Page 70 of The Wicked Prince

John had her face in his hands and kissed her again before whispering against her lips, “Say it again.”

“My husband, I love you.”

He kissed her cheek. “Indulge me. Please.”

“My husband, I’m staying. I love you.”

He pulled her left hand up to his face, kissing her palm and then her ring finger before wrapping his fingers through hers and smiling against her wrist. “My wife, can I call you Roberta now?”

“Oh, not on your life. I didn’t just choose Robin for fun. I’ve always hated Roberta. It’s a horrid name!”

“Roberta is a beautiful name. But whether it’s Roberta or Robin, as long as you come home with me, I will call you whatever you want.”

“Your wife,” she said. “I love the way you say ‘my wife.’”

He kissed her again.

Until he let out a short yelp and jerked back. “Did you just bite my lip?”

Robin grinned, pulling his hand and rubbing her thumb over the spot where she’d first bitten him. “Oh, come on, that was more of a nip. Besides, I promised to if you got handsy. I’m a woman of my word.”

John laughed and buried his head in her hair.

* * *

Of course, now that Robin had made her choice, she had to face the consequences.

The second King Richard cleared his throat, John dropped his head to Robin’s shoulder. King Richard said, “So I take it there will be no annulment?”

Robin bit her lip to keep her grin from splitting her face in two as John lifted his head and looked over his shoulder at his brother. He said, “If the papers in your hand aren’t a pardon, I’m not interested!”

“I’m still king and your brother.” Richard raised an eyebrow. “I can change my mind and take you up on that offer.”

Wait—

“What offer is he talking about?” Robin shifted back so she could look up at John. “What happened between the two of you?”

John immediately looked over his shoulder and glared at Richard. “Don’t—”

But Richard was grinning as he held up the papers in his hand and said, “He offered to stay here on the front lines to make sure I pardoned you.”

John immediately closed his eyes and tilted his head back as Robin’s eyes nearly fell out of her skull. She tightened her grip on him and said, “Were you going to tell me that?”

“Probably, eventually,” John muttered. “It’s a long story. Richard was—”

But she’d grabbed his head and jerked it down, crashing her lips to his again. He gasped, and his chest stuttered against hers for a moment before he returned her passionate embrace with as much fervor as she had started with. She tightened her grip on the back of his head, curling his hair into her fingers gently as she shifted, kissing the corner of his mouth so she could breathe out, “Anyone who ever calls you a coward again, I will shoot.”

She kissed him again and pulled back just long enough to add, “And never value your life so little as to make that offer again.”

John’s hands caught hers and he pulled back just enough to say, “It wasn’t because I valued my life so little, but because of how much I value yours. Even if it wasn’t shared with me.”

Then Robin was kissing him again, this time curling a hand into his collar as she pushed herself up onto her toes. She murmured, “Still, I would not let you. Or I would have stayed with you here. I love you too much for that.”

Before she could kiss him again or he could respond, Richard cleared his throat again. “As heartwarming as this is, John, I’m going to need you to make sure I’ve covered every crime she’s been accused of, and the accurate number of counts. Just to be safe. I trust you kept better track of the charges than she and her men did.”

John sighed and shifted back, and that was when Robin distinctly felt three pairs of eyes on her—that had been on her since she’d run out of the tent unable to answer them as to why she hadn’t signed the annulment papers.

Robin tightened her grip on his shirt and whispered, “My men are going to kill me.”

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