Chapter 200

“What the hell are you talking about?” Nicholas snapped back.

“You need to stop walking Piper around,” Julian said, firm. “It makes me look bad. She’s supposed to be my date, remember?”

“It’s after hours,” Nicholas said. “There shouldn’t be any cameras.”

“’Shouldn’t be,’” Julian said. “You admit it. There could still be some.”

“You are being overly paranoid,” Nicholas said.

“And you aren’t being paranoid enough,” Julian countered. He looked at me. “If we want this to seem real, we need to keep up appearances even without the cameras. I don’t care what you two get up to behind closed doors…”

His gaze dips to my neck, where the love bites Nicholas left are still prominent.

“But when we are in public, even if it’s late, you have to respect that I’m Piper’s boyfriend,” Julian said.

Boyfriend? We’d never used that term before. We’d only been dating, or I was Julian’s favorite. But neither he nor I, nor any of the producers, had gone so far as to call Julian my boyfriend.

He didn’t back down. He didn’t take it back. He just glared at Nicholas like he planned to say it six or seven more times to stab him with the word.

“You are not her boyfriend,” Nicholas said, his voice dropping low and dangerous. A growl was hidden there, revealed around the edges. “You are fake dating. That is not the same.”

“Keep telling yourself that.” Julian’s lips quirked into a mocking smirk. He was baiting his brother, and protective and jealous Nicholas was falling for it.

“Julian,” I said, strained. My patience was thin. I’d already had a trying day, making Elva cry. I didn’t have the necessary calm to deal with these brothers and their deep-seated rivalry today. “Please stop antagonizing him.”

His smirk wavered a bit.

“And Nicholas,” I turned to him next. He seemed surprised that I would address him in this argument, but a moment later, he met my disapproving gaze with a steady one of his own.

“Piper.”

“Julian’s not wrong. We should be careful…”

“There won’t be cameras,” he said, and made it sound so sure.

“You think,” Julian chimed in.

I weaved my fingers together. My heart told me to go with Nicholas anyway. Our moments were so stolen and rare, I collected each like precious gemstones. But I didn’t dare risk my fake relationship with Julian…

“All I want to do is walk you back to your room,” Nicholas said. “It’s all very innocent.”

I didn’t believe that, especially not with the heated glace he was giving me. He, like me, hadn’t forgotten our time together the night before. Even now, every inch of my skin tingled for the touch of his hand, or the press of his tongue…

“Okay,” I said at once. For Nicholas, I was willing to throw caution to the wind. What could possibly happen that we wouldn’t be able to cover for? “I’ll go with you.”

Nicholas held out his arm again, and I laced my arm through it.

Julian exhaled a loud, disappointed sigh.

To him, I said, “It’s going to be fine.”

“It had better be,” Julian said.

Veronica watched everything with a neutral expression. Though she seemed pleased now that we were getting ready to leave. “Have a good night.”

Julian stayed with us part of the walk back, but then he had to veer away to go to his own private rooms. He looked back twice on his walk away.

“It’s not like him to be so concerned about anything,” Nicholas said, though I didn’t think that was true. I thought it much more likely that he was simply better at hiding his worries most of the time.

“This is a big deal,” I said. “Sometimes it feels like the fate of the kingdom depends on Julian and my fake relationship. We can’t be careless.”

“No one’s around,” Nicholas said.

He was right. The hallways were dark and so quiet, we could likely hear a pin drop. It made me feel bold, knowing we were alone.

I traced tiny circles onto the back of Nicholas’s palm with my finger.

He closed his eyes a moment. His breath came a bit stuttered. It was nice to see how much I affected him.

“It’s almost been twenty-four hours since you kissed me,” I said.

“That’s not true,” he said. “Eighteen, at the most.”

“Feels like a full day.”

He looked at me sideways. “Are you asking me for a kiss?”

I licked my lips. “That depends on what the answer would be.”

His lip quirked. “And if it’s yes?”

I stopped entirely, giving up the game, and turned to him. “Nick, please.”

He moved toward me, and backed me up into one of the alcoves along the main hallway. Our bodies, half-shielded by the curtains there, he lowered down and kissed my breath away.

My entire body ignited.

When he swiped his tongue into my mouth, my panties went damp. My body remembered full well the many abilities of that talented tongue. I wanted him here and now, to hell with the consquences. If I didn’t get some relief, I was likely to explode.

“Nick,” I gasped or pleaded, or both, I didn’t know which.

Nicholas knew what I wanted and what I needed before I did. He slotted one leg between mine, then grabbed my ass with both hands and dragged me toward him, pulling my core and my clit over the delicious friction of his thigh.

“Ah!” I moaned. Nicholas covered my mouth with his, swallowing my noises.

Guided by his hands on my backside, I grinded against the meat of his muscled thigh. Back and forth, over and over. I chased my own pleasure. His growing dick pressed into my hip. Then he started grinding too.

He rubbed against each other with increasing desperation. Faster and faster.

More. I needed more.

His mouth broke with mine to latch onto my neck. Hadn’t he left enough marks? Hadn’t he yet staked his claim?

“Nick… I… Ah!”

I was too loud, I bit my bottom lip.

Then, suddenly, there was light.

“What the hell…?!”

Someone had drawn back the curtain and found us.

Nicholas and I jumped apart. I immediately straightened my clothes, and he straightened his. But our kiss-swollen lips and the love bites on my neck gave me away if my noises and Nicholas’s flagging erection did not.

I blinked a few times, adjusting my eyes to the sudden light.

Then I saw the King, and my entire stomach sank down, down to the floorboards.

“I can explain,” Nicholas said at once. He held his hands out, palms forward, defensive.

The King’s face was red with anger. His teeth were ground together. A muscle ticked along his jaw, and a vein was bulging on his forehead.

“It’s not what it looks like,” Nicholas began to say.

The King snapped, “Don’t you dare lie to me! You think I don’t have eyes? You think you were being quiet or sneaky, or whatever else?”

Nicholas snapped his mouth closed.

“And you,” the King turned his fiery attention onto me.

“I’m so sorry –” I started to say, on reflex.

“I don’t care what you are. This will not happen again. It will never happen.” His words had bite. I’d never seen him quite this furious, even when he had been dealing with Terry. “Get the fuck out of here before I have you removed.”

“Father, no –”

“Now!”

The King could have me killed if he wanted, and receive no ramifications for it. I had to get out of here.

I didn’t have a choice.