Daddy Duke Read online

  And I realized something else, too. I couldn’t just do it with some guy. I couldn’t just rip the bandaid off. Because deep down, hidden away where I’d hid it for years, there was one thought that came rushing to the surface.

  ….deep down, I wanted Xavier to be my first.

  My first and my only.

  “Am I in trouble or not?”

  Ugh, there it was — my go-to response to him recently. It’s like as my own thoughts about him grew harder and harder to ignore, I’d compensated by being ruder, and sassier. Like throwing attitude at him would make these desires go away. But of course, it only ever made his eyes flash fiercely or his jaw clench tight, and all that ever did was make him even more irresistible.

  “Keep testing me, Lola,” he growled.

  “Oh, and what?”

  “And you’ll see what happens,” he hissed through clenched teeth. Fuck, he was so close, looming over me, his face inches from mine. I shivered, my nipples hard as little pebbles against my palms and the heat blooming between my thighs.

  I sneered. “What, you going to punish me, Daddy?”

  I froze, my mouth snapping shut. Xavier’s face went dark, his eyes crackling with this fiery blaze as the heat teased through me.

  …Why had I just called him that, and why did saying it send something electrifying through my body?

  “Xavier, I—”

  “Go to your room, Lola,” he said quietly, suddenly moving back from me, standing upright and taking a step away. That fierce, steely gaze on that chiseled handsome face lingered on me for one full second, melting me into the couch and setting every part of me on fire. I dropped my gaze, unable to meet his any longer as my face grew hotter, thinking about what he’d just walked in on me about to do.

  I felt mortified, and terrible, and yet also so fucking turned on that I was sitting there with just my hands and my will to keep them where they were stopping him from seeing so much of me.

  And I was about to say something — to apologize even for my shitty, rash behavior, when suddenly, I saw it. I saw it and my pulse skipped a beat.

  I saw it — the thick, big bulge tenting the front of his pants. My mouth opened a little, my eyes going wide as my pulse roared through my ears.

  And then suddenly, he whirled and stormed from the room, leaving me panting for breath, tingling with something hot, and soaking through my panties.

  Chapter 3

  Xavier

  I drove home from the restaurant where I’d left the countess with a fire inside of me. My hands gripped the wheel tight, the blaze inside of me flickering hotter and hotter. This date had been a fucking mistake. A last-ditch attempt at correcting my course before I went out of control. But it was too late.

  Way too late. I was already lost in her, and there was no coming back.

  …I didn’t want to come back. Not for the world, and certainly not for fakeness like the Countess Victoria.

  My mind flashed back to kicking that fucking boy out the other night, tearing him away from her — the protective, fierce, and completely jealous emotions roaring inside of me. I remembered wanting to kill him as I dragged him by the neck to the door, and I almost did when I thought about what he’d seen.

  He’d seen her. He’d seen more of her than I ever had. He’d crossed a line with her I’d fought to get away from, because I knew crossing it was wrong. It fucking burned knowing how hard I’d fought to stay away, and having that piece of shit cross it so easily — so readily.

  I thought back to storming back into the room after not murdering the piece of shit, and seeing her still sitting there — so fucking bare. My mind flashed back to her hands covering her full, soft breasts. And once again, I’d somehow found the restraint not to react. Like not killing the fuck-wad I’d thrown out, somehow I stopped myself from yanking her hands away, pulling her against my body, and tasting the forbidden fruit I’d denied myself. Somehow I stopped myself from feeling her skin under my hands, and peeling those legs apart. I’d stopped myself from lining my cock up against her soft, slick little untouched pussy and driving it inside, making her squeal as I filled her to the brim with every inch as her tight, velvety walls stretched around me.

  Instead, with the restraint of a fucking saint, I’d turned and stormed away, with every single cell in my brain screaming about what an idiot I was for doing it.

  I’d gone directly to my quarters, sat in my chair, pulled my cock out, and stroked. I’d groaned, finally letting go — finally letting the thoughts I’d kept chained up and locked away run rampant through my head. I pictured every single thing I wanted from her — guiding her down on my lap as her pussy took all of my cock. I pictured that sassy mouth of hers opening wide for me, her soft, pink lips wrapping around my cock and sucking. I pictured pushing her legs back and up, spreading her wide as I dragged my tongue from her asshole to her clit until she was dripping down my chin.

  I pictured taking her, and fucking her every which way until her hungry little cunt sucked the cum from my balls to fill her up. I imagined every single one of those things as my hand slid up and down my big, throbbing hard cock. I thought of taming her, of making her mine.

  Lola was slowly spinning out of control. Maybe I’d been soft because I was trying to hide the way I felt about her. But she needed discipline if she was going to keep living with me.

  My cock throbbed, and my hand tightened around it, precum making my shaft slick and glistening.

  Lola needed rules.

  I groaned, my balls starting to tighten as I felt the cum start to boil over.

  She needed control. She needed protection. She needed love, and also discipline.

  …She needed a daddy.

  I’d groaned as the cum erupted from my pulsing cock, thick ropes falling over my hand, my abs, and my balls as I groaned out my release, thinking of only her.

  The gates to my manor opened by remote as I approached. I drove in and started up the long winding drive through the grounds.

  We’d had something good, even if it was confusing. Lola and I shared some of the same pain, since it was the failed coup that wrecked both of our failed families and brought us together in the first place.

  When she came to me six years before — or rather, when I took her in, we were both damaged goods. Her father, Prince Jeremy Abington, had been a friend once, but he’d gone to the dark side of life. Booze, drugs, women — the man I’d known and once respected became a lying, gambling piece of shit. Lola’s mother had passed young, and with Jeremy off living up the pampered royal life to the fullest in Monaco or wherever most of the time, Lola had mostly been raised by nannies and the such. But then, Jeremy had shown his true colors, and it was a lot worse than just being a lousy father and an asshole.

  The attempted coup on King Rian had shaken our country. Rian was a just, kind king, and the people loved him. Some of those in power though, did not like his style of governing which always helped the common people and not the rich and royal.

  On the plus side, the plot to kill him had been stopped. On the bad side, the people involved shocked us all.

  I’d known Shana, my ex wife, had been cheating on me. Our marriage was over long before it actually was, and I’d lost any feelings for the woman I thought I’d loved once it was clear what a self-serving, discriminating, cruel person she really was. I’d been arranging for a divorce anyway when I’d gotten the call — Shana was cheating on me, with one of King Rian’s army captains. But that wasn’t the worst part.

  The worst part was, she was personally involved in the assassination attempt. In a major way.

  There was group in our country that’d decided they were tired of King Rian’s approach to governing. He was having open elections to elect a parliament of the people, and those with the power they’d been born into didn’t like that one bit. Shana, the captain, a few others and Lola’s father had plotted to detonate a bomb at a damn children’s hospital the day of a visit from the king. The plan was to blame it on extremists
and use the chaos and the death of our king to seize power.

  Thankfully, they’d failed.

  King Rian and I went way back, and my loyalty was never on trial. I did testify though, against Shana, which cleared me of any connection. Jeremy and the rest of them were also tossed in prison. It wasn’t long before his money and connections got him sprung in some sort of jail break, but he’d gone on the run and disappeared, leaving Lola in the lurch. When it was clear that she had no other family, I’d acted without thinking.

  And just like that, she was my charge.

  My ward.

  My own, really.

  That’d been six years before. We’d been fine for years. I treated her like my own, and yet gave her the freedom to be herself. In turn, she’d mostly respected my rules.

  But things had changed. She’d changed.

  She’d grown up is what the problem was. And I couldn’t pretend I didn’t see anymore. I couldn’t pretend that I didn’t see that her walking into a room brightened it — that her brushing past me got my blood roaring and my cock throbbing.

  …That her smile got my heart racing like nothing ever had

  And like I said, I was done pretending.

  I roared the car up the drive, my jaw tight as I tried to fight back and tried to push down the flames burning inside. I took the last turn, tires squealing as I pulled up to the front of my manor, when suddenly, I slammed on the breaks. My hands tightened on the wheel, my jaw clenched, my eyes narrowed. The fury exploded inside.

  The red sports car in the drive certainly wasn’t mine. Too new, too sporty. And I instantly knew who’s it fucking was — that boy from the other night. The one I’d almost fucking killed. The one she’d been with with her fucking shirt off.

  He he was back. And now he was a dead man.

  The car door slammed behind me and I stormed up the big stone front steps of my manor estate. The front door boomed open, and I didn’t even bother closing it as I marched right up the sweeping stairs towards her wing of the house.

  My pulse thundered in my ears, and my hands closed to fists. My anger burned like a jet engine inside — blind jealousy, furious indignation exploding through me.

  Her door was shut as I stormed down the hallway towards it, but I never stopped. I never slowed. I never took a breath. I walked right into it, barreling my shoulder into it, and fucking crashed right through it as the roar almost ripped from my throat.

  Lola gasped, whirling as she dropped the towel.

  …And my mind went blank as I stumbled to a stop.

  Inches from her, naked, and totally alone in the room.

  “Where—” I blinked, my jaw clenched tight as the rest of the world sort of faded away.

  “Where are—” My eyes slid over her, and my mouth stopped working. Because right there, for the very first time, was all of her. And fuck had she grown up. She was all woman, all soft curves and smooth skin. And my mind just went blank.

  Her hands moved to cover herself, but it was a lost cause. She didn’t move. She didn’t shriek or scream, or run. She just stood there, her chest rising and falling quickly and a slow pink blush creeping over her neck and her face as her eyes locked onto mine.

  “Whose—” I shook my head, my eyes fixed on hers. “Whose car is that?”

  She blinked. “What, the—”

  “The red one,” I snapped.

  “Faith’s.”

  The breath I didn’t even know I’d been holding exhaled slowly, my shoulders unclenching slightly. Faith, as in the Princess Faith, her friend. Not a boy’s car. Also maybe not a great reason to break down a door and stumble in on her naked.

  Shit.

  “She’s— she’s downstairs in the movie room,” she whispered. “I was just…shower.”

  I closed my eyes, taking a deep breath. Yeah, this was it. I’d officially gone off the fucking deep end. I’d officially pushed a foot over that line.

  “Sorry,” I growled, turning, forcing my eyes to drag away from her. “I’ll fix your door in the—”

  “You thought I had someone in here?”

  I froze, half turned away from her, my hand on the doorframe.

  “Yes,” I said quietly.

  “So you broke down the door?”

  “Yes,” I hissed.

  “Why?”

  “Because,” I growled lowly. “Because I told you—”

  “You told me no boys.”

  “Exactly.”

  I started to turn again.

  “Why else?”

  The room went quiet except for the thudding of my pulse in my ears, my whole fucking body tingling and aching with the nearness of her. She was right there, naked and bare to me, and all it’d take is one move to make her mine, and claim what I’d been denying myself for way too long.

  Feeling this way for her was wrong. Wanting her was a sin. Lusting after her was forbidden.

  “Why else, Xavier?” she said quietly. Her hand touched my arm, and I felt a pulse of heat explode through my skin at the spot. Her fingers slid over my arm, the pulse of heat grew faster, and suddenly, something in me snapped.

  …The very last of my resolve.

  “This,” I growled as I turned, slid my hands around her hips, pulled her right into me, and fucking kissed her.

  Hard.

  Chapter 4

  Lola

  It was over before I even knew what was happening. One second, my lips were pressed tight to his, my whole world spinning off its axis. And then the next, he was gone — pulling away, his eyes blazing with fire as he slowly shook his head, turned, and stormed away, leaving me gasping for more.

  “Hey, sorry about the car.”

  “Huh?”

  I turned, blinking at my friend in the dim light of the big home theater in the lower levels of the manor. We’d been watching Chocolat — obviously the best Johnny Depp movie of all time — but I’d barely been paying attention. Or, at all, actually. All I could concentrate on was thinking back to before I’d stumbled down here in a daze — to Xavier.

  I’d crossed the line. Well, we both had, but it didn’t matter who was to blame, we’d both gone crashing over it. And it was consuming every part of me — his kiss lingering on my lips as I sat in the dark, burning with heat.

  “My car?” Faith made a face. “Did I park it weird or something?”

  “Um, what?”

  She sighed. “The Duke, when he came home, he seemed—”

  “You know you can just call him Xavier.”

  Faith, ever the well-mannered good one of our little group of friends, scrunched up her nose. “Okay, well, he seemed pissed when he came home.”

  I blushed in the darkness.

  “No, that was…” I shrugged. “It was nothing.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yeah.”

  I shivered, thinking of the way my heart had jumped into my throat as he crashed into my bedroom, that look on his face sending fire through every part of me. And then his eyes drinking all of me in, with me neither able or wanting to do a thing about it.

  “Wait, do you have a new car by the way?”

  “Oh,” Faith quickly looked back to the movie screen. “Sorta.”

  “Sorta? You sort of have a new car?” I grinned quizzically. “Faith, you can’t ‘sort of’ have something. I think it’s like being pregnant. You either are or your not. You’re not sort of pregnant.”

  Faith blushed deeper. “Okay, no one is pregnant.”

  “Pretty sure we’d have to be getting laid for that to happen.”

  Faith’s face turned a shade darker.

  “So, the car?”

  “Yeah it’s this whole thing,” she mumbled, brushing the question off.

  I wasn’t one to let up though.

  “Um, go on?”

  She sighed. “It was a gift, okay?”

  “From?”

  My friend groaned. “No one, okay? Can we just drop it?”

  I knew Faith’s parents, and while lov
ing, they were definitely on the stricter side, especially when it came to Faith. They certainly weren’t the type to get her a freaking red sports car, princess or not.

  “You know I’m not going to let this go, right?”

  She groaned again. “Yeah, I know. Later, okay? I got some things to figure out.”

  “Well now I’m even more intrigued.”

  She grinned at me, her face flushed as she chewed her bottom lip. I always liked teasing my friend, and in this case it was even better since it took my mind away from the huge thing that’d just happened upstairs in my room.

  Well, it sort of took my mind away from it. Kind of. Not really.

  “Does this have anything to do with that tattoo you’ve been trying to hide all night?”

  Faith gasped, yanking her sleeve back up over her wrist and covering the little rose tattoo she’d been trying to keep out of sight all night.

  “I—”

  “Oh, are you going to tell me it’s fake?”

  She frowned.

  Faith, Princess of Devoney, along with Callie, the Princess of Arbor, and Riley, the Duchess of Irin, was one of my best friends. But where Riley and I trended a little to the wilder side, Faith and Callie were always a little more reserved. A little more of the good girl type I guess you could say.

  …A new sports car and a tattoo weren’t exactly keeping with that for Faith.

  “Okay, fine,” I threw my hands in the air, sighing. “We’ll let it go.”

  “Thanks.”

  “For now.”

  Faith grinned as I winked at her.

  “I am sorry I missed Xavier getting all pissed though.”

  “Why?”

  Faith bit her lip and raised a brow at me as her face reddened. “You know why.”

  I felt the heat creep up my neck. Oh, I knew. We’d all joked about this before, at a sleepover. My friends had all joked about how unfair it was that “my dad” was so hot.

  “He’s NOT my dad.”

  “Yeah and good thing,” Riley giggled.

  “Okay, gross?”

  “Please, you think he’s gross?”