Page 14 of Royal Hottie
He breaks the kiss suddenly, turns toward the cabin door, and bites out, “What?”
Whoa. I didn’t even hear it open.
It’s Maya, her eyes wide as she takes in me plastered between the wall and Phillip. She lets out a soft cry, whirls, and rushes out of the cabin.
He closes his eyes and lets out a heavy sigh. Somehow I know he’s going to comfort her.
“Hasn’t she seen you with a woman before?” I whisper.
He steps back and runs a hand through his hair. “Not quite that up close. I don’t bring women home, except for my ex, and that was more than a year ago.”
“Ah.”
He smiles ruefully. “I know I should go talk to her, but I don’t think it’ll go over well while I’m in this state.” He gestures below the waist at an impressive bulge.
A vision of Phillip’s naked muscular body rising over me, covering me, driving into me flashes through my mind. I lift my head, my mouth dry. “Probably not.”
He takes a deep breath. “I shouldn’t have kissed you.”
“It’s fine.”
He meets my eyes, his brows knitting together. “I don’t know what came over me. We only have a couple of weeks before we go our separate ways. And I don’t want hurt feelings, especially with a friend of my sister-in-law.” He grimaces and looks away.
He’s right. I wish he wasn’t. I’m feeling things I haven’t felt in a long time—warmth, affection, lust. He’s not the arrogant jerk I first thought he was. I like him. And I don’t kid myself that the incredible kiss we just shared would happen for me with any attractive guy. Usually, a first kiss is tentative, awkward, or sloppy. Sometimes all three. This was passionate perfection. That’s rare and special and…impossible. We live in different worlds, soon to go our separate ways, and he’s a renowned playboy. I know better than to get tangled up with him, no matter how tempting he is.
He looks so miserable I let him off the hook, saying nonchalantly, “No problem. We’ll just rewind.”
I open my arms and jog backward to the center of the cabin like I’m rewinding, running away from my lover through a meadow.
He grins and lifts his palms. “I’d like to say that worked, but…”
I head over to the sofa. “Come on, we’ll watch some TV. You should probably talk to Maya once you two can have some privacy. I’m sure she won’t appreciate yourit’s not you, it’s metalk with me standing nearby.”
He sits next to me and snags the remote from a compartment behind us. “I was going to go with ‘we grew up together, so I’ve always seen you as a little sister.’”
I give him serious side-eye. “You can do better than that.”
“How about ‘I just don’t feel that way about you’?”
“Brraap. Wrong answer.”
He turns on the TV with a frown, rapidly flipping channels. “What should I say? I thought it was a harmless crush.Maya’s mother worked as a maid for our family, and Maya started working for us when she was sixteen. I was nineteen. She really has felt like a little sister.”
“Oh, wow. So the crush goes way back?”
“I suppose. She did blush a lot around me back then. Anyway, I’m twenty-nine. I thought she would’ve figured out by now it’s not going to happen.”
I wince. I suppose there isn’t really a nice way to turn down an unrequited crush. “Go with the little-sister thing. She’s going to be hurt no matter what you say. At least that’s the gentlest of the nothing-personal responses.”
He lands on a soccer game on the TV and puts the remote down. I pick it up, change the channel to a fashion show, and grin at him.
He holds me by the chin and kisses me, a swift hard kiss that jolts my system, leaving me speechless. Then he pulls out his phone, ignoring the TV.
Warmth steals through me. I know it’s dumb. It’s just a TV show, but my ex never let me have control of the remote. It’s the little things. I can’t help myself. I grab him and hug him tight around the middle. He smiles down at me, and it’s like warm sunshine all over my body.
I let him go and get comfortable, scooching down in the cushy sofa and leaning against his side. His hand slides over and holds mine in a warm clasp.
My stupid heart flip-flops.
