Page 49 of Awakened On Her Royal Wedding Night
“You’re back early.” She didn’t turn to face him. Did this one go in? She kept searching for evidence on the shelf, a rail of dust or a fingerprint, but she couldn’t find any hints to help her.
“Your lawyer has filed the charges.” The door closed. “Francois will be notified shortly, but the statements to the press won’t release until after my parents’ anniversary party.”
“Francois will know, though,” she repeated, feeling the invisible clock ticking down. Three more days and the details of her dark night in the water would be known by all. “Will his new fiancée be there?”
“Yes.”
Eloise was the daughter of a British duke. So far, Eloise had only met the King and Queen. At least, Claudine wouldn’t have to muster up her courage for a heart-to-heart with her. Her accusations would be all over the headlines the following day.
“What are you doing?” Felipe’s voice was directly behind her.
“Trying to remember how to open the secret passage. Queen Giulia could have escaped. She could have seduced a captain and sailed away. Why didn’t she?”
“Her children were here. They had entitlements that would have been lost if she took them away from Nazarine. And she knew she had more power inside these walls than out. Why? Are you trying to escape me?” His hand covered hers, moving it down two books and withdrawing one spine.
“Perhaps I’m trying to let my lover in.” She was being metaphoric, but also deliberately provocative, wondering if she could get a reaction out of him, even if it was lowly jealousy.
“Your lover is already here, Your Highness.”
Her skin tightened with delight, but there was that other, anxious piece that had her stiffening slightly as he closed his hands on her upper arms.
He stilled. “No?”
“I—” She reflexively pushed her bottom back into his groin and instantly felt the thickness of his erection. Mindless passion was no substitute for love, but it fed something in her to know that he wanted her as badly as she wanted him. “H-here?”
“Right here, if that’s what you want.”
“I do,” she whispered.
“Then hold on to this shelf.” He guided her hands to the one in front of her eyes.
His touch trailed under her arms and down her rib cage. One hand swept forward to gather her breast through the silk blouse she wore. His body bowed around hers and his other palm slid to press the pleats of her skirt against her mound so she felt the strong flex of his hand there,claiming.
She writhed in the trap of his arms, stimulating both of them with the rock of her hips.
His mouth bypassed the hair she had clipped low behind her neck and his teeth scraped against her nape. With the light pinch of his fingers through her bra stinging her nipple, and the relentless pressure of his hand between her legs, she quickly grew aroused.
“Who are you?” she gasped. “A pirate? A smuggler?”
His head abruptly lifted and he slowly turned her. His hand dragged at her hair. “Look at me.”
She forced her eyes open to see something atavistic in his gaze. Possessive? Threatened?
“I am your husband. Your future king. The only lover you will ever need.”
His command for recognition lit something in her. A fierce compulsion to break past this wall between them and reach him. Without thinking, she clasped his head and brought his mouth down to crush her own against it, then speared her tongue into his mouth.
He gave a grunt of surprise, then tried to take control of their wild kiss, but she refused to allow it. She closed her fingers in his hair and arched against him blatantly, deliberately trying to incite him past his usual restraints. He always took her apart so easily. For once, she wanted to know she could do the same to him.
She loved him and it was eating her alive.
She pushed her hand between them, squeezing his shape through his trousers before delving behind his belt and past the constriction on his boxer briefs to the thick flesh that pulsed as she closed her fist around him.
His breath hissed in and his nostrils twitched.
“Why the hurry,cara mia?” He held her bold stare as she caressed him, trying to make him break.
She almost had him. She could see the effort it was costing him to keep his narrowed eyes open. His jaw was clenched, his breaths unsteadily. There was a slippery dampness against her thumb that she rolled around and around his tip, causing him to grow even harder in her grip.
