In Bed with the Beast (Naughty Princess Club 2)

“Belle, I’m so sorry. I—”

Stepping forward, I press my hand against his mouth.

“Stop. You don’t have to say anything else. You’ve already shown me. You showed me how you felt long before you bought me a damn library, and I was an idiot for not realizing it. I’m sorry I broke my promise and left, and I’ll never do that again. I don’t need the words. This big, romantic gesture is better than anything you could say.”

He kisses my palm, gently pulling my hand away from his face.

“Too bad, because I need to say the words, and I know you need to hear them no matter what you say. You changed that about me. You changed me. You make me want to be happy, and you make me want to do whatever I can to make sure you’re happy, even saying girly romantic shit,” he tells me with a smile. “You make me laugh and you calm me when I’m pissed off. You’re everything I never thought I needed.”

He wraps his arms around me and scoops me up and against him, and I cling to him tightly as he kisses me, everyone in the library clapping and whistling. I break the kiss before we get carried away in front of all these people, pulling my head back to look at my fiancé, who is surprisingly very good at flowery, romantic words.

“You know I’m going to have to fine you for destroying library property by cutting a hole in that book. A three-year study was just conducted showing that sixty-four percent of public libraries reported having at least one incident of book vandalism. You better hope no one else destroys a copy or that statistic will be off, and that just wouldn’t be right.”

I feel the rumble of Vincent’s laughter through his chest, which is pressed against mine as he tightens his arms around my body and shakes his head at me.

“You’re so weird,” he whispers with a smile.

“And you’re my knight in shining armor.”

“Oh, Christ . . .” he mutters with another shake of his head, the smile never leaving his face as he presses his mouth to mine again.

I tamed the beast, and he bought me a library.

I guess fairy tales really do come true for a nerdy bookworm-turned-stripper.