The Royal & The Runaway Bride (Dynasties: The Connellys Book 7) Read online

  Gradually, his eyes lost their distant look and focused cleanly, sharply, then demandingly on her. He dropped a hand to her face and stroked one finger along her cheek. “You’re as lovely as the sunset.”

  A nervous laugh escaped her lips. “Nice line.”

  “No,” he said, “really. Your face is glowing. The sun and wind, they’ve brought color to your cheeks.”

  He touched his fingertip to her lips. She parted them softly and met his gaze. Slowly, he bent down and turned her toward him. Their lips tentatively met, and she felt the warmth of his arms close around her.

  His second kiss was longer, deliciously deep, and promised more. The tip of his tongue flicked over her teeth, then probed, coaxing feelings from her that were new and exciting, unlike any she’d felt before. To her surprise, she sensed a delicate moistening, a subtle throbbing between her thighs.

  She was eager and ready for him so quickly! He had hardly touched her. Amazing, and a bit frightening.

  Alex moved away from him just enough to catch her breath. His eyes were suddenly hot, bright with hunger. The muscles in his biceps where her hands had come to rest were knotted. She could see the desire in his eyes, and knew he would have no trouble reading her responding willingness. But he couldn’t possibly know that, although some of these feelings had stirred in her before, she’d had little real experience with sex.

  Having attended all-girls’ schools through college, she’d had a few boyfriends but no serious relationship until she met Robert. Before that, her parents had seen that she dated only “the right kind of young man.” And her brothers had scared off the few young men who had evaded her parents’ watchful eyes.

  As if that wasn’t enough, most of her post-college dates were well aware of who her father was. They cautiously avoided overstepping the bounds of social propriety—which meant they didn’t press her to sleep with them.

  As a result, she’d slept with only two people—a young man she’d shared a few classes with during her final two years of college, and Robert Marsh. Unlike those who’d been intimidated by her father, Robert had decided to use seduction to get what he wanted. Unfortunately, she’d only seen through him when it was almost too late. He’d been that effective a liar.

  Phillip’s kisses trailed a line of fire down her throat, wrenching her out of the past and back to the present. She promptly forgot everything but the sensations assaulting her. Marvelous sensations, glorious warmth, all through her body.

  Even so, she was nervous, sure that any minute Phillip would realize how little knowledge she possessed of moments like this. Moments when a man and woman stood together on a precipice of desire, making a decision that, ultimately, might bring either joy or despair, pleasure or pain.

  “I want you, Alex,” Phillip whispered, his voice gravelly with desire. “I hadn’t planned this, but now here we are and—”

  She pressed the pads of two fingers over his lips. “I know. It’s all right.”

  “It’s all right to want you?” He smiled but that didn’t diminish the steely tension in his voice. “Or it’s all right to make love to you?”

  Suddenly she couldn’t breathe. The concept was arousing. But his saying the words sent flames licking through her body. What on earth would his hands, the rest of his body do?

  “I meant,” she murmured, “the second.”

  Five

  Phillip gently pressed Alex down into the sunken cockpit of the boat. A pile of wool blankets lay beneath her, protecting and cushioning her back from the weathered boards. The high wooden gunwales protected them from view of anyone standing on the shore or passing by the cove by boat.

  Alex stared up at Phillip, excited yet afraid. The stars above his head blazed more brilliantly than any over the Chicago cityscape. How very black the firmaments were. How many more stars twinkled. How rapidly her heart beat in her breast. She felt as if she couldn’t take another breath without shattering into a million bright shards. Her hands trembled as she lifted them to glide her fingertips through the closely clipped dark hair above Phillip’s ears.

  It occurred to her that one reason she had agreed to marry Robert was because she had never felt threatened by him during moments of intimacy. He never did anything unexpected. Never made her feel she might be blinded by passion or risk leaping off an emotional cliff in a desperate attempt to find love.

  Sex had seemed just one part of the bargain a woman made when she entered marriage. She would sleep in the same bed as her husband, and he would have access to her body because that was one of the clauses required by the deal. And cutting deals was something she knew about, being Grant Connelly’s daughter.

  But here, with Phillip Kinrowan, prince of Silverdorn, she felt swept up in the dark blaze of his tiger eyes. This wasn’t a deal, a compromise, or even a polite bargain. This was surrender.

  She was alone with a man of power, with a lust for life and, apparently, for her. He was ready to take her, and she sensed that the moments to follow would demand that she respond with every inch of her body and the very essence of her soul.

  Take me! her heart cried out.

  Then, almost immediately, she feared she might beg him to stop. But when his hand touched her breast through the white gauze of her dress, a need deep inside of her reached out for him. His strong, wide palm warmed her breast. An intoxicating heat spread through her limbs. It was a delicious sensation, and she suddenly longed to prolong it.

  The urgency of her own desire shocked her. It was the reverse of struggling to wake from a dream; Alex fought to hold on to the delicious reverie. She pressed up against his hand, inviting him to touch her other places, forbidden places that ached for him.

  Phillip gazed down at the woman in his arms. Alex.

  Moonlight played off her lovely features. Her green eyes glittered with gold, reflecting the stars above them. It had been a long time since he’d slept with a woman, over a year now. Only one woman had shared his bed since the divorce, and he had counted that weekend as a mistake before it was over.

  He had met Angelica in a bar, of all places. She was clearly not his type, and he sensed that she had no lasting interest in him, either. To be honest, he was relieved when the affair ended so quickly, so easily. He hadn’t been looking for a serious relationship after the nightmare of his marriage. He wasn’t sure he’d ever be capable of trusting so completely, of giving so much of himself again.

  But now, with Alex, feelings he could swear he’d never experienced before seized him. It was as if he were the prey instead of the hunter he’d set out to be. He felt powerless to fight these mysterious sensations drawing him toward Alex. Her lovely body, his renegade lust left him no choice.

  She was lovely, yes, and clearly she was willing to make love with him. But it was more than that. With her, he didn’t fear the age-old traps. She was a hardworking woman who thrived in a tough profession. She had no desire to climb social ladders, collect trophy husbands, or gain an aristocratic title through wedlock. She wasn’t looking for a lifelong mate or a sugar daddy to bankroll her taste for expensive jewelry. In short, she wasn’t a threat to him.

  Thus he could be free of all inhibition and simply experience a delicious sensual adventure with her. In return, he would give her the most pleasure he was capable of giving a woman.

  Phillip unfastened the top button of her dress bodice and slid his hand beneath. His palm moved over the warm, soft flesh of Alex’s breast. She was silk beneath his fingers, so unexpected for a woman who worked in a demanding environment dressed in leather and denim.

  He lowered his head, closed his eyes and dropped a kiss on one tender mound. She squirmed with pleasure beneath him and let out a little sigh he considered ample encouragement. Pressing aside the pale gauze, he saw what his touch had already discovered—she wore no bra. That made her seem all the more brazen and receptive to him.

  His lips found a rosy nipple—small, delicate, perfect—and he drew its dainty tip between his teeth and teased the suppl
e flesh until she moaned and pressed her hands around the back of his head and brought him down harder against her.

  Greedily he suckled her, savoring the wild motions of her body as she reacted to the measured rasping of his teeth against her skin. It wasn’t difficult to slip the elasticized ruffle of her dress off her smooth shoulders. When she lay bare to the waist beneath him, the moonlight flowing over her ivory skin, he could only gaze at her in wonder.

  “Please…don’t stop,” she gasped.

  “I’m not stopping, just admiring,” he whispered, tracing the contours of her sweet breasts with his fingertips. “I want to take this very slowly. I want this to last a very, very long time.”

  “I—I’m not sure I’ll— Oh, my…I’m not sure I will last,” she said shakily as he nibbled a tempting hollow at the base of her throat. “I want—” Her eyes levered downward to the front of his pants. “I want you.”

  Phillip chuckled low in his throat, delighted with her. “Be my guest, pretty lady.”

  To his surprise, her eyes widened and she blushed and hesitated. He thought it charming though odd, she being a woman who had spent her life around nature, that she didn’t take sex more casually. Horsewomen, at least in his elevated social circles, had a reputation for being passionate and prolific lovers. If he hadn’t known who Alex was, he might have guessed she was relatively new to the game.

  Alex drew the tip of her tongue along her top lip, considering Phillip’s invitation, then the zipper of his pants. “You mean, you want me to…”

  “Do whatever you like,” he said, repeating his invitation.

  Their eyes met. The effect was electric, but Alex still didn’t make her move.

  “If you’re not sure where to start,” he said with mock solemnity, “I have a few suggestions.”

  She blinked up at him, looking uncertain, the blush returning for an encore. He whispered in her ear.

  “Oh my!” She laughed, almost choking on the words.

  To help her along, he took her hand, guided it down the front of his khaki pants and pressed her fingers over the rigid proof of his desire. Jade fireworks lit up her eyes as they widened still more. Behind the screen of her long dark lashes, he could see something awakening, something beginning to simmer, and the heat grew rapidly to a blaze.

  “I see,” she whispered.

  The pressure of her hand against him increased, and suddenly the urge to release himself came on so fast, so strong, he had to lift her fingers away for a moment.

  He had to catch his breath. Focus on the sky, the waves, anything but her. Force aside the heat, the craving, just for the moment.

  There was so much more to be done for Alex before he could allow himself that final race toward ecstasy.

  He blocked out his own needs and focused fully on hers. Moving aside the hem of her skirt, he closed his fingers around her slim ankle. Slowly, slowly he slid his hand up her long, elegant leg.

  He took his time. Making brief forays with the pads of his fingers over neighboring terrain. Circling over sensitive spots. Favoring the soft depression at the back of her knee, before moving on. Rising a little higher, an inch at a time, until Alex’s breathing sounded ragged, frantic, and her soft sighs plunged to needy female groans.

  When he at last reached her lovely thighs, she was writhing beneath him, arching toward him, clutching the muscles stretched tautly over his shoulder blades with frenzied delight. Urging him on with her moans, with the fire in her eyes.

  He touched the velvety, moist lips of her womanhood. Caressed and teased and flickered fingertips over her honeyed, yielding flesh. But he did not attempt entry.

  “Ah! Oh yes, Phillip!” she cried, the words coming fast and slurred between gasps. “Please… Are you trying to drive me mad?” She grabbed his shoulders.

  He grinned at her eagerness, but his own body was responding so fiercely to her arousal, he could barely contain himself. Still, it was fun to torment her, just a little while longer.

  “Shall I stop?”

  “Don’t you dare, you crazy man! I need you—” She drew a hissing breath as he circled one finger around the succulent orifice. “Need you inside of me!” she specified, as if there might be any question in his mind as to what she wanted.

  The gentle rocking of the boat in the night wind intensified each touch, each pressure of skin against skin.

  Phillip crushed his mouth over Alex’s full lips, kissing her deeply, wantonly, thinking of nothing beyond this moment with her. Needing to breathe, he sat up for just a moment, as moonlight cast long, shimmering streaks of gold across the wave tops.

  She seized his belt and yanked him back down, body to body. He was afraid his weight might hurt her, but she seemed to want him on top of her, all one hundred eighty pounds of man. Who was he to argue? She felt wonderful beneath him, bursting with energy, more naked than dressed, begging for all of him.

  Then Phillip remembered. With a violent kick to the gut of regret, he closed his eyes and silently cursed himself.

  “Alex, honey,” he whispered, “it’s been a long time. I hadn’t dared to dream you and I…not this soon.” Damn it, he couldn’t even get the words out. “I’m not totally prepared.”

  She was fumbling with his belt buckle, tearing the little silver prong out of the hole in the leather, moving hurriedly on to his zipper. “How unprepared is ‘not totally’?” Although she stared up at him, her eyes enormous, her fingers were still working feverishly. She pulled down his zipper tab.

  He winced in answer.

  “You have no protection?”

  “Nothing,” he whispered, intent on doing the right thing by her, even if it meant the agony of not reaching the fiery climax building within his loins even now.

  Her eyes closed and she drew a shuddering breath. Her touch softened, but didn’t withdraw.

  Phillip thought fast. It might not be impossible even under these less than ideal circumstances.

  Her hand still stroked the open space that his zipper, moments earlier, had covered. The silky sensation of her fingers smoothing up and down him through his briefs drove him wild. There must be a way. There must!

  He had to think clearly. Had to explain to her, and fast. “Listen for just a second. In the last four years I’ve been only with my wife and one other woman, and in all that time I was fully protected. There’s no question in my mind that you’re safe with me.” He hesitated, for some strange reason not sure he wanted to hear her history. But there was no getting around it if he wanted to finish what he’d started. “Your turn, Alex.”

  She looked away, as if embarrassed by his directness. “A college friend, a long time ago. Then my fiancé. In both instances, we each were tested before we slept together.”

  “So,” he said guardedly, “we’re all right, then?”

  She made an adorable face. “There’s still the little matter of a pregnancy.”

  “Ah, yes,” he murmured, laying delicate kisses along the rim of her ear. Everything was going to be just fine. More than fine. “But I know how to deal with that. Will you trust me?”

  When she pulled back to look up into his eyes, he reassured her with a wink. Alex gave him a skeptical look. “This is fairly important, you realize,” she said dryly.

  “I promise. I’ll make sure you’re safe, Alex.”

  She wondered why that didn’t sound like a convenient line. But coming from Phillip, she somehow trusted his intentions as well as his ability to keep his promise. Instinctively, she knew she could leave the details to him, and everything would be all right.

  She hooked one finger in the waistband of his briefs, pulling down on the elastic until he was exposed. The length, the breadth and hardness of him made her shudder pleasurably and draw a sharp breath.

  “Is this in lieu of a yes?” he asked, his voice tight. “Don’t just go along with me if you’re worried or frightened. I don’t want it to be that way between us.”

  When she at last lifted her gaze again, the bright play
fulness in her eyes told him all he needed to know.

  Phillip hurriedly pulled down his pants and briefs. Before he could lower himself over her, she reached out and grasped him. He was taut and beautifully shaped, and she could already imagine how he’d feel slipping between her thighs, moving within her. But would he do as he’d promised, protect her from pregnancy?

  There was no more time for thought. He was obviously ready for her and she would not stop him now with nervous questions. Something in the steely glint of his usually warm eyes told her there was little short of a scream that would call a halt to this.

  He firmly parted her thighs with one muscled knee. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him down on top of her. It took less than a heartbeat for him to find her. Then she felt his shaft, hot and rigid, smooth and unyielding, penetrate her.

  All gentleness was gone. Phillip thrust within her hard and deep. Alex relished the strength of him, the demands he made of her. She wouldn’t have wanted tenderness at this moment.

  This was all about a man claiming a woman, branding her as his own, conquering her and guaranteeing that, if others came after him, she would never forget him or this moment. As remarkable as it seemed, as full and large as he had appeared seconds earlier, he now swelled larger inside of her. She gloried in the sensation.

  Phillip nuzzled his lips into the hollow of her throat, kissing her fast and often as they moved together in perfect synchronism. His kisses blazed a fiery path up her neck to her chin, then her lips. She opened her eyes to find him watching her reactions as he thrust again and again. His solemn intensity made her shiver, even as flames licked through her body.

  As she locked her long legs around his hips, bringing him harder and harder into her, her breaths came in short, rapid bursts, and his in tortuous rasps. Every part of her body felt flushed, full of him, alive with energy. Every corner of her heart filled to overflowing with joy. She felt intoxicated with heretofore undiscovered passions. With an ardor she’d never dreamed herself capable.