Page 24 of Promise of Darkness
“Ah, an Asturian queen to her fingertips. You think to renege on your deal so swiftly. Should I be surprised?”
“That you demand so much, so soon, doesn’t surprisemeat all.” My eyes narrow. “One kiss.”
He hasn’t specified where, or how passionate it has to be. I can get through this and keep my dignity, and he’ll be forced by his own words to honor the pact and keep his hands off me.
“One kiss,” he repeats.
Fine. If he wants his kiss, then I’ll give it, but I’ll make him regret it.
Letting the borrowed cloak fall from my shoulders, I saunter toward him.
The prince reclines in his chair, watching me with those darkly amused eyes. His shirt’s unbuttoned halfway down his chest, and the only sign he feels anything is the way he swallows before his gaze dips down the length of my body.
I suffer a moment’s hesitation.
This is the enemy.
But this is also the price I’ll pay to keep myself safe.
I rest a hand against his chest, leaning down to brush my lips perfunctorily against his.
Soft lips brush against mine, but he doesn’t lean into the touch. I can feel the tension in him, his hands curling around the arms of his chair as if he’s fighting to restrain them. It’s a heady feeling, knowing that in this moment, I hold all the power. He cannot reach for me. He cannot touch me. Not without permission.
I own him in this moment, and the thrill is a dangerously beckoning lure.
He tilts his face to mine, breath whispering over my lips. I can taste the wine, the heat of him, the barely caged desire….
It’s the faintest of caresses, barely a kiss, and we both know it. And yet it holds a taste of the forbidden, a reckless, pinwheeling sensation that feels like I’m skating on ice without knowing how thin it is….
He captures my wrist, and our eyes meet, breaths mixing as I’m forced to hover over him. It gives me the ability to start thinking again.
“If you don’t want to sit for a week, then please, continue. I won’t mind at all.” I can feel his touch like a manacle.
His thumb brushes against the inside of my wrist, and I swallow.
Hard.
“Unless you initiate it,” he points out, and that’s when I realize my own hand is curled in his shirt, thumb brushing small circles over his chest.
All it would take would be for him to pull me down into his lap, and then I’d be at his mercy. It’s a heady feeling, knowing how much power I could wield with a simple “yes” or “no.”
And itisa no.
It has to be.
“You have your kiss.”
Thiago releases me, smiling slightly. “Is that what you call it in your mother’s court? Oh, Princess…. What I could teach you about kissing….”
Heart racing, I immediately set a few feet of distance between us. I have little doubt he could. Say what they like about his kingdom and people, they didn’t call him the Master of Dreams for no reason.
“I’m afraid I’ll have to decline.”
“Curious choice of words.”
Afraid….
“But there will be other kisses, Princess. Goodnight.” He crosses to the double doors, bowing before stepping back through them. The faintest of smiles touches his lips. “Sweet dreams.”
