“Sap? Don’t forget the vulnerable position you’re in,” he said with a touch of mischief in his eyes. “You’re at my mercy.”
“One of my favorite places to be.” I nipped at his throat, loving the salty burst of his skin on my tongue. “In your arms.”
A low growl vibrated in his chest, and he broke his casual pace, carrying me with more haste down the tree-lined path. As the officers’ quarters came into view, I understood his intentions.
“Is the noble Captain Maddox taking me to his bed to ravish me? How scandalous.”
“Scandalous?” He stepped across the threshold and kicked the door closed behind us.
“Oh yes.” I toyed with the clasp on his cloak. The desire for a little role-play struck. It was something we hadn’t really done before. “What would the people say if they knew?”
“My love for you is no secret.” He dropped me onto the bed and removed his cloak. His expression veered on confused, which made it hard for me not to laugh.
“Oh, but it is,” I said theatrically, throwing a hand across my forehead. “We come from two different worlds. You’re sworn to serve the royal family, oh valiant knight, and I’m merely a lowly peasant. If the people learned of our love, it would undoubtedly tarnish your honorable reputation. We mustn’t do this.”
“Did you just call yourself a peasant?” He frowned down at me. “Are you all right, sweetheart? You’re speaking out of your mind.”
“Maddox,” I mumbled with a little frustrated kick of my feet. “This is supposed to be sexy role-play time.”
“Role-play?” He got on the bed and hovered over me, bracing his arms on both sides of my head.
“Yep. Where we can act out sexual fantasies and be anything we want. Enemies to lovers with some rough ‘I hate you but need you’ sex. Captive and captor, if you’re feeling some dark romance vibes. Or the forbidden love trope. That’s always been one of my favorites. Hence, the noble knight and peasant.”
“Ah. I see.” An amused gleam lit his blue eyes. “What if I don’t wish for you to be a peasant?”
“What would you like me to be, then?” I asked with an excited wiggle. “It can be anything. The sky’s the limit.”
“Anything? Only one thing comes to mind.” Maddox slid his fingers through mine and lifted my hand to his lips, kissing my middle knuckle. “My prince.”
My heart lifted into my throat at the sudden tenderness in his blue eyes. Then, he kissed me. It was soft at first. Hesitant. Different than how he normally kissed me.
“How long I’ve yearned to taste your lips,” he softly whispered. “To feel your skin on mine. Yet, as you stated, we come from different worlds. I haven’t a right to touch you. To love you. Your place is on the throne, and mine is on the battlefield, fighting in your name.”
Holy shit. He was actually playing along. I hadn’t expected him to.
But as his mouth crashed against mine, his body quaking ever so softly, I got the feeling it wasn’t totally an act.
Aside from being more protective, Maddox had treated me the same once learning whose blood ran through my veins. He still teased me and bossed me around in the way I loved. However, I’d occasionally caught a glimmer in his eyes, a sense of awe that made me feel like he was putting me on a pedestal in his mind.
Like I really was his prince.
Our role-play gave him the freedom to act on those feelings.
“My shield. My sword. Both belong to you.” He dipped his face to my neck and shakily breathed out. “As does my heart. Until my dying day.”
“That day better not come anytime soon,” I said, emotion tight in my throat. “I forbid it.”
“You forbid it, do you?” Maddox unfastened the strings on my tunic and exposed the top of my chest, lifting his gaze to mine.
“Yep. I’m your prince, after all. Gotta obey me.”
He didn’t smile, but I saw the joy in his blue eyes—the love. “I’ve changed my mind. You can return to being a peasant.”
I laughed. “Too late. This muffin has a crown now. So you have to—”
Maddox claimed my lips in a heated kiss, silencing my snarky response and causing every coherent thought to flee my head. I melted into him.
Love was illogical and messy, something that couldn’t be explained with words. But I felt it in his kiss. In the way he stripped off my clothes and worshiped my body with his lips and deft fingers. I saw it in his eyes as he joined our bodies and cupped my face. They shone with a vulnerability that threatened total annihilation of the heart should something ever tear us apart.
