I don’t realize I’ve fallen asleep until the first droplets of sunlight rain down on my face through the cracked curtains on the window. Blinking the sleep from my eyes, I’m relieved to find that Azalea is still sound asleep next to me. Her body is pressed firmly against mine with one of her arms lazily draped over my abdomen.
As much as I wish to stay like this, I know I’m playing with fire. I slowly scoot my body out from underneath hers, doing my best to keep from disturbing her peaceful slumber. Once I’ve made it out of bed, I quickly tip toe from the room, feeling like a gigantic fool the whole time I’m doing it. With the door to the guest bedroom shut behind me, I feel the muscles in my body relax, and I escape back to my bedroom.
Exhaustion still sits heavily on my eyelids and my side aches from the position I was lying in all night. Clearly, I didn’t wish to disturb Azalea, even in the depths of my sleep. The moment my body sinks into my mattress, her wildflower scent envelopes me like a blanket, and I immediately long to have her body draped over mine once more. The memories I gathered of her sighing against my chest with serenity will be enough to last me centuries, and for all I know, I’ll need them to cling onto. One way or another, this curse is coming to an end, and I‘m beginning to seriously doubt that it will be in my favor.
“You open this damned door right now, Braxton Carter!”
I jolt awake at the sound of Azalea’s voice.
Her muffled yell is accompanied by an aggressive pounding on my door. Shaking the sleep from my mind, I push myself up in bed.
“Braxton! I mean it. Open up!”
The angry urgency in her voice has me bolting to my feet and darting toward the door. Fear shoots shards of ice through my veins as I practically yank the door from its hinges with the ferocity with which I open it. My eyes waste not time scanning the incredibly disgruntled, but perfectly fine, Azalea standing before me.
She’s still wearing nothing but my black tunic that comes down to just above her knees. An odd mixture of desire and pride stokes the fire in my chest at seeing it. But then dread smothers those feelings.
How could I be so stupid? Not only did I leave her unattended in the guest bedroom while I was asleep after she was attacked yesterday, but I didn’t even think to change her back into her own clothes. No wonder she’s banging on my door this morning. She probably thinks I’m some kind of pervert who changed her in her sleep after dragging her to this castle. That blood loss must have really done a number on my cognitive abilities last night. I scrub my hand down my face.
“Are you okay?” My voice comes out hoarse from sleep, and I can see the timber of my tone cause a flush to rise in her cheeks.
“No, I am most certainly not okay.”
Azalea pushes past me, paying no mind to my injured side, and storms into my room. My heart sinks as I realize she must not remember that I’m injured, meaning she must not remember last night, and I’ve failed in breaking the curse. I feel my teeth grind as the realization really sinks in.
“You must be so confused.” I quickly start trying to draft up any kind of reasoning as to why she would wake up in the castle in my clothes. Her waking up in the guest bedroom is neither here nor there, I realize, seeing as if this is her first day and memory in the castle she wouldn’t know what would or wouldn’t be her bedroom. At least I have that on my side.
“You bet your stupid, sorry ass I’m confused.” She pokes a finger into my chest. “Why the fuck did you move me out of your room last night?”
I freeze. “Move you? So, you… you remember?” I could choke on my relief. I haven’t squandered my last chance at getting Azalea to fall in love with me.
She blinks slowly at me, face aghast. “Kind of hard to forget.” She crosses her arms over her chest, making my shirt rise higher up her thighs. I can’t seem to stop myself from tracking the movement, and my cock jumps to attention in response.
I groan and rub the back of my neck. Why the fuck did I let her wear my clothes to bed knowing that I can’t toss her over my shoulder, throw her down on my bed, and make her scream my name until she’s begging me for mercy.
“I… I…” I struggle for any type of explanation that doesn’t make me sound like a coward or an ass, but come up short. I truly thought I was doing the right thing in moving her out of my room.
“I know we haven’t really gotten along, but honestly, after everything last night, could you really not bear to wake up beside me?”
The hurt on her face feels like an iron poker to my gut. Not giving myself time to think better of it, I close the space between us and cradle her face in my hands.
“It’s not that. I just… I thought…” I want to scream as I try to find a way to explain this without revealing anything about the curse. It would be so much easier if I could just tell her everything. Well, not everything. Some truths should never be shared.
“You have to trust me when I say I thought I was doing the right thing.”
She sighs heavily and searches my face for the answer my lips can’t give her. “You should know by now the last thing I thinkI’ll ever do is trust you.” My face falls. “But…” she draws out the word. “I guess I can believe you.”
My face lights up.
“Just this once,” she hurriedly adds.
“I can accept that.”
“Now, can you please have Rhoden bring me something to wear? I’m not about to go galavanting around the castle in nothing but your shirt. It would be… indecent, and no doubt give people ideas.”
Great celestials, what I wouldn’t give to see that. I’m tempted to tell her no and force her to show the entire castle that she belongs to me. I tamper down my possessiveness before responding.
“I will on one condition.”
