Royal Pain (His Royal Hotness 1)

The briefing doesn’t take long. One more look at intelligence that was uncovered regarding the militia group—and the two most likely places that Garrett is being held. A rundown of what the two concurrent missions look like, and though it hurts, I keep my mouth shut about going along with them.

And then they’re asking for the go order and my father—the king—is giving it. Within seconds, it’s under way and there’s nothing that can be done to stop it.

“What happens next?” I ask General Marceau, director of Wildemar’s Royal Air Corps and one of two men in charge of this mission.

“Now we wait, Your Highness. The choppers will be taking off in the next fifteen minutes. If things go as planned, they’ll drop the infiltration team in approximately three hours. After that, we’ll need to take things as they come. See how it all plays out.”

“That doesn’t sound very confident,” I growl. The last thing I want to hear when we’re talking about my brother’s life are words like ‘play.’?”

“Actually, I’m very confident, sir. But it’s in my nature to be cautious, and the truth is, we won’t know until we know.”

He’s right. I’ve run enough missions of my own to know he’s right, and still I feel like I’m going to jump out of my skin. Still I feel like I’m caught in some kind of nightmare that just won’t end. Every second that passes is an eternity, and as the generals head out to do whatever it is they will do until the mission goes live, I know that I’ll go insane if I have to stay here in this room and wait, just wait, for three excruciatingly long hours.

Grabbing my phone off the table, I hightail it out of the room and down the hall. I text Lucas while I walk, so that he, Niall and Avery are waiting for me when I make it downstairs.

One look at my face shuts them up completely. No joking around, no asking about Garrett, nothing. The thirty-minute ride feels like death. I pray it isn’t a sign of what’s to come.

It’s not until Lucas—who I let drive because my head is so messed up—pulls over to the curb in front of Savvy’s cottage that I realize I didn’t even call to give her a heads-up. Or ask her if it was okay for me to come by. I just fled here like a wounded animal looking for comfort, for someone to make it all better. I’m not sure what it says that Savvy is that person for me and right now, I don’t give a shit. All I want is to see her, to hold her, to lose myself in her to forget that I might very well lose my brother today.

If I haven’t already.

I pull out my phone, think about texting her, but I don’t have the energy or the patience to wait for her to answer. And so I all but fall out of the SUV and stumble up the front walk to her house. Lucas and Niall are right behind me. They don’t speak, but then, they don’t need to. They’ve been with me long enough to know just how messed up I am right now.

I knock on her door—pound is probably a better description—and it flies open after a few seconds. Then Savvy is standing here in an oversized purple T-shirt that reaches her thighs and not much else.

She looks surprised to see me, but one look at my face turns that surprise to alarm. “Kian? What’s wrong? Are you okay?” Her gaze darts from my face to Lucas’s and Niall’s. I’m not sure what she sees there, but suddenly she’s reaching for me, pulling me inside. Slamming the door on my detail.

“Kian? Baby?” she murmurs as her arms wind around me. “What can I do? What do you ne—”

I cut her off with a kiss, and not just any kiss. I slam my mouth down onto hers, then take her backward so fast that even my head spins. I don’t stop until her back is against the closed door, and even then all I do is cup my hands under her ass and lift her up so that her sex is pressed against my suddenly very hard dick.

She gasps in surprise, even as she wraps her arms around my neck and her legs around my hips.

“I need—” I break off as her lips part under mine. And then I’m fisting a hand in her hair, pulling her head this way and that as I savage her mouth and mutter incomprehensible things against her. Into her.

“Take it,” she gasps out when I finally give her the chance

to breathe. “Take whatever you want. Whatever you need.”

I don’t know how she knows that’s what I need to hear right now, but I take her at her word, reaching a hand beneath her shirt and ripping her underwear off with one sharp tug.

Then I’m lowering her feet back to the ground, dropping to my knees in front of her. And burying my face against the slick, wet heat of her.

“Kian!” This time when she says my name it’s high-pitched and trembly. It hits me where it hurts, has lust shooting through me like a rocket until all I can think about—all I can hear or see or feel—is her.

“I’ve got you, sweetheart.” I put her right ankle over my shoulder and start to kiss my way up the inside of her leg. She gasps, startles a little, but I pet her hip until she relaxes back against the door again.

But I still have one hand in her hair and I tug on the ends a little, keep her face tilted down toward me. I need to see her eyes, need to know she’s as much a part of this as I am, need to be sure I’m not just sweeping her along in the maelstrom of my own emotions.

Her brown eyes are nearly black as they look down at me, her pupils dilated wide with need. Her lips are parted, her skin flushed a soft, sexy pink, and her hands are clutching desperately at my shoulders. It’s enough to tell me that she’s right here with me, that she wants me as badly as I need her.

I can feel my control slipping as she stares down at me, can feel myself start to give in to the urge to take her right now and to hell with the consequences. God knows, there’s a part of me that wants to rush wildly for the prize, to bury my face in her pussy and sink my tongue deep inside of her. I want to taste her, to lick her, to get her off again and again and again until all she remembers is me. Until all she knows is the pleasure I can give her.

But that’s not enough. Making her come isn’t enough. Taking her isn’t enough.

That voice inside of me keeps demanding that I claim her, keeps roaring that she’s mine. No matter how short a time it’s been since we met, no matter that she belonged to Garrett first, no matter what happens next, Savvy is mine. And right here, right now, I want to claim her, want to brand her as mine in the most primitive way possible.

More, I want to get as deep inside of her as she already is in me. So even though she’s right here, even though I could be tasting her right now, making her scream right now, I take a deep breath. Force myself to get a grip. To go slow and savor her the way she deserves to be savored.