The Royal Nanny Page 12

  That and their proximity to the royal family.

  “The princess seems to be settling in nicely,” they said.

  He merely nodded, landing three heavy blows on the dying man’s stomach and chest, delighting in the grunts and groans of pain that slipped from the Malvidencian’s gagged mouth. When they delivered their own punches and then sliced at the dying man’s back with a knife, he felt his dick harden in his slacks. That was another reason why he kept them around. It was almost… nice to have someone to do this with. It wasn’t something he would come to expect, but while he had it, it was definitely… acceptable.

  Too bad he would eventually have to kill them.

  “I wonder if perhaps she isn’t getting a little too comfortable with the royal family?” they asked nonchalantly, and he looked up at them, while embedding a knife in the side of the man in front of him. When he pulled the blade free, the amount of blood that poured out, made him smile. He quirked an eyebrow at them, turning away to grab the gun and katana resting on the sideboard. He returned to stand in front of the Malvidencian man whose eyes had widened, but now returned to their original size, his eyes displaying a sort of peace within them as he accepted his fate.

  This was always his favorite part. It wasn’t the grunts, screams, moans, and groans of pain that his victims shared with him. It wasn’t the heat or thickness of their blood coating his fingers, arms, clothes, or spraying into his face and mouth. It wasn’t their harsh breathing as they fought and struggled for air. No. It was the moment they accepted that their life was over. That they were going to die. The fight drained from their bodies, they sagged with a sort of relief. They didn’t have to be strong any more. The light faded from their eyes, and they welcomed the final blow. He’d even been thanked a time or two.

  Yes. This was the best part of what he did.

  He held up the gun and the katana, offering the man a choice. When he nodded his head toward the gun, he smiled and nodded.

  “I mean, I’ve noticed that it seems as if the prince is intrigued by her. He is a very handsome and persuasive man. Very dominant. It would take him practically no effort whatsoever to have her abandon not only her position with Algerone and Valerie, but also forget her mission here in Malvidence, and fall into his arms. Especially since she is a virgin and untried by any man.”

  He stopped loading the gun with bullets when they touched his sweaty bicep. He stared down at their hand on his body, marveling at the contrasting skin tones. For a moment he wondered what their skin would look like peeled from their body, but he shook his head. No, they were a friend, and they were useful to him. Besides, he couldn’t go around killing and skinning every person just because he liked the look of their body.

  No matter what the voices told him.

  He narrowed his eyes at them and shook his head. “The Princess is no ordinary woman. She will stay strong and stand true,” he told them.

  “If you say so,” they shrugged. “I trust you. I just really want the people of Waldakan to return to their homeland. You have told me such amazing stories about your nation and your people, and about the atrocities and historical slights made against you. I would hate it if one woman, one orphaned virgin, princess or not, got in the way of that.” They sighed and dropped their hand, folding both hands together in front of them. “I am sure you know what you are doing. You would be a great leader. You are a great leader. I bet you would be an astounding king.” They shrugged again. “But, what do I know?”

  They turned and walked away from him, leaning against the wall to watch him kill the Malvidencian man and prevent any blood splatter from getting on their clothes and alerting the royal family to their whereabouts. Mulling over their words, he lifted the gun with its silencer attached, and pressing the muzzle against the man’s forehead, pulled the trigger, not flinching at the sound of brain and blood splattering the wall behind the now dead Malvidencian man, and himself. He licked his lips, relishing in the copper taste of the other man’s blood.

  He emptied the chamber into the man’s body, before lifting his katana and removing the man’s head from his body. He stared down at the now headless Malvidencian soldier. Someone who served with Prince Andreas and worked closely with him. He’d been unable to provide any details on the movements of the royal family, their future plans for Malvidence, any soirees, balls, parties, weaknesses, secrets, signs or hints of corruption within the family.

  In essence, he’d been utterly useless. So, he’d been treated as such.

  He turned and walked over to them, with sure, confident strides. When he stood in front of them, he trembled as they ran their pale fingers over his blood splattered chest, drawing in the crimson liquid. He gripped their chin and waited until they looked up at him. He lifted one side of his lips up into a semblance of a smile.

  “Thank you, Persephone,” he stated, before dropping his head and taking her lips with his own in a harsh kiss, his hands ripping away her clothing, knowing she’d brought and left a bag outside the shack with a change of clothes inside. He would take her in the shack, then together they would dispose of the body. Making sure it all pointed to a cover up by the royal family.

  Chapter Ten

  L eyah gently closed the door to the nursery, breathing a sigh of relief when the newborn twins and Dahni remained sleeping. Taking care of three children, all under the age of four, was completely exhausting. She admired Princess Valerie even more than she had before.

  “Oh, are they sleeping?” Princess Valerie asked from the entrance to the suite, where she’d just returned from having dinner with the royal family.

  “Yes, Mexoria Źeylήia,” Leyah answered, her gaze flicking to Prince Algerone and returning to the princess.

  Princess Valerie waved her hand in the air. “Oh, pfft, ignore the titles with Algerone as well. He spent time in America with the kids and me. He knows that unless we’re in public, or in front of his parents, I have no use for the titles. I’m just glad people know we’re married and I’m Mrs. Algerone Smythe to the entire world. I could give a shit about being Princess Valerie.”

  Leyah’s eyes widened at the princess’s profanity and her easygoing manner with her. She looked over at Prince Algerone who was smiling at her. “Yes, Miss Meer, you must call Valerie and I by our first names when we’re here in the suite and there’s no one around to be offended. I insist.”

  “Yes, Your H—I mean, yes, Algerone. Thank you.” Leyah turned and picked up the dinner tray that had been delivered to her while she’d been attempting to put the youngest Smythe children to bed.

  “Oh no, did you not get a chance to eat?” Valerie asked. She shook her head. “I feel sort of bad about that. I mean, I know how my children are. They’re all little precocious angels until it’s time to eat and then they turn into hellions.” She laughed and Leyah joined in with her amusement. “I mean, I’m certainly grateful that I get to eat an entire meal without someone calling my name and showing me the food in their mouth, or without Chiamaka demanding someone do something they usually don’t want to do. Or without having to constantly remind Beaumont to put away his sketchpad, and AJ to put away his phone. The only one I didn’t have to really worry about was Chi—Chikere—” she explained when Leyah frowned at her. She nodded. Chikere, the very silent, very intense, extremely observant little boy. Who only sort of intimidated her. “He’s so quiet, and disciplined. Most of the time he would sit, say a blessing, eat his food, with his eyes straight ahead, and then when he was finished, he would take his plate and any others that were ready to be washed, and put them into the dishwasher.” She shook her head and smiled fondly.

  “So, while I’m sorry you’re only now getting a chance to eat,” she said, returning her gaze to Leyah’s face, a mischievous smile on her lips. “I’m so glad I got to eat my meal in relative peace.”

  Leyah let out a laugh of pure amusement, curling her lips inward to stop the sound from spilling forth when she realized she was enjoying the company of her enemies. S
he lowered her head and took a deep breath. Glancing back up at the royal couple who were looking at her with a shared gaze of… pity? Sympathy? Empathy? Understanding? What was it? Their eyes had softened and whatever they were thinking in that moment, thoughts that caused their faces to look almost friendly, it made her uncomfortable.

  Shoving away the feeling, she waved away the princess’s concern. She needed to get back to her room and regroup. This was happening way too often. These people were disarming her, and she couldn’t have that. She had to remember that the entire Smythe family was bad. Evil. Wrong. They’d stolen their land from her ancestors, and then over decades had murdered her family, leaving her the only survivor. She had to remove them from this land and return her people to their homeland. She had to fulfill her promise to her parents to bring justice to their killers.

  Only then could she finally find rest and peace. Perhaps even joy.

  “It is no problem, Valerie. I will be in my rooms if you need me,” she said before beating a hasty retreat.

  She closed the door behind her and turned toward her room only to pull up short at the sight of Prince Alastair leaning against her doorframe, his feet crossed at the ankles, muscled arms folded across his chest.

  Waiting.

  Patiently.

  For her.

  Dear gods in the eternal life, what was she supposed to do?

  The decision was made for her, when her sudden stop caused her tray to slip from her hand and land on the floor. Food flying everywhere, splattering the walls, and Prince Alastair and herself as well.

  Prince Alastair straightened and walked toward her, unmindful of the mess on the carpets. He stopped right in front of her and reached up to her hair. Leyah inhaled sharply, only breathing normally when he showed her the lettuce he’d retrieved from her thick, black tresses.

  “You know, Leyah, if you wanted me out of my clothes, you only had to ask,” he whispered against her lips, before taking them with his own, roughly. Demanding a response from her. Commanding her give in to the passion swirling through her body, causing her nipples to harden, inducing a flutter in her belly, and scorching her damp panties.

  Her brain melted, her fingertips tingled, and her heart thundered against her breastplate, in an effort to leave her body and enter Alastair’s. She was drowning in his taste. In his scent. She was surrounded by his muscled arms, and when he finally lifted his head to take in a breath, she was thankful he had such a firm grip on her, because her knees were weak, and she was not certain she could remain standing.

  Thinking the kiss was over and he would let her go, Leyah was startled when he took her mouth in another plundering kiss, his tongue tangling with her own. She gasped when she felt his large hands on her ass, his fingers squeezing the plump globes. He lifted her by the backs of her thighs, and going on some sort of primal instinct, Leyah wrapped her legs around his waist. Her hands sank into his dark hair, and she kissed him back just as roughly, demanding just as much from him as he was from her.

  She trembled when he growled her name against her lips. She wanted desperately to tell him her real, full name, but that would cause too many problems. Instead, she groaned his name when he trailed kisses over her chin, her jaw, and down her neck, before returning to her lips. The entire time, his hands were squeezing, gripping, and caressing her ample bottom, lifting, and pushing down on them, causing her moist center to slowly move up and down on his erection, trapped behind the zipper and fabric of his trousers. Leyah ground down on his cloth-covered shaft, her legs tightening around his waist as he kissed her harder. Something was happening inside of her. Deep in her core. A fire was building, growing in size. Becoming an inferno. Her heart sped up, her breathing becoming harsher in her ears.

  Leyah tilted her head back, as she raced towards something. Her body demanded an escape, a release, freedom of some kind. As if he knew what was happening—which Leyah guessed he did—Alastair lifted one of his hands from her ass, and slid his fingers down into her panties, beneath her bunched skirt. His broad, surprisingly calloused, fingers stroked over a swollen nub of flesh at the top of her vagina. Her mind couldn’t even conjure the name for the seemingly magical button that Alastair stroked with his knowledgeable fingers. Once. Twice. Three times before…

  “Zxio Tem!” Leyah cried out in Waldakan as her body exploded internally, moisture gushing out of her pussy and flooding her panties, wetting the front of Alastair’s pants. She trembled and shuddered, only distantly aware of Alastair’s own grunt as she tried to take a deep breath.

  Once she was finally under some semblance of control, Leyah pushed on Alastair’s shoulders. She huffed when he simply lifted her and pulled her more securely against his body before turning, opening the door to her suite, and striding through the sitting room into the bedroom. He placed her down on top of the mattress and stared down at her. Leyah looked up at him, waiting for him to say something, anything, but when he did finally speak, Leyah suddenly wished she’d never run into him in the hallway.

  “So, Leyah. Tell me what it is that you’re hiding?” he asked, his tone gruff.

  Alastair watched Leyah’s eyes fill with fear and caution, as she sat up and pushed him away. His stomach clenched, and he sighed in disappointment.

  “W-what are you talking about?” she stammered out.

  Alastair shook his head. “Don’t.” His voice came out harsh and sharp like the crack of a whip.

  He paced away from her and heard as she rose from the bed. Turning to her, Alastair stepped close to her. “Do you want to know how I can tell you’re hiding something? That you have a secret?” he asked her, his voice low, his lips pulled down into a frown.

  “H-how?” Leyah asked, licking her lips nervously.

  Alastair watched the movement and swallowed back the groan that clogged his throat. Shaking his head, he ran his fingers through his hair and exhaled. Could she really be this naïve or was she simply playing him for a fool? Alastair didn’t appreciate people trying to humiliate him, in any way, shape, or form. He didn’t care how attractive he found Leyah, he wouldn’t tolerate her keeping secrets from him.

  “You’re not a stupid woman, Leyah. And with your background and current position as a nanny, you haven’t had the training or the experience in secrecy or covert operations, so no matter how good you think you are at keeping secrets, your eyes give you away, every time. You are more cautious than you have any right to be. You walk around and speak more thoughtfully than is necessary. As if you’re afraid of revealing personal information and details.” He shook her head when an expression of dismay passed over her face.

  “Just tell me what it is you’re hiding, and I won’t be upset,” he told her.

  Leyah narrowed her eyes at him, then huffed, rolling her eyes. She put a hand on her hip and pointed at him. “You can’t promise that. If I am hiding something, it might be really bad, and it may, in fact, upset you. It might even piss you off. So why would you think I would tell you?” She shook her head. “If I had anything to share with you. Which I don’t.”

  “Leyah—” he began, stopping when she held up a hand.

  “No.” She cut him off. “Don’t think that just because I let you kiss me a couple of times and hump me against the wall like I’m some sort of common… streetwalker, that means I’m going to want to have a heart-to-heart talk with you and reveal all my secrets, inner demons, and greatest dreams. It’s. Not. Going. To. Happen,” she promised him, poking him in the chest to emphasize her point.

  Alastair gripped her finger in his hand then tugged her forward, wrapping her in his arms. He stared down into her glaring eyes and smirked. She could say whatever she wanted to say, hold onto the last vestiges of her independence if she thought it would do her any good, but not only would he make her his, he would mine through her background and her thoughts until she revealed all. Her wary gaze did nothing more than fuel him with a determination to know everything about the curvaceous woman in his arms.

  He ran a h
and up and down her back, before resting it above the curve of her rear. He leaned down and kissed and nibbled at the curve of her neck. Even though she held herself rigid against him, he did not relent, nor stop until she was soft and pliant against him. He chuckled darkly and leaned back to look at her beautiful face. Her eyes were closed, her full lips parted slightly as she panted, her warm breath fanning against his clavicle.

  Alastair lowered his head and kissed the tip of her nose, then stepped away from her. He nodded his head toward her bed.

  Leyah looked at the bed then back at him, shaking her head.

  Alastair laughed. “Don’t worry, I won’t take you tonight. I’m telling you to get into bed and get some sleep. I think we both have had a very eventful day and for that matter, a very exciting week. Don’t you think?”

  Leyah sighed in relief and Alastair shook his head. He waited until she took a couple of steps back to the bed she’d arisen from only moments ago, before he spoke.

  “Leyah?” he called out to her.

  “Hhmm?” She turned to look at him over her shoulder, her long, thick eyelashes were a beautiful, dark fringe surrounding her brown eyes.

  He took one step closer to her and ran his fingers down her arm to her fingers. He lifted her hand to his mouth and gazed up at her through his own lashes.

  “I do not want you to get comfortable to sleeping without me or thinking that I will allow too much time to go before I fuck my thick cock deep into your tight, wet, pussy. Because I won’t. This is merely a reprieve for you. The verdict has been read and the sentence has been given. You. Will. Be. Mine,” he promised her, kissing the center of her palm and licking the thin skin there, before he curled her fingers in and released her hand.

  With a smile that he could only guess showed his dark intentions for her, Alastair turned on his heel and left the room.