He growls my name like a prayer. Like a promise. Like a vow.
His tongue spears into my mouth, moving to the same rhythm as his cock. His eyes are wilder than I’ve ever seen them — holding mine captive as we move together, thrust for thrust.
We are dancing on the edge of a blade that’s liable to slice us both in two at any instant, but I don’t care. Right now, there’s just him and me and this table. No past, no future. No names, no labels. Just lust and need and maybe, if I look a little deeper, something more.
Something that scares me a million times more than anything else I’ve faced, tonight.
When I orgasm again, it’s even more powerful than the first time. Carter follows me over the edge of pleasure mere seconds later, my name exultant on his lips as he spills himself inside me. And as we lie there in the aftermath, breathing hard with the glass of the greenhouse fogging around us and the moon a pale spotlight overhead, we hold each other so tight, it’s almost easy to forget that in a few short minutes…
We’re going to have to let go.
Chapter Twenty
We dress in the darkness,not speaking as we brush dirt from our expensive clothes, straighten our mussed hair, refasten our buttons. I can’t quite meet his eyes as he bends to retrieve my tiara from the stone floor.
“Here.”
I stare at the literal reminder of responsibility, a tangible reality check cradled within his hands, and feel my heart stutter inside my chest.
“Thank you,” I whisper rather haltingly, reaching out to take it from him. Hoping it’s not crooked, I set it back on top of my head. I press my eyes closed to keep my emotions in check as I force out the next words. “We should probably head back.”
I swear he makes a low sound of rage, but when my eyes flash open, he looks totally composed. The picture of indifference.
“They’ll come looking for me if I’m gone too long.”
He snorts, but otherwise doesn’t respond.
My eyes narrow. “Do you have something to say?”
“No. You want to go back in there, that’s fine. But if you think I’m about to follow you, to stand there on the sidelines, watching you flirt with every man in a six hundred mile radius—”
“Do you honestly think I like this?” I cut him off sharply, temper rising to match his. “Do you think I enjoy being passed from hand to hand like some prized breeding mare, when the only person I want to be with—” I bite my lip to contain the dangerous words, so hard I’m surprised it doesn’t split down the center.
“What’s your suggestion, Emilia?” Carter’s eyes have gone so dark, I hardly recognize him. “Let me guess — forget this ever happened? Go back to being enemies?” He snorts. “‘Cause that worked really fucking well for us the last time we tried, didn’t it? Two weeks of space, then a quick screw on a workbench during your bloody coronation!”
My spine snaps straight. “A quick screw. Was that all this was to you?”
“You tell me, Emilia.” He leans in, gaze trapping mine. “What was this? A beginning or an ending?”
“I don’t know, all right? This wasn’t supposed to happen. God…” I shake my head, feeling my emotions unravel. Confusion, despair, and longing are tearing at me with violent talons. I want nothing more than to take those three steps forward, to throw myself into the circle of his arms and bury my head against his chest. But losing myself in him won’t solve a damn thing. In fact…
Losing myself in him is exactly why we’re in this mess.
“Carter,” I say in a broken voice. “Please…”
“Please what, Princess?”
“You know that if things were different—”
“But they’re not,” he says flatly, expression shuttering into a callous mask I recognize all too well.
“No. They’re not,” I echo, wondering how things got so turned around so incredibly fast.
Five minutes ago, I was in his arms.
Now, we can barely look at each other.
“Go on then, Your Highness.” He jerks his chin toward the doors. “Back to your precious party.”