Enticing Liam (Big Sky Royal 2)

“You should have stopped.”

“Why?”

“Because I came in your mouth. What if you didn’t like it?”

“Well, now I know. It wasn’t the best thing to happen in my life, but it wasn’t gross either. And it was quite fun to make you lose control like that. We’ll be doing that again.”

I laugh and tuck myself away as my phone rings.

“Someone’s trying to reach us,” I say, pulling my phone out of my pants, frowning at the display.

It’s London.

“Cunningham.”

“This is Bernard.” The king’s personal security. “The princess’s presence is being requested by tomorrow evening.”

“I’ll have her there.”

I hang up and glance at Ellie. She’s still pink from her orgasm.

“I have to take you home tomorrow.”

She scowls. “But I’m not supposed to leave for several days yet.”

“I have orders,” I reply, already feeling the bubble Ellie and I have lived in for the past three weeks bursting around me. “I’d better get over to HQ and pack a bag and brief my men. We’ll leave tomorrow morning.”

“I’m calling my father,” she says, pulling on her shorts. “Something must be wrong.”

I watch her for a moment and then cup her face in my hands and kiss her hard. Then I pull back and smile at her, even though my chest already hurts. “I’ll come back down in a couple of hours. Don’t go anywhere, okay?”

“Okay.”

I hurry down the stairs and just step outside when I realize that I didn’t zip up. I do that and turn around to find Callum right behind me.

Fuck.

His eyebrows climb.

“So. What’s going on here?”

I shake my head and move to walk past him, but his voice stops me.

“Liam.”

I turn to Ellie’s brother. “You know what, man? If you have questions, I suggest you ask your sister. I don’t know what she’s ready for you to know. What I will tell you is that it’s nothing that isn’t consensual.”

“Be careful,” he warns as I walk away. “You’re about to go to the palace, and we still have guillotines around there somewhere.”

I wave over my shoulder and keep walking. Callum obviously knows that we’re headed back to London.

Chapter 15

~Ellie~

“Your Highnesses, we’ll be landing in thirty minutes.”

The voice of our pilot over the speaker system sounds tinny. I don’t reply. Callum reaches over on his chair and presses a button.

“Thank you, Richard,” he says.

Callum’s never nervous. At least, I’ve never seen him that way in all of my almost twenty-six years. He’s as sure of himself as anyone I know.

But he’s nervous now. He’s been fidgeting in his seat, checking the time, and muttering to himself during the whole flight.

It’s very unlike him.

We’re all worried.

After the call from the palace last evening, I called my father’s direct line, but it was my brother, Frederick, who answered.

“What’s happening?” I asked.

“I’d rather you and Callum got here first, and then we can have a family meeting together.”

“Where’s Sebastian?”

“He and Nina are also on their way.”

I swallowed hard. Freddy sounded tired. “Is he gone?”

“No. Just get here, Eleanor.”

And with that, he hung up. We left Montana first thing this morning.

Liam stayed with me last night. He held me, and even though neither of us spoke about it, we knew that our special time together was at its end.

I’m worried about my father, and I’m sad at the same time. I feel selfish for the emotion, but I can’t help it.

Since boarding the plane, Liam has resumed the role of my security detail. He’s been on the phone with someone at the palace, and then in conversation with David.

He’s barely looked my way.

He certainly hasn’t touched me.

Which, if I’m being level-headed, is the right thing to do. My brother and his security are with us, not to mention two pilots and a flight attendant.

But I already miss him. I need him to hold my hand and reassure me. To be here with me as my lover and friend, not only as my bodyguard.

London rises below us, and within minutes, we’re safely on the ground. We taxi to our hangar, and Callum and David deboard the plane ahead of us.

Before we follow, Liam pulls me aside and into his arms for a strong hug. It almost takes my breath away.

“I needed this.”

“Are you okay, babe?” He rubs circles on my back. He can soothe me with just a simple touch, and I realize that it’s this, right here, that I’m sad about. I’m not ready to lose it.

“No,” I whisper and swallow hard, wishing we could freeze time and stay right here for an hour or two. But I know we can’t. “I want to know what in the bloody hell is going on with my father, and I already miss you.”

I hadn’t intended to say those last few words, but they tumbled out all the same. And I’m too much of a mess to be sorry for it.