Page 7 of How To Please A Princely Fae

When he began working with me, he was easy to talk to. Warm. A good listener, in addition to his good looks.

Someone easy to like, someone even easier to pine after.

But since then?

Kieran’s been anything but pleasant. I thought I could draw him out with smiles and small talk. But every attempt has been met with stony silence and a cold shoulder.

Shoulders I've stared at much too long, pining over them, which are now naked next to me in my bed for reasons that are completely beyond my comprehension.

I'm afraid to move, because what if it's not just his shoulders and arms that are naked? What if there's more nakedness under the sheets?

What if he iscompletelynaked?

Then the worst thought yet…

What if this is all some great prank?

Fresh tears prick behind my eyes, and my lip begins to wobble as I stare at the beautiful male in my bed.

I wouldn’t put it past Caelan. Caelan, a well-known trickster, easily could have put him up to this. Wren, my coven sister and his mate, wouldn’t be so cruel, though, to allow this… would she?

What if everyone has somehow conspired against me and my ridiculous crush on the fae male who can't stand me?

A tear squeezes out of my eye, and I’m too scared of waking him to wipe it away.

Perhaps this is part of some coven plan to make sureIgo to the Elder Gods and volunteer to be one of their demanded witch brides. Unhappiness crashes over me, a tempestuous wave, one I’m not strong enough to resist.

I'm afraid to breathe. I'm afraid to move.

I'm terrified to wake him up and find out the answers to the questions that rush through my head, a flood threatening to drown me.

Kieran, however, saves me from my own downward spiral.

Because he moves first.

His arm slides over my waist, warm and strong, as he snuggles closer, pulling me tight.

I freeze.

I don't dare breathe.

A shiver goes through me at his proximity—his touch—and the reality of having him in my bed, and I’m chilled to the bone despite the heat from his beautiful body. A body I have no business thinking about, a body that does not belong in my bed whatsoever, and yet, a body that is now wrapping itself around me, causing my heart to palpitate.

Maybe I should take something for that.

I’m sure I have something for heart palpitations in my stock of apothecary herbs.

I stare at the ceiling, frozen, pinned under his arm.

There is a slight water stain that resembles a Luna moth, likely due to some leak in the roof that I haven't had the time or inclination or know-how to fix. I wonder if it will take flight if I blink at it in shock enough.

Maybe there's a potion I can take to inoculate myself against the desire and longing and fear that ripple through me, more powerful than anything I have felt in my entire life.

A life I’m starting to think was lovely and safewithouta gorgeous fae male in bed with me.

The sheet slides off the rest of him as he moves, and my curiosity is satisfied.

I shouldn’t look.

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