Page 63 of Potions and Proposals
He looked slightly embarrassed. “During our final exams in school, you were sitting on the ground in the exam hall with your knees under your chin. You looked like you were in pain, and then I heard you talking to a nurse,” he told her, while she triedto remember the day in question. “She didn’t have any hot water bottles, and there wasn’t time for you to go home and get one.”
“But she did get me one in the end. Wait… that was you? Did you leave the school to get me one?” Lucy didn’t know if it was the gesture or her hormones that were making her eyes water.
“Don’t look too much into it! I wanted to place first in the class on merit, not because you were too sick to take the exam,” Benedict protested, focusing on twisting his signet ring. She didn’t believe his dismissive tone for a second.
“When I didn’t see you in the exam hall, I thought you were trying to throw me off, or you’d been caught cheating or something. I never would’ve guessed that you missed the exam… so I could sit mine?” She couldn’t believe he’d done something so kind for her. It wasn’t like they’d been friends; if anything, the exact opposite. She’d have expected him to revel in her misery.
“I didn’t plan on missing it. When I tried to sneak back in to the hall, I got caught and they wouldn’t let me sit the exam. The nurse convinced Principle Pauper to let me sit it the next day because I’d given her the hot water bottle for you,” he said lightly, as if it was nothing.
“Why let me think the nurse just found one?”
He shrugged, bringing her a pillow from his bed. “You needed it. Didn’t matter who gave it to you.”
“If you keep doing kind things for me, I’m going to think you’ve gone soft,” she said, sighing as the painkillers began to ease her cramps.
“We’re to be bound, I should keep up appearances.”
“No one’s watching now – or then,” she pointed out, as he adjusted the pillow behind her back.
“Maybe I’m just trying to seduce you and take your position,” he said, his breath a whisper against her neck. She could hear the smile on his lips.
Considerate, empathetic, kind…The spell.Lucy shook away the thought that he might bethe one. He was only doing this because he wanted her to think he’d be a good leader. Yet he’d risked his final exam to help her even though he had nothing to gain. It could have cost him.
“You should get back to the others before they drink the bar dry. And you have a vamp wedding to see to,” she reminded him, trying not to let him see how his kindness had affected her.
He hesitated, worry creasing his brows. “Do you need anything else? Any cravings? I can have room service make you anything you like.”
“Thank you, but I’m still full of cake.” She was perfectly content, sinking deeper into the pillow behind her head. It smelt like him.
“Me too.” He patted his flat stomach. Having seen him in a towel, Lucy couldn’t help but think of the smooth skin beneath his shirt.“If you need me, just call down to the bar. Are you sure you’re okay alone?” He stepped back slowly, genuinely reluctant to leave her.
“I’m not alone.” She stroked the purple lizard resting on the back of the couch. “Greko makes for excellent company.” With a click of her fingers, the candles shone brighter, and the fireplace lit up in the corner by his desk.
“Try not to set the room on fire while I’m out,” Benedict teased, backing up towards the door.
“I’ll do my best,” she mused, watching him go.
Once the door closed behind him, she considered leaving. It felt far too intimate being alone in his private space. He apparently trusted her enough to leave her where she could snoop and search for any secrets that might cost him any future election. Yet instead she found herself snuggling deeper into the couch and opening the book he’d left on the coffee table. She couldn’t believe it – he was reading a romance.
Maybe Benedict is more soft-hearted than he let on.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb you,” Benedict whispered softly, reaching over Lucy to pick up the book. The smell of his aftershave drifting around her was a nice way to be woken up.
His gaze lingered on hers, and there was a hunger there she hadn’t seen before. Conflict, desire, anger – she couldn’t read him for the first time in years.
She sat up, and he settled, on the coffee table giving her some space.
“I didn’t know you were a man of such exquisite taste,” she joked, waving the book at him. He reached for it, but she pulled it out of his reach and began to flip through the pages. “Hmm, where was I?”
She hadn’t planned on teasing him, but the flush on his cheeks was irresistible. She pretended to clear her throat.
“‘Penelope had bound herself to him for life, and their love would live long after they were gone.’” Suddenly awkward, she glanced at Benedict; perhaps this page wasn’t the best choice. Refusing to let her nerves get the better of her, she kept reading. “‘She braced herself as the viscount, her new husband, came towards her. His unbuttoned shirt exposed his smooth pale skin, and it was the most she’d ever seen of a naked man. He ordered her to face the mirror, and she did as she was told. She wanted him, all of him, but she couldn’t stop herself from shaking as he cut through her strings at the back of her wedding dress. He stared at her naked form in the mirror, his dark eyes lingering on every curve, every freckle, until she couldn’t take it anymore. She turned around, bringing her lips to his. Hegripped her face, deepening the kiss and stealing her breath. Carrying her in his arms, he dropped on the bed and ripped off his clothes, settling between her legs. She didn’t care about her inexperience; she trusted him to teach her. His lips travelled to her breasts, her stomach, before settling between her legs, and she gripped the pillow behind her head as he licked and tasted what he had longed for since the moment he’d first laid eyes on her. Heat pooled between her legs, a growing ecstasy—” Lucy flushed under Benedict’s gaze, but she wasn’t going to break first. “Calling out her beloved’s name, he bit—”
“You should stop,” he interrupted her, and with a thrill, she noticed his voice was much lower than before. He snatched the book away from her as though it would come alive and, like the viscount, bite her.
“Why?” She stared up at him over the page. Heat flooded her body. He’d never looked at her with such desire.
“Because when I think of fucking someone, it’syou,in my dreams,” he told her, moving into her space.
