So Cadmus had tried impressing Samantha with manners and compliments?
I hoped she didn’t expect pretty words from me.I paused in thought.“So is that the kind of guy you like?”
It would kill me if I had to be polite all the time.I preferred honesty over fawning all over people.We’d dealt with a lot of that at home in Tanselm.Being princes and future Storm Lords had naturally made us popular.But our parents had never let that admiration go to our heads.
I still didn’t know what had happened to Marcus to make him such an ass.
“What are you talking about?”Samantha frowned.
“The kind of guy you like.A guy who’ll flatter you and bring you gifts?”
“Please.”She huffed, and the tension drained right out of me.“I’ve never been one for false praise, and I’m not much on flowers.They last maybe a week before you have to throw them out.Now chocolates, on the other hand,” she paused and licked her lips.
I had to shift in my seat, my erection straining my jeans.Damn.I needed relief in the worst way.And not from just anyone.From Samantha.
From the moment I woke in the morning to the instant I closed my eyes to sleep, she lingered on my mind.I’d imagine I heard her laugh or caught her scent nearby.I’d see something and want to share with her, to see what she thought or felt.
My attraction to her had morphed into an attraction for her entire being, not just her beautiful features.By the Light.I had become infatuated with a woman from a world with no magic.And I didn’t care about my brothers teasing me for it either.
I was seriously doomed.
“We shouldn’t have to wait long to eat,” I said to change the subject.“I made reservations for six-thirty.I would have been home earlier, but I had a few errands to run.”
“For Father Denton?”She stared at me with a strange glitter in her moss green eyes.
I flushed.Cadmus and his big mouth.Now she probably thought I was a soft touch.“It’s no big deal.”I tried to shrug it off, but my embarrassment grew as she studied me like an exotic bug.“What?”I snapped.
She grinned.“Nothing.”She cleared her throat.“I appreciate the time you’ve given me lately, to gather my thoughts I mean.”
“Oh, right.”Keep your mind on the road, not on the fullness of her mouth.
“I haven’t seen you much.I hope my being at your house hasn’t kept you away.”
“Not at all,” I lied.“I’ve been putting long hours in at work?—”
“And teaching self-defense classes.”
“—so I’m sorry if being watched over by my brothers has been annoying.”
“Not at all.Still, you were gone an awfully long time this week.Even Cadmus commented on it.”
“Did you miss me?”I blurted.
Her cheeks pinkened.
Gratified, I admitted, “Staying away from you has not been easy.At all.I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not a patient man.”
The startled look on her face was priceless, as was the unadulterated mirth that followed.
Husky and deep, Samantha’s laughter encompassed the whole of her.Such genuine caring had rooted in a heart that had been battered but held strong—and that in itself was a powerful magic.
The pure joy of the moment, of just being with her, convinced me that I would eventually persuade her to accompany me home, to join with me as my royal affai.
“So pensive,” she murmured, studying me with curiosity.
“Hmm?”
“It means thoughtful, preoccupied, brooding?—”
