Regal Queen by Ivy Mason

Twenty

I spentthe rest of the night in absolute possession of her, learning every inch of her body.

For the first time in my life, I owned another person, body and fucking soul.

She became mine, even if she didn't know it.

And now, I lay in the bed, my eyes closed and face buried in her hair as Rose slept in my arms. I’d never been as happy as I was right now. I wanted to seize this emotion from our space and time and bottle it up, carrying it with me every moment.

My cell beeped, breaking me from the thought, and I was immediately alert. Without waking Rose, I reached over to grab it off the nightstand.

It was a message from Coulter.

I took in a deep breath and turned towards Rose. She was so beautiful, it made my chest ache. The lines of her face were smooth, so free of pain, stress, and worry.

Something had happened since I’d last watched her sleep. She'd always been restless, murmuring in her sleep. Haunted by nightmares.

But now, she was calm, sleeping peacefully, as if she'd faced the demons of her past and was no longer afraid of them.

I was tempted not to wake her.

Today would change everything.

To my disgust, Nero had taken the bait. Rose was right. And soomehow, she'd known more than we did that Dimitri wouldn't be able to resist coming to us.

And now, I was tempted to silently slip away. To leave Rose here, safe.

To take care of Dimitri and return, knowing that the man who'd hunted down her whole family was gone, to give this as a gift to the woman I loved.

These thoughts flit through my mind like the devil on my shoulder, tempting me, even though I knew she'd be angry.

She would get over it, wouldn't she?

And even if she didn't, she would be alive.

Yet. I couldn't do it.

I'd given her my word that she would look in Dimitri's eyes and watch him die.

Sighing, I sat up and ran a knuckle down her cheek to her jaw. Then I leaned forward, pressing a soft kiss on her skin, murmuring, "Rose."

Her eyes immediately opened, and she turned to lay on her back and stare up at me. For a single second, she was completely open to me. Her expression was soft, her lips parted, gorgeous jade green eyes on me.

My chest was suddenly tight.

Dare I believe that love was shining through those eyes?

The next second it was gone, her eyes deflecting away from my gaze, even though she smiled. Reaching forward, she brushed my hair from my face. "Is everything okay?"

I nodded, raising her hand to my lips to kiss the tips. Every inch of her body, I'd promised myself. I would worship all of her. Not just last night. “Yes. But it's time to go."

She nodded, then sat up, straddling my hips. Cupping my cheeks, she stared into my eyes. “Tell me something, Bourbon. Anything you want, before we go to face our fate. Something I can hold on to."

I held her firmy on my lap, my thumbs digging into her hips as I met her gaze, my words fierce. "I love you, Rose. I will love you every day for the rest of my life. And one day, I don't care how long it takes, I'm going to convince you to marry me. To become a King, on paper," I slid my hand down until it was pressing over her pounding heart, "and branded onto your heart. Because your name is already carved into mine. I love you, Rose, and I swear that, from this day forward, I will never try to control you ever again. When this is all over, you can walk away from me, if that's what you want." There was a sudden lump in my throat but I swallowed it down to force the next words out. “But I hope that you will stay with me. Become my wife. Love me for the rest of my life.”

She said nothing for a long moment, her wide eyes on me, her chest hitching. There was a soft red flush to her cheeks and along her collar.

I’d just proposed to her.

My throat was full.

I proposed to her.

I hadn’t meant to do it. It spilled out, along with my declaration of my love for her, but I did not regret it.

I meant every single word.

Her throat bobbed, not responding.

Finally, she leaned down to brush her lips across mine. “Maybe one day you’ll consider me a Queen, instead of a King." When she pulled back her eyes were filled with humor. Grinning mischievously, she climbed off me, bouncing off the bed and across the room. “Let's get ready."

Swallowing down my disappointment, I stood and followed behind her and within the hour, we were both ready to go.

The car ride to the airport was silent, but she held my hand, filling me with a hope that I clung to.

We arrived at the private airport approximately the same time as everyone else, and Coulter climbed out of his black Range Rover SUV with a grim look. Behind him was Knight and Dante, and Rose immediately let go of my hand to leap across the parking lot to talk to Knight, a nervous smile on her face.

“Bourbon.” Coulter acknowledged me. He looked so serious, so grown up. Gone was the cocky swagger, the immature indifference, replaced with a graveness that made my heart clench. My whole life, I’d tried to protect him from this life, the violence and pain, and now I was dragging him directly into it.

Ignoring the ache in my chest, I nodded in return then turned and strode towards where Torian was already stationed. He was with the group of men who had worked so hard for us all throughout Russia, Connecticut at my mother's house, and New York.

They were good men, and I regretted bringing them into this, knowing that it was likely that some of them would die today.

“Give me the update,” I told Torian.

We spent the next hour going over our plans one last time, plus any contingencies. Then, we all got into place, and waited.

Right on time, Dimitri's plane came into view.

Knight had paid off one of his contacts at the airport to lead the plane into an unused part of the airport.

We weren't even going to give the fucker a chance to step foot on Cuban soil.

We weren't going to wait for him to come to us. We were going to attack him outright, before he could leave that tin can he'd flown in on.

I held Rose to my side, my fingers clenching with hers tight.

Usually I faced down death with silence.

Calmness.

I'd made peace with the fact that i would die an early death a long time ago, and so facing it didn't intimidate me.

This time was different.

I had a reason for living now.

I wanted to wake up next to Rose for the rest of my damn life.

He arrived in an old Russian cargo plane, and we waited patiently as it made it’s way slowly up the runway, stopping as close to us as possible. As soon as it had stilled, the men guiding it ran off, leaving us alone with the plane.

An eerie silence fell over the area, with only the background noise of the airport, a comfort that the rest of the world was still turning. My heart pounded and I drew Rose in closer to me, my eyes locked on the door to the plane but my face buried into her hair. I inhaled a deep breath, breathing the smell of her into me, watching, waiting.

Then the door began to move, the stairs dropping, and my heart lurched.

“Looks like they’re coming out,” Torian's voice filled my ear. Pressing my lips to the crown of Rose’s head, I whispered the words I hoped I would say for the rest of my life. “I love you.”

Then I stepped away from her and made my way wordlessly down the tarmac with Coulter and several men beside me. There were a few seemingly-random placed trucks and vans we’d set up to provide cover, and I met Torian behind the large box truck closest to the plane. Coulter lead his group of men, spreading out as much as possible.

We waited with a tension filled silence for something to happen. The sound of the stairs hitting the ground was like a clap echoing through the chambers of my heart. I inhaled a deep breath, waiting, the hairs on the back of my neck prickled.

Then, bodies emerged.

Bullets rang out as men poured out, using the stairs as cover. They were armed with rifles. Explosions rang out around us.

We returned fire. The blast of my handgun drowned out all noise. I aimed, and fired.

Aimed, and fired.

Torian grunted out in pain next to me. I swiveled to look, my heart pounding. He was doubled over, his hand to his shoulder.

Shit.

“Torian, are you okay?”

Dark blood blossomed across his upper collar but he waved me off. “It's just the shoulder, it'll be fine."

Growling, I crouched down low, crawling on the ground as I peeked out from behind the truck. Taking in a slow breath, I fired again. Ignoring the bullets wizzing by us, we picked our way through Dimitri’s first line of defense.

The last of the men fell, and the eerieness returned.

The plane was large, with at least three other ways they could exit, though the main door out the back would take great effort to open.

We waited, my attention divided on the each door. It was the silence before the storm, and I held my breath as I waited for the next shoe to drop. When nothing happened, I met Coulter’s gaze from across the way.

Hovering low, I left the cover of the truck, with Coulter instantly by my side.

We move cautiously and carefully, our guns trained on the empty doorway as we crept to the bottom of the stairs.

Still nothing, except dead bodies littering the way.

Blocking off all emotion, I made my way up the stairs and entered the plane. The cargo space with large, and it was stacked with wooden crates of what I would presume were weapons. The sides were lined with tools, spare tires, and empty seats.

Dimidi’d come prepared.

The inner chamber was dark, lit only by the light from the windows. At the far end of the plane, there was a twitch of a moment, the sound of steps. I turned to Coulter - he'd seen it too.

We didn't speak, but moved silently, making our way carefully in between the stacked crates in the middle of the plane and the seats at the edge of it.

We kept our guns held out, ready for anything.

There was antother sound, a flash of metal reflecting off the light streaming in. Coulter and I immediately reacted as if we'd rehearsed it a million times. He moved to the left, then me to the right, separating. The rest of our men followed our lead.

There was no other noise, except for the shuffling of my feet. Then, a click next to my ear. “Don’t move.”

I froze, and Dimitri's rough voice demanded, "Drop the gun."

Holding my hands where he could see them, I slowly lowered my gun to the floor. Dimitri kicked it out of my reach. Then he shoved me against the wall and began to search me. He pulled two other guns and tucked them in his waist.

When he was done, he wrapped an arm around my neck. Jerking me back out into the aisle he barked. "Tell your crew to surrender.”

Heart pounding, I called out. “Coulter!”

After a few minutes, Coulter’s head popped out from an aisle. His eyes widened when he saw Dimitri behind me.

“Surrender yourself.” Dimitri growled.

I nodded at him, reassuring him, still wanting to protect him even now.

He met my stare with a fierce one of his own, and slowly, he lowered his gun to the floor. Then he held up his hands.

Dimitri’s men suddenly appeared like ants crawling out of their home with Dimitri barking orders at them, "Take them prisoner. Tie them up and hold them in the back room."

They surrounded Coulter and my men. I saw a flash of two guards stripping Coulter of his spare guns before Dimitri shoved me backwards. Pressing the gun to my head, Dimitri turned me around then herded me towards the back door. “Show me where she is.”

"She's right outside." I answered him, my gut rolling but my steps confident. This was the biggest risk we'd ever taken and, even though so far Rose had been right, we were still taking a huge gamble.

I stepped into the light of the doorway, scanning the landscape for her.

So far, everything was going exactly to plan.