Prince's Proposition (The Exiled Royals #3) (9 page)

“You two have done an amazing job,” Sylvia said, toasting Paula with a glass of champagne. “I’m so glad I was wrong about Xavier.”

Paula grinned and pushed a pin back into her up-do. Tonight was the grand opening of the Sarah Brown Center, the biggest new initiative and true home of
Lillian’s Fund
, and she was glad that Sylvia could enjoy the counseling clinic and family support center that had been created in her late sister’s memory. It would never ever be enough to alleviate poor Sylvia’s pain and loss. However, it was a way to honor her, and to honor that sisterly bond. That mattered. Always would.

“You were actually right about him,” she said, gazing over her shoulder to where her lover was making a speech about the importance of charity. It would end with a discussion of what
Rostov-Reynolds Bank
would be offering by January, just in three short months, for the charities of Nevada. One day, with proper growth and work, their bank could be a crucial source of funding nationally for charities that wished to do more.

“Well, in Mumbai, I felt horrid, my dear girl. I thought I’d set your heart up for utter failure and a permanent break.”

Xavier finished his speech and everyone clapped loudly. She couldn’t be happier for him, or prouder of him, than she did at this very moment. If she hadn’t taken him back, then the center would still exist and
Lillian’s Fund
with it but their joint venture, something so very exciting wouldn’t be growing up between them.

“He didn’t though, and I love him so much, Sylvia. I…this is everything I ever wanted.”

Her friend and benefactor held her tightly. “I can tell. I always know love when I see it.”

“True, but it doesn’t always run the smoothest course, does it?”

Xavier moved across the room to join them; he must have overheard Sylvia’s comment as he neared because he said, “That wouldn’t be as fun, Sylvia,” Xav said, smiling warmly at both of them. He took the older woman’s hand and kissed the back of it. She giggled coquettishly at his actions. “You look marvelous, ma’am.”

“I always do, prince,” she said, winking at both of them. “You two have had a triumphant night, and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate October than with opening this place to families like mine. I can’t wait to see you two and your new bank setting the world on fire soon.”

“Neither can we,” Paula said, her smile widening when Xav wrapped his arm around her shoulders. She felt safe there, protected and loved like she never had before. There was such a difference being with him when he was paying one hundred percent attention to her. . It was night and day, and she treasured him for it.

“However, I can see that you two also need a moment,” Sylvia added, winking again.

“What?” she asked.

“I was younger once myself. You two kids catch a breath outside, and I’ll take care of the crowd. You’ve more than done enough.”

Paula frowned. Surely she wasn’t hearing what she thought she was. “But--”

“Don’t you know it’s impolite to ignore your guests’ requests?” Xavier winked at Sylvia and dragged Paula away before she could object. And he was right—if that’s what Sylvia wanted, then it was only going make out with her boyfriend when there was a charity to run was the polite thing to do. Hell, there was
always
more to do for a non-profit. And right now, it was important to be out here with him under the desert stars. They’d worked sixteen hour days all this week in preparation of this gala opening. They were both beat and missed the feel of each other, skin on skin and with no barriers between them.

“So, here we are, P,” he said, pulling her behind the building. Everyone else was busy inside and they were shielded by the walls and fence from everyone else. “I can think of a few things to do.”

Then his lips were on hers in a flurry of motion. His tongue plundered her mouth and his left hand squeezed her hip, while his right roamed over to cup her breast. Her nipple hardened to a rigid peak. Wetness trickled from between her legs, and she was more than ready to ruck up her skirt make herself accessible to him.

Xavier pressed his erection against her, and she would have done anything he asked her right then, even strutted out into the street. He had such a power over her, and Paula was glad to no longer be fighting it.

She wrapped one leg around his waist and arched her back to press even harder to him. His fingers dug into her ass and she moaned.

Then there was a cough.

She backed away from him as if she’d been scalded and started straightening her blouse and hair.

God, please don’t be a reporter. I cannot explain this to the Vegas Daily Star.

Instead, she blinked back at a scrawny man with a thick mustache. “I…who are you?”

Xav cursed and then launched into a diatribe in rapid fire Ruminean. Paula had no hope of following his words, and she was grateful when he slipped back into English. “Honey, this is Yuri Romanov, the family lawyer. He’s as slippery as they come so don’t bother shaking his hand.”

“I can be at that, my prince, but that’s what your mother pays me for.”

“What are you doing here? This foundation has nothing to do with me, and are you so petty---is
Mother
so petty---that she’ll sue a bank for charities into oblivion too?”

“No, Xavier, you misunderstand. Your mother came to this opening and she’s waiting in a side office with Mrs. McCorkle entertaining her.”

Xavier’s jaw fell open and it was as if he had forgotten how to speak.

Paula took the lead then. “The queen is here?”

“She is, and she wants to speak with both of you now.”

***

Xavier couldn’t believe that his mother was standing before him. He hadn’t seen her in almost two years and there she was, sitting in the opened main office and sipping on a champagne flute as if she hadn’t blown up his life.

With a worried, love-filled and supportive look, Paula led Sylvia away quickly. She knew that the confrontation about to occur would soon lead to a Chernobyl level explosion. As she and Sylvia rounded the corner, Xavier noticed that Yuri wasn’t in the room either. Apparently, this was just between him and Mommy Dearest.

She eyed him with an unreadable expression on her face. She hadn’t started screaming at him, but she hadn’t exactly smiled and hugged him either. Not that Queen Mina had ever been one to show affection that way or, frankly, much at all.

“Son, it’s been a long time.”

“Funny you calling me son, even though you had me cut off. I know that to you, I’m just a play toy, someone you can mess with, who you can exile or whose chance to make a company you can steal away. Jesus, Mother, what kind of a parent does that?”

“One who wants to prepare you for the world. Besides it was Natasha’s idea to exile you, Raymond and Alexander. Your behaviors all got you here and, frankly, all three of you have done extraordinarily well and grown into the men we always knew you could be.”

“How very Hallmark of you,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest when she stood to face him. His mother was tall for a woman and in her heels was only about five inches shorter than he. It was still not enough to have them seeing eye-to-eye, but, then again, they’d never done that metaphorically, either. “Seriously, what do you want from me?”

“I don’t want anything from you, child.”

“Hard to believe when you’ve toyed with me the whole time, my whole life. I only started at the bank because someone needed to fix the mess Uncle Gustav made.”

“True, and you did that, but then you got obsessed. You were isolating yourselves, making all the mistakes Gustav made.”

“Huh?”

“Before he got senile and had to be replaced, he was the sharpest and best businessman in the country. However, he only ever worked. It ran both of his wives off, was the reason his daughters stopped speaking to him at all. He died alone in the throes of dementia and your cousins never even came to his funeral. I saw a cold and lonely future for you if you couldn’t get past your ego and, worse yet, your workaholic nature. I could only think of kicking you out. Then when you started making the same mistake with
Rostov Investments
, I knew I had to interject again.”

“
What?
”

“Oh darling,” she said, her voice soft and gentle, and he almost remembered being five and sitting up in her lap when he was sick. Once there’d been comfort with her but it had been so very long ago. “I never wanted you to feel tortured or alone. I just didn’t want you to die the way Gustav did---isolated or unloved.”

“I
am
loved.” He shook his head. This was crazy. What was she saying?

“I know. I saw Paula speak here and she’s even more lovely and poised than I remembered. I’m so glad you were able to be the man she needed. In fact, I’m so proud of what you’re building.”

“I…thank you, Mother,” he said, not sure of how else to respond. This wasn’t their usual script, and he was a bit at a loss for how to proceed. “I thought I’d disappointed you pretty much always.”

She stepped close, put her arms around him and hugged him close; Xavier let her, taking in a deep breath and reveling in her tea rose perfume, its sharp fragrance bringing him back to childhood and long summers spent playing chase in the palace when he was a preschooler. “I just wanted you to find love, my son.”

“And I have.”

“Then,” she said, smiling as she pulled back from him. “I want to do anything to encourage that. Consider the royal family and our coffers and connections at the disposal of
Rostov-Reynolds
.”

“I’m…you…
What?
” Xavier couldn’t come up with anything else to say.

“You’re doing admirable work and Ruminea stands with you in that, Xavier.”

“I…” He trailed off and stared down at her.

She kissed his cheek. “Now, let’s head back out. It’s been far too long since I’ve spoken with Paula, and I have the high hope that she’ll be the mother of my grandchildren someday.”

That,
he had a response for. “Me too, Mother, me too,” he said, letting her hook her arm through his as they stepped out and into the party, broad smiles  on both of their faces.

Paula clapped and hollered heartily as Xavier burst through the finish line. The limo was waiting for them, and she was more than happy to get back to their penthouse apartment. They’d had a long week organizing for the 5k---God, had it been a year already?---and so much more to do this week to finalize the merger of their charity bank and some holdings from
The Royal Bank of Ruminea
.

But today had been fun. Xavier, Raymond, and Alexander had turned it into a competition as groups of guys tended to do. They’d decided to race each other for bragging rights and Paula was overjoyed to see that it was Xavier who’d won. Not that Alexander and Raymond hadn’t completed their laps about a minute or two later.

Xavier was covered in sweat, his dark hair tousled, and he was panting a little. This year, she decided to have mercy on her boyfriend by offering him some Gatorade to drink, instead of spilling it all over his head.

“That tastes delicious,” he said, smirking back at her and licking his lips. Then he leaned close to her ear and whispered, “I can think of other things that would taste amazing.”

She giggled and slapped at his shoulder. “Later. I promise we’re going back to the penthouse.”

“I hope so,” he said. “But I have one thing to do first.”

She frowned as Melissa and Raymond and Alexander and his fiancée Kate stepped up close around them. She suddenly noticed Sylvia and her latest husband drawing near and smiling too?

“I…what’s going on?” she asked and then she wanted to cry when she saw Xavier get to the tarmac on one knee. After years of wanting nothing more than his committed attention to their relationship, this couldn’t possibly be happening, could it? Everything had been so good between them since he’d come to her at Sarah’s Center, since they’d finally come together as a couple. But
this
was just too amazing to comprehend.

“P, you’re the most incredible woman in the world, the best person I know. There’s no one that I’d rather spend the rest of my life with. You make me into the man I want to be,” he said, opening a black velvet box and pulling out a platinum band with the largest diamond she’d ever seen. It was gorgeous as it glittered with rainbows in the high desert sun. “Will you marry me?”

“Yes,” she said, throwing her arms around him and kissing him fervently when he stood again. “A thousand times, yes.”

He squeezed her tightly to his broad chest, and she had to smile at his care and tenderness. This was what she wanted, what she’d always wanted. And it was perfect…well, almost. Quietly, she whispered into his ear. “I think I can show you how happy I am if we slip away and get to the limo.”

He grinned and kissed her, sparing a moment to nibble at her lower lip, it left her wet and wanting already. “Always, my love.”

“I…we need a minute,” she said, slipping the ring on and frowning apologetically at Kate, Melissa, and Sylvia. “We’ll, uh, be right back.”

Maybe giggling as he dragged her away was too much of a tell, but Paula could hardly care. She needed him now, needed her lover---her
fiancé
---inside of her right now.

***

The back of the limo wasn’t the most comfortable place to do well anything, but it was bigger than her Pontiac. Besides, they’d shared so many missed connections here earlier together that it seemed right to correct it this way. She peeled of her clothes as best she could, hissing a bit when she hit her head on the limo’s roof.

“Oh man, and I’m not even that tall.”

Xav grinned as he also divested himself of his clothes. “It’s a tight fit, but I’ve found that
tight
can be its own reward,” he said leering a bit at her.

He glistening with sweat but appeared no less beautiful than ever. He sat down on the bench seat of the limo and she straddled him, keeping her head bent low in a desperate bid to avoid the ceiling. She was wet already, so motivated by his kiss and the promise of passion for now. Positioning herself over his erection, Paula slid easily over his length, hissing at the heat of him, the sheer pleasure of her filling him her. She moaned and leaned down to nibble at his neck, to graze her teeth over his slight stubble.

He rumbled beneath her and flexed his hips. She moved hers in time with him as the passion erupted over her like sparks of electricity, as the pace increased, she felt him all around her---his hand gripping her hips so tightly they were going to bruise, his cock hard and thick inside her, and his sweaty chest pressed firmly against her breasts. It felt amazing and overwhelming all at once, as if she’d touched an arcing power line. Sizzle incarnate.

They stayed locked like that for what felt like hours, exploring each other’s bodies and the sheer pleasure between them. Then he came, shooting his seed deep inside of her, filling her womb in a way it never had been before. She tensed around him and then was shoved over the edge of orgasm, exploding around him, feeling as if she’d gone from running on current to being struck by lightning. It was ecstasy and sensation overload.

Her breathing calmed as he pulled out of her, and as she managed to curl onto his lap. Reaching down, Xav stroked her hair back and kissed her temple. “You know what I hope?”

“What?”

“I hope that maybe, just maybe, someday we have a little girl and her eyes are as blue as yours.”

“Or maybe we can have a son as strapping as you. Hell, we can have a whole family.”

He nodded and kissed her, claiming her mouth with his own. “Why not? We have all the time in the world.”