Page 115 of Of Bargains & Betrayal

A fresh wave of embarrassment rolled up my cheeks, and I forced my attention away from his mouth. “No, I—” I coughed quietly. “I just don’t know what I’m…I’ve never…”

I lost my words as Kieran pried my hand from its clutched hold on my skirt and guided it until I cupped the back of his neck, soft sections of his snowy hair threading through my fingers.

My teacher, always.

“It starts just like this.”

“Okay…” A shaky breath sawed from my lungs, and I wished I’d drunk more liquid courage, its taste be damned, if only to ease the tremor in my hand as I pulled Kieran towards me and angled my face like I’d seen courtiers do when they thought no one was watching.

“And you thought you were being sly, inviting me here,” he murmured.

I wasn’t sure who closed that last inch of distance—both of us in equal measure, maybe—but I finally felt it.

The press of soft lips.

The crackle of warmth.

The slowing of time.

Skepticism obliterated in an instant.

Everything I’d ever read about in fairytale books was so ardently true.

When Kieran eased away with a shaky breath of his own, I pulled him right back, and thank the goddess there wasn’t a single thing in life he didn’t know how to do. He cupped my face and tempted my lips apart with a gentle sweep of his tongue. I couldn’t help but gasp at the delicate intrusion, how my fingers tightened in his hair as I let my tongue slide against his.

The throaty noise he made in response was a thousand times more intoxicating than any stolen liquor.

Cool grass met my bare shoulders, and Kieran settled himself half-over me before I’d even processed we were moving. His knee nudged between mine, rucking up the soft layers of my skirt and sending another aching ripple up my spine. I let out an embarrassing noise of protest when Kieran’s lips left mine, and he braced himself on his forearm, studying me like I was one of his prized ancient texts.

I didn’t understand why hesitation flickered over his features or exactly what trapped question lay behind his pulled-together brows, but I nodded. What else would I do for one of the few living beings I trusted more than myself?

Whatever it was, my answer was yes.

Absolutely. Always.

Unequivocally, yes.

Whatever he wanted, I would have it tenfold.

Wherever he wanted to steer us, I’d follow him endlessly.

Kieran’s eyes softened, and a smile tugged at his mouth.

I was afraid he was about to tease me with the bone-deep embarrassment that was his specialty—another one of those lifelong friend perks—but he dipped his head and kissed me instead. A slow coax of his lips drew a soft keen from me, and I melted again under the testing graze of his tongue.

Goddess, I never wanted to exist in another moment again. I never wanted to feel anything other than the weight of Kieran’s body anchoring mine, his fingers sliding up the side of my skirt and gripping my bare thigh, the slow press of his leg between mine.

But it didn’t last for the eternity I wanted, or even the minutes more I needed.

Kieran recoiled from me in a blur before I’d noticed the sound of approaching footsteps crunching across the gravel-dusted paths. How he looked so nonchalant in a matter of breaths, his knees drawn and arms resting on them, left me awestruck. Maybe it was because I was struggling to catch my breath and process it all, but all I could do was stare at him as he cast his attention out over the lookout.

An abrupt clearing of a throat put an end to that transfixion.

“Miss Enora, if you would care to accompany me…” came the stuffy drawl of one of my father’s footmen from behind us. “His Majesty was not pleased by your sudden absence and requests your presence back at the family’s festivities immediately.”

Not Princess Enora, even though it was my official title. Not my father, because their vaunted sovereign could never be something so low as the sire of a bastard. Usually, I looked over both things, but tonight, they quenched the needy warmth coursing through my body and replaced it with a flare of annoyance.

I glanced back over my shoulder and tried to school my voice into something painfully indifferent. “Do I really have to? Can’t you just tell him you couldn’t find me? Or I went to bed already?”