Royal Chase

Wait? What? I straightened back up.

“I understand that you have issues with men.”

“Right now I do!” What was his deal? I mean, other girls kissed toads to find a prince. I kissed a prince and he started acting like a toad.

“I don’t want you to feel like you’re making a mistake.”

That did it. I let go of him and felt sadness well up inside me over my constant poor decision-making. I plopped myself down on the bed next to him. “You’re right. I always get into these meaningless hookups with guys who say everything I want to hear but then never call me again. They think love is a four-letter word, and I’m dumb enough to pretend that getting physical means they’ll magically change. I’m getting too old for it. I like myself too much.”

“I like yourself too much, too.”

I let out a laugh that was edged with unshed tears. “There’s something to be said for respecting yourself and waiting until you think it’s right. Kat’s never had to feel this way, and I envy her that. Passion just gets you into trouble. I think I’d rather have a man who treats me well than a passionate physical relationship.”

He cupped my cheek with his hand and turned me toward him. “There’s no reason you can’t have both.”

Yeah, right. I wanted to laugh or maybe cry again. That hadn’t been my experience, ever. “You were right, though. I don’t want to use you just to make myself feel better.”

“I have no problem whatsoever with being used in any fashion you see fit.”

If he didn’t stop, I was going to start sobbing when this laughter became a hundred percent tears. I couldn’t keep it at bay for much longer.

His hand moved to the back of my head, and his gaze was focused on my mouth. “Now that we have decided that I won’t feel used and you shouldn’t feel bad, it seems to me that when a man and a woman are alone together, in his room, on his bed, that there’s only one logical outcome.”

“It is possible for a man and a woman to be alone together and not kiss.” My breathing had quickened, and I could hear his rapid, short breaths too.

“That may be true for some people, but we’re attractive.”

I closed my eyes, loving the funny and indescribable things his touch did to my insides.

“I’ve actually been wondering if that first kiss was a fluke. It registered on a magical scale.”

That made me open my eyes, where his heated, intense gaze caught me and made me willing to do whatever he wanted. Like if he wanted to club me over the head to take me back to his cave, I would have let him. “Magical?”

“If I’d been a frog . . .”

“You would have turned into a prince?”

Then his mouth was finally, finally on mine. Gently claiming, promising. I had that tantalizing, floaty sensation mixed up with my adrenaline and endorphin cocktail. If I could have bottled that feeling, I would have been a millionaire.

He was tentative and soft, and usually a kiss like that just seemed sweet and nice, but there was nothing sweet or nice about his kisses. They were hot and—what word had he used?—magical. Definitely magical. He gave me every opportunity to pull away.

Instead I wrapped my arms around him and deepened the kiss. Which he had no problems with as he responded in kind.

There was a mindless need, and I felt and knew nothing but his kiss and his touch. His kisses grew deeper and firmer, and then needier. My heart beat faster than a hot knife cutting through butter, every sensation heightened, every touch explosive. It seemed like we had been kissing for hours, but it wasn’t enough. It would never be enough. He finally let me breathe, and I was glad my lungs remembered how to work, even if all I could manage was short, shallow breaths.

He lowered me back onto his bed, and I went willingly, loving the feeling of his weight against me. He moved his lips along the column of my throat, giving me chills at every spot where he stopped to plant a kiss, stroking the other side of my neck with his hand. I felt his hand move from my neck to the top button of my shirt.

And despite my decision earlier to keep things casual and under control, they were very serious and very out-of-control, and I wanted them that way.