A Royal Kiss and Tell

It infuriated her that he should smile in a way that would make her feel so buzzy. With a quick look at the door, she shifted closer. “I don’t have to do as he commands, you know.”

“I never dreamed that you did. I can’t imagine there is any man on this earth that can tell you what to do.”

She shifted even closer. She could detect the musky scent of his cologne, could see a bit of lint on his collar. “Why should any man tell me what to do? I am as much a person as him or even you, Your Highness.”

“Obviously.” He picked up the tail end of the loose tress of hair and brushed it along her collarbone before dropping it over her shoulder. It instantly slid forward again.

All the nerves in Caroline’s body began to sizzle. She despised this man, but she’d never been quite so aroused as she was in this angry moment. She dropped her gaze to his mouth and the shadow of his beard. “Why are you always here?” she demanded. “Are you having an affair with our Ann?”

His eyes widened. He barked out a laugh. “Good God, Caroline, do you speak every thought that occurs to you?”

She would ignore, for the moment, that he had used her given name, which meant, she supposed, that they were very much acquainted, thank you, just as she’d maintained all along. She would further disregard how pleasant her name sounded in his melodious accent. And she would not use this moment to discuss how many thoughts did not pass her lips, for there were quite a lot of them. “Well? Are you?”

His brows dropped into a dark frown, and he leaned forward. “Hear me plainly, woman. No. For God’s sake, no. If I were to have an affair, it would be with a woman who is lush, and curved in all the right places, and open to my suggestions for how to debauch her. Not a timid maid.”

The sizzle was quickly turning to fire. She couldn’t help but wonder what his suggestions for debauching a woman might be. Her gaze fell to his mouth again. She was feeling a little heady.

“My turn. Why aren’t you married? Surely a beautiful woman like you, with her own inheritance, and an enormous dowry, apparently, who does not have to do what any man says, would attract quite a lot of gentlemen in this town. Particularly the type who enjoy a great challenge. Or are they all bloody fools?”

Aha—again, she would not be put on her heels by a compliment casually tossed to her. “Of course I’ve attracted them,” she scoffed. “I don’t care for any of them. Why aren’t you married? Been waiting for the right Weslorian to come along?”

He chuckled, and his gaze moved to the bit of lace she’d sewn along the edge of her bodice. “The same as you, madam—I don’t want anyone to tell me what to do and I don’t want responsibilities.”

“Aha! So you do prefer maids, then.”

He slowly lifted his gaze to hers and held it tight, like he had her attention in his fist. “I prefer women, Caroline,” he murmured. “I prefer women who are confident of their place in this world...but perhaps those who hold their tongues when they ought.”

“Because you don’t agree with everything a woman says doesn’t make what she says wrong.”

He lifted his hand, and with the tip of his finger, he traced a line from the curve of her shoulder up to her chin. “Tell me, Caroline—what gives you the right to speak to me in this manner?”

She leaned forward, just an inch or so from him. “I was born with the right to speak however I want to whomever I want. You are not the prince of me.”

The prince blinked. “Of all the outrageous—”

She didn’t let him finish. She pushed at his chest with both hands, forcing him against the wall, and before he could recover, she rose up on her toes to kiss him. She kissed the prince like she’d never kissed another man in her life. Admittedly, there hadn’t been very many, and certainly she’d never kissed a gentleman like this. But there was something about this man that begged for it—he was so high and mighty, so sure of himself. She had never taken such liberties, and she’d never been so wholly thrilled with an act in her life. This was fire.

But for a high and mighty man, he seemed not to know what to do. He held his arms out wide, as if he were silently announcing he wanted no part of this. Except that his mouth said differently. Oh, but his lips and his tongue said something else entirely. He wouldn’t touch her with his hands, but he nipped at her lips, his tongue playing with hers. He pressed against her, his chest against her chest, and kissed her back as passionately as she kissed him. It was intoxicating, and it wasn’t until her hair found its way between their lips that she suddenly pushed him away and stepped back.

She was breathing raggedly and so was he. They were both panting like they’d chased each other around this room. They stared hard at each other for one endless moment. An entire book of thoughts and feelings and unspoken words flowing between them was written in that moment. Caroline felt something open in her, warm and wet and accepting.

But then he said, “What the hell is the matter with you?”