Then he buried his face into the crook of my neck, and at the same time thrust up into me, filling me, so deliciously.
“And you’re mine. Now prove it.”
Bash knew exactly what I wanted. He thrust into me again and again, and at the same time sunk his fangs into the mark on my collarbone. I don’t know if I had a whole bunch of orgasms, or if it was one very, very long one.
Either way, it was perfect. I loved how every time made me feel claimed in all the best ways.
Bash came inside of me as the car stopped, but he held me tight, neither of us ready to move. “Where in the world did you learn to do that with your hips, love?”
“Porn.”
His mouth dropped open. “Umm. You weren’t a virgin our first time together?”
I giggled and rolled my eyes at him. “I’m not a porn star, your dorkness. I was kidding. But I read a lot of romance novels.”
He laughed, relieved. “I think you should lend me some of those books.”
I made a mental list in my head of the naughtiest ones starring princes to lend him. I swallowed hard and brought up the subject we’d so artfully avoided. “So what happens now? It’s not like we can just go get married. You’ve got rules you have to follow.”
“I do. I’ve already broken several. You have no idea.” He put his head back on the seat and sighed.
“I do have an idea.” In fact, I bet I knew as much about royal protocol as he did. “I’d planned on studying international lawnext year, and I’ve been following the royals for years. I know what we’re up against.”
Unless there were some special werewolf laws. But even those could be learned.
“I swear I’ll understand if you decide you don’t want to fight this battle with me. It’s not going to be easy, and you didn’t know what you were signing up for when we made love. The rules need to change if my country…and my people, both wolf and human have a future.” The same passion he had when he’d given his speech shined in his eyes.
That passion was a big part of what I loved about him, but not everything. Bash had given something to me that he didn’t share with anyone else. I didn’t mean his virginity either. He’d shared his real self with me. Even when he thought he was disguised, when I didn’t know who he really was, he was still real in his feelings and emotions. That meant more than anything else.
I squeezed his hand and gave him a soft kiss to his cheek. “Stop trying to give me an out, Ruslan Bashkir. You’ll make me worried that you don’t want us to happen.”
“No. Never.” He kissed me hard, showing me how he felt. The mark on my shoulder throbbed in time with my heart. When he broke the kiss, we were both back to breathing hard. He looked deep into my eyes. “I never believed in love at first sight. I thought it was fairy tale silliness. Except now I know that it isn’t. I am irrevocably besotted with you, Anastasia of Bay State University. Even if you don’t marry me, I have to make my country and my government move toward the future so as not to hold onto the worst parts of our past. I want to do that with you by my side. I’m all in, if you’ll have me.”
I climbed onto his lap, straddling his thighs. “I’m going to have you for a long time, and I would very much like you to be all in. I do believe in fairy tales and I love you.”
Bash pushed the button for the intercom. “Around the block a few more times please, Marcus. My future princess and I have some... fairy tale stories to tell each other.”
Volkov Abbey,Bashkiria
Christmas Day, three years later
“Princess Anastasia, over here, smile!”
Stacia’s face broke into a huge grin. She did what she called her patented princess wave to the waiting crowds and paparazzi. Elbow, elbow, wrist, wrist, wrist. She winked at the closest of the press. “Oh goodness. I’ll never get used to hearing that. I’ve only been Her Royal Highness Princess Anastasia Bashkir for, let’s see, nine minutes, and forty-seven seconds.”
The crowd nearest laughed. She had every single one of them charmed. Since the day I asked her to marry me in front of half her university, she’d insisted on making friends with the press and letting them see almost every bit of our romance. All but the naughtiest bits.
At first the paparazzi had a field day following us around, but when she made it clear she was hiding nothing from them and they had all access, most had given up the chase. Every once in a while, one or two would pop up, especially on my trips to Yale to visit her. They got bored fast when we spent our time talking about economic reforms and Bashkirian inheritance law.
We needed every minute of her years in law school to get enough of the country on our side to have the legislature amend the Royal Marriages Act and the Act of Settlement to allow us to even get permission to marry. It helped immensely to have my mother campaign on my side.
I could hardly believe we were finally wed. I also couldn’t believe that, with all the rules we’d broken, the one she’d wanted to adhere to was that we couldn’t see each other on the night before our wedding. A formal dinner yesterday with the king and queen and Stacia’s father was the last I’d gotten to see of her until today when she’d walked down the aisle.
I’d never admit how hard my cock had gone under my dress uniform when I first saw her in that gown. Thank god for heavy zippers.
“Princess.” Another reporter, who called out her moniker with derision, held a microphone toward her face. We’d won over most of the world, but there were still holdouts who didn’t like our future-forward stance on the way we intended to rule the country. This wanker was at the top of the list when it came to our opponents. I was sure he wasn’t invited to be a part of the press corps covering our wedding. Mostly because I’d like to punch him in the face.“Don’t you think getting your law degree is now wasted time since you’ll be nothing more than Prince Ruslan’s wife after today?” He thought he was setting my Anastasia up for a fall.
She paused and put on her press smile. He was in for it now. I stood back to enjoy the show. “Only if you also think my time spent advocating for literacy, the pro bono work I do for the Bashkortostan orphanages, the economic proposal we just had passed in the legislature, and the way I talked your mom into putting nothing more than coal in your stocking today is a waste of my time.”
