4 — TO FIND HER AGAIN

LEONIDAS

It was the way she floated with grace, setting her chin haughtily like everyone else was below her. Including me. It was the way she set herself so distinct in the crowd, she became impossible to miss.

A beauty mark to her top lip, she had a face that was hard to stop looking at. One that was hard to leave your mind once you’d memorized every detail.

It seemed she sought me out before I did, because after the first time we laid eyes on each other, I found her everywhere I looked.

“This must be your father.”

I stopped walking, long enough to turn around and see she had stopped in front of a large portrait.

And yes, the man was my father. The man I hated very much.

“Come along, you have a long night ahead.” Clearing my throat, I continued on my way.

She did, those long legs catching up with me and leading her ahead so that I had to stare at the column of her neck and her ass jiggling underneath that dress.

Gods, she wasn’t going to make it any easier for me, was she?

I took note of how she stopped right at the door to my quarters.

“How do you know that one is mine?”

She cocked an eyebrow. “Really? We’re pretending like this isn’t the only grandiose looking door in this hallway? You must have brilliant eyes, Your Grace.”

Laughter fell out of my lips, and like before, it was from my belly. Never have I laughed this much, twice in one night.

It made me want her all the more.

Stepping up beside her, the smell of jasmine on her skin hit me harder than the wine in my system.

I let my knuckles drag across her arm to feel the heat of her before I grabbed the heavy gold handle of the door and pushed it open.

“You’re observant. That’s a dangerous trait to have around me.”

Slipping past me into the room, she shot back, “I’ve heard that I’m prone to being familiar around danger. I guess I like it a little too much.”

Then she winked. She knew exactly what she was doing.

I followed her in and shut the door, leaving us with nothing but the dim glow of light from the bulbs on the wall.

My room was built for a King, with lots of space that usually made the place feel empty.

However, for tonight, it felt different.

She was not here to act like the others, starry-eyed, and bowing to my every whim. This was finally a woman who challenged me at every turn, strutted around because she goddamn well owned it.

“Everything is in its place,” she noted, eyes drawn to the weapons on the wall. Then my desk, my bed, and finally me. “Clean desk, polished swords, and a bed that looks like you barely sleep in it. Tell me, you are a man who likes to be in control of every detail?”

“I’m the King, of course I have to be in control of everything. It’s part of the duty I owe to my people.”

I closed the distance between us, stopping only when the scent of her perfume reached me.

Until there wasn’t a breath of space between us.

I had to look down at her, and she had to tilt her head back. Despite this, her eyes never left mine.

It stirred my blood in ways I never dreamed.

“So, is this long night planned out too?” she challenged. “Does the King have a schedule for what comes next?”

I reached out and palmed her waist to pull her closer. “I’m flexible, trust me.”

From where we stood, I could feel her heart racing against my chest in a rhythm that contrasted with the smug expression she wore.

“Indeed,” she scoffed.

I leaned down until my lips brushed against the shell of her ear. “You’ve got a big mouth, but I have a feeling you’re going to be using it for something else tonight.”

There was no need for her witty comeback, because I hooked my hand under her thighs to hoist her up. She giggled, wrapping her legs around my waist and letting me lead her to my bed.

Need roared in my ears so loud it drowned out everything else.

Before she could catch her breath, I dropped her onto the furs and was over her, pinning her wrists above her head.

The haughty look was still in her eyes but they were now dark with hunger. A freak that matched mine in the sheets.

“Still want to talk?” My knee pushed between her legs to part them.

She ground against my leg. “Less talking, more doing,” she breathed.

And I didn’t need to be told twice. I stripped out of my shirts, then leaned forward to reach for the tiny ropes of her dress as my fingers shook with the need to feel her skin hot against my lips.

This was a need I hadn’t felt in years. Tonight, the King was not in control of anything.

I fumbled for a second with the intricate ties before I lost my patience. With one sharp tug, the material gave way and my eyes devoured every inch of her ivory skin.

Tiny scars marked the underside of her belly, the spot right above her collarbone, one long and thick against her side.

She was magnificent. Perfect.

Curvy in all the right places, full breasts rising and falling with her heavy breaths, my throat went dry.

“You are even better than I imagined.”

Without giving her a chance to reply, I crashed my mouth against hers, tasting pure want. This was the kiss of a starved man, not a King.

My tongue claimed her mouth the same way my hand slid down her smooth body to find the sweet spot between her thighs.

To my amazement, it was a fountain down there. She was already slick. For me.

“Gods,” I breathed against her neck, biting at the sensitive skin right where it met her shoulder. “You are soaking for me.”

“Don’t just talk about it, Leonidas. I did not come here to be lectured,” she rasped, letting out a wrecked moan as her fingers dug into my skin. “Just fuck me.”

We hadn’t even started when a frantic pounding at my door ruined the mood. Whoever was knocking either had a death wish or there was an urgency bigger than my punishment.

It had to be the latter. I’d hate to spill blood on a night as perfect as this.

“Your Grace! You have to see this!”

I groaned, burying my face in the crook of her neck. “Let’s ignore it.”

I wanted to sink into her and lose myself in that jasmine scent until morning.

“Your Grace, it’s the docks!” the voice shouted through the thick oak. “The warehouse is on fire and it is spreading to the residential block. The sirens are already going off, but the governor is refusing to authorize the evacuation without your digital signature. People are trapped.”

Every bone in my aroused body tensed.

A warehouse fire in the industrial district was one thing, but if it hit the high-rise apartments nearby, it would be a massacre.

And in this modern age, a King was more than a figurehead, he was the one who held the keys to the city’s emergency protocols.

I pulled back to look down at the woman I was going to leave. Her hair was a mess against the furs.

“I have to go. There’s a fire and the lives of my people are at a risk if I don’t go now.”

Grabbing my trousers, I swung my legs over the bed and leaned over to press a hard kiss to her mouth.

“Don’t move. Stay in this bed. I’m not even close to being finished with you. Promise me you’ll be here when I get back.”

She arched a brow. “A King should not make demands he can’t enforce, Leo. They did not teach you that in royal charm school?”

“Promise me, princess. Stop fucking around,” I growled, hovering inches from her lips.

“I’ll be here,” she whispered.

I grabbed my phone and my shirt, throwing it on as I sprinted for the door. I didn’t even look back as I wrenched it open and bounded down the hallway.

***

It took three hours of barking orders into a headset and staring at thermal feeds on a tablet before we were able to contain the fire and save the residential areas.

Although my lungs burned with exertion and my shirt was ruined, at least the fire was out and we had managed to pull the last of the residents to safety.

All I could think about on the drive back was the woman waiting in my bed. I couldn’t wait to scrub the scent of smoke off my skin and replace it with her.

Swinging the door wide open , I burst into my quarters.

“I’m back,” I called out with a raspy voice. But I was met with silence.

The bulbs were out, leaving the room in cold, gray emptiness. The furs on the bed were still rumpled with the impression of where she’d been lying.

The sheets, cold. So was the fading scent of jasmine.

I checked the vanity for her, then looked in the bathroom, hurt to find it empty. I moved round in circles, kicking down all the doors in the hallway.

She was gone without a trace. There was no note, neither was there phone number.

Just a single jasmine petal resting on the pillow where her head had been.

I realized in the short seconds that followed, that I’d just been played.

She sought me out, gotten exactly where she wanted in my head and vanished like a ghost into the night.

A frustrated laugh bubbled up in my throat as I sat on the edge of the bed. None of my men had seen a woman dashing out of the castle either.

How did she manage to evade all of them?

To think I’d memorized every detail of her face, and now, I’d have to spend the rest of my life looking for it.