Naughty November

Chapter 1

ONE

NIKO

“Have a good trip,” I said, fake smile plastered across my face as I closed the door to Christian and Kale’s over-the-top brownstone home. Though, over-the-top was subjective considering before Christian had hauled me halfway around the world, we’d both lived and worked in an actual palace. Or, rather, he’d lived in the palace and I’d worked there, hired by his oldest brother and heir to the throne, Prince Phillip. Christian was the youngest of three boys and, like most last-borns, had a flair for the dramatic. What had started with a daring escape from his security detail at the opera during a visit to the city had ended with a ring on his finger and everything I owned tucked into three large suitcases.

Christian had fallen in love with Kale from the start, and I knew long before either of them that our end would be in America. It wasn’t the worst place to live, but I missed the smell of the air at home—like lemons and sage on the breeze. New York was smog and gasoline, and it wasn’t all bad. I knew there were people who loved the city, but I’d yet to find myself in their ranks.

For Kale, falling in love with royalty had brought its own fair share of bumps in the road, me being the biggest one. It was one thing to get Christian out of the country; it was another entirely to do so without security. Hence…my relocation.

Normally, at the end of the day I would have been home in the sprawling apartment Kale had rented to keep me close but not underfoot. Tonight was different because the two of them had gone out of town for the weekend and essentially suggested I housesit in their absence. Neither had given me much of a choice, but I quickly grew bored without my own things to entertain me.

My instructions hadn’t required that I stay at their place twenty-four hours a day, so I made a quick check of my pockets for my keys, wallet, and phone, then twisted the knob back open. There wasn’t any harm in going back to my apartment for a little while, just enough to grab some books and some more comfortable clothes. But when I stepped onto the stoop, I ran smack into the last person I’d expected to see in New York, especially with Kale and Christian being out of town.

“Parrish,” I muttered, yanking the door closed behind me and leaving us chest to chest and almost eye to eye.

“If it’s not my favorite little plaything,” Parrish practically purred at me, not moving away. If anything, he pressed closer until my shoulder blades hit the door.

“What are you doing here?”

“I came to visit my best friend, Niko. Why else would I be in this disgusting and overcrowded city?”

I snorted, rolling my eyes and side-stepping away so I could breathe.

“Well, your best friend and the American have gone upstate for the weekend,” I said with a disapproving frown, “to a farm.”

“A what?”

“Do you really need me to define it for you?”

The corners of his mouth turned into a gleefully sadistic smirk. “I miss spanking that attitude right out of you. Did you know that?”

My cheeks burned, and I took the steps two at a time to get down to the sidewalk and away from the last man I wanted to see. The last man I’d gotten into bed with. My boss’s very best friend, Parrish Bernadotte .

Our relationship, or lack of, had always been contentious. Parrish came from the kind of money that only rivaled the wealth Christian had grown up with, and he had the personality to match. He was cocksure and arrogant, never willing to back down when he felt like the outcome would be either entertaining or, at the very least, fun for a while.

He’d set his sights on me before I knew a single thing about him, and it hadn’t taken long for me to end up on my knees for him, tucked into the shadows of a palace alcove with a mouthful of cock and a throat painted with cum. Everything happened quickly after that, a slippery slope that often ended with the kind of teasing that should have made me mad, but instead made me hard.

“I’m sure you do,” I muttered.

Parrish followed me down the steps. “If Christian is gone, where are you off to?”

“Does it matter?”

“I didn’t come all this way for nothing,” he pouted.

“You came all this way for him,” I said.

“And he’s not here, so you’ll have to do.” Parrish slung his arm over my shoulder, and I swallowed, keeping my eyes on the cracked sidewalk instead of his stupidly handsome face.

“I was going home to get some clean clothes,” I grumbled.

He knocked his head into mine, a smug grin on his face. “That sounds terribly boring, Niko.”

“Well.” I shrugged.

“Has Christian ever taken you to a dirty little club out here called The Black Door?”

Relatively confident the flush would never leave my face, I was grateful Parrish was beside me and not facing me head on. I’d been to The Black Door on more than one occasion, and I’d seen the things Christian and Kale did there just as many times. Kale had talked to me months ago about the kinds of things the two of them did together, the kinds of things I’d see…I appreciated he wanted my consent, that he wanted to understand how far was too far to go when I was around.

And truth be told, I didn’t mind watching.

Even if sometimes watching them made me hard and I didn’t have anyone to touch me. The pain of the unfondled cock sometimes felt like pleasure, and…

“It’s been so long, Niko,” Parrish crooned in my ear. “I haven’t fucked anyone since you, and you know that pretty shade of pink you used to turn when I called you a whore? No one else looks as perfect as you do when they cry, sweetheart.”

I balled my hand into a fist at my side, cursing Parrish, Christian, Kale, and the whole world under my breath.

“Come to The Black Door with me, Niko. Get on your knees for me again.”

I’d never been able to tell Parrish no. I’d never wanted to tell him no, and I knew myself well enough to know I wasn’t going to start now.

“Fine,” I agreed. “We’ll go to The Black Door.”