Rise of a Queen (Kingdom Duet 2)

He went commando as well.

My feet falter in the sand at the view of him entirely naked, but I don’t get to stare for long when he charges towards me.

I squeal as I turn around and run in the direction of the beach. The water envelops my toes and calves in seconds. It’s a bit cold, and I shiver as it reaches above my knees, but I don’t stop my escape from Jonathan.

A strange sense of excitement grips me. It’s like those times when I used to hunt and stalk, but now, I’m not the predator, I’m the prey playing a game.

When I glance behind me, there’s no trace of Jonathan. I stop when the water reaches my waist and search around. Where did he go?

Did he leave? But I’m sure I heard him come in after me —

My thoughts are suddenly cut off when something grabs my calf and I shriek just as I’m being pulled under. Then the cold shock withers away as strong hands grip me by the arms and lead me back to the surface.

I gulp in a large intake of air, gasping, my fingers holding on to a muscular shoulder. I blink away the water in my eyes to make out the sight of Jonathan’s drenched face and his hair sticking to his temples. “Y-you!”

“Did you say something about stamina, wild one?”

“That’s not fair.”

“I never play fair.” His lips brush over my nose. “I play to win, remember?”

I do, and even though the notion scares me a bit, I can’t help but want more of it right now.

Splashing him in the face, I escape his hold and swim in the opposite direction.

He catches me in no time, but he also lets me go when he senses my need for a challenge.

It’s always been there, no matter how much I’ve tried to smother it. Challenges are what make me thrive, and Jonathan offers me that in the best way possible.

Will he still feel the same if he finds out that I’m as much of a monster as my father?

21

Jonathan

“What do you mean by, it’s null and void?” I ask Harris through the phone.

Aurora is taking a shower upstairs and I’ve come to the home office so she can’t listen to the conversation.

During the past few days we’ve spent on the island, she constantly demands to speak to Black Belt. If it were up to her, she would be sniffing for details about the news from England.

Not that I would let her. Whenever she tries to ask Layla, I either take the phone away or tell her there will be no more calls. She stopped trying to get around me after that.

I brought her here for multiple reasons, and the most important of all is not allowing her to see the articles written on her.

Her name and face are all over the media, and some of the victims’ families have come forward to say that she has the same look that’s in her father’s eyes. That they always thought she was unhinged like him.

I had Harris do some damage control, block articles and drive away the attention from Aurora’s personal life, but there’s only so much he can do. The media has always been obsessed with Maxim Griffin and his gruesome murders. The fact that he’s finally talking is giving them the chance to bring back the past and fully investigate it.

Now, Harris is telling me that my solicitor, who’s working on building a strong case for Aurora, says the whole prosecution’s questioning, and even the trial, will be smoke and mirrors.

Correction, he’s not my solicitor. I’ve never needed a criminal one before. Most of my hotshot solicitors specialise in corporate law. But I had my main law firm pick me the best criminal solicitor in the whole of the UK. Besides being known to have won all the criminal cases he’s taken, Alan Sheldon took the bar exam at the same time as Stephan Wayne — Maxim’s solicitor — and has also gone a few times against him.

From the outside looking in, that fact may seem trivial, but it’s not. Alan is the best, not only because of his unbeatable record, but also because he’s familiar with Stephan and his games prior to trials.

And Alan didn’t get the perfect record by being a saint. He’s been known to use every method under the sun to get his wins — moral or immoral. That’s why he’s a good fit.

While I don’t trust people, I trust his need to keep his serial wins. When someone has ego as a driving force, nothing stops them.