Page 52 of Their Diamond Ring Ruse

One moment was made all the more special as Lily stood alone in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles. Bright sunlight poured in through the large windows, reflecting off every sparkling surface. The golden statues were nearly glowing. Above were chandeliers so breathtakingly intricate she couldn’t stop looking at them. And the ceiling... It was beauty beyond words.

Julian had managed to arrange a private tour, just for them. Another memory made with him for her to pocket away.

She glanced sidelong at him as he studied a statue of a golden woman bearing a crystal lamp. This man had brought her here, showed him a piece of himself and made her happy. Simply looking at him made her heart race.

‘What’s on your mind?’ he asked, turning to her.

‘Nothing,’ she lied. When he cocked his eyebrow, she chuckled. ‘It’s just unfair how you affect me.’

* * *

‘You think it’s not the same for me?’

Julian was incredulous. How could she not see what she did to him?

‘Come with me.’

He was going to set the record straight. He was in France with her because she had asked him to come, but still she thought he wasn’t completely under her spell.

It was ridiculous.

He took her hand and led her through the palace and the magnificent gardens to the hotel in the palace grounds. They entered a grand apartment with its gilded walls decorated similarly to the palace that could be viewed from the window.

Julian had booked it for complete privacy but he did not stop until they were in the largest suite allowing her to walk a few steps away from him. She pivoted on the spot, watching him. He knew she would be reading clear want on his face. This was how he would show her exactly what she made him feel.

‘Take off your clothes and get on the bed.’

Lily cocked a brow at his command, but he knew she would obey. It was written in the way her eyes grew heavy, in the breaths that seemed to come a little more raggedly, and the blush creeping up her neck. Julian watched, cataloguing every minute detail, every change in her body.

She drew her shirt over her head, letting it slip through the tips of her fingers to the floor.

Julian stood still. Trying with all his might to control the want ravaging him. Trying not to cross the distance between them and take her in his arms. He couldn’t do that. He had to show her what he couldn’t say. What he might never be able to say. Even though the words had been dancing around his mind constantly.

‘I love you.’

They had been the last words he had said to his mother at her bedside. The last time he had said them at all. There was no way he would ever be able to say them again.

Julian pulled his own shirt over his head and threw it to one side. Lily paused her movement, her gaze raking over his body, and he could have sworn he felt it like a touch. Drawing the corner of her lip between her teeth, she removed the rest of her clothing, with Julian just a step behind.

Then she climbed into the centre of the large, four-poster canopied bed and leaned back against the pillows.

‘Touch yourself,’ he said, hoarse.

Her skin flamed, and he could see her swallow hard, but despite her shyness Lily raised a hand and trailed it down her stomach. Teasing.

As hard as he was, he knew it wasn’t just arousal that coursed through him, but pride. He was so proud of this woman who didn’t back down from any challenge. She just reached within herself and pulled from her limitless reserves of strength.

So he would make her invincible. No one was ever going to try to control her again. She wouldn’t be shy about her pleasure, wouldn’t worry about her freedom, nor care if anyone was there to support her. Because he would make sure she knew she needed no one. The world should be bowing to her, begging to be allowed into her universe.

And even though he couldn’t say the words playing in his mind, Julian knew that he loved her. It was an absolute, immutable truth. Even though he’d tried to fight it. Even though he knew what love could do to a person. Even though he knew this couldn’t be for ever. Julian had fallen in love with her.

He watched her fingers slide lazily over her sex, heard a gasp escaping her at her own touch, and with eyes locked on hers he grasped his hardness, matching her slow, languid pace.

The muscles in his abdomen tensed, pleading with him to go faster, but he wouldn’t. He leaned against the wall behind him. The cool surface was welcome against his heated skin. Lily was flushed, her breathing growing more uneven the longer she watched him. And as her fingers moved faster, so did his hand. A moan came from both of them, the two sounds intertwining in the quiet room.

‘Lily...’ he rasped. An invocation.

Through the haze, he could see understanding light her eyes. She slowed her hand right down and so did he. His obedience to her order was unwavering, making him groan...a rough, strangled sound.

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