“Mhm.” For a moment, I just lay there, panting, breathing him in, staring into his eyes and waiting for the rest of me to get the message that there is no danger here.
I press my lips to his and move. He tents his fingertips on the back of my head and holds me close, kissing me so sweet and slow that my heart can’t take it. I want more. I move my hips, this time reveling in the intrusion.
My fears fall away in bits and pieces, then collapse all at once.
Emboldened, I sit up slightly, the way I was positioned at the beginning, with my hands braced on his glorious chest. It’s different, feeling him inside me this way. Experimentally, I thrust down. He clutches my hips to steady me but allows me to maintain control.
He could take it, if he wanted to. Turn me over. Take me from any angle he wished. But that would only bring my fears rampaging back. Judging from the worship in his eyes, he wasn’t lying when he claimed to be getting something out of this.
The way he’s watching me makes me feel like the most beautiful woman in the world.
“Sunshine. This is yours, now. I am yours. Use me any way you like.”
“What if I do something you don’t like?”
“Then I’ll tell you to stop. The same way you can do with me,” he says, playing with my hair. “But I promise you won’t do anything wrong.”
I can tell him to stop.
What a revelatory idea. I shift forward, experimenting, sinking down over him again and again, until I have to close my eyes and yield to the intense pleasure coursing up my spine, down my thighs, tightening everything around him. His cock, his muscular legs trapped between mine, all of him beneath me. A low growl tears out of him. His gaze remains locked on my breasts.
A thrilling sense of power rockets through me when he bares his teeth and grips my hips, holding me there, embedded so deep inside me I can scarcely breathe as he spends, the hot pulse a shock.
At last, the waves subside, leaving us breathless and sweaty.
“Come here.” He drags me into his arms. I’ve never felt safe like this after an…event. His warm solid arms wrap around me in a comforting cocoon.
He nuzzles my hair. “No falling asleep, now. We’re due for dinner soon.”
I had been on the verge of slipping into a nap. I’m strong from years of physical labor, but this has been an intense few days. I can’t deny I’m tired. Tomorrow, we can sleep together, in both senses.
“Do you think Tremaine will return for the wedding?” He’d better.
“No.”
His certainty takes me aback. “No?”
“He returned to Scinder House, remember?” Alex doesn’t meet my gaze. I take his chin and guide his green eyes back to mine.
“I need his permission to marry.” A stab of queasy fear strikes me.
“I have his verbal consent.”
I don’t trust Tremaine’s word on anything. I want to see this in writing.
“Alistair, you know that’s not enough. He needs to be present, or you’ll have to show written permission. Your own grandfather put the law in place after the Mad Duke kidnapped his only daughter!” He must understand why I worry my cunning stepfather will exploit any technicality he can to deny me happiness. “I won’t breathe easy unless Tremaine is standing there giving his permission for me to wed.”
“Well, he can’t.”
The prickly prince is back. Alistair’s lips twist sullenly like a schoolboy caught being naughty. A stone of suspicion sinks in my gut. “Alistair, what have you done?”
His jaw works.
“Nothing he didn’t deserve,” he says defensively. “Tremaine left, that’s all. He isn’t coming back.”
“You banished him from the castle?” I ask in astonishment. Alistair nods tersely. “I cannot believe you.” I smack his arm lightly. I want him to feel the sting of my disappointment. “Call him back, or there won’tbea wedding. I must have his permission.”
Why would he have done such an awful thing without telling me? I never wanted anyone to be cruel on my behalf. My heart fractures inside my ribs. It hurts to breathe as the truth crashes down on me. I’m marrying a man I hardly know. Am I going willingly into an even worse situation than the one I just escaped?
