“That feels good. I like your laughter against me.”

“How do you do that, seem so cold one second and warm the next?”

“Am I cold with you? I don’t mean to be. All I feel when I’m around you is the need to be closer. The need to have you. When you’re close, I feel…” He pauses as if he’s looking for the right word. “Whole.”

A rush of love for this man courses through me. I’m floored that this warrior-like man needs me to feel whole. I try to think about when he’s been cold to me, but when I replay in my head the times we’ve spent together, I realize he hasn’t been cold at all. He’s been intense. His one mission has been clear. He wants me. Even thinking back to the first day when I thought he was being a jerk, he wasn’t. He was worried about me. Wanted me near him. Everything I’ve asked for, he’s given me instantly. Unless it was to have distance from him.

No, the cold is something I got from all the things I’d read about him.

“They call you The Wall.” I glance over my shoulder, looking at the room filled with people. I notice a ton of people look away as I do it. Clearly they’ve all been staring at us. “Everyone is looking at us,” I mutter, more to myself than to him.

“I know they are staring at us. It was part of why I put you in my lap. I don’t like it when they look at you.”

It’s then I see someone I recognize—Princess Kaul. I’d seen her in a picture with Roman. They looked like they’d been on a date.

“You invited your ex?” I say harshly. I’m sure he has exes, but why would he invite one to our wedding? Maybe he has to invite her because of her royal status. Heck, he probably didn’t even have a hand in the guest list. But I still don’t like it, and suddenly I’m feeling very possessive of my husband. I grab on to his shirt.

“Who?” he queries, looking over my shoulder. “I don’t know what you are talking about. I don’t have an ex.”

“Princess Kaul.”

“I’ll ask you again, my queen. Who?”

“You don’t know who Princess Kaul is? I saw you in a picture with her at the Ruther charity dinner a few months ago.”

He smiles at my words. He looks down at where I’ve got his shirt clenched in my hands, and his smile grows.

“I have to say, I like that you get as worked up about the idea of me on a date as I’ve gotten about you having other men—men who might have called for your hand in marriage.”

I let go of his shirt and start to get off his lap, but he has a hold on me and I can’t go anywhere.

“I did not recall Princess Kaul when you said her name. But I do remember sitting next to her at the dinner. She was boring and didn’t even snort when she laughed. I promise you, I forgot her the moment I left that table—a table that had assigned seating at an event I went to alone. Like I always do. I don’t have time to go on silly dates with women who I know will only annoy me and drive me crazy.” He runs a finger along my neck. “Well, I used to go alone. I won’t have to go alone any longer, my queen.”

“I can’t stop the snorting when I laugh. I tried because it drives my mom crazy. I’m kind of a goof. You’ve seen my sister and me together.”

“I’d never wish you to change such things. Every time you snort I smile. And you and your sister are adorable together.” He leans in, kissing my neck. “You’re so soft.”

“Roman, we’re in a room full of people,” I remind him breathlessly. “They are all watching us.”

“Yes, they are watching The Wall crumble for his queen.”

12

Roman

I kick the door closed behind me and stalk to the bed, carrying Alena in my arms.

“If you want your dress to remain intact, I suggest you remove it yourself. I will not be so delicate.”

I stand her on her feet and take a step back as I yank at my tie angrily. “Now, my queen. I’ve given you easy all night, and I can’t restrain myself any longer. You do it, or I’ll do it for you.”

The command snaps her into action, and I pull at my clothes as she unzips her dress and slips it off. She carries it over to a side chair and drapes it over it, lovingly protecting it from damage.

She comes back to me wearing a silk slip that covers most of her nakedness from me. I can see her nipples through the sheer fabric, and it’s a tease of what I want.

“And that?” I say, nodding to her slip.

“It’s not precious to me,” she says, biting her lip.

She’s a little tease, and she knows it. I step forward, gripping the front of it in my meaty fists, and rip it all the way down front. She’s not wearing anything under it, her lush naked body presented before me.

I growl audibly and surprise even myself at the sound. “On the bed. And put a pillow under you.”

She turns, showing me her rounded ass, and I have to clench my fists at my side. I keep reminding myself to go slowly, but I have to have her. There’s no time for foreplay.

When I’m naked, I stand at the end of the bed, watching her. I take my cock in both hands and begin to massage it. The rock-hard length needs to ease a little before I take her, so I let her watch as I pleasure myself.

She’s in the middle of the bed, with her golden hair laid out around her. The pillow under her lush ass raises her hips and offers me a perfect view of what I want. It also tilts her hips back so that my seed won’t run out when I breed her. She’ll stay in this position for the next few days. I’ll make love to her in only this position and hold her like this while she sleeps. I’ll feed her from my hand so that she doesn’t go hungry while she grows my baby in her belly.