The Princess and the Player
“You’re so beautiful,” he told her with a catch in his throat.
Something unnamable had overcome him. Something dramatic and huge. But he liked it and before whatever it was fled, he pulled a string of condoms from his pocket and rolled to the side to shed his own clothes so he could feel every gorgeous bit of her against him.
When he was naked, he rolled back, intending to gather up that bundle of heaven back into his arms, but she stopped him with a palm to his chest. “Not yet. I want to see you, too.”
Her gaze roved over his body and lingered in unexpected places. His thighs. His pectorals. Her palm spread and flattened over his nipple, as if she wanted to grab hold.
When she couldn’t, she purred. “Hard as stone. I like that.”
“I like you touching me.”
“Allow me to continue.” Wicked smile spreading across her face, she ran both hands down the planes of his chest and onto his thighs, right past the area he’d hoped she was headed for. Which of course made him anticipate the return journey.
Her fingernails scraped his leg muscles lightly, and she trailed one hand over his hip to explore his butt, which tightened automatically under the onslaught. Everything tightened with unanswered release, including the parts he’d have sworn were already stretched to the point of bursting.
He groaned as heat exploded under her hands. His hips strained toward her, muscles begging to be set free from the iron hold he had on them. “Are you trying to make me barmy?”
“Nope. Just looking for the best places for when it’s my turn with the grapes.”
“Oh, it’s totally your turn,” he countered. “This is your dinner, too, and you must be hungry.”
“At last.” She knelt, grabbed a grape and eyed his splayed body. “Hmm. Where to start? I know.”
She stuck the grape in her mouth and rolled it around with her tongue, her hot gaze on his erection. Somehow that was more arousing than if she’d actually tongued him. She caught the small globe in her front teeth and bent to run it over his torso, dipping into the valleys and peaks, her hair spreading out like a feathery torture device across his sensitive skin. When she accidentally—or maybe on purpose—dragged her hair over his erection, the light touch lit him up. Fire radiated from the juncture of his thighs outward and just as he was about to cup her head to guide her toward the prize, she leaned up on her haunches.
Plucking the grape from between her lips, she grazed his length with the wet grape, nearly causing him to spill everything in one pulse.
“Enough of that,” he growled, manacling her wrist to draw it away from the line of fire. “You’ve obviously underestimated my appetite. Time for the main course.”
She grinned. “I thought you’d never say that.”
Fumbling with a condom, he somehow managed to get it secured and then rolled her underneath him. He’d been fantasizing about taking her exactly this way for an eternity. Soft and luscious, she slid right into the curves of his body as she had that day in the sand, except this time, nothing separated their skin and it was every bit as glorious as he’d imagined.
“You—” He nearly swallowed his tongue as she shifted, rolling her hips against his. The tips of her breasts ground into his torso, and it all felt so amazing, he couldn’t speak.
And then he didn’t have to speak as he gazed down into her blue eyes. Candlelight danced in their depths and he caught a hint of something else that hit him in the gut. As if she’d seen pieces of him that he’d never realized were there and she liked what she’d found. As if she truly saw him as a hero. Maybe she was the only one who could relate. They were both rebels—to the rest of the world—but his pain and difficulties behind the rebellion made total sense to her.
“Bella,” he murmured and that was the extent of what he could push through his tight throat.
“Right here.” Her low, husky voice became his favorite part of her as it hummed through him. “I was really afraid this would never happen. Make it worth the wait.”
It was already so worth it. Worth the lectures from his father, worth the uncomfortable nobleness he’d somehow adopted when around her. Worth sending her away from him on the terrace when all he’d wanted to do was pull that outrageous red dress up to her waist and make her his under the moonlight.
This way was better. Much better. No fear of being caught. No loaded landmines surrounding them, no paparazzi lying in wait to cause a scandal just because they wanted to be together.
He laid his lips on hers and fell into a long sigh of a kiss that grew urgent as she opened her mouth and dove in with her tongue, heightening the pleasure.