ROYAL ROCK(45)

I gestured and Al came trotting up. I told him in Starklandian to get Bryce’s parents and to make sure they arrived at the estate by dinner. He bowed and said it would be done.

Bryce shook her head. “Trying to hide something?” she asked.

I grinned. “My English isn’t so good.”

“Liar. What’d you say?”

“Just had him get your parents. Like I said, they’ll be here by dinner.”

She smiled at me and shook her head.

“Come on,” I said, and started walking.

We headed downstream for a few minutes, talking idly about nothing. I hadn’t completely forgotten our stupid fight, but I felt better. I’d taken responsibility and hadn’t let her try to apologize. We both knew that would be bullshit. She wasn’t in the wrong, and I wasn’t about to force her to say something she didn’t mean.

I was going to get her parents. I may have been a bad boy and an asshole, but I did what I said I would do.

Ahead, there was a small grouping of trees. It looked almost fake and came out of nowhere, appearing at the base of another rise with the stream passing right through it.

“Just ahead,” I said.

“What is that?”

“That’s something special. Come on.”

We headed over toward the trees. They were densely packed and thin with white, flakey bark. The branches were mainly at the top, so the small grouping of trees looked almost like a bunch of birthday candles sticking up from the ground.

“Aspen trees,” I said. “Very, very old Aspen trees. They’re not supposed to grow here, but they do.”

“Wow,” she said. “It’s really beautiful.” We stepped into the small forest, but the underbrush was loose and spread out. It was easy to hike through it as we made our way toward the stream.

“They were planted for religious reasons,” I said, “but nobody really knows what or why anymore. These were planted way before Starkland was a thing, probably before kings were even a thing.”

It was quiet and gorgeous. I could remember sneaking down here so many times as a child, though in retrospect I hadn’t been sneaking at all. I’d probably had ten guards posted all around me, keeping out of sight so I could feel independent. For all the shit, I’d had a decent enough childhood.

I pointed up ahead. Bryce followed my gaze and laughed at what she saw.

Attached to one of the trees was a crude rope swing.

“The royal swing?” she asked.

“You got it,” I said.

“And is that ancient?”

“If you think twenty years is ancient, then yeah, sure.”

She laughed and then followed me as I walked up to the swing. I gave it a little push, but it looked old and liable to fall at any moment. I wasn’t going to risk her gorgeous ass on it.

“I’d suggest you get on there, but I don’t want to see you break your tailbone,” I said.

“You can get on, though. I wouldn’t mind.”

I smirked at her. “Still angry?”

“No,” she said. “You’re just still an asshole.”

I laughed and idly pushed the swing. “I used to come here with my brother all the time. We weren’t the closest brothers. I lived in his shadow much of the time. He was the eldest, so he got all of the important responsibilities.”

“That must have been hard.”

“Not really,” I said, grinning. “It’s better not to have responsibility. It meant I got to do as I pleased.”

She nodded, looking around. “I read about that. You pleased a lot of people.”

I barked a short laugh, grinning at her. I liked that she’d done some research on me. I shouldn’t have been surprised, but she was so good at pretending like she didn’t give a shit. It was nice to get a glimpse past that for a second. “I did. I sowed my royal seed,” I said.

“Gross.” She laughed and shook her head.

“You didn’t seem to mind the other night.”

“I was out of my mind.”

“Out of it with what?”

“I don’t know,” she admitted.

“I know,” I said, stepping toward her. “You were out of your mind thinking about what I’d do to you. And now that you know, I’m guessing you can’t stop thinking about it.”

My heart was beating hard in my chest. I kept thinking of that night, too. I kept thinking about her lips around my cock, her soaking pussy against my fingers, her moans and the way she came, so damn hard. I loved her taste and the way she said my name, and most of all, I loved the way she called me her king.

I knew I’d get her saying it as soon as I got inside her panties. All she had to do was give in to what she wanted.