Page 107 of Violet

I frown, turning her as we dance, and I then bring her in close. “Surreal? Happy surreal?”

There’s a moment where she’s about to slide into her people-pleasing mode, but I hold her gaze and her fingers tighten on my shoulders. “It’s… We don’t know each other. Not really.”

“We have time to find things out.” I go closer to her, brush her ear with my mouth, and breathe in her personal perfume, that heady sweet floral burst of violets that’sherand has me hooked. Because it does. She does.

I care.

I really fucking like her, and I didn’t ever expect to. “I know you like it when I go down on you, and I bet you want that again. Be my personal good girl.”

“Stephan…” My name’s a soft moan, and it slides against my skin.

“I know you like it when I finger you, taste you, kiss you.”

She grips my hair and pulls me closer to her, and we touch intimately far more than is decent, even for a mating ceremony in Sabine. There should be a tiny smidge of space between us, and I fucking love that the good princess doesn’t care when she’s lost in me.

And all we’re doing is dancing.

What’s it going to be like when I get hernaked?—

“You can’t speak like that, Stephan.”

“Why not?”

“If someone should hear…” She grips me harder, and my mind heads all the way south, gutter-bound.

“Good. Let them. You’re mine now.”

With that, she turns her face and kisses me, tongue and all. It’s a wild ride of a kiss. It’s naked and new and a little all over the place, but it’s also the most exciting kiss I’ve ever had.

Because it’s from the real Violet, the brave girl who when she gives herself a chance doesn’t care what others think. It’s the most perfect kiss, and I want to sink down into the magic of it.

But she breaks it seconds after she starts it and pulls back as the music ends. “I like you clean shaven, but I think I like your scruff more. It’s the real you.”

Then she surprises me even more by walking off to her sisters who are sitting at the family table. And I…I stare after her.

In fact, I’d probably still be standing there in the middle of the room if Clea didn’t come up and hand me a drink. With it, though, she had palmed me the very thing I’d asked for.

I transfer the pills to my pocket and take a sip of the bourbon before anyone can see.

“Are you sure about those?” she asks.

“Not yet, no.”

“You know what I think?—”

“Now isn’t the time to repeat the lecture, Clea.” The pills are insurance, a way to do things. I don’t want children. I don’t want to risk Violet. And I…I’m not lying toClea. I don’t know if I’ll use them. That’s a tricky situation.

“Buying something like that here is impossible for me.” I have another sip. Clea knows. Then I look at Violet and nod. “She told me she prefers the scruff. That it’s the real me…”

I smile.

“She seems sweet, and she’s very pretty. I see why you’re doing the besotted act…” She stops, takes me in, and slowly smiles. “Stephan… It isn’t an act.”

“She’s…nice.”

“Nice.” Her smile gets wider. “I’m so glad I pushed the mating plan. With a girl like her for a partner, you can step back, create mystery. It’ll allow you to shift your career trajectory. Hell, maybe you can get that script made, if we clean it up.”

“It’s fine as it is.”

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