Page 52 of The Princess Trap
He continued to frown, looking at her as if he could see right through her. No, not through her; into her. Behind the carefully put-together version of herself she’d chosen to wield, right to the real, actual person. She waited for him to call her out. He didn’t.
Instead he said, “I’m sorry. Agathe always says I need bells.” And then he smiled. It was lovely and charming and devastating. A gift.
“You do. Someone so big shouldn’t be so quiet.” She gave him a smile of her own, a real one, and he reached out andslid his hand over the back of her neck. Cherry tried not to arch into him, but she rather thought she failed.
For a moment they stayed that way, connected by the warmth of his skin against hers, by secrets whispered into the darkness and looks shared in the daylight. But then he pulled away, shaking himself slightly, and strode across the kitchen.
“Here,” he said, grabbing a cloth from beside the sink. But he didn’t give it to her; he wiped up the mess she’d made of the table. Then he lifted the cloth towards her, hesitated, lowered his hand again. All at once, Cherry registered the cold wetness spreading through her clothes.Oops. Annoyed at herself—really, she was staring like a widgeon while milk soaked into cashmere—she hurriedly unbuttoned the cardigan and tugged it off.
The milk wasn’t bad at all, she decided, examining the splatters. She could rinse it out. Setting the damp fabric aside, she turned back to Ruben, athank youon her lips.
The look on his face wiped her mind clean. And then made it filthy.
He was staring down at her chest like he’d never seen tits before. Sure, her bra was kind of visible through the white silk, but it was hardly erotic. And yet… he looked down at her, his jaw set, his grey eyes thunderous. His nostrils flared slightly as he took deep, hungry breaths, his fists clenched tight. If she didn’t know him, she might think that he was angry.
He wasn’t angry. He was focused. So, so focused.
“What?” she said softly, arching a brow.
His movements were fast and sharp, predatory. He bent over her, resting a hand against the island, his other hand grabbing a fistful of her piled-up hair.
“You knowwhat,” he rasped, his eyes boring into hers. Then they dropped. “No lipstick?”
“It’s 9 a.m.,” she breathed. “Why would I—?”
“You always wear lipstick.”
“I’m relaxing,” she drawled, as if he wasn’t filling her space and exposing her throat. “At home.”
He smiled, the brightness of the expression cutting through his intensity, softening the harsh lines of his face. “Home, hm? Interesting.”
“Oh, don’t be smug.” She rolled her eyes.
“So sorry,” he murmured mockingly. His hand shifted, dragging her head back. She swallowed, painfully aware of the vulnerability of her position, of the control he had over her movements. Aware and… aroused. Fuck. Was it really that easy? Surely it shouldn’t be that easy.
But it was. He bent over her, his lips hovering an inch from hers, his gaze inescapable, filling her vision like a stormy sky. “I didn’t mean to do this,” he whispered. “I’m trying to go slow.”
“Go slow?”
He smiled. Her eyes were closed now, but she felt it—felt his lips skate against hers as the corners tipped up. “Yeah. Slow. We get to know each other, and you trust me, and then I kiss you under some mistletoe—”
“Mistletoe?”
“I thought the trust might take a while. I was aiming for Christmas at the latest.”
She could tell he was trying to make her laugh. Instead, her stomach sank like a stone. Because Christmas was almost a year away. By the time it came, there’d be 30 days left of their sham relationship.
“Don’t,” he whispered. “Stop thinking about things.”
“You know I can’t.”
“You can. I could make you. Should I make you, Cherry?”
“Try,” she whispered back, the words disappearing like smoke against his lips.
He kissed her. That’s what it was called, one person’s lips against another: a kiss. He had one hand in her hair, and the other floated across her cheek, and his mouth slanted over hers, and that was a kiss.
But it felt like something more than that. It felt like he was pouring himself into her, and she didn’t want him to stop.
