"No, just, give me a second."
He held still, dropping kisses along my collarbone, my jaw, the corner of my mouth.Patient.Waiting.When my body finally relaxed around him, I rolled my hips experimentally and was rewarded with a groan that seemed to come from somewhere deep in his chest.
"More," I said."You can move."
"Thank God."
He started slow, watching my face for any sign of pain.But there was no pain now, just the stretch and slide of him, the friction building where we were joined, the growing sense of fullness that was exactly what I'd been craving.I wrapped my legs around him, changing the angle, and he hit a spot that made me see stars.
"Oh," I said, which wasn't eloquent but was accurate.
"Good oh?"
"Very good oh.Don't stop doing that."
He didn't stop.He kept that same angle, that same rhythm, steady and relentless and exactly right.I could feel the orgasm building now, different from when he'd used his hands, deeper and more consuming.
"I'm close," I managed.
"Good.I'm trying very hard not to embarrass myself here."
"What happened to patience?"
"Patience left approximately two minutes ago."
I pulled his face down to mine and kissed him as I came, swallowing his groan as he followed.It wasn't quite simultaneous, I was a few seconds ahead, but it was close enough that we shuddered through the aftershocks together, breathing hard, sweaty and graceless and perfect.
He collapsed beside me, one arm flung across my stomach.For a long moment, neither of us spoke.The only sounds were our ragged breathing and, distantly, the splash of the fountain in the garden below.
"You broke my brain.Give me a minute."
I rolled onto my side to look at him.His hair was wrecked, there was a red mark on his neck where I'd bitten him at some point, and he looked completely undone.I'd done that.I'd taken the polished prince and turned him into this disheveled, satisfied mess.
"Stay?"I asked.
"I wasn't planning to leave."
"Good.Because I think we should do that again in about twenty minutes."
"Twenty minutes is optimistic."
"I have faith in you."
Somewhere in the palace, someone was still trying to drive me away.Tomorrow there would be investigations and suspicions and the constant awareness that I didn't belong here.But right now, with his heartbeat steady under my ear and his arms around me, none of that seemed to matter.
"What are you thinking?"he asked.
"That this is the strangest month of my life.And somehow also the best."
"Strange and best aren't mutually exclusive."
"Apparently not."I pressed a kiss to his shoulder."What are you thinking?"
He was quiet for a moment, his hand still moving slowly across my back."That I'm glad you stayed.That night at the reception, when you found out who I was, you could have walked away.Refused.Gone back to Oregon and your coffee shop and your normal life."
"I thought about it."
"I know.I saw it on your face."His arms tightened around me."I'm glad you didn't."
