A Prince's Ransom: Kidnapped by the Billionaire (3 page)

“It is fine,” the girl slurred, partially because she was drunk and partially because it didn’t sound like she spoke the best English in the world. “But if you do not mind, we were in the middle of…”

“Actually,” Eric spoke, interrupting her with far more poised, clipped English, still staring down at Katherine. “Why don’t I get us a few more drinks, hmmm? You look nearly empty there.” He didn’t wait for the girl—who was suddenly very stunned and very confused—to answer, but instead moved away from the balcony railing and headed for the far stairs. Repressing a grin, Katherine followed him, managing to keep up due to the fact that he cut an effortless swath through the crowd.

“I’m sorry, I have to know,” Katherine began when Eric stopped to let a small cluster of dancers go past him to the bar, “but what is someone like you doing here? I thought the whole premise was that you didn’t go out to clubs like this?”

She could pretty much feel Eric sneer at her, without even glancing behind him. “Have you truly nothing better to do right now? Are you not on a
school trip
?”

“School trips are boring, I came to actually experience your lovely country. And no, I think this dress pretty much says I’m not on a school trip right now. It’s more suited for dancing, don’t you think?”

“We will not be dancing. I suggest you look around for a drunk if you expect any dance partners.”

“Alright, dancing isn’t your thing, that’s fine. But can you blame me for being curious, here? You know, after I already saw you once today…what are the odds?”

“I beg of you, do not claim that
fate
has anything to do with it,” he said, sneering at her derisively as he turned on the staircase to look at her. “I care hardly at all for whatever you’ve read in magazines and tabloids about me, a girl like you is not my type.”

Her eyes narrowed at him, and she leaned on the railing. “A girl like me? Wow. See, that’s just the thing. I haven’t read anything about you in magazines or tabloids, I don’t know a damn thing about you, other than the history lesson I didn’t give a rat’s ass about earlier. What I do know is that you’re here and you’re bored out of your mind by these girls who think batting their eyelashes at you is going to get your attention.”

He lifted a brow at her. “And you don’t, hmmm?”

“I go home in three weeks, I’m not naive enough to think that batting my eyelashes will get me any man who’s worth getting. The ones it will get… well.” She glanced toward the dance floor below them. “You aren’t looking for these girls and their flirting because you’d have your pick of them anytime you want. So let’s cut to the chase then.”

Eric watched her carefully, an edge of wariness to his eyes. “And which chase are you referring to, precisely?”

Without saying anything else, her free hand reached out and grabbed his shirt. She pulled him closer to her, the higher step she stood on making them eye to eye. She pressed her lips hard against his, red lipstick smearing slightly against his mouth. He was stiff against her, not reciprocating for a long moment, a moment that made her think that maybe she had read him wrong after all.

Except then he grabbed her so hard he knocked the drink out of her other hand, splattering margarita on her bare toes. Ignoring that, her now-empty hand lifted and laced through his black hair, pulling him closer to her. He nearly bent her over the railing, his chest crushing her breasts against his chest while his other hand caught on her ass. Katherine moaned faintly into his lips, fingering the top button of his shirt before pulling back with a gasp, her breath quick as she looked up at him. Eric was almost entirely impassive, but something blazed dangerously in his eyes as he looked down at her, not saying a word.

She laughed faintly. “Yeah, yeah, think whatever you want, I don’t give a shit. There are far more important things in this life than worrying about what someone else thinks of your promiscuity. What really matters, right now,
Prince Eric
, is that you want this. You want me, and I have no qualms at all with letting you have me.” She pressed closer to him, nestling her smaller body against his strength and grinning up at him when she felt the bulge in his pants digging into her hip.

He drew in a harsh breath. “What are you doing here?”

Her eyebrows lifted knowingly over her hazel eyes. “It’s like you said, I’m on a school trip.”

“No, really, what are you doing here? You do not give a damn about your school trip. But you’ll very willingly offer everything to a man you just met.”

“A
prince
I just met. Rather big difference.”

“That does not matter. You don’t care what I think of you, if it meant I didn’t walk away right this moment.”

“Well, no girl likes to be left wanting.” His arms went around her even more firmly, and she teetered on the edge of her step precariously with her arms around his neck. “So let me ask you this: what are you doing with me? You could have any girl you could possibly want.”

“That’s just it, isn’t it?” he murmured, his lips—still smeared with her lipstick—grazing along her cheek, her jaw, sending tiny pinpricks of static along her skin. “I can have any girl I want. But I do not meet many girls who could have any man they wanted but for all the wrong reasons.”

“There’s such thing as the wrong reasons, in this situation?” she laughed slightly. Katherine’s throat tightened a little. “Although I haven’t heard you say that you’re going to refuse the offer because of that reason.”

“Oh, no. I assure you, I am going to be very thorough in making sure you regret ever speaking to me before I’m done with you.” Her heart practically leapt out of her chest and she pressed her thighs together as she felt a familiar throb. Well,
that
was certainly a pickup line. Eric leered at her, and she knew that he was aware how much he’d aroused her. Lovely.

Katherine huffed at a piece of hair that had fallen in front of her face, her breath brushing across his ear so that he rumbled against her in laughter. “Right, well, with
that
settled,” she murmured to him as his fingers skated along the bare skin on the back of her thighs, left terribly exposed by the cut of her dress. “What do you say to moving to a place a little more appropriate?”

He drew back from her, and with his arm still hooked around her, he turned and headed back up the stairs. She followed, largely because she found herself lacking the choice not to, much to her chagrin. With so many people around, she couldn’t exactly tell where they were going, but Eric clearly had something in mind as she stumbled slightly beside him on her heels. She let out a startled squeak as she was pulled down in his lap; she hadn’t even realized he was sitting down, but they had made it to one of the darkly lit booths along the back wall of the upper level.

Katherine looked around, trying to get her bearings as her ass snuggled into his lap, his arousal pulsing against her slightly. She blinked when she realized they weren’t the only ones in the booth, and the people whose party they’d crashed were staring at them.

Before she had a chance to talk, Eric pulled her head back around with his hand laced into her hair, plundering her mouth with his tongue. She moaned faintly, squirming against him, painfully aware of his other hand making its way up her legs. Her fingers tangled into his shirt and she nipped slightly on his lower lip in retribution for the change in locale—really, it was not exactly what she’d meant—but he just pulled her tighter and his hand pressed upward a few inches. Oh, god. She’d just figured out what his plan was, and she pulled back from his kiss with a gasp. He didn’t let her turn around to see if the others were still watching, though.

“What is the game right now, hmm?” she murmured to him against his lips, but he only smiled at her and nuzzled into her hair, partially burying her face against his neck in the process. His hands shifted a bit higher, dreadfully near the hem of her skirt, and her toes curled in her shoes. “I’m all for being a bit risqué now and again, but isn’t this just a teensy tiny bit…
much
?” Her voice had hitched, and she cursed herself for the betrayal; instantly, she ground her rear down into his lap, making him grunt a little.

“Now, now,” he muttered against her cheek. “Be careful there, sweet girl, or I’ll make them hear you…”

Katherine’s brow furrowed in confusion. Hear her what?

Without having the opportunity to echo the question aloud, suddenly Eric’s fingers were pressing all the way up between her thighs, and in one smooth movement he pushed two of them inside of her with the precise aim of a master hunter. Her legs were mostly hidden behind the table, but she lurched forward as he drove into her, taking the thin covering of silk along with him; her eyes bulged as wetness instantly coated her panties, his hand, and his pant leg, and she buried her lips deeply into his neck to muffle the cry that wanted to rip loose and alert everyone in the club as to what he had done. Her arms wrapped around him, twisting her nails hard into his shirt and threatening to rip it. Oh dear
god
.

His lips were still nestled against her temple as he held her close, rocking his fingers slowly back and forth inside of her. The tip of one escaped the confines of her panties within her, and she let out a mewling whimper into his skin as it rubbed a circle on the wall of her slit. Eric was smiling where his mouth was against her and she shut her eyes tightly, barely daring to breathe and risk some sort of noise escaping her. For all intents and purposes, it probably just looked like she was giving him a hickey, and that was rather entirely how she wanted it to stay looking. But that wasn’t really how he wanted it to stay.

“Not good enough, I’m afraid,” he whispered to her as he twisted his fingers and made her squeal faintly, her hips twisting with the movement. “You wouldn’t have any qualms with our audience knowing that you’re being finger fucked a few inches away from them…” His thumb moved, rubbing slowly at her clit, and Katherine let out a ragged gasp of refusal. “What was that? I couldn’t quite hear you, I’m afraid.”

Her nails dug harder into his back while a groan boiled low in her throat. One of her heels slammed convulsively down on the padded bench they rested upon, and she let out a string of whispered curses against his neck. Eric’s fingers started to move faster inside of her, and she fought to keep her hips still. Little wails jumped hazardously from her lips, desperately suppressed and making her legs tighten where they were draped across his lap.

The Prince
tsk’d
her faintly. “Open wide, ma chérie… Lest I see how loud I can make you scream.” His thumb pressed harder, dangerously brushing over the top of the way too sensitive button nestled in her lower lips, and Katherine obeyed before she realized she had. Her thighs parted slightly, offering him much needed room for the movement of his hand, and he took to it immediately, moving even quicker, tunneling into her wantonly.

“Th-thought… that you wanted
both of us
to enjoy ourselves…” she stammered helplessly, desperate to end this game so that they could move somewhere more private.

“I assure you, I am quite enjoying myself at the moment,” he teased in turn, amusement thick in his voice as he tormented her. “Although if you mean
satisfying
myself, well… Perhaps another night, hmmm? After all, if I didn’t know any better, I would say you were a prude instead of the slut you pretended to be.” His fingers twisted further into her and then curled, digging into one of the walls of her womanhood and making her sing out nearly loud enough for someone to hear. “I would hate to leave you feeling used when the night was through. No, I think I’ll be content with knowing I merely aided you in enjoying yourself.”

His raging hard on beneath her hip attested to the fact that he was full of bullshit, but Katherine was in no state to argue. Her breath rushed around his face and neck, and he nuzzled deeply into her hair. Eric’s other hand was wrapped around her, idly caressing up and down the side of her ribs. Holy shit, she had not expected a Prince, of all people, to be this good at, well…
this
.

“If y-you’re going to finish me… then finish me…” she hissed at him anxiously, her loins soaked and her heart pounding in her ears, louder than the bass that echoed around the club. She twisted her head around to look up into his icy blue eyes, which gazed down at her flushed face skeptically.

“So quick to be so close,” he whispered, and she nearly burst into tears when he pulled his hand back from inside of her—except then his fingers pulled down her panties a few inches and pressed back into her. The sensation made her hips jump, and she pressed her lips back into his neck.

“
Beg
.”

“Wh-what?”

“Beg me for it, sweet girl,” he growled at her huskily, and her heart thundered for an entirely different reason. “I am a prince, and you are nothing more than an American school girl I shouldn’t be touching. Beg me for it.”

Her mind raced, flabbergasted at the order and yet finding her lower lips suckling tighter at the idea of it. Katherine bit her lip, never having begged for anything in her life. But, god, if she didn’t, and he
left her like this
…

“Please,” she whispered, lifting her head enough that her voice could pour into his ear. The word made him thrust harder, and she started to spasm. “Please, let me come… make me come right here, in your lap… I want it so badly,
please
…”

“Please what?”

She swallowed hard, knowing she was right on the edge and yet he knew just how to touch her that she wasn’t peaking. Damn him for that. “Please… my
prince
.”

Katherine bit down on the collar of his shirt out of instinct, and it was a good thing she had because he ground his thumb into her clit and filled her to the brim with hard, quick thrusts at the same time. A high-pitched wail tried to steal itself from her throat. Two of her nails actually succeeded in ripping through the taut fabric of his shirt and scraped along the smooth skin of his back for a moment, making him grunt slightly. Her hips jerked out of control, and only the fact that she’d gotten her feet off the seat prevented her from banging against it incessantly. Her mind white and her body hot, it took her a long moment to finally collapse against him, trembling, stilling. Her eyes were wide, almost unable to believe that had just happened—regardless of what she had told Tara about jumping his bones.