God help him if she ever learned she had that kind of power over him. It could signal all kinds of dangers for him. Ignoring the warning bells in his head, he removed one wing tip shoe and then the other before crawling into the bed beside her.
He pulled her back to him, her ass notching perfectly into his lap as he engulfed her in his arms, completely spooning her.
A relieved sigh escaped her lips. He could hear the emotional fatigue.
He placed a kiss on the top of her head and tightened his hold as he said, “Sleep.”
She chucked. “How am I supposed to sleep with that thing poking me in the backside?”
He tightened his embrace again, adjusting his head so that he was smiling against the shell of her ear.
“It’s a rather inconvenient consequence of being this close to you. Whenever you’re near, my body seems to have a mind of its own, and you’re the only thing it wants to focus on.”
He felt her go stiff in his arms. Had he gone too far? Had he made her uncomfortable? He turned her, forcing her to face him. He was learning that Regina was good at hiding what she felt, except for when her eyes were on him. It was the only time she allowed him to break through her defenses.
“What’s wrong?”
She tried to drop her gaze again, and he placed a firm finger under her chin to force her to look at him.
“This thing where you hide from me, it stops now. I can’t fix things if you don’t tell me what’s going on.”
His brain tried to make him consider why he felt so compelled to fix anything for a woman he barely knew. A woman who had deceived him. That was an internal battle for another day. Right now, he needed her to open to him.
“Was it like that with my sister too?”
He wanted to rage and ask her how she could possibly think that after the time they shared together. But again, there was that soft pleading in her eyes that was as effective as a gut punch in lowering his defenses and getting him to give her whatever she needed and wanted in that moment.
“Despite that fact that I believed you to be your sister, you are the only woman I’ve ever had such a visceral response to. My interactions with your sister have only ever been business-related. We’ve never had any personal conversations. Beyond what your company could do for my country’s economy, I had zero interest in her.”
He caressed her cheek, letting his thumb slide against the soft skin there while desire prickled at every inch of him.
“I need you to hear me and hear me well, Regina. This isn’t an attempt to mock your sister or dismiss her beauty and presence in any way. But when I met with your sister earlier today, I couldn’t figure out for the life of me why there was absolutely no attraction to her. Nothing about her remotely appealed to me. The only emotion she invoked was anger because I thought she was lying to me.”
He took her hand, sliding it down his clothed form until her delicate fingers were cupping him through his pants.
“This is all for you. It was that night, and it is now.”
The sadness in her retreated, and he had to wonder how long this had been plaguing her. Was she always in her sister’s shadow? Was that why she didn’t seem to think she compared with Reigna? Had some other man made her feel less than in comparison to her twin?
“I know it’s childish. Especially considering I’m the one who let you think you were sleeping with my sister in the first place. But it mattered.”
He nodded. “If it bothers you, if it upsets you, then it matters to me too. Is this what you and your sister were fighting about?”
Again, she tried to shift her gaze from his. “What did I say about hiding from me, Regina?”
Her eyes instantly snapped up to his, and the gift of her acquiescence burned through his veins like lava, scoring grooves into him and reshaping the landscape of his need.
“Yes. She thinks you might have some sort of twin kink and warned me away from you to protect me.”
That might have been the gist of the conversation, yet everything in him believed that was the sanitized version of what Reigna had said. Instinctively he knew that if Reigna had spoken those exact words, Regina wouldn’t have been as hurt as she was. If he ever got the chance, he’d make the new queen know exactly what he thought about her reckless mouth when it came to her sister.
Not that he had any right to engage Reigna on Regina’s behalf, but that was beside the point. He wouldn’t allow anyone to push Regina into a shell of self-doubt again.
“Is this what it’s going to be like if I agree to marry you and have your child? Are you always going to come to my rescue?”
“Whether you choose to marry me or not, have my child or not, I will always come when you need me.”
The strength of his words comforted her and surprised him. He had no logical reason to make such assertions to her. But every instinct he had was to protect Regina. Even though she’d lied to him and that lie had put them all in a difficult position, it didn’t matter. What mattered was when he saw need in her eyes, no matter whether it was sexual or emotional, he had the Pavlovian response to don his armor and protect her like the gallant kings of old.
