What time is it? I’m starting to get properly hungry.
I tuck a serviette between the pages of my book and set it on the low table next to my empty teacup. “How is your book?” I ask, plucking a biscuit from the tray. Crumbs tumble onto my lap when I take a bite. Mmm… almonds.
Senan darts a glance at me before flipping to the next page. “Best story I’ve ever read.”
If it is so good, then why is he still at the beginning? I take another bite, then swipe the crumbs onto the floor. “What is it about?”
“It’s a love story. She is a maid in the prince’s castle, and he is completely enamored with her.”
“Oh, really?” I reach for the cover so I can see the title.
He slams the book closed and tucks it behind his back before I get a good look. “Ah, ah. No peeking.”
I am almost certain the title isA History of Swordplay,but if he wants to be ridiculous, who am I to stop him? “Go on, then. Tell me what happens next.”
He snags a biscuit for himself. “So, I just got to the part where they meet in the back of a library where no one can find them.”
My eyes widen with feigned shock. “Isn’t that a coincidence?”
“I couldn’t believe it myself,” he says around a bite.
“I can imagine you were quite surprised. Is that where their story ends?”
“No, Allette. Their story does not end in a library.” He rolls his eyes like that is the most absurd question in the world. “In this chapter, the very dashing hero is plagued with indecision. He loves watching the heroine’s face whilst she is lost in a story, but he also enjoys watching her face when the two of them get lost in each other.”
My thighs press together and chest warms at the intensity of his molten gaze. I lick my suddenly dry lips. “Whatever will he do?”
His fingers swipe idly against my shin, which should be an innocuous touch, yet when he does it, I swear my skin feels as if it’s been lit ablaze. “I was wondering the very same thing. Because not only is the hero plagued with indecision, he is also quite worried.”
“Oh dear. That sounds serious.”
“It is. You see, the handsome prince and stunning heroine just found each other, and he doesn’t want her thinking that he only wants her for one thing.”
“Because that isn’t the case?”
“Not at all. He wants her for everything.” His hand slides a little higher to trace my knee. “But his steely restraint is undone by the way she licks her finger before she flips a page and the way her perfect lips move a little as she reads. He is also quite jealous of the way her fingers skim along the pages. And it isn’t fair that the book gets to sit in her lap while the prince is all the way at the other side of the settee.”
“It sounds like you weren’t reading at all.”
His gaze drops to my lips and lingers. “In my defense, it is incredibly difficult to read when one is distracted.”
“Incredibly,” I agree. “What happens next?”
Senan lets me go to collect his book and flip to a random page. His finger drags down the words as he pretends to read. “It says here that the maid is so overcome by her own desire for the prince that she ravishes him.”
“Strange. In all the romances I’ve read, usually the heroes are the ones doing the ravishing.”
“Look, I’m as shocked as you are, but that is what the book says.”
“If that is what it says…” I grab the book, toss it onto the ground, and climb onto Senan’s lap. My knees fall to either side of his hips, and his hands fall to mine. My lips graze across his,tasting the sweet almonds from the biscuit. “Are you ready to be thoroughly ravished, prince?”
His hold tightens, fingers digging into flesh as he urges me to roll my hips. “Take whatever you need from me, maid. I am but your humble servant.”
Right. A ravishing. Let me see…
I catch the front of his shirt in both hands and yank. Buttons pop right off, zinging through the air and landing with loudpingsacross the marble floor. The shock on his face is almost too much to bear. Laughter bubbles inside me until he does the same bloody thing to my uniform and my shift. He just tears right through them, baring my breasts to the cool air.
I gape down at the shredded material, aghast. “You brute! I need this for work.”