So damn intrusive.
I take a step forward and narrow my eyes on him, remembering the feeling of his chuckle under my skin and in my bones. He was laughing at my attempts to ask questions yesterday, almost as if he was amused at my prying. I even felt that same vibration in my bones today. He was watching me. I’m sure of it.
“What of yesterday?” I hold Keane’s gaze hard, “when I questioned the woman of the inn about the village? You were locating me then, weren’t you?”
A flash of surprise crosses his face before his playful demeanor takes over again.
“I don’t know what you’re referencing.”
“What a handsome lie, Your Highness.”
I shake my head and walk directly in front of him, crossing my arms in front of my chest as I look up in seriousness. Keane’s more than a half head taller than me, so his body looms over mine as I continue.
“And this late morning, when I asked the little Discerni boy for directions…”
Keane’s hands move to my shoulders in a blink. He grips them tight and looks down at me in a new seriousness, his eyes searching mine while his face reverts to the hard, angular plains of a Discerni.
“How could you possibly know that, Alexis?” he asks quietly.
I push my hands against his chest as hard as I can, hoping to put some distance between him and his grip on my shoulders. Keane doesn’t let go. Instead, he lowers his hands to my waist and swiftly picks me up, moving the two of us to the edge of the pines.
“What the? Put me down, Keane!”
I push into his chest again to no avail. He drops me against a large tree trunk, pinning my back to the wood and taking a step forward so that he’s hovering over me again. He releases both of his hands from my waist and rests them over my head, his cool features staring down at me as the full of his body towers over mine.
“How do you know that, Alexis?” he asks again, this time more forcefully. His brown eyes never leave mine, all sense of playfulness gone.
“I don’t know,” I shake my head breathlessly.
“You’re lying,” he replies, moving one of his hands down the side of my hair to rest at my neck. He places his thumb against the inside of my throat and presses down.
“Your heart is beating too fast for someone who doesn’t know.”
I glance away from his heated gaze and look down at his hand now skimming past my collarbone. He lays his palm flat against the top of my chest to feel my racing pulse.
“Alexis,” he says softly, voice reverting back to the playful Prince I can’t resist.
“You didn’t just question the boy…”
My body stills at the words.
Keane catches my gaze with a smile, his red lips dipping closer as he leans down.
“You manipulated him,” he grins against my jaw.
I groan at the guilt I still feel for tricking that boy. Keane chuckles at the sound and then nips just below my jaw, the small move delivered with such confidence that I bite my lip in response.
“Tell me,” he commands, “tell me how you knew I was watching you.”
I shake my head at the Prince and feel his hand leave the top of my cloak to wrap around the back of my neck. He pulls me into his lips and angles his hips into mine, his other hand still resting firmly on the tree above us as he cages me in. His tongue reaches out and traces the seam of my lips, as if it’ll draw the answer out of me, while the moan that falls from my own lips has him grinning in response.
I open my eyes and frantically search for Golem, search for any help out of this situation and the pull the Prince has on me. I feel my hips responding to his, my body pressing closer into his torso for the friction he’s just barely teasing. I really shouldn’t be alone with him right now, not when he’s holding the back of my neck in possession, and definitely not in the middle of the woods with no one in sight. I also shouldn’t be thinking about all the things he could do to my body to draw the answer out of me...
Keane’s eyes notice mine as I look around, his brows lifting in surprise. “Golem?”
I could blame it on Golem and say that he warned me of the Prince using his summing on me. My magical friend may be upset but he’ll no doubt understand. In fact, I think that’s what I’ll do…
“No,” Keane shakes his head before I can open my mouth, “not Golem.”
