Page 79 of A Princess for Christmas

“Did you put these on hoping I’d see them?” he goaded. He worked her jeans down over her hips, fully exposing the little scrap of fabric covering her mound. It had a tiny black bow on the front. He sucked in a breath. There was something... dangerous about that bow. It was small and shiny and it was abow, for fuck’s sake. It shouldn’t have had that much power over him. But it caused an infusion of something that felt curiously close to too much, like a jet of water into an already full bathtub.

He covered the whole thing—the bow and the panties andher—with the palm of his hand so he didn’t have to look anymore.“Or maybe you were hoping I’d shove them out of the way and do this?” he rasped, sliding his thumb past the waistband and into her.

She bucked her hips, chasing his touch, and he gasped at the slick heat of her. Which was not the way he wanted to present himself to her.Shewas the one who was supposed to be gasping.

So he turned his attention to extracting the answer he wanted.

“Back to the original question. Which do you think?” He pulled the panties down farther, so they joined her jeans halfway down her thighs and maneuvered his body so he was looking right at the mass of short, springy curls. “Tongue?” he used a hand to part her folds, part of him wondering if actual steam would be emitted given the temperature differential between the air and... her.

A shudder racked her body—her whole body. It was sudden and startling and violent.

Had he pushed too far?

“Leo,” she whispered again, all needy and trusting, and it almost undid him. She started shivering.

It was too cold to be doing this out here. So he pulled panties and jeans alike back up and arranged himself so he was lying on his side next to her, but he kept the one hand on her.

“Hands,” he said decisively, using the handnotdown her pants to reach over and grab one side of her coat and re-cover her. “Hands now, tongue later.” From this angle he had his fingers pointing down, so he let three of them move exploratorily, making small circles near but not directly on her clit. He watched her closely, trying to assess what worked. He needn’t have, though, because when he grazed the nub straight on, her eyes flew open, and she said, “Oh!” It rang out across the clean, cold air.

So he did it again. And again. He also allowed himself toshamelessly press his erection against her hip, grinding harder with every “Oh!” she emitted—and she emitted a lot of them.

It took a while, but he judged that his best bet was to keep doing what he was doing. He felt like he was unraveling her slowly but inexorably. And he enjoyed the hell out of the process. It sounded stupid, but he felt almost honored to be witnessing this. He didn’t get the impression that Princess Marie Joséphine Annagret Elena let go like this very often, much less in front of other people. Much,muchless at the hands—literally—of other people.

He saw the level of trust involved and honestly, it scared him a little.

But not enough to stop.

And eventually the telltale panting started up again, and she was undone.

The more alarming part was that even though he hadn’t come yet, he kind of felt like he had, too.

Leo was such a good kisser.

Which was a somewhat strange thing for Marie to think given that he had done so much more than kiss her. It was just that she’d spent so much time admiring those pillowy lips of his. To have them on her was the strangest, most wonderful sensation.

Coupled with the fact that when theyweren’ton her, they said the most alarmingly delicious things.

It was like she had special, secret nerve endings that only Leo’s mouth, with the things it did and the things it said, could light up.

“You okay, Princess?”

Oh. She was lying there like a crepe, flat and listless. Spent on account of the inaugural firing of all those newly discovered nerveendings. And, she realized with a surge of embarrassment, she’d just lain there the whole time and let him hover over her—let him dismantle her.

“What are you thinking?” Leo pressed.

He was worried. That she regretted their encounter, perhaps. There was nothing overt on his face to signal worry, but he was looking at her with the same intensity with which he had looked at Gabby in the rearview mirror of his taxi a week and a bit ago. A lifetime ago.

Marie was thinking that she could not abide this being the second time that she found release and he didn’t. She couldn’t just lie there and let him... do things to her.

She was certain she was going to enjoy doing things to him, too.

She wasn’t sure how to start, though. Being with Leo already felt vastly different from her experiences with boys at university.

But she didn’t have to think about it very hard before she realized shedidknow how to start. He had taught her that.

She lifted her hips, hitched her panties and jeans up, sparing a thought for how undignified this was and finding she didn’t care, and sat up. “I’m thinking about whatIshould do toyou.”

He sat up, too. His lips twitched, and the intensity look receded. “Are you now?”

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