“They won’t sleep tonight,” he whispers finally. “It’s not even dinnertime and they’re napping.”
“Do you think we can outlast them then?” I question, tilting my face to meet his eyes. Eyes I always find myself seeking out. Eyes that are the only true windows to his soul when the rest of him is locked up tight.
“I sure as hell plan to try.”
I can’t fight my giggle.
“You laugh so easily.”
“It’s kind of funny.”
“No. I mean, you laugh so easily. How?”
“I’m not sure I’m programmed to be any other way.”
His hand cups my jaw, his thumb rubbing across my lips and up along my cheekbones until his entire hand threads in my hair. “It’s infectious.You’reinfectious. Your laughter and smiles and light. Your enthusiasm for fucking everything you do.” His forehead meets mine. “You have no idea how lovely you are to me. I watched you today with my children. I couldn’t stop. I watched you run and laugh and play with them. I watched how when Zayer fell and bumped his knee on the ground, you picked him up and kissed his cut and put a bandage on it. I watched how effortless it all seemed to be for you, and I realized I’m going to lose.”
“Lose?” The word shocks me.
“Yes. Lose. Everything I am is going to become yours. My mind. My body. My heart. All yours. Then what?”
“You make it sound as if that’s the worst possible outcome on the planet.” I’m trying to hold humor in my voice, but the despondency in his tone hurts.
“It’s not. Not even close. That’s what worries me.” He takes my hand and places it on his chest over his pounding heart. “It hasn’t beat like this in years. I’m not sure it ever has. What you’re doing to me, Bellamy, cannot be undone.”
“Then don’t fight it. Embrace it.”
With the tilt of his chin, he closes the minuscule gap between us, kissing me despite the sleeping audience not even two feet from us. He kisses me the entire ride back. Sweeps of his tongue and whispers in my ear and smiles along my jaw and nips up my neck. It’s kissing for the sake of kissing. It’s kissing because we can and any separation in this moment feels strange and unwelcome. It’s not kissing with an end goal of sex or orgasms.
It’s kissing to taste and feel and breathe the other.
We kiss so long and so well and with so much meaning that by the time we pull into the palace gates and he sets me back in my seat and the children start to rouse, we’re still lost. Lost in that moment and in each other and in our thoughts.
So lost that we don’t see the unexpected visitor until he’s tapping on the back window of the car.
19
SEBASTIAN
“What is he doing here?” I grumble. Not because I’m not excited to see my brother since it’s been…at least six months. It’s because he’ll monopolize my time. He’ll want drinks and he’ll want fucking chitchat and all I want is Bellamy. Every piece of her. Tonight. As soon as fucking possible, actually, and now…
“Oncle Rowan!” the girls scream, and Zayer kicks his legs and flails his arms wildly, desperate to get out of his car seat and climb up his uncle.
“Look at my darling princesses. So lovely,” Rowan exclaims, helping the girls out and lifting both of them in his arms. He kisses their foreheads and noses. Charmer. “I’ve missed you terribly, my gorgeous girls. Wait till you see all I’ve brought you to make up for my absence.”
“What are you doing here?” I question as I step out, holding Bellamy’s hand and helping her do the same, not pleased and not hiding it well. The cars drive off toward the garage in the back, leaving us out here in the dark with only the palace lights glowing from the windows to see by.
His eyes sparkle when they find Bellamy, and a smileso wide you can see all of his pearly white teeth overtake his face. “Her, brother.” He juts his chin up at Bellamy. “I’m here to meet the new nanny. After our conversation yesterday, I knew I had to come and see her for myself. The beauty who finally managed to get my beast of a brother to leave the palace. I flew all day just for this moment. Such a pleasure to meet you.”
Bellamy does that awkward curtsy bow thing she does and takes his proffered hand even as he’s holding up the girls. “It’s nice to meet you, too.”
“You have no idea just how much.” His gaze cuts quickly to mine and back to her. “Bellamy, is it? You’re everything gorgeous my brother said you were and a whole lot more he failed to mention. Funny about that.” He gives me a quick, knowing glance and turns back to her. “Tell me how you’ve gotten along with my surly brother? Has he given you a lot of trouble?”
“I’m afraid I can’t answer that question in the presence of my boss or his children.”
Rowan laughs and my fists clench at the joyful smile on Bellamy’s pretty face. Does everyone have to find him charming? Always? All the fucking time? Always so easy for Rowan when it’s the opposite for me.
“No. I’m sure you can’t. Don’t worry. You and I will become very close, I know it. Then we’ll share all our secrets with each other.”
