Page 13 of Her Royal Master
“Sorry!”I flushed, embarrassed to have talked so much I’d forgotten the game.
“Don’t be.Cards are really just something to do with your hands while making conversation.”
My eyes lifted to his, surprised at this revelation.Was that why he’d pulled out the deck?Because he wanted conversation with me?I couldn’t be more stunned.Although, after all the crazy events that day, I shouldn’t be.
He shrugged.“That’s what my father always said.I imagine he found conversation awkward most times.”
“He has my complete sympathies.”
The duke’s gaze warmed.He looked almost… indulgently amused.“You don’t suffer social anxieties.”
My cheeks grew warm and I ducked my head.“Of course I do.All writers cling to the written word.That way we can edit until it’s perfect.”
“And the rest of us make a sport out of saying the wrong thing and shocking the press.”He gave a rakish grin that didn’t quite reach his eyes.I had the sense he’d played this bad boy part so long it had become rote, yet it wasn’t really him.
The real him was so much more.And less.The devastatingly good-looking man in front of me wasn’t living life in the fast lane at the moment.He was playing an old-fashioned, slow card game with a simple American from the Midwest.Like he had during our shocking sex play earlier, I realized he was working to put me at ease without being obvious about it.Sharing less glamorous parts of his life, pretending mine were interesting.
I was certain now that the world had misjudged Darius Halsburg.
Terribly.
4
Day Two
Chelsea
“Darius… Your grace?Is that how you’re addressed in your country?”I sat up in bed, watching as his royal highness moved about the small cabin in his boxer briefs.Damn, the man put Thor to shame in the ripped muscle department.The broad shoulders tapered down to a slender waist and the most divine ass I’d seen on a man.
And Darius was a man.
It was so obvious now that Derek had just been a boy.A boy who didn’t want to grow up.He was a year older than I, which had felt like a lot in college.He’d graduated from Michigan State first and moved to New York City to pursue notoriety as a DJ.We’d drifted apart.When I graduated, he asked me to join him there, but I just didn’t have enough faith in us.I didn’t want to limit my career options by honing in on one city, just for a boy.Didn’t want to make the same mistake as my mom.So I’d taken a position atRolling Stonein Los Angeles instead of following him and we’d kept up the long-distance relationship, even though we both knew it was over.I guess my trip to Ibiza to be with him was my last-ditch effort to save things.Or to figure out if it was time to let go.
And now that I’d had a man, now that I’d been with Darius, I regretted the years I’d kept myself tangled in that worthless relationship.
I couldn’t believe I’d spent the night being spooned by royalty.After our card game, he’d ordered me to climb into his bed.
I’d been braced for more dominance and sex, but instead, he’d climbed under the covers with me and turned on the television, flipping through and asking me what I liked to watch.We’d sat up watching the entire first season ofPeaky Blinderson Netflix before turning out the light.It had been surprisingly comfortable.
Too comfortable.
My traitorous heart had started to lock onto Darius as the ideal male, one I knew without a shadow of a doubt I’d never have, and one no other man would ever measure up to.So yeah… every minute I spent in the presence of his overwhelming magnetism screwed every future relationship I might have.
“Get out of this bed without my permission and I’ll keep you chained to it for the next two days,” he’d warned in the darkness between us.
I’d frowned, but my pussy had clenched, somehow finding the threat thrilling.Did it really just take one day with the duke to turn me into a BDSM convert?
“Yes, sir,” I’d muttered, and he’d pulled my back against his front, nestling behind me.It was reward enough to soften me, forgetting all offense at his threat.On the floor beside the bed, Shadow’s tail thumped against the floor.Apparently he was as happy as I was to be sleeping with the duke.
I’d woken that morning when he climbed out of bed.
Darius turned to me and his lips twitched as he regrettably pulled a shirt over his head.“You may call meMaster.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Careful, little slave.”He crawled up on the bed.“I’m quick to punish insolence.”
My belly fluttered.I almost wanted a taste of his punishment.But I also had some compelling need to do his bidding.“May I get off the bed now?”
