The palace drawing room doors closed behind the agents from the Royal Jewelry Collection, who now carried the royal crown safely in the fingerprint-secured case.
Flynn couldn’t keep his hands off his wife.
My wife.
He loved the way those words sounded.
Unfortunately, he had to wait. Now, as her husband, he didn’t have to leave the room as Cataline and another aide helped Alanna out of her bridal gown. Her reception gown hung in the armoire, waiting for another three people to help her into it.
The second the bridal gown was off, he cleared his throat. “Ladies, if you’ll excuse us for a moment.
Cataline smirked, and shooed the other women out of the room.
Alanna’s hungry gaze glimmered with a touch of humor.
“This morning wasn’t nearly enough,” Flynn announced, slipping out of his suspenders. He strolled up to her like a jaguar. Hungry. His strong hands roved over her bodice.
“We have a palace full of guests waiting on us.”
“Let them wait, love.” He claimed her mouth, stroking her tongue with expert efficiency. He knew how to make her melt. To make her ride the top of that wave.
Alanna covered his face with kisses, searing his skin with her sweet mouth.
“Can we start now?”
“Start what?” she whispered between licks.
He freed himself from his pants, and lifted her. Then settled on the settee with her saddling him. He guided his raging cock to her entrance, and slid home. Hissed out his pleasure. “I want to make a baby with you. Right now.”
Alanna’s face flushed, and her smile made his heart hiccup.
“You don’t waste any time, do you?”
“With you, hell no.”
Their quickie turned into a longer ride than they anticipated.
Several knocks on the door didn’t stop them.
He wanted to make sure his new wife enjoyed herself as a married woman.
Plunging her over that cliff, and he soon followed.
She ripped off the wrapping. “This one came with no card?”
“I can’t find one.” Cataline searched around the empty table.
They’d opened all the wedding gifts.
“It’s probably inside.” Flynn sat beside Alanna and held the discarded wrapping.
André removed his tux coat and snuggled next to Gemma on the sofa in the queen’s lounge room.
All the guests had left, and everyone had danced the night away until the sun threatened to rise.
She reached inside the box and pulled out two smaller boxes. The first one contained a pocket knife, small and functional, with a few jewels encrusted into the handle. “Wow, that’s…strange.”
Her husband looked in the box again. “No card.”
She opened the other smaller box, and out unrolled a man’s tie.
A silk, bright, purple tie.
Her heart froze.
Flynn dropped the wrapping. “Call Stefano right now.”
She registered Gemma and André moving around her, but all she could focus on was the jeweled pocket knife.
Santos Lozano had used a similar one to nearly cut off her fingers.
The cartel leader was long dead.
But not his eldest son, Ricardo.
The man had witnessed the entire ordeal. Alanna still remembered the man’s evil sneer as he’d sat back and watched their thugs hold her down.
Along with his trusted second, Julian.
Who’d kidnapped her from Philippine authorities, and had worn a bright purple tie with his expensive suit.
Alanna could barely swallow.
Inside the small box that had contained the tie, was a small, handwritten note.
My congratulations to the happy couple.
Enjoy your happiness, while it lasts…