Royal Rock:A Bad Boy Royal Romance(14)

She blushed a little bit. "I couldn't think of a better way to apologize."

"I don't think there is a better way."

"I figured it's no big deal. It's like seeing me in a bathing suit, right?"

"Something like that," I murmured.







She bit her lip. "Did you like it?"

"Very much," I said. "I'm still fucking hard. I had to leave that meeting immediately and see you."

"Trip-"

"Come on," I said. "Let's swim."

I reached out and grabbed her hips, pulling her onto my lap.

"Trip!" she protested, but it was too late. I had her. I plunged us both into the pool.

She came up next to me and splashed.

"You asshole," she said.

"Didn't want to get your hair wet?" I asked.

"Yeah, but I also didn't want to get dragged into the water."

"Too bad. It's already done."

She swam at me, smiling, and tried to dunk me under. I didn't budge.

"Are you made of stone?"

"If I were, I'd sink. I'm just a good swimmer."

I dove under and grabbed at her ankles. She kicked and swam away. I came up and she was laughing, splashing at me.

"Are you attacking the king?" I asked her.

"Damn right. Not the first time either."

"Your foreign temptress," I said. "You're corrupting the king."

She giggled as I came at her. She splashed and swam away. I chased her but let her stay just ahead of me.

Finally, I grabbed her ankle and pulled her back. I took her hips and  pulled her ass and back against me. She struggled, but I held us both up  above water, kicking my feet.

"Let me go," she said, laughing.

"I don't think so. You're mine now. You've tempted me long enough."

"I don't think I'm anyone's," she said, and then she tried dropping underwater.

She went straight down, but in the process her bikini top caught on the  front of my swimsuit, yanking them both off. I dove underwater and  managed to grab my trunks and her top before she even realized it was  off.

She surfaced a few feet away, and a second later she figured it out.

"Trip!" she said.

I held her top up, grinning. "Is this what you're looking for?"

She instantly covered her perfect breasts with her arms. I couldn't get a  good look, since the water was covering them, but I could tell she was  gorgeous. I was hard as hell, my heart hammering.

"Trip, give it to me."

"Come and get it," I said, swimming away.

"Not funny. Come on, Trip!"

I laughed as she started swimming toward me, covering herself with one hand.

Just as she neared me, a motion toward the door pulled my attention  away. Al was standing in the doorway, frowning down at me. "Your  Highness," he called.

Bryce caught up with me and snatched her top from my hand.

"Asshole," she mumbled as she turned away and got it back on.

"Your Highness, they need you back in the situation room. General Dune is calling."

I sighed. "Fun's over, I guess," I said to Bryce.

"Who was having fun?"

"You were. We both know it."

"I was too busy having my top stolen to have fun."

"Pretend you didn't like it all you want, but we both know where this  was going." I swam over to her, close behind her. "You want me to fuck  you rough up against the edge of the pool. You want me to fuck that wet  pussy until you can't stand it anymore."

"No," she whispered, but I knew she meant yes.

I swam away, pulling my trunks back on. Al had already left, so I got out and toweled myself off.

"Stay as long as you want," I said to her. "I'll see you tomorrow."

"Good luck being the king," she answered.

I laughed. "I don't need luck for that. I just need to be myself."

I waved and then headed out, back toward my apartment.

That girl could drive me crazy so easily. I could barely control myself  around her, even in these difficult and complicated times. There was  just simply something alluring and intense about Bryce.

The girl was a distraction, but the best fucking kind of distraction.





15





BRYCE





The next morning, I couldn't believe I had sent the king a nude selfie.

Well, it wasn't completely nude. I had a shirt and panties on, actually,  so it wasn't really nude at all. Still, it was a sext for sure, and  there was no other way to read that message.

I didn't know what I had been thinking. I guess I had wanted to rile him  up, but I'd also wanted him to know that I was sorry. It had felt right  at the time, and I didn't regret it, but it was outside my character.

I was a good girl. I didn't do things like flirt with kings in swimming pools. Except now apparently I was that kind of person.

And I still was worried about his whole dictatorship thing. I didn't  know how I felt about flirting with a man who was possibly telling  people to commit war crimes. Trip was a good person, but he was right:  War was more complicated than I realized, and that meant maybe he wasn't  as good as he thought he was.







I had two dueling sides in my mind. On the one hand, I wanted Trip the  man. I wanted him to kiss me again, to let me get inside his defenses,  to find out what made him do the things he did. But on the other, I was  afraid of Trip the king. I was afraid of the person I would become if I  got involved in his world, and I was afraid of the person the crown made  him.

He had so much power. He ruled over an entire country. You didn't get  much more powerful than that. And they always said that absolute power  corrupted absolutely.

Trip didn't seem corrupt. Trip seemed like a cocky asshole, but he wasn't corrupt.

Or maybe I didn't know him.

I sighed, lounging on the couch. I was waiting for my dad to come get me  so we could go for a walk, and my mind was moving a mile a minute.

After ten minutes of agonized waiting, he finally knocked. I got up and answered. Dad smiled at me. "Ready?"

"Ready."

I stepped out into the hall.

"Do you know where you're going?" he asked.

"No clue. Do you?"

"Nope," he said, laughing. "Let's get lost."

As we began to walk, I reflected on how supportive my father had always  been of me. He was always there no matter what. In fact, as far as I  could tell, this was the first time he wasn't doing exactly what I  wanted him to do. Instead, he insisted that we stay.

"Can I ask you something?" I said.

"Sure."

"Why did you want me to stay? I don't think you actually want me to marry the king."

He laughed. "No, I don't."

"So why did you want us to stay?"

"Honestly, honey, this is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. This castle, these  people, we'll never have any of this again. I wanted you to experience  it before we went back home."

I nodded. "I get that. But still, what if I did marry him?"

He laughed, shrugging. "Well, I guess then you'd be the queen."

"You'd be okay with that?"

"I'd be okay with anything you wanted to do, Bryce," he said.

I believed him, but still I couldn't imagine he didn't have any  reservations about entering into the royal family of a country we knew  nothing about.

We walked through the twisting hallways, looking around at all the  expensive paintings and sculptures. Dad pointed out some paintings he  recognized, which were apparently pretty famous.

I couldn't help but have a sudden sense of vertigo in that hallway.  There I was, a completely normal, regular girl, walking through a castle  full of famous paintings. It was so incredibly strange that I could  barely stand it.

"Dad," I said after a while of wandering, "how do you feel about this monarchy thing?"

"It's different," he said.

"Yeah, but, wasn't the whole point of America to get rid of the British monarchy?"

He laughed. "Basically, but I think it was more about being annoyed over taxation without representation."

"But aren't people in a democracy freer?"

"Maybe," he said, "and maybe not. People have been debating this for  thousands of years, honey. This country has been very stable for a very  long time under the monarchy. Who's to say that's a bad thing?"

I nodded. That made sense to me, but still. I had been conditioned to  love democracy; the whole idea of a king seemed so totally off to me.

"I don't know," I said finally. "I can't imagine being the queen."

"Then don't be," Dad said. "Or, just imagine being Trip's wife. That's  more important. If you like the guy, maybe it's worth pursuing. If you  don't, well, that's okay. At least we got an awesome vacation out of all  this."

I sighed, shaking my head. He wasn't helping all that much. "At least Lucy would love it if I married him."

"Look, forget about Lucy and forget about politics." Dad stopped and  faced me. He put on his serious face, the expression he saved for only  important conversations. "This is about your future, kid. This is about  you and Trip and nothing else. Forget about monarchies and democracies  and all that stuff; it just doesn't matter. Focus on you and Trip."

I nodded slowly. "Okay. That makes sense."

He gave me a stupid grin. "Does it feel weird taking love advice from your father?"