Page 10 of Her Red Hot Secret Royal Fling

He imagined how easy it would be to crest his hand upwards, to brush his palm over her breasts, and just like that, he was growing hard again, so he had to rearrange himself a little, putting some space between his lower half and hers, so shewouldn’t feel the uncomfortable evidence of his arousal for herself.

“Is that better?” He asked when it was now a thousand times worse for him.I’m going to kill you, Torre.

“Uh huh.” She was still shivering though. He ground his teeth.

“Did you bring anything warmer?”

“I didn’t pack the bag,” she reminded him.

“Right. I have a jumper.”

“It’s okay. I’ll warm up. Just…stay close.” She cleared her throat. “Closer, maybe.”

Oh, hell. Did she have any idea what she was asking?

“Sofia—,” her name was a tortured sound of surrender. “This isn’t?—,”

“I know. It’s not a good idea. Which is why we’re not going to do anything except lie like this. Fully clothed, and close.”

He swallowed, wondering if that was a boundary they could both live with and deciding it was better than nothing. He shifted back to spoon her fully, his body an echo of hers, his hardness pressed to her bottom, so she made a sound of shock then sighed softly.

Disaster.

“Okay?” He asked, because this was a big freaking line cross and he needed to hear it from her that this was what she’d actually meant, and that he hadn’t misunderstood.

Her response was to nuzzle her head against his bicep a little, and inhale deeply, as though he was the best-smelling thing she’d ever been near. It was nothing. A whole big nothing, in the scheme of things, but it was inflating like a balloon inside of him, so that every time she moved, the balloon got bigger, and bigger, and he didn’t know when it was going to burst.

It wasridiculous.

Not once had he felt an attraction like this. Not once had he wanted someone so badly that he found he could barely control it. They hadn’t even known each other a full day!

But he had heard a lot about her, so it wasn’t as though she was a total stranger.

No, it was worse. She was like a sister to some of his closest friends.

“You’re different from what I expected.”

“Different how?”

“Less stuffy.”

He stiffened imperceptibly. “Is that how they’ve described me?”

“What?” Her voice was a little confused. “Oh, the Santoros? No, no. I just mean, because you’re a King. And you seem like a King. Or you do, sometimes. But other times, you just seem…normal.”

“Normal? Is that good?”

“Okay, not exactly normal,” she said, and he could practically hear the eye roll in her words.

“But not stuffy either?”

“Right.” She shifted a little and he wanted to beg her to stay perfectly still, because when she moved, it was like the striking of a match, setting his whole body alight. “What about me?” She yawned, so the last word was a little smothered. “Am I what you expected?”

He considered that for a moment. “Yes.”

“Hmph. Now I’m curious.” And to his chagrin, she pulled away from him completely, but only so she could flip onto her other side and face him. “How did they describe me?”

“Beautiful, smart, and very, very ambitious.”

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