The King (Gentlemen Rogues 2)

She was tall. Five-eight maybe? And she was strong. A couple of hits she'd gotten on me were going to leave bruises. And she was wily, staying in the shadows.

She snapped out a kick and I grabbed her foot. I was probably more surprised than she was because I lost focus for just a moment thinking about how delicate she was. And then my world rotated. My feet were kicked out from under me, and all I saw was night sky and stars as I whooshed out, "Motherfucker."

"You kiss your mother with that mouth?"

What the fuck? Was she taunting me?

The hum of electricity under my skin made me smile. What the hell was wrong with me? Had I been so long without a woman that now any contact was getting me hard? "Nope. But I kissed your mother with it."

Oh yeah, mature. Real fucking mature.

She laughed. "Oh God, you’re into necrophilia? My mum's dead."

The way she said it, the hollowness in her voice, made me realize I'd hit a nerve. A painful one. And the guilt ate at me, even as I quickly rolled. I tucked my right leg under my left, placed my hands down to lift myself, and sprang back up into a defensive position.

What the hell was going on here? I'd heard her outside my fucking window.

The residences, as they called them, were guest houses dotted along the property. Each one with three bedrooms. Mine was on the north side of the property. I shared it with Saint, my flatmate for the duration of this adventure. There was also an empty room, and if she'd been on that side of the guest residence, I wouldn't have heard her. But she'd been right under my fucking window, so I'd gone looking.

When I arrived three months ago, I'd made my escape attempts. More than once. But I lacked the skill set to actually escape. It was after my third attempt that Gabriel Webb dragged me into his office. I wasn't a fan of his. Everything about him screamed SAS.

Okay fine, prick was what it really screamed. He was overbearing. Domineering. Reminded me of my grandfather and my father. Thought his shit didn't stink. He stared me down and gave me some speech about how I was never getting out of there. It was unnerving. He talked to me about Charlie, about how this place was something Charlie had wanted and had trained for.

I had to admit, it was a good tactic. It made me listen. He talked about how Charlie had wanted to do something bigger than him, greater than him. And I'd known all of that already. My brother and I were born with the proverbial silver spoons, but Charlie was always looking for some greater meaning. And I… Well, I'd been looking for some greater party. Charlie was the serious one. The one people expected to do great things. I was the one people expected to fuck up.

And you did fuck up, didn't you?

I tried to shake off the heat of shame, but I was doused in it. I was here because I had fucked up. And Charlie wouldn't have.

After my little heart to heart with Gabe, he'd called in the big guns. My grandfather. While I loathed my father with the strength of a thousand suns, I actually respected my grandfather. Not that he was warm or cuddly like most grandfathers. No, he wasn't. But he had actually taken time to get to know me, unlike my father. Some of my earliest adventures were with my grandfather. He didn't say much. He believed in leading by example, and seeing him walk into my prison hadn't sat right.

And then he'd given me the spiel. Most of it unimportant except for the fact that I would be here for a fucking year. One year to become a better man than I was. One year to get the training my brother was supposed to have received. One year to prove that I could be something more. Whatever the fuck that was, I didn't know. If I chose to leave again, I would be completely cut off. No money, no nothing. Those dreams that Charlie and I had together, all his foundation ideas and things he wanted to do, the things I planned to do, were over. I was in jail for a year.

And now, this woman was sneaking in here? Why? Was it a jailbreak? I hadn't seen other women trainees. There were some trainers who were women, working on staff, training us, but I hadn't seen any female trainees. Or maybe they were being kept somewhere else.

Maybe we didn't need the distraction.

“I don't want to hurt you."

She stepped forward then, and I felt like I'd been poleaxed right in the solar plexus. Jesus Christ. As the moon shone down on her ebony skin, I could see her amazing bone structure. The delicate line of her jaw to the point of her chin, the almost too full lips, the wide dark eyes framed by thick lashes, and her skin appeared so soft like satin. Dear God, something about her froze me, which was a problem, because when she actually physically came at me, I wasn't ready.

I was more in the shadows than she was, but she still managed to land a hit to my sternum that had me gasping for air, and then another sweeping kick which put me on the ground.

"Stay down."

"Why the hell should I stay down?" I pushed myself back to my feet.

She came for me again, and this time I was quick enough to shift my feet slightly to the left and turn, grabbing her by the waist with my arm around her neck. I didn't actually close the gap to tighten my hold, but I did plant my hand on her shoulder, so there was no wiggling.

Her scent washed over me, and I felt like I couldn't breathe. One inhale, and everything in my body went tight. I could feel the blood rushing to my cock and fucking hell…

I'd never been into this kind of thing before, but Jesus, fighting her was sure as hell doing it for me.

She wiggled in my hold, and her arse ground right on my cock as I cursed low. “For Christ’s sake, just relax. I'm not going to hurt you."

She laughed then. Laughed like a crazy person. "Said the lion to the lamb."

Then she ground on me again, and this time I groaned. "What the fuck are you doing?"