The Sharpest Kiss by Elizabeth Myles (the false prince .txt) 📕

“It’s okay,” he murmured between kisses to her neck. “It’s okay.”

“You don’t know what I was going to say.”

He pulled back to look at her. A perceptive smile nudged up one corner of his handsome mouth. “You were going to tell me you’ve never done this before.”

“Oh. Yeah.” So he had noticed. Awesome. “How’d you know? Am I a terrible kisser or something?” It wasn’t as though she’d had a lot of practice, and not for years now.

“No, not at all. It was…just a guess.” His smile was gentle, as was his touch as he stroked the backs of his fingers down her neck and over her breastbone.

But she still wished she could sink away from him and hide inside the mattress. “Sorry,” she muttered, draping her hand across her eyes.

“Don’t be. It’s cool.”

“Yeah, really cool.”

“It is. Cool with me, anyway.”

She peeked at him from between her fingers and found him watching her with an attentive gaze. Gradually, she uncovered her eyes. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah, absolutely.”

“But you just said…”

“What? That I want you?” That smolder of craving she’d seen earlier in the night flashed in his eyes again, surprising her just as much now as it had then. “I do.” He rocked his hips, nudging the hot, solid proof against her, and sent a shockwave of desire pulsing through her abdomen. “But I don’t mind taking things slow.”

She stared at him, not knowing what to say. Still not sure if she should believe him.

“Lucy,” he smiled, “when you sleep with me, I want you to enjoy it as much as possible, okay? And I doubt that’ll happen if you feel rushed into it. Am I right?”

When you sleep with me.

When, not if.

He said it, and looked at her, as if there was no question in his mind he would eventually have her. Which aroused some wanton region of Lucy’s mind that wanted little more than to tear off all her clothes and just let him go for it right then.

But in the end, sanity reigned, because she knew he was right. Crazy as she was about him, she wasn’t ready for this. Not yet. She was actually relieved he’d realized it, too, and a small breath she hadn’t known she was holding slipped out of her lungs. Nodding, she said, “R-right.”

He dropped another kiss on her lips and then moved off her, leaning his weight on one elbow. “Roll over,” he commanded.

“What?”

“Roll over,” he gestured for her to turn onto her side. “So we can spoon.”

Spoon? Lucy thought. Well, she’d never done that before, either, but it sounded heavenly. She rolled over. She felt the mattress move, and then Aaron was behind her, his strong arm bent around her waist and his naked chest pressed against her back. He splayed his hand on her belly and shifted her closer, so that her bottom was settled firmly against his thighs and she could feel how excited he still was. Because of her.

Well, that was just crazy.

“That was, um…that was really nice,” she said, emboldened by the fact he could no longer see her face.

“Yeah,” he chuckled against her shoulder. “Good. I’m glad you liked it, too.” He swept aside her hair and brushed his mouth along the back of her neck. Then he fell silent and went still, simply holding her against him as if she belonged there—as if he never wanted to let her go.

“Aaron?” Lucy asked. “Is this what your dream was like? The one where we were cuddling-?” There was no answer, but his exhalations were soft and steady, warm and comforting as they feathered against her skin. Lucy closed her eyes again, sinking into the phenomenal feeling of being safely cocooned within his arms. She let the rhythm of his breathing soothe her mind and soul, let it carry away the frightening images of rapacious vampires and a world gone mad, let it lull her to sleep right alongside him—as, outside her window, the sun finally started to climb over the horizon…

Chapter Twenty-Two

Dara Donovan was naked in her bed, kneeling over her husband. Two days had passed since Nathan had destroyed Celia, and Dara was still attempting to demonstrate to Jason just how grateful she was that he was still alive. Or, rather, that he was alive again.

Her husband tugged at her hair and groaned. She tasted his satisfaction, and felt an answering thrill of her own. She clambered up the bed to lie beside him, nestling in the crook of his arm.

“I love you,” she said. “I don’t know what I would’ve done if I had lost you.” Just the thought sent tears trickling down her face, and she dashed them away with a trembling hand.

“Shhh, I’m fine,” he said, his voice drowsy and contented. “Everything’s okay.”

She lay quietly for a moment, listening to his heartbeat and running her hand over his naked body. A body that bore no scar from where it had been stabbed, but which was still stronger, and moved so much faster, than before it had ever been corrupted by a vampire’s bite. “Do you think you’ll miss them?” she finally asked. “The powers you still have, once they’re gone?”

Jason shrugged. “Maybe. Not really. I did just fine without them before, so…” He finished with another shrug. “I do sort of feel like I should use the powers while I have them, though.”

“Use them for what?”

“Well there are still those other vampires that got away the other night, running around somewhere in the city.”

“Nathan said he’d take care of them.”

“I can’t help but think I should be helping him.”

Alarm spiked in Dara’s chest. She drew her arm across his waist, clinging to him as if afraid he’d disappear any second. “It’s dangerous, Jason. You almost died.”

“Yeah, I know, but…”

She screwed her eyes shut and tightened her grip on him. “But there are other people out there in peril,” she finished for him, “and they don’t even know