Casey
The last place on earth I wanted to go was the capital city of Limaj, but I was falling hard for Erik and was willing to do it simply because he’d asked. How often did a real live king request my presence anywhere? It had never happened before, and I knew how much Erik respected his uncle. I’d enjoyed spending time with his aunt too. So as long as Anwar didn’t show up, everything would be okay. At least that’s what my hope was.
As we pulled up to the palace, I didn’t even try to hide my awe. It was magnificent, even more breathtaking in person than in pictures I’d seen. The whole country was beautiful, with lush flowers and lots of greenery. The mountains in the distance gave it a majestic feel reminiscent of Switzerland, but the coastline we’d passed on the way here was a lot like Greece or Turkey. I’d seen glimpses of cobblestone streets that reminded me of the United Kingdom and there was something in the air that reminded me of lavender. Maybe I was so enthralled with my new boyfriend that everything about his country captured my attention. I was charmed and curious, but now that we’d arrived at the palace, I was nervous too.
“You’re sure you didn’t forget to tell me anything important?” I asked him. “Things I’m supposed to say or do that you take for granted?”
He gave me a look that made my insides shiver a little, which seemed to be happening more and more often lately. “Don’t worry, I’ll be with you every step of the way. I told you—I’ll never let you fall.”
“Maybe if you say it a few more times I’ll believe it,” I teased.
We got out of the limousine that had been sent to pick us up, and two men immediately moved to open the gilded double doors that led inside. There were apparently two entrances. The main one was in the front of the palace and faced the street, though it was a good thousand feet behind a gate. That was where tourists congregated and took pictures. This entrance was around back and off to the side, equally fancy and guarded, but for the private use of the family and their guests.
“Welcome, Your Highness.” A man in a suit smiled and shook Erik’s hand.
“Good to see you, Ibrahim.” Erik turned to me. “Ibrahim has been running the palace household for as long as I can remember.”
“I’ll have your luggage and the lady’s delivered to your suite,” Ibrahim said. “Will you be requiring any special services while you’re with us, Your Highness?”
“I’d like American-style coffee and pastries brought to the suite each morning by nine o’clock. We won’t be joining the family for breakfast.”
“Yes, sir.” Ibrahim disappeared back inside, and I held on to Erik’s hand as we followed in that direction.
The first thing I saw was a huge double staircase that split the ornate entranceway.
“The stairway on the left leads to the guest suites,” Erik told me. “The one on the right goes to the king and queen’s private suites.”
“Got it—left is the way I need to go if I ever get lost,” I said with a smile.
“There are forty-three bedrooms and guest suites, fifty-one bathrooms, three ballrooms, five dining rooms, six gardens, and four kitchens. You’ll most likely get lost often.”
“Four kitchens?” I asked, letting him lead me up the stairs.
“One is for everyday meals, one is specifically for bread and pastries, one is the queen’s private kitchen, and the last is only used when entertaining large crowds.”
“Your aunt has her own kitchen?”
“She likes to cook, but it wouldn’t be proper to have her puttering around with the help, so my uncle built her a private one about ten years ago. She loves it. Her personal chef and the cleaning crew are the only people allowed in it other than guests she invites.”
“This is magnificent.” I was enamored with the lush carpets, carved furniture, and stunning antiquities. I’d visited many tourist locations around the world, including Edinburgh Castle, the pyramids of Egypt, and dozens of natural wonders, but the palace here in Limaj was truly magical.
“I grew up running around here when I was on school holidays,” he said. “It holds a lot of fun memories for me.”
“I can’t imagine living here.”
Erik looked like he wanted to say something but then changed his mind, pushing a panel and revealing an elevator door.
“There’s an elevator?”
He chuckled. “Several, actually. This is the one for this section of the palace. It leads to the secondary suites, which include mine and a few others. Anwar and his brothers and sisters have their suites in the primary wing on the fourth floor, where they have a bit more privacy. This floor, however, has special surprises.”
“Oooh, sounds sexy.”
“Very.” We stepped off the elevator and went down another set of stairs.
“Wait, we went up to go down?”
“It’s all about security and privacy. Trust me.” We turned a corner and came to a set of double doors. He unlocked the door, and this time when we stepped inside, my jaw fell open and stayed there.
“What…” I looked around and a little sigh of pleasure escaped me. “Is that a private pool? Like, just for you?”
He grinned. “Well, Skye would share the pool if she was here, because her suite is next door, but she’s in Las Vegas.” He wrapped his arms around me from behind as I stared out at the glistening water. “What do you think?”
“I’m shocked and awed,” I admitted. “This is fantastic. The pool, the view, the palm trees… This takes rich to a whole new level.”
“It does. I don’t come often, but when I do, it’s nice to indulge.”
I glanced at him. “I’ve never even asked you—where do you live the rest of the time?”
“I have a flat about an hour from London where I spend a lot of time since that’s where I went to university. If I’m traveling, I’m usually with friends or at hotels. I’m not in one place long enough to call anywhere home though.”
“You sound like me. I’ve been on tour since I was eighteen and even though I own a condo in Vegas, I’m never there.”
“Do you want a home?”
I thought about it. “I do, but I don’t want to be there all the time. I want to travel, tour, explore the world, have new experiences, meet people from other cultures… But I do want somewhere to call home, somewhere I’ll eventually raise a family. What about you? Do you plan to settle down in one place and be a prince without a throne, doing royal things?”
He chuckled. “Yes and no. As a member of the royal family, I like doing charity events and bringing to light important issues like world health and starvation, but since I’ll never take the throne, I’ve also considered getting a job.”
“Why?”
“Why what?” He seemed confused.
“Why would you want the drudgery of working for someone else when you can make a difference in the world with just your title and the money you already have?”
“You make a valid point. I guess it’s because I’m a man and somewhere in my subconscious it feels like I should work, do more than spend the money I was simply born with.”
“Working on issues that impact the entire world sounds like a fantastic job, if you ask me.”
He smiled. “When you put it that way…”
A knock on the door interrupted us, and Erik went to answer it. A pretty brunette stood there smiling, and when she saw Erik, she threw her arms around him.
“You’re here!” she said happily. Then she went off in an explosion of conversation in their language, which of course, I didn’t understand.
“Elen, we’ll catch up soon but there’s someone I want you to meet.” He tugged the girl forward. “Honey, this is my cousin Elen. Elen, my girlfriend, Casey Hart.”
“From Viktim of Prey!” Elen’s eyes twinkled. “I love, love, love your music.”
“Thank you,” I responded automatically.
“Elen is Sandor’s younger sister,” Erik said.
“Is my big brother behaving?” Elen asked, laughing.
“Sometimes,” Erik quipped.
“Well, I’ve come to say hello and warn you.”
“Warn me?” Erik frowned. “About what?”
“Anwar has been on a tear since the party in Monte Carlo. He’s supposedly on his way home and not happy that you’re here.”
“Tough shit,” Erik said. “Uncle Isak invited us.”
“Well, I just wanted you to know he’s being his usual asshole self. Now I have to go find my brother. Is he in his room?”
“He said something about going to visit your mother.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Mother’s in Brazil having a facelift.”
Erik laughed. “Then your brother is undoubtedly roaming around the palace.”
“I’ll find him.” Elen waved, calling over her shoulder, “Nice to meet you, Casey!”
Erik shut the door and grinned. “My favorite cousin other than Sandor.”
“You seem close to them. Do they have any other siblings?”
“There’s a boy between Sandor and Elen, Daniil, and we’re all closest among the cousins.”
“Who’s oldest?”
“Vardan is twenty-eight, Sandor twenty-six, Daniil twenty-three, and Elen is twenty. I’m between Sandor and Daniil at twenty-four. Their mother is my father’s sister, and their father is British, so they’re way removed from the throne and quite happy about it.”
“Is that why Sandor is your bodyguard?”
“He requested it, actually. Since he’s two years older, he could have gone off to university without me and done his own thing, but he opted to wait for me so we could go together. He used those two years to do his military service and train that way.”
“Is it mandatory here?”
“Yes, it’s one year, for men only, either before or after university. If you do it before, and do two years, university is free. In my case, because my uncle gave me a title, as a member of the royal family, I still have to do it, but I was allowed to do it during the summers after graduating high school. I did three months after each of my four years of undergraduate. Which is why you haven’t seen a lot of me the last few years during the summer.”
“I don’t think I knew any of that.”
“For my safety and the safety of the others, I went in under an assumed name and the public wasn’t made aware of what I was doing. Sandor returned with me, in a position sort of like what you might call in the U.S. the reserves, just to keep an eye on me and provide protection should anything go wrong. Higher-ups in the military knew who I was, of course, and what Sandor was doing, so they made special accommodations for both of us.”
“That’s pretty cool.”
“I loved the military,” he admitted. “It was the first and only time in my life I was treated like a regular person, and the physical part of it was both exciting and challenging.”
“You look like you’re in pretty good shape,” I murmured, moving close to him.
He lowered his lips to mine. Lord, this man did things to me every time he touched me, and he hadn’t touched me nearly enough in the last week or so. Despite that, our bodies came together naturally, and once we were skin-to-skin there was a simplistic pleasure I couldn’t quite explain. Sexy and erotic, yes, but also comfortable, as if we’d been together much longer than a couple of weeks. I really liked how it felt and I was curious about his feelings about everything.
“By the way,” I said, leaning back a little. “You called me your girlfriend—do I get any say in the matter?”
“You want me to ask you to go steady?”
“Maybe?” I teased.
“Just tell me what you want and I’ll do my best to fulfill your needs.”
“In that case, I want you to fuck the living hell out of me.”