I shook my head. “I’m pretty sure she’s still freaking out for criticizing a prince.”
“They all know?” Cedric asked.
“Rafael figured it out,” I said. “He knows the weirdest facts, like European royalty, you know?”
We shared a laugh. Cedric inhaled deeply. “What madeyou come here? I thought I did…pretty well…turning you against me.”
“Oh, you did that just fine,” I growled. I couldn’t stay mad, though. “Rome made me rethink everything. He made me realize that what you did was out of love.”
“It was,” Cedric hurried to assure me.
I smiled and took his hand in mine. “I know that now. And I won’t doubt it again.”
Cedric stood, pulling me up with him. He pressed a kiss on my brow, then each of my closed eyes, and finally, on my lips. It was soft and loving, heating up with the lust that never failed to appear between us. It existed like an eternal ember, only ever needing a small gust of wind to create an all-consuming fire. And the fire roared.
I kissed him back harder, touching his hips and pulling him close. I could never have enough of him, body and soul. Shivers ran down my arms as something inexplicable rocked my chest. Was this what pure happiness felt like? Like climbing the highest peak of the highest mountain, like rising to the top of the biggest Ferris wheel, like sitting in a magical rocket and flying into space.
Cedric pulled back from me, his eyes glimmering with happy tears and his deep dimples accenting his smile. He took my hand and led me through the sitting room into his bedroom. There, when I asked, he showed me where the en suite was behind a discreet door that looked like part of the wallpapered wall.
I showered, feeling the tiredness of this extraordinarily long day wash away and leave down the drain. When I was done, I tied a big towel around my waist, Cedric’s initials embroidered over a corner of the soft, white fabric. Theshower had energized me and cleared my thoughts, but it didn’t dampen the desire that ripped through me.
As I stepped into the bedroom, all the lights were out. Instead, Cedric had prepared candles that glimmered from every surface in the room. The nightstands held porcelain plates with candles of various sizes, and so did the shelves, the surfaces of both of his dressers and the windowsills with curtains wide open and tied to the sides of the tall windows.
Cedric wore his white shirt and dark gray like before. He stepped toward me and gazed at me shamelessly, taking in every inch of my body.
“I should have put something nice on,” I said.
Cedric shook his head. “You are perfect exactly the way you are.”
My heart stumbled. I put a hand on the middle of Cedric’s chest, my stomach filled with butterflies and my head spinning. When had he done all this? To be fair, I’d taken my merry time, and I hadn’t exactly planned to go to sleep right away.
“And so are you,” I said, popping a button of his shirt. “Although I can see a few ways we can improve your appearance.”
He let out a low, deep chuckle, his hand resting on the fold of the towel on my hip. “I have a few ideas, too.” His fingers slipped the fold open, and the towel parted like a curtain, sliding from my waist.
I gasped, but Cedric put his hand on my hip, the other hand resting softly on the small of my back. His lips covered mine in the next instant, and the other half of my gasp turned into a gentle moan.
These were the heated kisses of the lovers who had beenseparated by forces beyond their control. I hadn’t known that such kisses existed, but I could recognize them clearly now.
It didn’t take long for the fire in me to become apparent. My cock grew, swelling to its full size. Our bodies pressed tightly together, my dick trapped between our legs, throbbing and begging to be touched.
Cedric was hard, too, although the dark grey pants contained him mercilessly.
As he kissed me, I undid his buttons, feeling his heated body and smooth skin until he could shrug the shirt off. It flew somewhere behind him, and he unbuckled his belt for me. When the belt was off, I turned us around and pushed Cedric back. He let himself fall flat on the big, soft bed, sinking into the mattress and grinning like it was his first time.
I’m going to ride you until you go mad, I thought, my brain spinning and my heart thundering.
Cedric’s gaze locked onto my hard cock, and his perfect teeth closed around his lower lip. “Come here,” he said after a moment, but I hesitated just to torture him a little more. My left hand rested on my chest, sliding slowly down the length of my torso. The pull of attraction I felt between us was like sliding to the eye of the horizon of a black hole. It was inescapable. It was unbreakable. My course was charted for me, and there was nothing I could or would do differently.
It pulled me toward him until I knelt on the bed between his legs. Leaning in, I rested my hands on his chiseled abs and dragged them down to the last button that needed undoing. Once I finished,I leaned in deeper, pressing my lips against the middle of his chest. I kissed and licked him all the way down to the waistband of his underwear, pulling his pants to his knees as I kissed him. And when my lips found the soft, tight fabric of his boxer briefs, I held my breath against shivering and moaning, and I pulled his underwear down, too.
I didn’t know how he did it. It was swift, and it relied on his strength. I only knew that he was lifting his torso in one instant and that our places were swapped in the next. I gazed up into his deep, blue eyes as Cedric towered over me. His legs moved, and I heard his pants and underwear falling off the bed. His arms were tense as they supported the weight of his torso, but he was lowering himself onto me slowly. His hard cock pressed lightly against my abdomen before he sank low and melted into me. Our bodies, naked and warm, touched everywhere at once. The air left me, but I kissed him instead, and it was enough to keep me alive.
“I thought I lost you,” he whispered.
“You’ll never lose me,” I told him, my hands on his hips, sliding to his round ass and pulling him closer.
Our mouths pressed together, Cedric’s tongue sliding to explore my mouth, teasing me, toying with me, driving me crazy with all this desire I had nowhere to spend. He moved quickly and trapped my hands high above my head, locking my wrists in the hold of his left hand. His right hand moved gently up the side of my rib cage until he closed it around my neck. It turned me wilder than I had thought it ever could.