Her tongue darted out and my brain shut down, gobsmacked. My cock grew so hard I thought it was going to bust out. I sure as hell wanted it to. I needed her hands wrapped around me, or even better, her luscious mouth. My teeth pricked the inside of my lips, and I had to take a few deep breaths.
My wolf wanted me to bite her, to claim her, and I couldn’t. Not just because I was lying to her about who and what I was, or that Stacia wasn’t likely to react well to me sinking me teeth into her throat, but also because the future King of Bashkiria would be mated in a public ceremony to a wolftress, one chosen by my parents. That was my duty, what my country demanded.
But this right here, with Stacia warm and sweet and in my arms, smelling of peaches, that could be just for me.
I was about to drag her inside the building and see if I couldn’t find one of those dark corners and get her legs wrapped around my waist, but her phone went off with the tune of ‘God Save the Queen’ and all my plans and my cock went crashing down.
“Sorry. Crap.” She grabbed the offending thing out of her jeans pocket and glanced at it. “I gotta go to work. Dammit.”
“Can’t you skive off?” I would quite happily spend the entire rest of the day and into the night exploring her mouth and every single one of her curves.
Except for the part where I was supposed to be hunting the one-bloods. Only a woman this… perfect could make me forget my duties.
“Skive? Oh, you mean skip work? Like play hooky? Not if I want to pay rent. Broke student, remember?” Her phone chirped again with another notification tone. “Ooh. Look, breaking news from the BBC. They’ve found the car Prince Ruslan was last seen in right nearby in Rogue. Holy crap.”
Holy crap indeed. She’d already mentioned knowing about Prince Ruslan. But thus far my disguise of glasses and the student athlete clothes had worked. It might not hold up if she was staring right at a picture of me. I made like I was grabbing her phone to see the news story and fumbled it right onto the corner of the concrete bench. Crack, the screen shattered. Perfect. “Damn. Sorry, love.”
“Oh no. It’s a broken mess. Dumb thing. I guess I’ll have to go whore myself out to get it fixed tomorrow.” She frowned at the thing glumly.
“What?” Was she actually that hard up for money? That must just be an Americanism. “No. It’s my fault. Why don’t you let me get it fixed and I’ll bring it to you at your place of employment?”
Which, of course, I couldn’t do with the whole no money, no phone of my own, and no credit cards thing. But I couldn’t have her looking up the news about me. Once the one-bloods had been taken care of, I would have a new one sent to her with my apologies. No, better to do that anonymously.
“Is that your sly way of getting my number and asking to see me later? Because I say yes to both.” Her smile was as wide as the gap between our two worlds.
I pulled her down for another kiss. “You’re quite clever for figuring me out. I definitely want to see more of you.”
For a second, I didn’t think my wolf would let me let go. I wanted to tug her closer, to mark her, keep her. It took more effort than I was proud of to pry my fingers off her and let her move away.
“Why does everything you say sound both naughty and all proper at the same time?” She nipped at my bottom lip. “Wanna walk me to work? The Wolves’ Den is just on the other side of campus.”
She had a very cheeky grin that I wanted to look at for a long, long time.
“I’d rather tuck away with you and be as you say, naughty. But I shall pull on every bit of my proper upbringing and escort you to work.” I had no desire to do anything but strip her naked and taste every inch of her. I knew I didn’t have much time left, but if it meant I got to spend more time with her, I would walk her to the Bashkiria and back.
The tip across campus would have to do. It would give me the opportunity to sniff around. Twice already the one-bloods had come for one of the wolves’ human mates at the Moon Bean.
It was half of the reason why the Wolf Tzar had called my family in to help. His mother, the Troika matriarch, owned the little shop, and while she had been sly and instrumental in the revolution and take down of the Volkovs, she was only one wolftress. Against a band of thugs, she was a target. As were the women who worked for her.
I nuzzled Stacia’s neck before letting her up, and when she stood, I took her hand. I doubted I’d ever get an opportunity to walk hand-in-hand with a sweetheart ever again, and I was goingto soak up every bit of a whirlwind romance with my American girl.
STACIA
Every nerve in my entire body was squealing with delight. Bash kissed me, and then he kissed me again. If my phone wasn’t broken and in his pocket, I’d be texting Selena and telling her what an incredibly smart matchmaker she was. I already had to bite the inside of my cheek to keep from awkwardly laughing every time he said anything. Playing it cool, I asked, “How long are you here? One semester or two?”
He took my hand in his as we walked across the main part of campus toward the row of shops and restaurants where the Wolves’ Den and the Moon Bean were. “Not long enough, I think.”
Be still my heart. Now I really did want toskive offso I could spend more time with Bash. It was kind of weird how I felt like we had this instant connection. Yeah, I was beyond attracted to his accent, and I still wanted to see him with nothing but a crown on, but something had happened between us sitting on the benches. Right before he kissed me, when he told me his name, I saw something flash through his eyes. A moment of vulnerability in him that I didn’t think he let very many people see.
“I applied for the study abroad program so I could go to Europe and go royals hunting.” I hoped he didn’t think I wastoo weird. “Turns out the committee didn’t think that was a good reason to want to study in Denmark, Norway, Sweden, the United Kingdom, Spain, the Netherlands, Bashkiria, or Belgium.”
He huffed out a half laugh, half cough. “Why those eight countries?”
“Those are the kingdoms left in Europe.” He was from there, I would have thought he’d have known. “Princes and dukes and barons and whatnot all over the place. There’re also royal families in Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, several African countries, Thailand, and Luxembourg, but none of them have an exchange program with Bay State University.”
“I see. So you really have quite a thing for the royals then.” He sounded a little disgusted by that.
Very few people understood my obsession. “Ever since I was little. My mom named me after Princess Anastasia and we used to watch the cartoon movie on an old VHS tape she got at a library sale. She even made me a miniature dress-up gown with the big leg-of-mutton sleeves, just like Anastasia’s. It’s my favorite memory of her.”
