Page 34 of Mistaken as His Royal Bride

‘Why?’

‘Because she never made me want to look twice. She never made mewant.’

Maddi’s legs nearly buckled again. She locked her knees. She was wondering if she was dreaming. But Aristedes was looking at her mouth now...hungrily. It was a hunger that caught fire inside her, deep down. She didn’t know why, but she’d always had an instinct that this fire could exist. Stubbornly, she’d hoped that it did, and now she was being consumed by it.

She whispered, ‘I thought it was just me.’

He shook his head. ‘You make me crazy.’

Maddi ducked her head. ‘I know. Because of—’

But her chin was tipped back before she could complete her sentence and Aristedes was shaking his head again.

‘Because ofthis.’

And then, before Maddi could take another breath, he was kissing her. She was suspended in time and place for a second, as his strong, firm mouth moved over hers, and then, as if coming out of a trance, she was suddenly kissing him back with a ferocity that might have scared her if she’d had a functioning brain cell left in her head.

Waves of relief washed through her.

He wanted her too.

And then there were much more potent things.

Desire fast turning to lust.

He angled her head and she opened her mouth on a breath. Everything changed. His tongue touched hers and Maddi’s heart pounded at the electric shock it brought, sending a jolt through her entire body, down to between her legs, where sheached.

He was demanding a response from her that she willingly gave. Matching him stroke for stroke. She was intoxicated.

He clamped his hands on her waist and pulled her even closer. She gasped into his mouth when she felt the hard evidence of his arousal against her lower body.

But even in the midst of this moment of total and utter conflagration, Maddi had the very unsettling sense of something else. She felt as if she was...coming home.

But she couldn’t unpick that now. It was too confusing. Disturbing...

Aristedes broke the kiss.

Maddi was gasping, dizzy. She opened her eyes with an effort and for a second he was a blur. Then he came back into focus. His face was stark with the hunger she felt. Eyes burning.

Her mouth was swollen.

He looked at her and shook his head. ‘Whoareyou?’

Maddi couldn’t speak. She knew he wasn’t just asking her to repeat her name. She could have asked the same of him. Right now, he didn’t remotely resemble the man that Laia had always described as uptight, strict, humourless.

This man was the most exciting person Maddi had ever met, and just moments ago he’d touched her with a tenderness that she’d never encountered before. Not even from her own mother.

One of the hands on her waist moved up, disturbingly close to the underside of her breast. Maddi’s breath grew choppy again.

He said, ‘I’ve been dreaming of you... Of touching you.’

Between her legs she felt hot and damp. ‘You have?’

He nodded. His hand crept under her top. She could feel the roughness of his palms and almost groaned. He was a king...he should have soft hands from being waited on. But he didn’t. He had the hands of a worker.

And then one hand was cupping the weight of her breast.

Maddi bit her lip and Aristedes tugged it free with his thumb. He bent his head and kissed her again. This time slowly, carefully, thoroughly. He squeezed the generous flesh of her breast and she moaned into his mouth, pressing closer, relishing the hard evidence of his desire.