Page 21 of The Royal Flame
“Yeah, maybe.” Doubt weighs in his voice as he absentmindedly ravels a strand of my hair around his finger. “We need to talk. You and me, I mean.”
Puzzlement weaves through me. “Okay, but about what specifically?”
“About the text my mother sent me before she went missing.” He unravels my hair from his finger. “I know she may not have gotten taken, but I still believe her warning about that dangers of me being in your life.”
“You and I dating—fake dating—it protects me from the society. If we don’t date anymore… They’ll come after me again.” An involuntary shudder ripples through my body at the faint memories of waking up in those woods.
He slips an arm around my back. “Nothing’s going to happen to you. I won’t allow it.” He pauses, his throat muscles working as he swallows hard. “There’s an alternative. One that will keep you safe from everything.”
“What is it?” I ask warily.
Why do I get the inkling he’s about to tell me something I don’t want to hear?
“You can fake date Finn for a while,” he tells me. “It’ll keep you safe from the society and safe from me.”
I shake my head. “That sounds like an awful plan.”
He wets his lips with his tongue. “Why? It’ll protect you.”
He’s right.
It will.
It’ll protect me from his mother’s warning.
From the society.
From my feelings for him.
The latter, however, is problematic. I’m terrified that I’m falling for him—a Royal.
“You’re not saying anything,” River says, his voice laced with uncertainty.
“As irrational as this is going to sound, I don’t think I want to do that.”
“Maddy,” he starts, but I talk over him. “Not only would it seem suspicious as hell that I switched brothers, but I honestly don’t want to. I… You’ve grown on me, Gothic prince.”
He assesses me before lowering his forehead against mine. “I don’t think I can put you at risk. I want to keep fake dating you… But it’s so selfish and doesn’t feel right if it means putting you in danger. The whole point of us fake dating was to protect you.”
I peer up at him. “I know.”
He nods, as if agreeing.
And in the back of my mind, I’m well aware that I should step back and put some distance between us, break the connection. But like the idiot I’ve become lately, I press closer and weld my lips to his.
He groans as I part his lips with my tongue and kiss him.
“Maddy,” he murmurs between kisses. “I don’t… I can’t… Shit.” He kisses me so fiercely that I feel it all through my pulsating body. His fingers travel up my spine and tangle in my hair, lightly tugging on the roots.
Tingles caress my flesh and flood every inch of my body as we kiss…
And kiss…
And kiss…
It feels endless, yet not enough.
I clutch onto the hem of his shirt, pulling him against me, but then his muscles go taunt, a reminder that he’s injured.
