Page 65 of Reveal Me
‘Absolutely.’ I draw an X across my chest in promise. ‘But you can trust me, Sean. I won’t let you down.’
‘Slowly, slowly, I’m starting to believe it.’ He closes the passenger door, then strides around to the driver’s side and drops into the seat beside me. ‘Now, can we talk about something else?’ He twists his head to meet my gaze across the console. ‘Time is precious; I don’t want to waste it imagining you dating another man.’
‘What do you want to talk about?’
‘You.’ He takes my hand and presses it to his lips as he reverses the car out of the parking lot. ‘I want to know everything about you.’
‘You already know more than most.’
‘What’s your favourite food?’
‘Pasta.’ I shrug. ‘Carbs have been my best friend since I got here. Carbs and Kat, my lady-in-waiting.’
‘Favourite movie?’
‘Love Actually. But it still bugs me that one couple didn’t get their happy ever after.’
‘And that Alan Rickman cheated on his wife!’ He shakes his head in disgust.
‘You saw it?’ I squeal. It’s hard to imagine a man like him watching a romance movie.
‘I have a sister—and sisters-in-law.’ He cocks a brow. ‘Christmas isn’t Christmas without that crap blaring, apparently. Every Christmas Eve, we have a family movie night. It’s always the same two,Love ActuallyandThe Holiday. The women always blub, and the men always slug. Thank God we own a distillery, given the amount of whiskey we get through at “the most wonderful time of the year”.’
‘It sounds idyllic. Our Christmases at the palace are a little different.’ I pull a face. ‘I’d love to have a family like yours,’ I sigh wistfully.
‘Maybe you will,’ he inclines his head towards mine. ‘Stranger things have happened.’
My stomach somersaults at the mere suggestion as we pull up outside Blackstone House. It feels like a lifetime ago that I was last here, that first night with the contract.
Sean carries me up the sweeping staircase, past the bathroom with the clawfoot tub, and into his bedroom. It’s dark, masculine, and expensively finished, just like him. Floor to ceiling windows overlook the grounds below. I don’t have time to appreciate the view because he lays me gently on his enormous bed. Onyx-like eyes hold mine through the moonlight.
‘This is getting dangerous.’ He whispers. ‘Suddenly I don’t want to tie you to a cross anymore. I want to tie you to my bed and never let you leave.’
‘If I thought for a second we could get away with it…’
His lips find mine, parting them, tenderly sweeping his tongue through my mouth, savouring me like it’s the first time. He unbuttons his shirt without breaking our kiss, then pulls my dress up over my head. When he’s removed every single item of clothing from both of our bodies, he nudges my thighs open.
‘I love you,’ he says again, brushing my hair back from my face, kissing from my temple, to my jawline, then back to my lips. ‘Sometimes I wonder if you’re real. Sometimes I worry that one day, I’m going to wake up and you’ll have vanished, never to be seen again.’
‘It won’t happen. I won’t let it happen.’
He pins my arms above my head and guides himself into me, grinding slowly, like he’s savouring every movement, every moment of this. His palms map out every inch of mybody, like he’s committing every millimetre to memory. It’s unlike anything we’ve done in the sultry confines of Reveal. At Reveal, our bodies meet. Here, in the private confines of his bed, it feels more like two sacred souls meeting for the first time.
Afterwards, we lie entwined. He wraps his arms tightly around me like he really is afraid I might vanish. In the silence, something shifts between us—something deeper than desire, more profound than any contract. He strokes my hair with reverent fingers while I press closer, resting my cheek on his chest, listening to the steady thrum of his heartbeat. Sleep seems like a waste when these stolen hours feel more special than anything I’ve experienced in my entire life. I lie soaking in every second. A contentment that has no place there fills my heart.
He gently shifts beside me. ‘We better get you home, princess.’
‘I know. I hate leaving you. Especially when I’m not going to see you tomorrow.’
‘I’ll text you.’
‘You will?’
‘We’re breaking all the rules now, anyway…’ He brushes his lips over mine. ‘This is no longer an arrangement. This, us’—he motions between us—‘is everything to me now.’
Chapter Twenty-Nine
SEAN
