Page 18 of Resisting Royal

CHAPTER 10

BIANCA

The alarm on my phone beeped, and I subconsciously reached behind me to hit snooze. Last night I slept better than I had in ages, and it had to be thanks to the amazing thread count on these sheets. I moaned, then pulled the comforter further around my shoulder, feeling a tug of resistance.

My fuzzy mind couldn’t quite figure out why my blanket wouldn’t move, so I pulled again, still struggling to get the thick material up to my shoulders. My mind slowly cleared, and it was then I realized that my leg was intertwined with a hard thigh, and my pillow was not a pillow at all. My eyes blinked open, and I tried not to panic, but then I saw the hard line of Royal’s jaw, peppered with a thick layer of hair, and I nearly freaked out.

I pulled back slowly, placing efficient space between us. What the hell happened that I was snuggling up to this monster last night? I was not a snuggler. In fact, I liked my space when I slept, even after sex sleepovers. Nope, this girl needed her unobstructed sleep zone. So why was I suddenly climbing over the invisible center divider to use my brand spanking new husband as a pillow?

Without even opening his eyes, he said, “Stop staring at me.”

“I wasn’t staring.” His lips tilted up.

“No? I just assumed after your stealth pullback that you were watching me, wondering what the fuck happened?”

I cringed. So, he wasn’t asleep. “I guess I need to practice my stealth.”

“Majorly.” He rolled over, his eyes still closed, and pinned me with the weight of his arm. “The bunny has to go, sweetheart.”

I lifted his arm off my waist and dropped it back on his side of the bed, while his whole body shook with laughter. “Absolutely not. I would ditch my husband before I even thought of getting rid of Peter.”

“I bet you would. But, Amore, he is so noisy. I doubt you even realize it since you slept like the dead.” His words were muffled as he half spoke into the pillow. Honestly, morning Royal was sort of . . . hot. I hated myself instantly for thinking that, but it was true. His hair was slightly tousled, his voice rough, and if I leaned in close enough, I could still smell a hint of sandalwood and spice that clung to his skin.

He cleared his throat, and I moved my gaze to his smirking face and away from the well-muscled back. “I don’t sleep like the dead.”

He adjusted his head to rest on his arms. “Not even a single movement when I came home, showered, and climbed into bed. Wait . . .” he paused. “Correction, there was a movement. When you gravitated to me, then clung to me like a helpless, little spider monkey.”

I refused to let him see the embarrassment that I felt. “I thought you were Peter.”

Even I knew there was no mistaking the two, but I told the lie, and I was standing behind it. His brows drew together as he tried to figure out how the two of them could possibly be mistaken for each other. “That makes so much more sense.”

My alarm blared again, and this time I turned it off. As much as I didn’t want to leave this bed . . . his bed, I had to. I scooted to the edge, and pushed back the comforter, forcing myself out of the comfortable cocoon of blankets. I felt his eyes on me, watching intensely as I stood, but I refused to give him the satisfaction of knowing he was affecting me.

And he did affect me, big time. I felt the goose flesh rise everywhere his eyes touched, but if he asked, I would blame it on the chill in the air. “What time do you have to be at work?”

His voice startled me from my thoughts, and I turned around to see him so close he was practically touching me. “Um, seven.”

There was a delay in his response, as if his mind was refusing to process any information. “Seven?”

“We open early on Tuesday.” He nodded, and to distract myself from how much I wanted my husband and how much I hated that fact, I added, “So, how’s your tooth?”

His eyes narrowed, but his face didn’t change. “Good as new. My dentist was awful, though.”

“You think so?” I’d made my way into the bathroom with him right on my heels. “Might want to let Yelp know, so my five-star rating can reflect with accuracy.” I jumped up onto the counter and crossed my arms, determined to stare him down.

“I can’t. It would be a conflict of interest, and some people may think my opinions weren’t accurate.” He stepped closer, his alluring scent enveloped me.

“What part was unpleasant, exactly? The part where you repeatedly acted like a three-year-old or the painless tooth pulling?”

“Neither. It was the condescending attitude of the dentist herself.” He leaned forward, his body so close that I had to spread my thighs wider to accommodate his presence.

My brain fogged over, my thoughts clouded. Ugh, why did he have to smell so good? And why couldn’t he be ugly? Maybe a little easier to reject instead of my body’s involuntary response every time he got close. “Yeah?”

Shit. It sounded breathless even to my own ears. Royal leaned down, his lips so close to mine, but just barely hovering out of reach. He licked his lower lip, and I almost died inside, the quiver that shot through my lower body a complete betrayal of my mind. “Yeah.”

I tilted my head closer because one kiss wouldn’t hurt anything. I could go back to hating him the moment I was out the door, and I would, too. “Maybe it was you who was pompous.”

He was so close, I could taste him. “Definitely wasn’t me.”

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