a look of reverence entered his gaze, and her heart did a double flip.

Jonas leaned over, kissed each nipple, then returned to the first breast and suckled it. A sigh whispered from her lips as she arched to him, cupping her breasts as if they were a sensual offering, one she readily made.

He leaned ever closer, and Marina found herself lying on the table, Jonas cupping her bottom through the silky gown.

His attention was sublime, his mouth and tongue doing erotically wonderful things to her breasts, edging the tip of his tongue down her ribs to the dip of her belly button.

Marina burned for him, lying fully on the table now, her legs parted. Jonas rubbed the pad of his thumb across the silky dress. Beneath that sweet pressure, her core pulsed, desperate for more.

“This needs to come off.” He tugged at her dress.

“That’s your job, Wilder.” To her ears, her voice sounded husky, sex-fueled.

Jonas lifted his gaze to hers, and again that unspoken question passed between them. Both knew there was no stopping or going back. He tugged at the sides of her dress, and she lifted her bottom slightly from the table as the dress slid down her legs and fell to the floor. His gaze lowered her length. “They’re red too,” he said of her lace panties.

Marina smiled. “Goes with the dress, and being bad.”

Jonas resumed his ministrations, his thumb caressing the tiny nub at her core beneath the lacy covering, firing ripples of pleasure from that tiny spot to every nerve ending. Dear God, she wanted more.
So much more.

“Put your fingers inside me, Jonas.”
Please.

He obeyed, slipping first one, then two into her wetness.

Marina pulsed around him, her hips lifting from the table, repeatedly thrusting in time with his strokes. Her head rolled from side to side, the glory of his touch overwhelming. Then his tongue replaced his fingers, delving deeper into her, sucking at her wet folds, faster and faster until she knew she was about to climax. “Take me there, Jonas. Please take me.”

Again he obeyed, and she shot over the edge, a million sensations exploding at the same time as every part of her focused on Jonas loving her.

Loving her? This was only an affair. Temporary.

Jonas linked his fingers with hers and drew her upright. His eyes sparkled as bright as the neon lights in the cityscape below them. Without saying a word, he lifted her from the table, and she wrapped her legs around his hips. She held on tight, and her womanhood throbbed. He began to head toward the only other door in the room.

Elbowing the door open, he didn’t bother turning on any lights but carried her to the bed, laying her down gently, stripping off his remaining clothes in double-quick time before he joined her. He wrapped her in his arms, burying his face between her breasts. Marina reveled in the feel of him against her. The tickle of his hair against her skin, his mouth. But of all the things she’d missed—the sex, laughing and talking with him—most of all, it had been simply being held by him.

Tonight it felt like she had come home.

Affairs are temporary. Secretive
.

Did she want secret, tawdry?

Before she could find the answer to her silent question, Jonas lifted himself above her, sheathed his penis.

“Prepared, I see. You were hopeful.” She eyed his fully aroused state.

“Confident,” he countered with a wink and, parting her legs, slid into her ready core in one single thrust. “Definitely feels like home.”

His thrusts were long and slow, stretching her, filling her, and then he increased his pace, tension etched across his face, his muscles taut. Marina held him to her with her thighs, welcoming him, wanting him, wanting more. The urgency grew rampant, blood roaring in her veins, catapulting her into a surreal world. There was no holding back.

She kissed him, and he kissed her, tongues entwined as were their bodies, as they rocked toward the precipice. She cupped Jonas’s face, searching every inch of it, locking her gaze with his as her orgasm escalated, her body overtaken with delicious spasms, and Jonas’s fulfillment followed a heartbeat later.

She awoke to a room flooded with daylight, disoriented for a moment. It all seemed so ethereal. Then she remembered last night, every minute detail. The way he touched her. The way he kissed her—all over. Sweet, beautiful kisses. The way he felt inside her. But mostly she remembered what he’d said before he’d kissed her, before he’d wiped away her vacillation.

He wanted an affair. A sexual relationship with no ties. No emotional connection or future.

Marina squeezed her eyes closed, wanting to block it all out. Mostly she wanted to forget that with one kiss, she had capitulated.

But no more.

“Fancy dessert?” he asked.

She lifted her lashes but knew she shouldn’t look at Jonas. One look and she would weaken, just as she had with a kiss, and yet there was no way she could
not
look at him.

Dark brooding eyes flecked with the glint of desire speared hers. His mouth hitched, detailing dimples, and the corners of his eyes creased too.

“Dessert? It’s morning. I can order room service, if you would like.” Using this excuse she pushed herself up on her elbow, the coverlet falling away exposing her nakedness.

His brows shot up, and his smile widened wickedly. “Think that’s the best room service there is.”

She never even got a foot out of the bed.

His fingers trailed a path along her arm, and automatically, her nipples hardened to aching buds. He leaned forward, his lips grazing along her collarbone, sparking a shiver down her spine as his body covered hers.

An affair.

Suddenly, Marina remembered what she had to do; her determination renewed. In effect, it was exactly what she’d known from the moment she saw Jonas at the horse auction.

Placing her palms on his chest and biting back the urge to rake her fingers down it, she pushed at him gently. “Jonas. No. I can’t…I…” Her gaze switched to the bedside clock, and she dragged up any excuse she could. Better that than telling him the truth. That she loved him. “I need to shower.”