The Royal Nanny Read online

  Leyah crossed her legs where she sat in the rocking chair in the nursery, clenching her sex. She bit her lower lip as her mind conjured up the sight of Alastair between her legs, his mouth tugging on the lips of her pussy, his tongue lashing her clit. Was the room growing warmer? It had to be. It was the only explanation for why she was suddenly so… hot.

  “Yup,” an amused voice said from the doorway. “I know that look. My brother-in-law put it on you last night, didn’t he?”

  Leyah’s gaze flew up to the door and she blushed at the sight of Princess Valerie standing there with a knowing grin. Leyah started shaking her head, but stopped when the tall, beautiful woman held up a hand.

  “Oh honey, you can’t lie to me. I know all about having a Smythe prince orgasm hangover.” She winked at Leyah. “As a matter of fact, if I weren’t the mother of seven I would be basking in my own morning after.” She laughed then sobered quickly. “Holy shit, seven kids.” Princess Valerie shook her head. “You know, they don’t seem like so much when you’re pregnant with them, or you’ve just had them, or even when you’re dealing with them one-on-one, or even three-on-one, but when you say it out loud?” She put a hand on her chest and exhaled slowly. “Seven kids? What the hell was I thinking?”

  Leyah’s eyes widened. Was Valerie about to have a panic attack. How was it the older woman had never really stopped to think about how many children she had, or how daunting it all was? As Leyah rushed over to help Valerie into a seat she realized that the other woman was probably too busy taking care of her children, her home, and her career to really stop and think about how many children there were. And she mainly raised them alone. Wow. Leyah was in awe of the princess, she could, and would, put her in the same category as her own mother for heroines.

  Valerie laughed. “I bet I sound like a fool to you, huh? Just having babies and raising kids and not really stopping to take the opportunity and really count, consider, or breathe in the reality of it all.” She shrugged. “I just love my husband. I love making love with him, and to him. I love being married to Algerone. I love being pregnant with his children. I love having babies with him. I love looking at our children. We make pretty babies.” She shook her head. “But you can bet your ass that I am done! No more children for me. I am getting my tubes tied, burned, cremated, and scattered to the four winds, never to reform or return into my body.”

  Leyah giggled along with Valerie who pushed herself from her rocking chair onto the floor next to Dahni and began to play with the little girl. Leyah opened her mouth, then closed it. She walked over to Eckha’s crib and began to fold the blanket that lay over the side of it. She straightened the toys inside the crib, then turned to Valerie and opened her mouth again, before closing it. Shaking her head, she sighed and walked over to Eliava’s crib to repeat the same anxious, obsessive behavior. By the time she turned back to Valerie with her mouth opened, but without saying anything, Leyah was getting on her own nerves.

  “Dear Jehovah, woman!” Valerie said in amused exasperation. “Just say or ask whatever it is. You’re making me dizzy.”

  “Dizzy,” Dahni repeated with a childish giggle before having her Barbie doll stomp all over the Ken ™ doll with what sounded like great pleasure.

  “I want to give Prince Alastair my virginity, but I’m scared, and I don’t know what to do,” Leyah rushed out, her words flowing one into the other.

  Valerie blinked at her for a moment, before a smile formed on her lips. “Oh, you’re going to be so much fun to teach.” She rubbed her hands together in what Leyah could only consider her “evil genius” gesture and covered Dahni’s ears, much to the toddler’s chagrin. “Are we talking full virgin or has my dear brother-in-law given your pussy a good tasting?”

  Leyah covered her mouth, then her ears, and distantly hear Valerie laughing with glee. She narrowed her eyes at the other woman then dropped her hands and folded them across her chest. “I did not expect you to be so… vulgar, Your Highness,” she said with a sniff. “I had always been told Americans were prudes.”

  Valerie snorted. “That’s a bunch of bullshit that we put out there to the world public, so they don’t know exactly how depraved and perverse we all are.” She shook her head. “Nope, Americans are dirty, dirty, dirty! And we love sex. Lots and lots of sex.” She shrugged. “Just watch our television shows and our movies. Read our books. How is it that no matter what, we always find time to get a good fuck session in, no matter how dangerous the situation we find ourselves facing?”

  Leyah snapped closed her open mouth. She frowned. “Because it’s fiction?”

  Valerie laughed. “No! It’s because we’re American! And no matter what, unless it’s in front of our children, or our elderly, or our parents, if we’re horny and we have a willing partner near us who’s down for it, we’re gonna get our swerve on.”

  “Swerve?” Leyah asked in confusion.

  Valerie sighed and dropped her hands from Dahni’s ears, which had the toddler lightly tapping her mother’s hands and saying, “No covw’ing my ears, Mommy!”

  “I’m sorry, doodlebug,” Valerie stated with a kiss on the little girl’s head.

  Dahni glared at Valerie. “I not Doodlebug! I Dahni!”

  Leyah choked back a laugh and met Valerie’s serious expression, but eyes twinkling with mirth, with her own, especially with Dahni looking back and forth between the two of them.

  “You’re very right, you are not a doodlebug. You’re my beautiful daughter, Dahni,” Valerie agreed.

  “A princess,” Leyah interjected.

  Dahni’s face was scrunched into a look of concentration as she looked back and forth between her mother and her nanny to see if they were teasing her. Leyah held still, all traces of the mirth that danced within her, wiped clear from her expression. Dahni nodded after a moment. “I princess!”

  “Of course, you are, doodlebug,” Prince Algerone’s voice came from behind Leyah and she turned with a gasp, her heart galloping wildly at the possibility and thought of Alastair being with his older brother. Right behind her. Possibly listening in on their conversation.

  When she only saw Prince Algerone on the threshold of the nursery, her heart tumbled into her stomach in disappointment. She tried to keep the feeling from her face, but Prince Algerone’s lifted eyebrows, and subsequent scowl as he looked behind him then back at her, let her know she wasn’t entirely successful.

  Dammit. She couldn’t even keep her desire for the prince from his brother, how in the world did she expect to keep it from Alastair, so he wasn’t smug about it in front of her?

  “No, Daddy! I not doodlebug. I Dahni,” Dahni reiterated.

  Prince Algerone gasped exaggeratedly and came over to scoop his daughter into his arms. He tossed her into the air, amid giggles and squeals, before bending over to blow raspberries against her stomach. Leyah stood silently on the other side of the room from the prince, watching as he lavished love and affection upon his daughter, before he gathered his wife into his free arm, cuddling her close. Leyah lowered her eyes when Algerone lowered his head and took Valerie’s lips with his own, both of them emitting sounds of pleasure between them.

  Leyah’s face flushed hotly from embarrassment, and she tried to slide out of the nursery discreetly.

  “Leyah,” Algerone’s voice came out rough and breathless. She turned to look at him.

  “Yes, Alastair… I mean… A-Algerone? Prince Algerone?” she stammered.

  Valerie snorted a laugh behind her hand and Leyah had the sincerest urge to hit the other woman. She couldn’t have been any more embarrassed.

  Algerone simply smirked at her and shook his head. “My brother, Prince Alastair, has requested your presence in the waiting room of his office once you are done with work here,” he said with a mischievous grin.

  She spoke—or thought—too soon. She could be more embarrassed. She felt completely humiliated. How in the world could Alastair send for her as if she were… as if she… Leyah looked away from Algero
ne and Valerie as they cuddled and kissed again, before Algerone said good-bye to all of them. Reality had suddenly crashed down upon her like a tidal wave.

  Alastair sent for her like she was a servant because that’s exactly what she was to him. She wasn’t his equal. She wasn’t Princess Aa’Leyah Mwassaa Dinyai Quanesoa Zameer. She was simply Miss Leyah Meer. Here to serve at the mercy and behest of Prince Algerone and Princess Valerie Smythe.

  He didn’t really know her, and she couldn’t say that she really knew him either. And yet, she wanted to give him her virginity? Her mother would be disappointed in her, and her father would be disgusted. She was contemplating sleeping with their enemy. The enemy of her family and her people. No. She couldn’t do it. She wouldn’t do it.

  Leyah squared her shoulders and looked Algerone in his eyes, for the first time since she began working for the royal family. She wouldn’t be playing the demure, bashful nanny any longer. She would complete her mission, gather the intel on the royal family of Malvidence and set the stage for them to be dethroned and banished, and for the people of Waldakan to once again return to their rightful country.

  “Please thank His Highness for me, but I will be unable to attend him this evening,” she took a deep breath. “Or any other evening for that matter.” She ignored Valerie’s wide eyes and her gasp. “If you will excuse me. I should really see about lunch preparations for the children.”

  She turned and went to leave Valerie and Algerone’s massive suite. She stopped when she felt Valerie’s soft, slender fingers on her arm. She didn’t turn fully, simply looked at her over her shoulder.

  “Leyah? What happened? I thought you were interested in Alastair?” She glanced at Algerone’s closed off expression where he stood in the doorway to the nursery, holding a chattering Dahni. “Trust me, I get that he takes some getting used to. When I first met him, I thought he was a pompous, arrogant, demanding, unbending jerk. Very snobbish, full of himself, and stuck in the traditions and expectations of the Crown that he couldn’t see anyone else.”

  Leyah quirked an eyebrow in Valerie’s direction because as far as she was concerned, Valerie had just described the Alastair she knew. To the letter.

  Valerie waved her hand in dismissal. “I’m not saying he’s not all of those things. He can be. But he’s also very caring. He loves his nieces and nephews fiercely. He’s fiercely determined to make sure his family are cared for, even sometimes to his own detriment. He’s smart as a whip, and he’s extremely loyal to those closest to him.”

  Hearing about Alastair’s loyalty made a fist of guilt clench around Leyah’s stomach, but she ignored the feeling and kept her face expressionless.

  Valerie sighed and released Leyah’s arm. “Look, you know your own mind and I can’t say what’s best for you, or even try to determine what you want, but I do think that Alastair would be good for you. I think you could be good for him. I just…” she sighed and waved her hands around in the air in a frustrated and exasperated manner before dropping them. “I think you two would be good together.”

  Leyah sighed and turned to fully face Valerie. She lowered her head and shook her head before she lifted her eyes and stared at the older woman. “In my country, in Waldakan, I wouldn’t be able to choose the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, if my parents were still alive and had a say in it.” She sighed sadly. “With my parents being gone, however, I have just a bit more leeway, but not much. I have to choose someone who is equal to me in all ways. I’m afraid Prince Alastair would be rejected by my people. It’s just not worth it. No matter how attractive he is.”

  Valerie narrowed her eyes at Leyah, and it was only when the other woman’s eyes widened that she realized what she’d just revealed. She stepped closer to the princess, her stomach clenching in fear at who Valerie might reveal her secret to.

  “Waldakan. Leyah. Are you Princess Aa’Leyah? The one Algerone and his brothers have been talking about? The leader of The Rebellion?” Valerie’s voice was hushed as she glanced over her shoulder at her husband. Algerone’s eyes were thin slits now as if he were aware that Leyah and Valerie were discussing something important.

  “Valerie, please, don’t tell anyone,” Leyah pleaded. “There’s so much you don’t know or understand.”

  “Leyah,” Valerie shook her head and frowned. “Why are you here?”

  “I—” Leyah hesitated, unsure of how to answer that question without causing herself even more problems.

  “Is there a problem?” Alastair’s voice came from the open suite door behind Leyah and she spun around to face him, her stomach dropping to her toes.

  Chapter Sixteen

  A lastair knew his sister-in-law were discussing something private and important, if the dismay on Leyah’s face were any indication. For the first time since learning about and meeting his sister-in-law, Alastair felt himself getting angry at her. What had she said or asked his Leyah to make her look such a way.

  His Leyah? Since when had he claimed the brown-skinned woman in such a final way? Yes, he’d told her repeatedly that she was going to be his once they made love, but they hadn’t had the opportunity to do so just yet. It was a problem he intended to rectify at his earliest possible opportunity. But for him to claim her without having possessed her delectable body? This was new for him. Especially as he realized he didn’t merely want her body, he wanted all of her. Her mind, her body, her soul… her heart.

  Fuck, he thought to himself as he crossed his arms and frowned at the two women who had yet to answer him.

  “N-no, there’s no problem, Prince Alastair,” Leyah stammered, glancing at Valerie out of the corner of her eye.

  Alastair grunted. He didn’t believe her for a second, and he turned to look at his sister.

  “Valerie?” he questioned. “Is there really no problem?”

  Valerie looked between him and Leyah and hesitated, finally she sighed and shook her head. “No. There’s no problem. Just two women having a private conversation, Las. Don’t worry about it.”

  Alastair opened his mouth to respond when the sound of crying rose from the nursery.

  “I should go and check on the twins,” Valerie said.

  Leyah nodded. “And I will go and check on lunch,” she stated in a rush.

  She made to step around him, but Alastair grabbed her wrist. “Let me walk you down,” he told her.

  “No, that’s okay,” she denied.

  Alastair chuckled. “That wasn’t a request, barithi,” he said.

  He watched as Leyah swallowed and his gaze fixed on her slender neck. His groin tightened as he thought about the way she would look with a collar adorning her graceful throat. He’d never felt the urge to collar someone before, being satisfied to merely play with the various submissives at his club, but Leyah was something special. The very idea of not only teaching and training her for the Lifestyle, but to stake his claim and put a mark of ownership on her body where everyone could see made him want to beat his chest and bellow like a caveman.

  Leyah nodded and stepped out into the hall. Alastair looked back over at Valerie who stood in the same place watching Leyah with an expression of sadness and confusion on her face. He stepped close to her.

  “Val are you sure everything is okay?” he asked her, using her nickname for the first time in their relationship.

  Valerie nodded. “Yes. Yes, everything is fine, I told you.” She smiled at him, before patting his arm and walking off to the nursery.

  Alastair frowned, determined to get to the bottom of Valerie’s conversation with Leyah. He looked over at Algerone who shook his head as if he didn’t know what had occurred either. Alastair knew that between himself and his brother, they would find out what had happened between the two women. Alastair sincerely hoped there wasn’t a problem. He didn’t want Valerie or Algerone to feel as if they needed to fire his woman. If they did he would be compelled to offer her another position with the palace, just to keep her close, and there was something about payin
g her just to have a relationship with her that seemed… distasteful.

  He stepped out into hallway and nodded at Leyah.

  They walked to the elevator at the end of the hallway in silence. Leyah was nibbling on her bottom lip as if she were nervous and Alastair was mulling over the last few minutes with his sister-in-law. Once they stepped into the metal container, and Leyah had pressed the button to take them to the floor where the kitchen lay, tension radiated between them. Refusing to allow the feeling to persist, Alastair reached out and slapped a hand against the Emergency Stop button. The elevator car jerked to a stop and Leyah gasped, turning wide brown eyes in his direction.

  “Alas—” she began and stopped when Alastair stepped close to her.

  “I know.” He waited for her to respond, disappointed when she shook her head.

  “Know? Know what?” she questioned.

  Alastair exhaled. “I know your secret,” he told her. The color drained from Leyah’s face and she took a step away from him.

  “H-how do you know?” she stammered.

  Alastair stepped closer to her. “Did you forget that I had my fingers inside of you last night?” He watched as her chest rose and fell as she panted nervously. “I felt your hymen, Leyah. It’s nothing to be ashamed of. Everyone was a virgin at one time. Besides, you’re still young. Some would say too young for me,” he said sardonically. “You don’t need to have any shame at having saved yourself for someone special, or marriage. But, let me tell you,” he lowered his voice an octave. “I’m going to be your first and your last.”

  With that declaration he took her lips in a bruising, consuming kiss. Her taste flowed over his tongue as he probed her mouth. He wrapped his hands around her waist and lifted her up against the wall, pressing his erection against the juncture of her thighs. He groaned when she wrapped her legs around his waist, burying her fingers in his hair.

  He’d only intended for this to be a short kiss. Just a little sip of her lips, but once he’d gotten a taste of her, he knew a small kiss wouldn’t be enough. Her scent flowed over his senses, and he pressed her hot center against his groin. He trailed his mouth down over her chin, her neck, to the gap in her button-up shirt. He lifted a hand to her shirt and yanked open the material, the sound of her buttons flying off sounding like applause to his ears. He lowered his head and licked at the valley of her cleavage. Her harsh gasp above him made him grin against her skin. Her gasps, groans, and moans of pleasure was all he wanted to hear from her in the next few moments. He wouldn’t take her fully, but he would get damn close.