Recklessly Royal(66)

“Damn it.” He gasped. “I can’t wait, angel.”

Not sure what to expect, I focused on the task at hand, sucking and pulling gently. I felt him spasm before his seed filled my mouth. I swallowed quickly, but some of it escaped my lips and trailed down his shaft, where my hand continued to move in a slow pattern. When his hips stopped moving, he reached down and pulled me up so that I was lying on his chest with my head tucked under his chin.

“Thank you.” He kissed the top of my head and I smiled.

“Thank you too.” I pressed my lips to his shoulder.

We stayed there like that for a while; when my breathing started to slow and grow steady, he shook me gently.

“Will someone come looking for you?”

“Oh God.” I sat up and looked around for my clothes. “How long have we been here?” I wasn’t wearing my watch, because I had intended on just taking a quick run.

“You’ve been asleep for about thirty minutes, I think.”

“I fell asleep?” It had felt like half a second that my eyes had drifted shut. I found my panties and shook as much dirt out of them as possible.

“Mm-hmm. Drooled too.”

“Oh no. I did not drool.” I shook my head. Apparently I had slept really well for that half hour. “I don’t drool. Never.”

“Oh, you drooled. I have the wet spot on my chest to prove it.” He sat up and wiped at one well-formed pectoral muscle. If I wasn’t so worried about time, I might have been distracted by his chest.

Shaking my head, I looked for the rest of my clothing. “How long before that?” Thirty minutes wasn’t so bad.

“Well, I think we spent about an hour together before you fell asleep?” He raised his shoulder in question. “I don’t know how long you were gone before you found me.” He picked up my tank top and tossed it to me. “But I sure am glad you found me.”

His smile was so carefree and boyish that my heart melted and a little of the worry gripping my shoulders dissipated. “Me too.”

“How long do you normally go running for?” He put his shorts back on before pulling his shirt over his head.

“An hour. Maybe two. But I always let them know if I’m going to be a while.” I frowned as I replaced my shorts. “Right now, I’m really regretting that habit. They’re probably looking for me already.”

“You don’t ever just take off and spend time by yourself?” He frowned and sat back down on the rock he had been fishing from and watched me.

“Closer to the house, yes. But when I’m running the circumference of the property? No. I have to let them know in case something happens.” I shrugged. “I’ve never really thought about it before now. I mean, if someone did try to snag me off the property I would hope someone would be looking for me pretty quickly.”

“Do you worry about that a lot? I mean, is that something you really have to think about?” His face grew hard. ”People threaten you?”

“Whoa, cowboy.” I couldn’t help but smile at his protective tone. “I’m sure there have been threats, but nothing that was a real issue. It’s mainly a precaution.”

“Sam has to put up with this now too, huh?” He frowned. “I thought they were honeymooning somewhere secret, but I saw pictures of them on the television this morning.”

“It’s part of life for us.” I shrugged. I hated that their honeymoon had been crashed by the media, but there wasn’t much we could do about it. We had all known it was likely to happen at some point, but I had hoped it would take longer.

“I don’t like it.” He looked out over the water.

“Don’t like what?”

“Having people I care about stalked.” He looked back at me and my heart thudded in my chest. Did he mean he cared for me? Or was he just referring to Sam?

“Lots of people have dangerous jobs.” I sat down next to him and bumped his shoulder with mine. “It’s not like we’re police officers or part of the military. It’s more like being a celebrity than anything else. And just because of the family we were born into.”

“This world, this way of life, is so far from how I grew up.” He reached over and twined his fingers with mine. “I would disappear on our property for an entire day. Hunting, fishing, or just exploring. No one would come looking for me until after dark, and when I got older, probably not even then.”

“That’s such a foreign thought, but it sounds lovely.” I looked at our hands, noticing all of the differences. His hands were tanned, with calluses and cracked knuckles; mine were pale and soft. “But if you think about it, a lot of that has to do with where you grew up. You wouldn’t let your kid run off in New York City for an entire day without worrying. And I bet your mom worried about you anyways.”