Regal Queen by Ivy Mason

Ten

I spentthe next few days doing every single thing in my power to convince Rose that she wasn’t some trophy to me. That she wasn’t something I’d won, like a prize at some kind of fucked up mafia fair.

She was right.

I’d rescued her, then pretty much ignored her since then, with the exception of demanding that she chose me, when I’d given her no reason to do so.

I thought I was protecting her but in reality, I was only protecting my own heart.

And I was done with that. I needed to step up and be the man that she deserved.

So everywhere I went, I took her with me, opening up all the doors to her that I’d never opened to anyone else before. I showed her exactly what I did and how I did it. If I was on my iPad, she was next to me. I explained to her how my transactions worked, how I manipulated men and money, and how I tracked Nero’s operations from here.

When I planned with my men she was in the room. I asked for her opinions and took her advice when I thought it was good. If I didn’t take it, I explained to her why so she could learn and understand. Honestly, the woman was smart as a whip and an asset to our team. She also wasn’t afraid to speak up and voice her opinion. As the only female in a group of made men, that took a lot of courage, and I was damn proud of her.

Two days passed and there was no immediate retribution from Dimitri, though we were prepared for it.

We thought that Dimitri was too focused on his new shipment with Nero and would plan his retaliation later. However, we underestimated him before and wouldn’t do that again. This time, we weren’t going to wait for him to come to us.

All our focus narrowed in on that shipment, hoping that we were able to catch him by surprise. We would strike, quickly and without retribution. We would light that ship on fire and watch the thing burn to the ground.

I was sitting in the large conference room, my laptop before me, going over the list of ships that would be nearby when we were attacked. We needed to make sure we didn’t alert the US military or anything else that would cause us any big issues.

I glanced at Rose, who was sitting next to me. The room was bustling with activity but she was quiet, had been for the last hour. Her eyes were unfocused, lost in thought, and she was lightly tracing over the gauze on her finger.

Once again, anger strummed through me, furious that she'd lost even a fraction of a skin cell to that man.

I reached over, placing my hand over hers and, startled, she looked up at me.

My eyes traced over her face, noting the tiredness around her eyes, the way they were dull and emotionless. A pang of sadness filled me.

I missed the snarky Rose, the one with the smart mouth who told me exactly what she was thinking, the one who didn't care that she was a prisoner but sassed off like there was no tomorrow.

In the moment, it had been frustrating as hell, but now, I missed the saucy creature that had grown on me.

I stood up, and all eyes moved to me.

"I'm going out." I pulled Rose to her feet. "Rose is going with me."

Coulter's gaze followed me but he said nothing from his position across the room. Torian began to protest but I cut him off with a wave of my hand. "I'll return sometime tonight."

“Liam, Noah, go with him." Torian barked at his men.

"But stay back," I commanded. I didn't need guards interfering with what I had planned for Rose.

Both men jumped to attention, walking behind me as I held her hand, leading her from the room. While we took the elevator up to our room, Rose kept to herself. I frowned. I didn't like it. Didn't like the distance she was putting between us.

As soon as the elevator doors opened, I stepped out, then turned to block the guards, barking at them. "Wait for us in the lobby."

“Yes sir," one of them answered, then hit the button to return them to the bottom floor.

As soon as the doors closed, I grabbed Rose's arm, who'd been attempting to go to her room and pulled her to me.

"I don't like this," I said, staring into her eyes and showing my displeasure by the ferocious look on my face.

"What?" she protested.

“This. The new walls between you and me.” I slid my hand up to the nape of her neck, tugging her closer. "I don't like you blocking me."

She tilted her head upward, giving me that damn stubborn look she was so good at. "Well get used to it. I've been dealing with that from you for several days now."

“As you've told me.” I leaned down and she stilled as my lips brushed softly over hers. “And I'm trying Rose, but I need you to give me a little credit. My whole life I was taught that emotion was a flaw. Nero was only proud of me when I was unemotional. There was no room for weakness or sympathy. I was trained to block off all feeling so that I could handle whatever was thrown at me. Nero wasn't the easiest to grow up with, and I had to learn to wall off everything, or I wouldn't make it."

Her eyes softened at my confession, and she leaned into me, pressing her lips against mine but not kissing me. "You're trying to seduce me by talking about your father? Is that what’s happening, Bourbon?"

"Is it working?"

"Yes," she breathed against my lips, then I went in for the kill, pressing my fingers into the soft flesh of her neck to hold her there while I kissed her.

I kissed her softly, gently, like she deserved, holding back the part of me that wanted her on her knees and my cum smeared on her face like a painting.

She panted against my mouth, her fingers clutching at my tie. I didn’t deepen the kiss but instead, kept her in place against my mouth, moving so slowly that she would die of anticipation before I gave in to what I wanted.

When I pulled back, the glazed look in her eyes, with blush colored and swollen lips from my kiss, made a satisfaction strum through me. I needed to conquer, to control. To fucking own.

This woman was my Queen. Made to stand by my side for the rest of my life.

I ran a thumb across her lower lip and she tilted her head up to me in submission. I let out a low growl of possession, my fingers fisting her even tighter. I had to take in a deep, controlling breath to keep me from pushing her down to her knees and demanding she take out my cock right here and now. "Go get dressed. We're going out."

“Where are we going?" Her voice was breathless.

"You don't need to know that," I didn’t want to make her nervous, “but wear something comfortable."

She nodded, hesitatingly turning around and walking off, her hips sashaying seductively as she walked. Christ, the woman didn’t even know how sexy she was.

Before she entered the room, she glanced back, giving me a hungry look that made my dick twitch.

"Rose. If you don't hurry and get dressed, I'm going to bend you over the bed and fill your belly so full with my cum that you'll have no choice but to get pregnant."

She smirked, and a resemblance of the old Rose was in that satisfied smile, the look making my dick harden even more. As soon as she disappeared beyond the door, I turned, pacing up and down as I made arrangements on my phone.

It only took her a few moments for her to get dressed, and she walked out of the room in a flirty spring dress with gold lined sandals, her hair loose, and light make up on.

Ignoring the raging desire to fuck her against the wall, I turned and punched the elevator button aggressively. This woman was going to be the death of me and my dick.

She came to stand beside me but this time when she tried to put some distance between us, I growled and wrapped my arm around her waist, dragging her to my side.

When we left the building, there was a town car waiting for us. There was also another car behind us, with Noah at the wheel. Mentally appreciative that Luca and his men were on top of their shit, I opened the door for her, then gave instructions to the driver and Liam up front before sliding in next to her.

I kept her close, tucking her into my chest with my arm around her possessively. She didn't ask questions, just leaned into me as we drove, quiet and reflective, staring out the window.

When we stopped and we got out, she stared up at the sign above the door, a questioning look on her face. "Heart's?"

“Luca owns this place," I said, opening the door to the pizza restaurant, making sure that our security was following at a good pace behind us, while also keeping an eye out for any threat.

When I felt secure, I lead her past the dining room, the bathrooms, and the kitchen to the back of the restaurant, where a man waited for us.

Rocky was an elderly man with white capped hair, twinkling blue eyes, and an easy smile. He stood when we entered the room, a grin on his face.

“Gumpy, you grew up." He gave me a hug and the look on Rose's face was priceless. I nodded, humming in approval as Rocky turned towards her, then pulled her into a hug.

She squealed in surprise but fell easily into his arms as he surrounded her with what I called the Rocky charm. His hugs made you feel like you were in the safest, most loved place in the world.

She basked in his embrace for a moment before he stepped back, his eyes moving over her face as his hands went to her shoulders. She shifted, suddenly looking nervous.

"So," he began, a frown on his face, "Bourbon tells me that you may have lost some of your hearing, but that he doesn't know for sure because you haven't told anyone about it." He clicked his tongue, shaking a finger at her. "Naughty girl. You need to take care of yourself or it could become permanent."

She glanced down, looking like a chastised child and I chuckled, sliding my fingers through hers and squeezing. “Don't worry, he gives that speech to everyone. Rocky here knows how to make you feel like a six year old all over again.”

"Please," Rocky pointed to the desk in the center of the room. "Have a seat and let me look at your ear.”

Rose gave me a curious glance, mouthing ‘gumpy’ with a questioning look but I shook my head and pulled her towards the desk. I smiled, loving the cute look on her face as she settled in on top of the desk. Rocky opened up a large black bag, rumbling through it.

"Now.” A squeaky sound came from his bag and her eyes tore away from me to look at it. He ignored her curious gaze and began pulling all kinds of crap from his bag and throwing it onto the top of the desk next to her. A bike bell, small stuffed animals, ring pops and balloons. "Where is my ear looker?"

A laugh burst from Rose, her eyes wide as more and more piled up. Lollipops, bubble gum, spinner tops…

A small smile played at Rocky's lips and I knew all this was his way of getting Rose comfortable with him.

"Ah yes,' he finally said, pulling out his otoscope and squinting his eyes as he stared at the end, finally pressing the button that turned on the light. Then he held it up to her, presenting it liike she'd won something at the fair. “Here it is."

The smile on her face was priceless. Beautiful.

It made my goddamn heart squeeze so hard.

"Now," he shuffled over to her side, "let's have a lookiesie, shall we?"

Giving in to the impulse, I touched her lips, needing to feel her smile and her eyes went to me, the connection buzzing between us as Rocky peered down into her ear.

After a moment, he pulled back, clicking off the light, and Rose's smile dimmed, her fingers fidgeting. "Well?"

He gave her a frown. “It's very serious."

“It is?"

“Yes.” He nodded solemnly. “It looks as if you've managed to do something that no one else has ever done."

"What’s that?” Her voice was tight.

He turned to me, his finger bopping me on the nose. "You've managed to make this hardened guppie worry about you, that's what.”

"What?!” she breathed through a laugh.

"Yes," he nodded, still giving her a serious look, though the edges of his lips were trickling upwards. "It's a miracle."

I scoffed, rolling my eyes. "There are lots of people I care about."

"Yes, yes," he waved my comment away, beginning to shove the things back into his bag. "Now, as to your ear."

He picked up a red styrofoam ball and folded it over her nose with a smile. "You have a busted ear drum.”

"What does that mean?" she asked.

"It's nothing serious, especially because it doesn't look infected. It can be fixed with surgery but it shouldn’t come to that. Give it a couple of weeks and you'll get your hearing back. If you don't, call me, and I'll look at it again, okay?”

“Okay.”

“I’m serious.” His humor died away. “Don’t keep it to yourself. Make Bourbon spend money on you, he doesn’t need it and you deserve it. Otherwise, you will loose your hearing.” He held out his pinky finger. “Pinky promise you will.”

“I promise.” She agreed, shaking pinkies with him, then she leaned upwards and kissed him on the cheek. "And thank you. This means a lot to me."

He gasped in a breath, putting his hand to his cheek and stumbled back dramatically. “The kiss of a princess. You've awoken my dead heart. Are you sure you’re not available for a date with an old man?”

She snickered and I shook my head at him, scowling. "Yes Rocky, she's unavailable."

"Well," he pulled her back into a hug and she relaxed into him, then whispered in her ear. “Just say the word and I'll take you away from this terribly grumpy man."

She laughed again, squeezing him tight. “I think I can handle him.”

“I know you can, dear, but do you really want to?” He stood back and picked up his bag, giving her a wink. "I'll see you next time, but hopefully it won't be too soon."

Then he put on a black hat and, after giving me a meaningful look, he walked out the door, leaving me alone with Rose.