Royal Fae Bodyguard (Brunswick Academy for Gifted Girls Book 1) Read online

  “No. Just drink your tea.”

  Cara did so and she felt a little silly, having come all this way just to hear something she’d really already known. But that was sometimes the way with teachers, she supposed.

  Still, she wasn’t looking forward to talking to Day about his dead parents.

  6

  Dayen

  He missed Cara.

  She was gone from the fae realm for all of an hour before Dayen found himself edgy, jogging his leg as he answered correspondence in his quarters. It was silly really. She had not been by his side every moment of the previous week. She had gone off to attempt to interview people in the castle sometimes when he was busy. But they had spent quite a lot of time together. They’d taken all their meals together and walked again in the garden. There had been no more kissing as neither had even attempted to initiate it.

  It caused quite the pang in his heart to realize she was most definitely not interested. He covered it with flirting and smirks and the kind of banter that she easily parried to his delight.

  He liked her and now he missed her too.

  “You complete fool,” he muttered to himself, glancing up at the clock for seemingly the hundredth time.

  Two hours after she’d left, he was so distracted by missing her he could hardly write his letters. He finally gave up and sat back at his desk, sighing heavily. He had a strong urge to go back into the terran world, just to be somewhere else and then realized it was only because he would technically be closer to her.

  “Absolute utter fool.”

  His uncle knocking on the door brought him out of his reverie and he reclined a little further, attempting to look as careless as possible.

  “Day?” Cade said, ambling into the room. “It’s dim in here…” He took it upon himself to draw the curtains and beams of pinkish sunshine filled the room. Day squinted and rubbed his eyes. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m...answering letters,” he muttered.

  Cade stood in front of his desk and clasped his hands. He had a severe look about him with his long, lined face and his dark gray silver hair that hung in two straight lines which hung far past his squarish shoulders. He looked down at Day and smiled in a way that almost seemed too warm for his face. But Dayen had never thought of his uncle as anything except warm despite his appearance.

  “I never spoke to you about your performance in the throne room last week,” he said gravely. “I wanted to thank you for filling in for me. Or rather, filling in for yourself. It should be you on the throne always…”

  Day ignored that part. He hated to think about it. “Wasn’t anything,” he murmured. He rubbed his eyes, suddenly feeling tired. He wanted one of those giant coffees Cara was always drinking.

  “I think I’m starting to realize that I don’t need to wait until you’re ready for the throne,” Cade said quietly. He was using his apologetic voice. It was the same voice he’d used to talk to Dayen right after his parents had died. “I think if I give it to you, you’ll fulfill your duties whether you want to or not and with a great wisdom and thoughtfulness. Even if you do put up a fuss.”

  Day could think of nothing to say. He set his jaw and stared down at his hands. His uncle was right. He would do what needed to be done. He would give up his weekends partying in New York if the throne needed him. He would become the good king. And he would never stop comparing himself to his father or thinking about how it should be his father ruling. It wasn’t as if he could stop thinking about that now. He hated that Cade could tell.

  As if reading his mind, Cade said, “Your father-”

  “I’m going out,” Day said quickly. “Or...no, I think I’ll train. Do some sparring or…”

  He was mumbling and scattered. It wasn’t exactly normal for him and Cade looked troubled. Day waved a hand, dismissing his concern.

  “I’m just going to go hit something for a while, Uncle,” he said. “I’m quite well. I assure you.”

  “You can’t run from it forever, Day,” Cade said softly. “As much as you might want to.”

  Dayen only shook his head and left the room.

  He didn’t quite know where he was going until he got there. The training gym was empty. He was its most frequent user after all. Though he knew Cara had come down here a few times to take advantage of it herself. Dayen grabbed the workout gear in a locker by the door and went to a dressing room, changing quickly. He felt full of energy and aggravation for so many reasons.

  Cara wasn’t here and apparently he needed her. In the space of a week he had become far too accustomed to her presence. His parents were dead and he still couldn’t accept that and worse, he needed to take over the throne sooner rather than later… A fae’s stamina, strength and constitution made them remarkably fit for battle and a million other things. They didn’t help very much with these sorts of problems.

  Dayen was breathing heavily when he picked up a foil and danced forward and back, whipping it in complicated patterns in the air. It wasn’t enough. It wasn’t satisfying.

  Dayen found gloves and started punching the giant sandbag that hung in the middle of the gym. It was a human thing. In fact, the castle’s quartermaster had been rather unnerved when Dayen had brought in the terran equipment. Fae didn’t box. Boxing wasn’t elegant or graceful (though Dayen took issue with those assumptions too). But he’d found there was a great satisfaction in punching things.

  Dayen stayed in the gym for a long time just punching things. It didn’t make him feel much better this time.

  It was nearly sunset when Cara returned from the terran world. She found him still in the gym, now having dispensed with his shirt as he danced along the floor mats, sparring with an invisible partner. He hadn’t worked out like this in too long. Even if it did nothing to resolve his problems, it was giving him a rush and his body felt riled up. He felt a little more primal than usual, if nothing else.

  “Did you have a good time in the terran world?” he asked, removing the wraps from his wrists.

  Cara was standing in the middle of the gym, just quietly watching him. She looked a little dazed. For once, she didn’t have one of those coffee drinks in her hands.

  “Um…” She cleared her throat. She was wearing her worn-out jeans and her leather jacket. He thought she looked adorable. “I didn’t go to have a good time. I went to try to get something more out of our Oracle at Brunswick.”

  “Well, did you get anything?” He strode up to her, still catching his breath a little, his chest heaving. He caught her staring at his bare chest, the sweat still glistening along his abdominal muscles. She visibly swallowed and he clenched his fists, resisting the urge to kiss her.

  “Maybe,” she murmured. “It’s...difficult.”

  He frowned at that. She looked so bothered. He wondered if she was in some kind of danger of her own and he was surprised at how much that bothered him.

  Nothing could happen to Cara, he decided. He wouldn’t allow it. He knew she was quite adept at taking care of herself. He’d seen her sparring in the gym himself. But still...the thought was worrisome.

  “You were gone a long time,” he said, resting his hands on his hips, looking her over. He wondered if she’d gone to the city and walked around the park like he so enjoyed doing when he got the chance.

  We should go together sometime, he thought. They could speculate on the terrans, all those quirky, fragile humans going about their strange days. It was one of his favorite past times.

  “I took myself out to lunch in the city,” Cara said. “Brunswick gives me a stipend, you know.”

  “Oh.” He frowned. He would have loved to go to lunch with her in the city. He felt heartsick. But he rallied and nudged her. “Spar with me.”

  She giggled at that, raising her eyebrows. “Are you sure?”

  “Absolutely.” He danced back and forth, light on his feet, throwing fake punches. She was exquisitely trained. Still, she was a woman and he was a gentleman. He would take it easy on her.

&nbs
p; Cara took off her jacket and five minutes later, Dayen was on his back. She’d knocked the wind out of him. He had taken it easy and it had been a kind of draw for the first ninety seconds, until he’d realized that she was also holding back. Then he’d started to actually fight and she’d just laughed and begun to fight herself. She’d bested him immediately, pinning him to the floor.

  She was much stronger than she looked. He’d expected that to some degree but she’d far surpassed even those expectations.

  Now Cara was on top of him, pinning his two arms above his head as she braced herself on her other hand, grinning down at him. “I told you I could kick your ass,” she said, panting.

  “Yes,” he replied. He couldn’t look away from her eyes that were always changing color. They were a blue so light and vibrant now, shocking against her complexion and that pitch blackness of her hair, her delicately pointed ears peeking out. “You called it.”

  She giggled, biting her lip. He couldn’t believe he’d thought her humorless before. She was quite fun really. He bet she’d be a lot of fun to people-watch with. But just now he couldn’t stop staring at her mouth, so pink and plush as she hovered over him.

  He was hardening in his too-tight britches and he groaned a little, reflexively arching, pressing up into her. He hadn’t intended to and he winced, mortified. His body was betraying him. He made to get up and Cara’s muscles flexed as she held him there under her.

  She gasped and her eyelashes fluttered as she returned his gaze. “Don’t move.”

  “I-”

  Cara kissed him and he moaned into her mouth and gave up trying to resist his own impulses, clutching her to him and nudging her mouth open a little more to taste her. She smelled like the terran world and also like a fae girl but not one so bleedingly awfully perfect in the way that fae girls were meant to be. He had always known he would like a different kind of lady and that was Cara, whose considerable muscles he could feel flexing under her thin t-shirt. She looked petite and she was by no means bulky, but he could feel her biceps ripple, her thighs tight around his hips.

  He rolled them over and was delighted when she let him. He scrambled to peel her shirt off and felt dizzy at the sight of her pert but soft breasts under the sheer fabric of her bra. He unhooked it expertly with one flick of his wrist and without looking, and she laughed into his mouth.

  “You’ve done that before.”

  “Those terrans try to get you with the bras but I’ve become adept,” he whispered. She pulled back and he marveled at her, reaching up to stroke her cheek. “Cara…”

  She seemed bothered then. She frowned and started to get up. “I can’t do this…”

  “Cara.”

  She stopped again and looked down at him, staring into his eyes. “Benjamin told me to ask about your parents,” she whispered.

  Dayen pushed her back, rolling them over and then pulling away abruptly. Of all the things to bring up… It was the entire reason he’d come down here.

  “Why would you bring that up now?” He snapped.

  She wasn’t self-conscious in her nudity. When he got up, agitated now and wanting only to get away from the tireless questions about his parents that everyone always seemed to be asking, she stood and faced him, not bothering to cover herself.

  “I’m sorry,” she said in a small voice. “It was… I’m worried about it, I guess.”

  “I don’t like to talk about that,” he snapped. He felt like he was vibrating, caught between his irritation and his arousal. “What are you trying to do? Suddenly bringing that up. Are you trying to make me angry or something?”

  “Okay, don’t be an asshole,” she said, narrowing her eyes. “I’m sorry.”

  “I don’t care if you’re sorry,” he sneered. It wasn’t fair of him. But he wasn’t particularly feeling fair.

  “You’re a dick!”

  “You’re infuriating!” He said. It wasn’t true. It was more that she infuriated him, merely by being herself. He liked her and then he was annoyed and then he liked her again. No one had gotten under his skin before in this way.

  She scoffed at that and shoved him, her breasts bouncing and the heat in his blood seemed to rise up to his head, his thoughts boiling over, and he grabbed her, pulling her forward and kissing her fiercely.

  He could feel the sparkles in his eyes.

  Cara moaned into his mouth and he felt as if his entire body was humming as they wrapped themselves up into each other. In seconds they were on the floor again and Dayen was stripping her of her jeans as she kicked off her boots. He shimmied out of his own pants and took off his shoes. He was not wearing underwear as it was not the way with fae and he found that she wasn’t either. The two of them pressed in each other, teasing and ecstatic.

  Dayen felt as if every one of his senses was heightened by a factor of ten, holding her in his arms. He was on top of her, their lips fused as their mouths explored each other and he felt her nails raking down his back. They didn’t speak this time. He wasn’t about to have this moment ruined again and she seemed to feel the same way.

  He kissed his way down her body, luxuriating in the delicacy of her collarbone, the softness of her breasts and then the quivering muscles of her stomach. He clutched her thighs, sinking his teeth into the tempting flesh of one of them, not enough to break the skin, though it was a close thing. Fae had very sharp teeth. His ears felt sensitive when his hair moved and she reached down and traced the shell of one ear, and his member swelled yet more at the sensation.

  He could smell her arousal, and forgetting all he knew about working up to the moment, he buried his face in her. He was determined to make her breathless and turn her into a helpless heap of warrior fae. She spurred him on and his tongue explored her hidden body as he gripped her thighs. He loved the taste of her flesh, the heat of her. He lost track of himself, he was enjoying himself so much, until finally his throbbing overcame his senses, as if to remind him of his own arousal.

  Dayen pulled away, intending to climb on top of Cara, but she was already pushing him, rolling them over so that she was on top. He found himself grinning and then she was guiding him inside her and the all-consuming pleasure of her tight heat seemed to make time stop.

  The fae were full of magic. It was said that a fae working up to her full potential would be one of the most powerful beings on earth (it was said). But meeting that potential was incredibly difficult.

  But fae riled up could touch upon that hidden reserve of magical power.

  Dayen supposed that was why the windows in the gym were rattling as Cara rode him, staring down at him with wide eyes now rapidly changing color; purple to white to gray to turquoise to a startling orange… He didn’t know what the colors meant, and anyway his brain was short now as he thrusted inside her. She braced her hands on his chest, her thighs clenched around him as she impaled herself on him, and the door of the gear locker in the gym was opening and shutting by itself, the foils he fenced with sliding across the floor, the chandelier over their heads trembling until they both cried out and Dayen pulsed inside her, meeting his bliss. Every bit of pleasure was concentrated where their bodies merged. Cara lunged over and kissed him, licking inside his mouth as he came in her, pumping, their bodies in rhythm until they both eventually went still.

  “Cara…”

  They had not stopped for five seconds before Cara was climbing off of him and scrambling back to her clothes. Dayen sat up, his hair somehow still immaculate around his shoulders, though he felt as if he’d run ten miles in the last twenty minutes.

  Cara didn’t speak and didn’t look at him, her eyes wide. She pulled her jeans and her t-shirt on and he stared blankly as she grabbed her bra and her jacket and her shoes, piling them in her arms, as if the building was on fire and she needed to evacuate.

  “Cara,” he said huskily. “Don’t overreact…”

  “I’m not,” she muttered, but in seconds she was out the door.

  7

  Cara

  Cara
thought she had probably never done anything so stupid in her life as sleeping with Prince Dayen Deleigh of the Fae Realm. She put it down to a lack of experience in the area of romance, having devoted herself so completely to her studies and training for the last seven years. She was no virgin. There had been opportunities too. Brunswick had annual get-togethers with its sister and brother schools. There had been a few dalliances, a couple quasi-relationships. But nothing that had lasted much beyond a couple of half-hearted letters sent after having fooled around in the dorms. Cara had never been in love. She knew that much. She had also never felt this fascinated, confused and infuriated by a guy ever.

  Goddamn Prince Dayen, she thought. Day, as she was getting used to calling him.

  She had never wanted someone so much in her life either. When they’d started getting heated in the gym, all she could think about was what Benjamin had told her. She felt like if she didn’t say something, it was like hiding something from Day. She’d already told him about the totems and the true purpose of her mission beyond just protecting him. It made no sense to have brought up his parents in that particular moment. But she felt so turned around, she hardly knew what was up and what was down.

  Now, she hid up in her rooms. She decided she would skip dinner. She’d eaten Thai food in the city anyway and wasn’t hungry.

  Cara fell back on her bed and shut her eyes. She could practically still feel him inside her. If she concentrated, she could make herself think he was still touching her. The way his mouth had moved across her body like there was nothing so fascinating in the world as learning it…

  “Shit,” Cara muttered.

  The idea that one should not romantically involve oneself or fraternize with the subject of one’s protection had been such an obvious and important rule that they had hardly touched on it at Brunswick. But it had come up.

  “Never get involved with someone you’re protecting.” She could still see Ms. Friar’s grim face saying it. It was a visceral memory.