Page 35 of His Highness's Hidden Heir

She gave a small cry and pushed her face into his shoulder, but her hand found the top of his briefs and slipped inside. Her fist tightened around his erection as she slid her knee against his leg, opening her thighs for more of his touch.

“Let me kiss you again,” he insisted.

She did. Passionately. They caressed each other as they feasted on each other, writhing and perspiring beneath the light blanket, gasping and moaning until she set her teeth in his bottom lip and groaned with ecstasy into his mouth.

As her hips bucked in orgasm, he let his own excitement take him over the edge, mindful of the fact they couldn’t really stay in the air while he spent hours making love to her, even though this was exactly where he wanted to stay.

Lexi was still feeling undone when she took her seat.

She hadn’t planned to fool around with Magnus. Her desire to see how he truly felt about the baby had turned into sexual desire and one thing led to another.

Discovering they still had a powerful physical connection wasn’t as comforting as she’d imagined it would be. All she’d really learned was that she had even less willpower around him than she had believed.

The way he looked at her as she joined him, with lazy satisfaction and knowing possessiveness, only made her feel more at his mercy—of which he seemed to have very little.

Trying to avoid his gaze, she looked out the window where the sun cast golden beams across a collection of jagged islands, all wearing coats of emerald and ivory.

“Is that it?” She touched her forehead to the cool glass, studying the largest one. It was shaped like a bowl rimmed in granite teeth. A long, silvery-blue fjord stretched in a jagged wedge up the middle. The coastline was a cliff that had been broken off by the axe of an ancient ice age. In the distance, a half dozen smaller islands stood like weathered pyramids. “I expected it to be covered in snow.”

“It’s summer. And we’re not as far north as people think. Also, the islands were formed by volcanoes, so we have enough thermal activity that the snow only sticks in the highest elevations.”

“It’s really pretty.” She squashed her nose trying to keep it all in sight as they made their approach, growing more enchanted by the second. “Is that the palace?” She pointed to a grouping of stone towers with spires and tile roofs. Stairs led from lawns to halls to terraced courtyards. A fat wall surrounded all of it.

“That’s the original castle. One of Queen Katla’s first acts was to name it a heritage site and return it along with its contents to Isleif. It’s open to the public for guided tours. The palace is the long building behind it.”

“Where you live.”

“We. Yes.”

We.He wasn’t going to let up for a second, was he?

The palace wasn’t as fairy-tale-looking, but she imagined it was modernized and far more comfortable than that magical-looking castle.

Seconds later, they touched down. Her nerves dissipated the way they always did when she was about to go on stage. It was a convenient Zen-like state that bordered on disassociation. It probably wasn’t healthy, but it had gotten her through a lot of difficult times so she didn’t fight it.

“Crowds have gathered,” Ulmer informed as he brought Lexi a long coat. “Ignore them and move quickly into the car.”

Lexi glanced at Magnus as she buttoned and belted the light coat that would disguise her pregnancy. “Do they know I’m here with you?”

“A video of us boarding is circulating online.”

She had a quick look at her phone and saw herself climbing the stairs into the jet. Magnus’s hand was splayed in her lower back, his wide shoulders shielding her as much as possible, but she’d been caught in a compromising profile.

Baby Bump or Booty Call?was trending, with comments ranging fromI knew itand#StanMagLexito#golddiggerand worse. She clicked off her phone and dropped it into her pocket.

“Welcome to the cage, pretty bird,” Magnus said flintily. He looped a scarf around her neck and set a woolen hat on her head.

“It’s too big.” She brushed the hat back before it slipped over her eyes. “I don’t need this, do I?” He had just reminded her it was August.

“No, but I want you to wear them.”

“Because they’re Isleif colors?” She picked up the tail of the scarf, recognizing the stripes of blue and white and green.

“Because they’re mine.” He gave the edge of the hat a third roll against her forehead, smoothing her hair back from her cheeks as he did. “And so are you.”

That should not have sent a frisson of pleasure through her, but it did.

“Sir?” Ulmer prompted as the door was opened and a fresh-scented gust of air came in, one that was sweet and cool and beckoning.

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