Page 67 of To Wake a Kingdom

“Yes,” he said with a grin. “Is that a problem?”

“It’s a little weird,” I said, and he yanked me into him as I giggled.Giggled. Who had I become?

Already kissing him frantically, I pushed him on his back and climbed on top, straddling his body. I clasped his already hardening cock in my hand, and he moaned as I slid him into me. Guiding my hips, he rocked me back and forth, my hands pressed against the planes of the chest I had spent hours touching, licking, and biting. We came together in a heaving burst of sweat and light that left me dizzy with wanting.

When we both stopped panting, the sweat on our skin cooling, I asked, “Gideon didn’t send breakfast, did he?”

Ronan smirked. “Of course—he’d never let you go hungry.”

He got out of bed, and I admired the view of his round, muscled ass and powerful thighs as he retrieved a basket.

“He assured me it’s all your favorites.” He unpacked cheese, crackers, salami, and fresh bread.

“This was great and all,” I said through a mouthful, “but I’m running away with Gideon.”

Ronan laughed. “You’re getting crumbs in the bed.”

“No longer fastidious, remember?”

“I remember.” He kissed me, licking away a crumb at the corner of my mouth, and I sighed and shivered all at once.

After we’d eaten, we laid on the bed facing one another, Ronan’s hand running along the curve of my back and my hip in a hypnotic motion.

“I want to stay like this forever,” I said. “I feel so many things when I’m with you, Ronan.”

He lifted a dark eyebrow. “Good things, I hope.”

“The best things,” I said, fusing the words with as much conviction and earnest truth as I could.

“We can come back soon. Whenever you want.” He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear, but his words sank into me like drops of rain soaked up by a dying field of wheat.

There were five days left until Mare returned, and I needed to get him out of here.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, noting the shift in my mood.

“Nothing. I wanted to say thank you for being here. You’ve all been so helpful. The castle has felt so safe.”

“Well, I had ulterior motives,” he said with a wink as his hand found the flesh of my ass and gave it a healthy squeeze.

I snorted at his joke, but I knew he would have helped me, anyway. He would have helped anyone in my situation.

“But why does it feel like you’re trying to tell me something I don’t want to hear?”

This was my opening. I willed myself to say it. Willed myself to ask him to leave, for his sake. But after last night, I worried he’d feel rejected. Like I’d regretted this when that was the very last thing I felt.

I shook my head and pressed my mouth to his.“No, not at all. I just wanted you to know how much I appreciate you.”

“You’re sure? No second thoughts about what happened here?”

“No, gods no. Of course not. I’d do it again a million times.”

A wolfish grin stretched over his face. “With pleasure, Princess.” And then we were kissing again, and I vowed I’d tell him later.

Cowardice.Selfishness.

After another hour in bed, we dressed and rode back to the castle.

“I’m going to take him to the stables,” Ronan said, wrapping his arms around me. “Thank you for everything. That was—”

---