Page 52 of The Prince and His Stolen Groom
“So, this is where you’ve been this whole time?” Kit asked, drawing Brendon’s attention to her. She was wandering around the room, occasionally poking at a lamp or a book or the wall.
“Yes.”
“Cozy,” she said with a nod of approval.
He glowered at her. “You remember I’ve been held hostage here for almost a week, right?”
Speaking of his confinement, he glanced at Rick quickly to see if he was paying attention to this exchange. Thankfully, the wizard’s ministrations proved a good distraction.
“Oh, look, you’ve gotThe Bride’s Revenge!” Kit exclaimed, pulling a book from the shelf. “Now you can finally read it!”
“I already have.”
She arched her brows in surprise. “Really? I’ve been asking you to read it formonthsand you always said it wasn’t your kind of book.”
“Yes, well, I had a lot of time on my hands.”
Kit sighed and ran her fingers longingly over the books, most of which she had probably already read. “So, you got to spend all week here, reading and lounging around?”
He gaped at her, baffled by the wistful tone. “Are you seriously jealous right now?”
“I’m just saying,” she muttered, “that it would have been nice if our roles were reversed.”
“You mean if you had done your job properly and were kidnapped in my stead?”
“Well, if Francesca had done the kidnapping …” she trailed off, a dreamy look in her eye as she caressed the books with a lover’s gentleness. “All alone, no one to interrupt us … Is there a bed? I wanna see it.” She started up the stairs without asking for permission. “Franny said Rick comes here all the time and sometimes spends the night. It’s probably comfortable, with fluffy pillows and silky sheets.”
Brendon trailed after her if only to keep their conversation out of Rick’s hearing. “Please stop daydreaming about fucking my fiancée upstairs. At least until—” Until Rick acknowledged the title instead. Before the stairs led him out of view, he glanced back at Rick one last time to confirm he still wasn’t listening to them. The wizard had moved onto his leg, and Rick lay back on the couch, one arm covering his eyes.
“Not just upstairs,” Kit replied cheerfully. “Bet the kitchen would be nice too.”
“I wouldn’t know,” Brendon said dryly, “since you interrupted us.”
She paused, the few stairs separating them adding inches onto her height and an extra disappointed angle to her frown. “You’ve been holed up here for a week and you’re telling me you haven’t—”
“No,” he interrupted through gritted teeth, “we haven’t.”
Her eyes widened in horror. “Don’t tell me that I interrupted the first kiss? You’re usually so much better at this.”
He scowled. “I am trying to besubtle.”
“You don’t really have time for subtlety.”
He was well aware of that, but every time he made a move, Rick looked like a rabbit cornered by a fox. He didn’t think Rick disliked him—the kiss had been as much Rick’s idea as Brendon’s—but something held him back.
“I wonder,” Kit began, biting her lip. She cut herself off and continued up the stairs.
“Will your wonderings help or just make things harder?”
She didn’t reply.
Sighing, Brendon asked, “What do you wonder?”
“Do you remember when I told you that Rick was bitten in the marketplace when he went off to speak to someone?”
It took Brendon a moment to follow her sentence and line of thought, but eventually he nodded. “Sure.”
“You see that person … well, I didn’t pry, but they seemed awfullyclose.” She waggled her eyebrows suggestively. Then, when Brendon didn’t reply, she held up her index finger in one hand, made a circle with her other hand, and started suggestively connecting them. “Close.”
