Playing Royal: A Vice Agency Novel Read online

  “I’ve got a plan.” I grumble as I butt out the cigarette in the gravel at my feet.

  “Sure you have.” She smiles, plunking down beside me. “I’ve known you for many, many years. Before all this.” She waves her hand around, but what she means is before Vice. Back when I first escaped the life of royalty. When I was hiding in underground fights and drag races, and she was dating one of the fight organizers. He’d been a real bastard to her, leaving her with more bruises than I’d gotten in the ring. The night I’d put him down for the count we’d made a deal. It was time to move on, and when I signed up to Vice she came too. It wasn’t my finest rule following moment, but we’d both just been trying to find a way in this new world. Gail without anything to fall back on, and I was still learning to live without the safety net of position or money.

  “Whatever you’re implying, don’t.” I shove off the bench. “It’s nothing but a game. I don’t even know this woman beyond what’s in her file.”

  “All right.” She steals a smoke for herself, lighting up and blowing a few lazy smoke rings. “You should take her to the light garden. That’s all I’m saying.”

  It’s not the first time she’s mentioned the place, though she’s never once suggested it for a fantasy. She gets this faraway look on her face whenever she brings it up, like she’s back there with someone, which is exactly why I shouldn’t even consider it. “You and that light garden. What did you do? Bang someone in it?”

  “Ha.” She smirks. “Of course you would think that. Everything comes down to your dick, doesn’t it? That’s why you’re running fantasies these days. So you don’t have to try.”

  ***

  Most everything does not come down to my dick. Except, right now with Allie in the car beside me, wearing this figure hugging dress that barely covers her thighs, my dick is the only part of me that seems to be working.

  It’s not good news for my cerebral cortex, or my attitude in general.

  Between Gail, Neil, and Moira they dolled her up, did something to her hair and her face, but I dare say she must have had something to do with it because I’ve seen women come out after a session with those three and they always look like they have a stick up their ass. Allie looks like a star, but still irreparably her, her long hair braided over one shoulder, her face barely graced with makeup.

  I drive slower as we head into the hub of the city. Earlier, I was angry at her. No, not at her, at myself. I’d refrained from going back in the bar that night so I didn’t grab her up and let lust get the better of me, but that had been a mistake. I’d known that as soon as I went back to get my jacket the next night. I was mad that I made it so easy for her to find me. Angry that my body responded the moment I saw her. And not just my dick, either. The cloud of agitation that had been following me around for weeks seemed to instantly lift.

  “Where are we going?” Allie asks quietly while she fidgets with the hem of the dress.

  I wish she’d stop doing that. It makes my fingers itch to reach out and do it for her, though I’m not sure the hem would be straightened. More likely, I’d hike it up higher, see as much of her creamy skin as she’d let me. “There’s a place. You’ll see.”

  “Right.” She shifts again, this time crossing her legs and my synapses sing as they fire away at the way her dress rides up higher. “You never open up about anything do you, Mr. Mysterious?”

  “No, I don’t.” I shrug. My life story is my own, and I don’t plan to start sharing it now. Especially not with her, when all I can think about is how easy it would be for her to sneak the truth from me. Yeah, this is probably the one place I could tell my story and not have to worry about her believing me. It would only add to the fantasy, but still…

  I blow out a breath and try to push my responsibilities out of my mind. There’ll be plenty of time to wallow in them over the years, but tonight is for Allie and I fully intend to give her the fantasy she deserves.

  After that, I can go back to forgetting I ever met her.

  “Why do you do this, then? You’d think someone in your line of profession should be charming.”

  “You don’t find me charming?” I raise a brow at her. “I’m pretty sure that’s not true. Don’t think I didn’t notice how your body tightened up every time I walked into The Den. The way you looked at me. Your face flushing with arousal.”

  I slip my hand to her knee, and up to the hem of her dress. I hear her sharp intake of breath, the tension that builds immediately in her muscles. My cock twitches painfully, pushing against my pants. Then I yank the material lower, placing my hand back on the wheel. Anymore and I would have had my fingers on that sweet, undoubtedly wet pussy.

  “Women actually pay you for this?” she squeaks.

  “Yes, they do, Princess.” I smirk. “You’re thinking I’m nothing but an escort, but you’re forgetting this fantasy you paid for is bigger than just a sweet fuck.”

  “It’s about five.”

  I chuckle at that. That particular client had been a real menace. And truly painful on my cock. Sure, I have stamina in spades, and those five times had been well and truly spread out over the course of the evening but I swear that woman had tried to kill me, and that was before she tried to have someone else in the room, which certainly won’t be happening again.

  “Some women don’t even come to us for the sex. They just want to live in their fantasies a little.” I don’t know whether I’m telling her this to get her off the idea that I’ll be taking her to bed at the end of the night, or if it’s because I don’t want her thinking all I am is dick for hire. I’d do her for free in a heartbeat, imagined it over and over, but there’s no point in starting something with her I have no plan to finish. “I prefer those women, Allie.”

  She hums a little, lines creasing the middle of her forehead while I maneuver the Porsche down a narrow one-way street to the wrought iron gates that mark the entrance of the light garden. This is the weirdest simulation I’ve worked on. Normally, I don’t know the woman at all. Other than the facts of what they like and want from me, and for repeat clients their bodies, but Allie’s different. I feel like I know her, and yet I have no idea who she really is. I have no clue what she likes or doesn’t.

  I pull up outside the gates. It’s still light, the sun slowly eking toward the horizon. “Look, Allie, I don’t know what you thought you were going to get. But I am who I am. This is what I do.”

  “I know that,” she says, staring straight ahead. “I’m not trying to be difficult.”

  No, she’s just as curious as I am about her, but if there’d been any point in following it up I would have done it at the bar, not through Vice. I’d have cut through the games, the lies, the imaginary to get inside her head, and her pussy. There’d have been no mucking around while I took what I wanted.

  There’s a sting to my thoughts, a heaviness that settles between my shoulder blades. I get the sense that I don’t know what I want when it comes to her, that by the time I got it, it would be something entirely more painful than my rigid cock. The pull she has on me is dangerous. I can see that even now when I barely know her. “So let’s enjoy the evening. But don’t expect that I’m going to open up about my personal life. Right now, I’m nothing more than what you want me to be.”

  She cants her head to the side, purses her lips. Juicy lips that shouldn’t be screwed up with frustration. A mouth that should be opened under mine, while I lick inside her, taste her to see if she’s as fucking sweet as I believe she is. I scan lower, to the dip of her throat. The hollow that begs to be nibbled on. I’m reading her the riot act, and I’m the one who’s going to have to keep his balls in a vise. Because I want her like I’ve never wanted anything.

  “Okay,” she finally answers, turning to catch me staring. “And then tomorrow we can both forget we ever met, or that this stupid night ever happened.”

  “Good,” I grumble, for some reason not quite as pleased with her compliance as I expected to be. Then I climb out of the car, st
riding around to open the door for her before she can get to it.

  Chapter Eight

  Allie

  Time drags as we stroll around the sculpted gardens. Japanese maples, weeping cherries, and hedge sculptures fill the area, surrounded by manicured lawns and cobblestone pathways. I’ve never seen a place quite like it, nor one so beautiful.

  Kaiser has his hand on the small of my back, has since we got out of the car. The heat of his palm soaks into my skin, prickles of sensation running out from where he touches me. I dart my tongue out over my lips again, to ease the dryness that seems to come with me trying to ignore how his being so close affects me. I’m trying so hard to keep my mouth shut, so I don’t ask all the questions that chase each other through my brain. But each time I glimpse him through my lashes, he’s staring, his eyes clouded, and I can’t help but want to know what he’s thinking.

  I pull away from him, needing a moment to pull myself together, and wander over to the stone fountain in the middle of the garden. Without his hands on me, I can breathe again. The pleasure he creates inside me from the slightest touch is more than I can handle when it’s all one sided. A koi breaks the surface and slowly slips away. Somewhere in my head, I have a similar memory. A garden much like this one, but I can’t dredge it up.

  “Okay there, Princess?” His voice is gruff as he stops behind me, his hands clasped behind his back, his shoulder barely grazing mine.

  I swallow against the wetness that fills my mouth when his scent hits me. After the jacket incident, I thought maybe his scent had literally been due to his having been freshly fucked, a lot. But if anything it’s stronger today, and brain dizzyingly potent. My pussy reacts immediately with a flood of heat and arousal that I try to clamp down on. “I was thinking about something, someone.”

  “Anyone important?”

  The way he says it, I glance up to find his mouth in a firm line, his jaw locked and those eyes of his full of heat. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he was jealous. But just like he doesn’t have to share with me, a stranger who after today will be gone, I don’t have to tell him anything.

  “Yes.” I skim my fingers over the surface of the cement koi pond, watching the fish rise up to see if there’s food, as I walk away from him. My eyes sting a little. I don’t have any real memories of my mother. She was gone so quick, so early in my life that I can’t recall her.

  “Wait up, beautiful.” Kaiser grabs my elbow, slowing me down and pulling me close to him again.

  It’s all a tad too much. This huge hulking man, with his rough persona and his soft touch, trying to… I don’t know what he’s trying to do, but whatever it is, it’s making being here painful and frustrating. I yank away again, my heels sinking as I leave the path to walk on the grass. This person in this dress and these shoes isn’t me. Those memories I can’t see, only feel, aren’t me either.

  “Allie, get off the grass. Didn’t you see the sign?” Kaiser grumbles as he walks the path in the same direction. “Do you even know how to behave yourself?”

  “Nope,” I shoot back at him. I’ve never been good at following orders. I don’t know how many times my stepmother told me that. Allie, you’re a no good, worthless child. For once in your life could you do what you’re told?

  I think I might hate this garden. This place that’s supposed to be romantic, perhaps even a little magical. But it only draws me back to my childhood. A place I haven’t gone back to since I left.

  “Don’t make me come get you.” He follows up with a growl.

  I glance at him, pacing the edge of the grass, his muscles bunched, flexing and retracting with each movement. I think I might hate him a little too, for bringing me here. For not letting me leave as soon as I realized how stupid I had been to do this in the first place. For flirting with me when he could obviously see how strongly it affected me. “Go away, Kaiser.”

  “Can’t.” He steps onto the grass. “Wish that I could, pretty girl, but it’s not going to happen, so why don’t you just come over here.”

  I hold my ground, the glare of the setting sun hitting my eyes. “I’m going to catch a cab to the nearest train. I’m done with this game. It’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever wasted money on.”

  He’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever wasted money on. I don’t know how I convinced myself there was something special about him. I’m just horny, that’s all. Lonely, maybe. Both things I can fix without resorting to this bullshit.

  “Seriously. Why drag this out any longer?” If he comes any closer, I’ll hightail it and leave him behind. I almost smile at the idea. That would totally be a princess move.

  He ignores me, stalking across the grass so fast I don’t get three steps in before he winds a hand around my waist, pulling me smoothly against the hard wall of his chest. “I’m not finished with you yet.”

  I can practically feel his heart beating, mine going a little faster than his. “But I’m finished with this stupid make-believe world. I just want to turn into a pumpkin and go home already.”

  His thick fingers tangle in my hair, pulling it aside. His warm breath stirs the hair at the nape of my neck and a soft groan precedes his words. “I told you, I’m not finished with you yet.”

  I don’t know why but it feels like he’s speaking in code. That I’m supposed to read more into what he’s saying than what’s on the surface, but every time I do he shuts me down. “Yes, you are.”

  That’s when I feel the searing heat of his lips on my skin, and oh God, it’s everything I imagined and so much more. His mouth on my neck, sucking and then biting along the curve from shoulder to ear. Every nip of his teeth, every firm kiss he lays on my skin is like dynamite detonating in my core. My eyes flutter shut, a thrill running through me. It leaves me wet and squirming in his arms, wanting more, needing to find out what it would be like to have his mouth on mine, his tongue licking inside me.

  Holding me tight, he pulls his mouth from me. His breathing is ragged, his hardness pressed to my hip, but his words, although soft, carry weight. “No, Allie, I’m really fucking not.”

  I flick my eyes open, ready to argue the point with him. Not because I want to get away from him when he’s making me feel all kinds of crazy sensations, but purely to see if I can push him further. Except I’m speechless. As shadows dance over the garden thousands of fairy lights twinkle on, threaded through all the trees and bushes, hanging overhead from branches. The whole place is lit up just like Kaiser’s done to my insides. It’s quite likely the most amazing and most romantic thing I will ever see, and all the thoughts I had that were weighing me down float away under the halo of lights.

  He exhales, his body melding to mine as he wraps his arms around me, pinning me to him, his chin in my hair, and I swear I hear him murmur, “Fuck you, Gail.”

  I don’t know what to make of it, and I don’t ask. My guess is she had something to do with our coming here, but I know asking him will have him moving away, and even though I can only have this for a little while, I don’t want to waste a moment of it. “It’s beautiful. The garden. My mother had a garden a lot like this. Smaller, and I don’t think with all the lights. I only saw some faded photos of it once.”

  “Is that what you were thinking about?” His voice is low. Perhaps he too doesn’t want to break the moment.

  “She died when I was a baby.”

  “Loss is hard.” He presses a little closer. There’s a burr to his voice, filled with pain. “I lost someone close to me, too.”

  I can’t believe my ears. I want to look up at him, want to see his face. Did he even realize he was sharing? I want to ask him what happened. I want to ask him if he’s making things up as part of this game. Isn’t the whole thing about making fantasy as much reality as real life is? How far would the Vice team go to do that?

  It occurs to me while I’m pondering this bizarre experience that I used my safe word when I told him I was done before he put his mouth on me. That confuses me. That one word is supposed
to end this night. It’s supposed to put an immediate freeze on whatever is going on. That’s when he told me he wasn’t done with me, when he kissed my neck, when he opened up. Did he not hear me? Did he simply ignore me? Or is this not the game right now? My mind spins. Is this something else entirely?

  Chapter Nine

  Kaiser

  Dancing is yet another disastrous idea. I don’t know what I’m doing here with her. She’d called time in the light garden, and I should have been grateful. I should have sayonara’d her sexy ass so fast her head would have spun. Instead, all I could think was the sad look in her eyes was probably due to some asshole. And that didn’t sit well with me. I don’t know why that’s the first thing that popped into my head, except that I don’t like the idea of any man getting close enough to Allie to hurt her.

  I didn’t mean to grab her up when she’d spat out her safe word. Hadn’t meant to taste her soft, sweet skin, or tell her anything about myself. Only, when she’d said it was done, I wasn’t ready. My entire being screamed for more time, and I bought it the only way I could. Then those lights flickered on, and I’d needed to hold onto her, needed to pretend for a moment that we weren’t playing games.

  “Enjoying yourself?” I turn her again, her back to my chest, our hips swaying to the music played by the ensemble in the ballroom of the Lux hotel.

  “It’s different,” she says, glancing over her shoulder, a smile playing on her mouth that makes me want to dip in for a taste. “I’ve never been to a place like this. Never danced like this.”

  “You’re something special, Allie. The way you move does things to a man.” Bringing her close to me, I press up against her. I’ve had a raging boner for hours now and that shit is starting to hurt. The only relief I get is when her body is molded to mine. I know she can feel it, my cock straining against her ass. She has to understand that I’m not just saying these things to her because it’s part of the game. The woman has me by my balls whenever she’s near.