Steel Princess: A Dark New Adult Romance (Royal Elite Book 2)

I agreed to stay the night.

Okay, agreeing isn’t the right word. I was coerced to stay the night.

Aiden knows how much I need the truth and like the psycho he is, he used my desperation to his benefit.

But then again, I’m well aware of his manipulations and I fell for them anyway, so I guess that makes me an accomplice.

I sit in the spacious round bathtub because Aiden ran another bubble bath for me.

It still baffles me how he has this level of care in him but still acts in an overbearing, almost oppressive kind of way.

It’s confusing.

He’s confusing.

He sits at my back like an overwhelming presence. I can feel his warmth without glancing back.

It’s different from the water’s coolness. Like a halo, it swallows me whole.

Goosebumps erupt on my skin with each passing second.

Aiden leans back against the bathtub with his legs stretched on either side of me as I sit in the middle.

I pull my knees to my chest and will my body to cool down for a freaking second.

If I give in to him one more time, I might start losing myself to him again.

That is if I didn’t already.

Why the hell did he tell me about his insomnia? He should’ve deflected like always. And what’s with the way he looked at me?

I’ll protect you.

His words send a shiver down my spine.

Nope. I’m not going there.

I’m only here to hear what he has to say. Once he’s done, I’m out.

A sponge comes in contact with my tense back. I purse my lips as he slowly lathers my skin with careful, gentle strokes.

The scent of coconut wafts in the air and fills my senses.

Stop.

Why can’t he be mean? Why does he have to enchant my body more under his spell?

“So?” I snap harder than I mean.

I wanted to douse the tingles he’s drawing out of my body, but it’s not working at all.

“So what?” He continues his ministrations.

“I’m waiting for the truth.”

“You sure you don’t want to change your mind?” His voice is quiet in the dooming silence of the bathroom.

“No.”

“Hmm. You might want to, sweetheart. I still don’t think you’re ready.”

“Let me worry about that.”

He’s quiet for a bit, and I think he’ll bail on me. He’ll be unfair like all the other times and laugh in my face.

This time I’ll only have myself to blame. I made a deal with the devil knowing exactly how conniving he can be.

“I’ll tell you a story,” he says.

“I don’t want a story, I want —”

“There were two friends.” He cuts me off, still sponging my back. “They were both ambitious and stopped at nothing to get what they wanted. They both had flowing businesses, but they decided against a partnership because they loved challenging each other more. The rivalry grew harsher and nastier over the years. They were both notorious businessmen and never cut each other any slack.”

His movements slow like he’s absent-minded. Instead of the sponge, his fingers draw down my back like he’s scribbling something. “Their rivalry began to cross limits in ways that neither of them noticed. Or maybe they did notice but they never gave a fuck. The moment their families got pulled into their rivalry, things became ugly.”

He stops talking and his fingers stop their caress. I turn around so my back leans against his bent leg.

Aiden watches me with darkened eyes. It’s like he’s surrounded by his black demons and all of them want to hurt me.

My breath hitches as my instinct screams at me to run. It’s one of those times when looking at him is exhausting.

I swallow, but I don’t move. “And?”

He’s silent for a beat. “And what?”

“Where’s the rest of the story?”

“Next time.”

“Next time?” I all but snap.

“You’ve been through a lot today.” His poker face is on. “You should sleep.”

“I’m not tired.” I push at his chest.

“Hmm. I thought you were sore. Maybe I shouldn’t hold back, huh?”

My cheeks heat at the promise in his words. I quickly recover when I recognise his tactics. “You don’t get to deflect your way out of this. You promised to tell me everything and now you’re telling me to go to sleep?”

He clutches my wrist and manoeuvres me so I’m facing him. His legs cage my waist and I have no choice but to bend my legs on either side of his hips.

At this position, my legs are stretched open and even though our lower halves are covered by the bubbly water, I can almost feel his erection near my most intimate part.

He threads his fingers into my loose hair and his gaze travels to my flushed breasts. My nipples harden under his intense scrutinising.

I only release a breath after he slides his metal eyes back to mine. “I didn’t say I’ll tell you everything, I said I’ll tell you a story which I just did.”

Frustration bubbles in my veins. Damn him and his manipulations. Will there ever be a day when he won’t pull me in hook, line, and sinker?

But that’s how it is with Aiden. If I want to get anything out of him, then I need to play his stupid games. I need to try and think with a mind as deviant as his.

Taking a calming breath, I briefly close my eyes before opening them again. He’s staring at my scar with that poker face.

If only I could read his mind and see what’s behind that facade.

Having him fixate on me that way brings a strange sense of vulnerability. The itch under my skin blooms to the surface.

I don’t know why he has an obsession with my scar.

Or with me, basically.

If what I heard from Jonathan and Silver’s conversation is true, then Aiden is supposed to hate me, not be this obsessed with me.

But then again, isn’t obsession just another form of extreme hate?

“Does the story you just told me have to do with what I overheard from Jonathan and Silver’s conversation?”

His gaze reluctantly leaves my scar to meet mine. “Maybe.”

“Ugh. Aiden! Give me something.”

“I will.” His lips tilt in a smirk. “If you’re a good girl.”

“Let me guess, that includes fucking you?”

His grin widens. “I’ll be the one doing the fucking, but yes, sweetheart. That comes with the package.”

I narrow my eyes on him.

It’s all a ploy. A mindfuck. Something he uses in his push and pull. If I want to know the truth and somehow still come out intact, then I need to negotiate my way out of his rules.

He doesn’t get everything.

Not anymore.

“No.”

He raises an eyebrow, but his hands tighten in my hair. “No?”

“If I follow your conditions, you’ll get whatever you want and you might never tell me anything anymore.” I place a palm on his wet chest and trail my hand down his hard abs. “I have a condition.”

“A condition,” he repeats as if he needs to hear the words to believe them.

“Yes. Every time you tell me a tidbit, you get to touch me. That includes oral sex, by the way.”

His left eye twitches. “What makes you think I’ll agree to that? I can get you to spread your legs for me any time I want, sweetheart.”

The arrogance of this fucking bastard.

Still, I keep my smile plastered in place as I run my fingertips on the hard ridges of his abs. “Sure you can, but do you remember what I said about being a shell? If you force your way with me more than this, then you’ll get that shell to spread her legs for you.”

He yanks my hand from his stomach and his left eye twitches.

I most definitely hit a nerve.

We stare at each other for long seconds. This time, I don’t cower away.

This time, I’m not a mere soldier. I’m a general in the battle he’s trying to win.

Tension crackles in the air and goosebumps cover the earlier goosebumps. All I can breathe is his intoxicating scent. All I can feel is the pulse of my wrist in his grip.

“So?” I break the lethal silence. “What will it be?”

His lips pull into a cruel smirk. “Well played, sweetheart. Well played, indeed.”

A wave of pride hits me and it takes everything in me not to grin like an idiot.

I just got Aiden King at his own game.

Before I can gloat, he stands up, yanking me up with him by the wrist. Water splashes all around us.

The blackness in his eyes is the last thing I see.

He releases my wrist, grabs me by the hips and throws me over his shoulder like earlier.

I gasp as the world tilts upside down. “A-Aiden? What are you doing?”

He slaps my arse, the sting reverberating in the air.

I squeal.

It fucking hurts when my bottom is all wet.

“You said sex time after story time.”

“We already had sex earlier.”

“That was before the new arrangement. It doesn’t count.”

Oh. Dear God.

This bloody psycho will be the death of me.

He stops at the shelf to retrieves towels. I use the chance to try and wiggle free and push at his back.

He spanks me again. My thighs clench together.

“Ow. That hurts.”

“Then stay fucking still.”

He puts me to my feet in the middle of a bedroom with black wooden frames and a king-sized bed.

I’m still taking in my surroundings when he wraps the towel around my hair.

Aiden stands in front of me in all his naked glory, water dripping down his muscled chest and the defined V leading to —

Nope.

I snap my attention back to his face. His lips are curved into a smirk as if he can hear my thoughts.

Dickhead.

He dries my hair with masterful, gentle strokes. Then he does the same with my body; slowly and gently.

He takes his sweet time in rubbing the towel over my hardened nipples and around my breasts. He bends and glides the towel over my arse and between my legs.

Tingles start at the bottom of my stomach and spread all over my body the more he touches me.

It takes all my will not to moan aloud and melt in his arms.

He’s not only drying me off. No. He’s also awakening the monster inside. The monster that used to be dormant, but refuses to sleep since Aiden first touched me.

After finishing with my legs, he comes up again and flicks the towel against my throbbing nipples once more. His thumb and forefinger squeeze my other nipple. It’s not harsh, but I’m so stimulated that the slightest touch feels like I’m being set on fire.

I bite my lower lip against a whimper and clench my thighs. “A-Aiden.”

“Hmm, sweetheart?” He doesn’t even look at me, still busy torturing my nipples.

Get it over with, arsehole.

I glance between him and the bed, silently communicating my point.

His poker face is on, but his left eye twitches.

My muscles lock together. Oh, shit. It’s never good when he’s pissed off.

“Do you want me to fuck you?” He runs the towel up and down my breasts, making me squirm and gravitate towards him. “How do you want me to do it?”

Any way will do.

“I can take you against the wall. You’ll wrap your legs around my waist like a good girl, won’t you, sweetheart?”

I bite down on my bottom lip. The double assault of his dirty words and his touch make me delirious.

“And then I’ll pound inside you so hard, you’d scrape your back against the wall. Or I can take you on the floor on all fours until your knees bruise from how hard I’ll thrust in and out of your tight pussy. Hmm. Choices.”

His hand roams down my stomach, to the apex of my thighs and glides over my folds. “Hmm. You’re soaked.”

My eyes flutter closed briefly. I’m burning and his touch is like spilling gasoline on the fire.

More.

I need more.

He parts my folds with his finger. My head falls on his shoulder with a soft moan.

“You love it when I touch you here, don’t you, sweetheart?”

I have no words to say so I let my whimper answer his question.

“You love it when I work you up until you scream, don’t you?”

I grip his shoulder for balance as he runs his fingers up and down, touching me everywhere except for where I need him the most.

“You love when I make you come, don’t you?” He turns me around and pushes me against the bed. I fall face down with a gasp, my cheek hitting the soft mattress.

He wraps a hand under my stomach and pulls me up so I’m on my hands and knees.

I’m shaking, sweating, and feeling stimulated more than I’ve ever been before.

I’m ready to beg when Aiden thrusts balls deep inside me in one go.

I cry out as his length fills me to the rim. With this position, it’s like being stretched open all over again.

There’s a sick type of pleasure that comes with the pain and the intensity that Aiden always brings.

It’s crazy.

It’s out of control.

And I crave it more than I like to admit.

He grabs a fist full of my hair as his other hand clutches me harshly by the hip. He pulls on my hair until I’m staring at the ceiling.

His thrusts start slow and moderated, making me moan. My fingers sink into the sheets, and my eyes roll to the back of my head with each roll of his hips. He alternates between clutching my hips and flicking, pinching, and twisting my nipple.

“Oh… A-Aiden…”

The building intensifies like a hurricane and pulls me to its centre.

“Ahhhh…” I come with a deep moan.

The orgasm takes me by surprise. I feel cherished. Almost… worshipped.

What the hell is he doing to me?

Aiden doesn’t stop. He continues thrusting with that moderate rhythm that messes with both my body and head.

Another riot starts at the bottom of my stomach, slashing and clawing at its walls.

“Does that feel good, sweetheart?”

I nod, pushing against him for more.

“Then why the fuck are you putting a limit on it?”

My eyes widen as he picks up his pace.

Oh, shit.

Oh, fuck.

The earlier rhythm and orgasm were only a deflection method. I should’ve known he’s pissed off. I should’ve known he’d make this a punishment.

His thrusts turn merciless and out of control. I almost topple over the bed with how hard he pounds into me.

While the earlier rhythm made me feel content, this one scratches a darker side inside me.

That side craves the pain Aiden offers.

That side feeds off Aiden’s depravity.

That side scares me.

Wanting him in this unhinged way terrifies the shit out of me.

“Aiden…” I try to coax him. “Slow down.”

His body covers mine from behind. “You don’t get to put a limit on when and how much I get to touch you, then ask me to slow down. You’re well and truly fucked, sweetheart.”

He pulls at my nipple and I’m a goner. It’s like I can’t control my body when he touches me.

I barely come down from the orgasm, panting, and clawing at the sheets for dear life.

Aiden doesn’t stop.

His merciless pace goes on and on and on.

I’m so sensitive and spent. My nerves endings shiver and beg for this to end.

But if I tell him that, he’ll just do the opposite.

I have one option now.

Using all the strength I have left, I push back, wiggling my arse against his thighs and balls.

If he doesn’t finish any time soon, he’ll go at this all night long.

He hits a sensitive spot inside me. I moan, but I don’t stop wiggling against him.

“What do you think you’re doing, sweetheart? Hmm?” He growls.

“C-come inside me,” I whimper, trying to keep up with his pace. “I want you to come inside me, Aiden.”

“Fuck.” A grunt spills from his lips as warmth coats my walls.

I collapse on my front as he pulls out of me. Hot liquid trickles down my thighs, but I couldn’t care less right now.

I’m so exhausted and I could sleep for eternity.

Aiden flips me around and I let him, a soft mumble spilling from my lips.

He kneels at the foot of the bed as I lay stark naked in front of him, my eyes starting to flutter closed.

He pulls my legs apart, hands clutching both my thighs as he slowly watches me with darkened eyes. He sniffs the air as if he wants to engrave our scent into memory.

“Did you honestly think you could manipulate me, sweetheart?”

My eyes shoot open.

“Do you think it’s over because I came?”

“I-I’m sensitive.”

His devilish smirk greets me. “You should’ve thought of that before putting a limit on when I get to touch you.”

“It’s too much.” But is it too much if my entire body is tingling for more?

Is it too much if I’m impatiently waiting for his next move?

“You know what’s too much, sweetheart? Too much is craving you and not being able to touch you because you put a limit on it.”

“Now.” He tilts his head to the side. “You’ll come for me one more time like a good girl.”

And then he’s feasting on me and I’m screaming his name.