Reign of a King: A Dark Billionaire Romance (Kingdom Duet Book 1)

My gaze follows Aurora as she practically flees the scene.

She didn’t stop and search for her wingman, Black Belt, which means she’s more agitated than she shows.

And it’s all because of the bastard sitting across from me, eating as if he didn’t bring up what he shouldn’t have.

Not in front of her.

Not in front of anyone.

Aurora might act strong and aloof, but the memory of Alicia burns her. I don’t miss how she sneaks into her room any chance she gets. Alicia’s death is a reminder of the darkest day of her life. She doesn’t need to be hit with the reminder that she also looks so much like her.

So what if she does? They’re nothing alike.

Ethan will pay for bringing up the past and causing her to leave.

“I heard you’re acquiring a horse.” I lift the spoon to my mouth and take my time to savour the food.

The fact that I threw a bone in there is enough to get his attention. Ethan slows his chewing and glares at me.

Keeping my nonchalance up, I continue, “Arabian stallion. Impressive.”

Agnus pauses reading what I assume are reports on his phone. “You shouldn’t know about that.”

“Apparently, I do. You’re not the only one with inside intel, and guess what, Ethan? Consider it bought by me.”

“You don’t even like horses.” Ethan rests his hands on the table.

“Doesn’t mean I can’t have it.”

“Then I might consider that piece of land in Northampton you’ve been keeping an eye on.” Ethan eats another spoonful of food. “I don’t even like properties in Northampton, but that doesn’t mean I can’t have it.”

“Take something of mine and I’ll take ten in return. Even your daughter holds the King name now.”

Elsa lowers her head and continues eating in silence, choosing to stay in the awkward zone. That’s the difference between her and Aiden. If my son were here, he would’ve taken her out an hour ago. He has no patience whatsoever for things he thinks are none of his concern.

“How about Aurora?” Ethan raises a brow.

The decades I have spent to perfect my façade come into use now. I pretend not to be affected, even though I want to jam a knife in both his eyes so he doesn’t look at her anymore. And I might as well include his mouth so that he doesn’t say her name again.

I conjure all my self-restraint to not throw him down and punch some sense into him. Instead, I ask in my seemingly detached tone, “What about her?”

“Is she part of the game now?”

“Dad…” Elsa looks at him with pleading eyes. “You said no more games.”

“I can’t back down from a challenge. Isn’t that right, Agnus?”

His lap dog nods once, still focused on his phone. He hasn’t touched his food since we sat down. Agnus is the type of freak who rarely eats and survives on Ethan’s graces, or something of the sort.

I should’ve known that, when news came out that Ethan was dead eleven years ago, Agnus wouldn’t have stopped there.

He practically brought him back from the dead.

“There’s no game,” I say in my most lethal tone.

“Does that mean Aurora is off-limits?”

“She is.” There’s no hesitation, no second thoughts, and fuck if I know what that means.

“Does she know that, though?”

I stand up, slamming my spoon down. Elsa startles, but holds her ground as she stares at the surrounding people whose attention shifts to our table.

I lean over so that I’m glaring at Ethan head-on. He returns it with his own cool gaze.

He’s always been the type who likes to stir up trouble from behind the scenes. When we were in university, people saw me as the ruthless one and Ethan as the guy next door.

They know nothing about the devilish way his brain works. They only see the façade he wants them to see. He might have spent nine years in a coma, but nothing changed the way his brain works.

Just like me, he loves holding things over people’s heads. And just like me, he doesn’t hesitate to use it against them.

That’s why he approached Aurora first. The fact she looks almost exactly like Alicia gave him leverage. He didn’t even need to know how she was related to my late wife. His sole purpose was to use her against me.

He’s done it all to appear as her most trustworthy ally. Having Agnus invite her to the wedding, the investment, this charity…and even the dinner invitation — that she will not accept.

All of those are methods to worm his way into her life and then destroy me by using her.

However, I’m one step ahead.

Problem is, knowing his intentions doesn’t necessarily mean it’ll be easy to stop him. One, Aurora is unpredictable as fuck. If she gets something in her head, she’ll do it, my opinion be damned. Two, his game could be bigger than this, and being unable to pinpoint it keeps me uneasy.

“Come near her and I’ll consider it a declaration of war, Ethan.”

His lips twitch in a smirk, showing his true self. “Careful of your own battalion, Jonathan.”

“Stay. The. Fuck. Away,” I enunciate every word, pause to make my point clear, then I turn around and leave.

Behind me, I hear Elsa ask him about the truce her father and I agreed to when she and Aiden started officially going out a year ago.

We did that to score an important deal with a duke’s family business, but Ethan and I both know there’ll never be a truce between us. We’ll be ninety years old and in wheelchairs, and we’ll still fight to see who gets to own the world.

We’ve been like that since university. Due to our competitive nature, we clashed in everything. Then after we graduated and embarked in the world of business, our rivalry grew. It started with a simple chess game about who got to own a yacht then extended to gambling subsidiaries and net profit numbers.

We rivalled each other in everything, including how to start a family. Since we were bored with the easy pussy we got, we made a bet to marry mentally unstable women. It wasn’t a necessity or even forced. It was by choice.

I found Alicia and he found his late wife, Abigail.

Since then, everything has gone downhill.

That’s when I realised the monstrosity of human greed. If nothing satiates you, you’ll slowly but surely deteriorate to a worse state of mind, and eventually to your downfall.

That’s what happened with Alicia. Her condition wasn’t that serious when we first got married and had Aiden. But over the years, her mental state declined and nothing could’ve saved her.

Aiden thinks I could’ve. But Aiden doesn’t know everything.

And it’ll remain that way. For his sake.

I head to the entrance and opt to leave or, more accurately, follow Aurora.

Harris will bitch at me all night about the late-night meeting with the Chinese. But Harris is always displeased in one way or another.

“Johnny!”

I summon the patience I don’t have as I stop and turn around to face Aurora’s weird friend.

“Call me by my actual name and I might grant you permission to talk to me.”

“Relax. You’re too uptight. Has anyone told you that?”

Your friend. All the fucking time.

“Do you need something, Miss Hussaini? Because you just wasted a minute of my time.”

She rolls her eyes and shoves a pink bag at me. “Aurora left this behind. Her keys are in there.”

I take it from her and turn to leave.

“Treat her well!” she calls after me. “Remember, black belt karate.”

No idea how a quiet woman like Aurora came in contact with this bizarre existence. They’re dissimilar personality-wise, but perhaps their differences are how they grew H&H’s capital in a considerably short time.

I stare at the bag in my hand. The fact that she left it and her keys means she didn’t go to her car.

Where could she have gone this late at night?

I stop at the entrance and search the car park area. She couldn’t have left in a taxi, considering her money is in here. Did she leave on foot?

The problem with Aurora is that I can’t tell what she’ll do next, and because of that, I can’t exactly plot something for her. And if I do, she thwarts it.

Which is both fascinating yet infuriating.

She might share physical traits with Alicia, but all the similarities end there.

Her older sister was demure and predictable. She was the type who told me her schedule for the entire week and never did anything that she thought might upset me.

Where Alicia was soft, Aurora is rebellious.

Maybe that’s why she’s driving me insane when Alicia never did.

It’s unfair to even compare both women. Alicia was the mother of my son and the woman who felt too much, then stopped feeling altogether.

Aurora is…different.

There’s no obligation keeping me glued to her. If anything, it’s the other way around. I’ve been trapping her so she doesn’t slip between my fingers.

It’s the first time in my life that I want to keep something instead of destroying it to pieces.

The first time that I’ve looked forward to going home instead of spending all-nighters at the office.

The defiance in that woman makes me both insane and keeps me driven.

The more she slips away from me, the harder I cage her in. The more challenging she becomes, the more ruthless my reaction turns.

It’s an everyday game. One I can’t seem to shake off. But I’ll have to one day. I’ll have to go back to my usual balance and peace.

However, that day isn’t today.

I spot Moses in front of my car, but he’s not smoking. That’s the only reason he’d step outside since he usually stays inside with Harris.

Unless Harris isn’t alone.

I start towards my car and don’t bother to ask Moses if she’s in there. I know she is. Another one of the infuriating habits I’ve developed — sensing Aurora’s presence a mile away.

The front windows are open, so I catch a hint of the heated conversation coming from the inside.

“…you need to look down your nose sometimes. Why is it always stuck in the sky?” Aurora’s voice.

“There’s no other better place to be.”

“You need help, Harris, okay? I’ll forward your details on to my psychotherapist so that he can teach you how to be less arrogant and how to deal with other issues. While you’re at it, take Jonathan with you.”

My lips twitch in a smile. That woman is… I have no words. I, in fact, have no words.

That’s a first.

She left the charity to come bicker with Harris, who, by the way, makes it his mission on earth to win every argument possible. It doesn’t matter what you fight him on, he comes with different ways to prove you wrong — even when you’re right. He doesn’t dare try that tactic with me, though, because he’s smart enough to recognise his limits.

I open the back door and Aurora jolts in her seat, eyes widening to a dark blue that matches the colour of her dress. The way she pushes back against the leather suggests that she was expecting her worst nightmare.

Fascinating.

Her lips fall apart, begging for my dick between them. Blood rushes to my groin at the memory of fucking her from behind until she shattered all around me. I place a hand in my pocket, feeling the evidence of her arousal on her underwear.

I can’t believe that I not only fucked her without a condom – for the second time in a row – but I also came inside her. There was a voice reminding me that I forgot something, but when I’m inside her, I lose all focus on anything that isn’t her.

Needless to say, that’s not good, but fuck me if I can find a way to put an end to it.

Aurora releases a long breath. “Oh. It’s you.”

I narrow my eyes. “Who were you expecting?”

“No one.” She stares at her pink-painted nails.

She’s lying. No idea why, but I’ll find out. Maybe she left the dinner table for some other reason than the tension brought by Ethan.

‘Is she part of the game now?’

A wave of possessiveness slams into me like the first clash in a battle. The need to own her all over again grabs me by the balls, demanding release.

Knowing she’s not wearing any underwear beneath her dress makes the idea more plausible.

Before I can think of a way to kick Harris and Moses out — or send them away — she reaches for her bag in my hand.

“I’m going back to the house.”

“We’ll drive you.” I keep the bag out of reach and barge inside so that I’m sitting beside her. Harris grumbles something unintelligible, but he takes the hint, gets out, and sits in the passenger seat. Soon after, Moses slides into his driver seat and the vehicle slowly retreats into the main street.

“I brought my car.” She reaches for her bag again.

“And I said I’ll drive you.”

“Don’t you have to prepare for a meeting or something?”

“We do,” Harris says from the front seat. “Thirty minutes late.”

I throw him a glare, but he merely adjusts his glasses with both his index and middle finger and focuses on his tablet again.

“I can go back on my own,” she says.

“Or we can drive you.”

“Do you ever give up?”

“Not when I can win.”

She huffs but doesn’t stop trying to reach for her bag.

I grab her by the arm and she freezes as her body half-falls against mine. The storm in her eyes gains an electric spark, almost as if she’s slipping from one state of mind to another. It’s fascinating how much the colour of her eyes can hint at her state of being so accurately.

“If you don’t stay still, I’ll consider that as an invitation to finger-fuck you,” I murmur against her ear, then bite down on the shell to reinforce my point. “After all, you’re naked under that dress.”

“Jonathan!” she whisper-yells. “Harris and Moses are here.”

“So fucking what?”

She moves those lips to say something, but they remain in that perfect ‘O’. Aurora must see that I’m crazy enough to do it.

I’m about to reach under her dress and prove how right her assumption is, but she chooses the smart route and pushes back, clearing her throat.

Her cheeks are a soft hue of pink, and she keeps touching her neck, the one I held her by as I fucked her into the mattress the other day.

She thinks if she touches it enough, she’ll be able to cool down. A myth, but I don’t correct her.

“Can I brief you now?” Harris asks in his usual disregard. “If Aurora doesn’t have an objection.”

She makes a face at him, and he counters by readjusting his glasses.

Aurora. Since when did he start addressing her on a first-name basis? I don’t like that.

“Start,” I say in a harsher tone than needed to break whatever connection they’re developing. I’m the only one she’s allowed to form a connection with.

Harris passes me the document he prepared and goes on about the points we’ll discuss during tonight’s meeting. I nod at him, but my entire attention is on how Aurora is trying to look at her nails, her watch, out the window. Anywhere but at me.

That irritating habit of hers of trying to erase me needs to go.

While Harris goes on in his steady voice, I steal glances at Aurora. She seems to listen, too, but her concentration is also occupied by something else. Her gaze is a bit unfocused, and she keeps glancing behind her.

Perhaps it’s the same thing that made her leave the charity dinner she organised herself.

Only one thing rattles Aurora to the point of no return. Or, more accurately, one person.

Maxim.

If his solicitor got in touch with her again, I’d know about it. As that option is erased, what’s this about?

Since we do have an important meeting, and I already wasted time by coming here, I reluctantly rip my attention away from her and focus on Harris’s words. I read the document with him at the same time and highlight the parts where I’ll hit hard and demand better conditions.

Something warm lands on my shoulder, and I halt with the marker halfway on the page.

Aurora’s eyes are closed shut, her head against my bicep. Her soft features appear relaxed, at peace almost.

I stroke her hair behind her ear and she moans softly, leaning into my touch like a kitten. If only she was this compliant when awake, too.

Harris motions at her without saying anything.

“Continue.” I rest her head on my lap and her hand grips my thigh as she resumes her sleep.

I keep stroking her hair while she nuzzles her head into my thigh.

It’s a single moment in time. Something that happens with no prior planning, but in this second, I decide something I’ve never thought about in my life.

Aurora or Clarissa or whatever name she goes with is now fucking mine.

Literally.

Figuratively.

In every sense of the word.