Page 17 of Princess Bride Swap

“As do I.”

Then he didn’t say anything. Just stood there. Close and intense. A huge wall of...of...man. And for some reason her dress just felt too heavy, too cumbersome, too much. Or maybe it was all of this just too much.

She wasn’t sure how to broach the topic, considering what had just occurred in the library, considering the way he was looking at her, but even as off-kilter as she was, she was stillherself. To the point, no matter the consequences. “I’ll need help with my dress again.”

His gaze slowly tracked down, from her face and then millimeter by millimeter down her dress, before taking a slow perusal back up to her eyes.

Slowly, his gaze on her, he undid the knot of his tie.

She had no idea why that made her breath catch in her throat, stay there. Particularly when he didn’t remove it. Just left it there loose.

“Would you like to have me help you here or in the changing room?”

“My—my clothes are in the closet, so...” She gestured helplessly toward the door, but Lyon didn’t move. And neither did she.

“Perhaps we should move on to step three.”

For a moment, she didn’t understand what he was saying. Then all at once it dawned on her, the memory of last night and him assuring her there would bestepsto ease them into what they had to do. “Three?” She had to swallow at her suddenly dry throat. “What was two?”

His mouth curved, slowly.Sensuously.So that something seemed to curve inside of her in response. A deep, warmyearning.

“Step one was simply a brush of mouths. Simple. Something even friends could have shared. Step two was the taste of you.”

Taste of you.God.

“Wh-what would step three be?”

He didn’t respond right away, but he didn’t give the impression that he was somehow thinking it over. No. He knew. He was just...drawing out the moment.

When he finally spoke, each word was carefully delivered in a low, controlled voice. But his eyes... There was something that reminded her of that moment in the chapel. Where despite all his control, all his rigid certainty, she’d seen the flash of something wild.

“I want to see you.”

She could feign some ignorance there, but she knew what he meant. Naked. He wanted to see her naked.

Wanted to.She supposed if anything,thatwas the hardest part to reconcile. That these things—the kiss, thestepswere things hewanted. When she’d assumed everything would be...very awkward business. A chore. A responsibility.

This was better. It had to be. Besides, didn’t she want the same? “Do I get to see you?”

He lifted a shoulder. “If you wish.”

“Well, it only seems fair,” she managed to say, not soundingtoostrangled.

The smile on his face was an unfair advantage. The way he carefully pulled the tie from his collar and placed it across the back of the big, luxurious chair in the corner. Then he turned back to her, considering.

Her breath had completely backed up in her lungs, and it felt as though her face was on fire, while a tension coiled deep inside of her. A heat that centered between her legs. And still it wasn’t the anxiety or panic she was used to when faced with an uncomfortable or scary situation.

Lyon moved his finger in a circle, encouraging her to turn around so he could once again deal with the buttons on the back of her dress.

She had to swallow through too many sensations coursing through her before she could manage to get her feet to take the order to move. To turn.

His fingers brushed lightly down the back of her neck. “You make a beautiful princess, Beaugonia.Beau.”

She had never been complimented on her looks. She had, in fact, very rarely been complimented. Only Zia ever seemed to see her positive attributes. Beau had thought she was sort of above it. She needed no one else’s approval or assurances.

She knew what and who she was. She was almost always certain in her decisions. But that compliment felt...wonderful. She didn’t want to depend on anyone else’s opinion of her. Didn’t want to be some sad version of her mother, twisting herself just to make everything easy. Just to beapproved of.

But him thinking she was beautiful, or at least saying it, sent a new wave of satisfaction through her.

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