Nina studies me, searching my face for any sign of irony. When she finds none, she takes my hand.
She startles when I pull her body toward mine, bringing us nearly flush, unwilling to let the moment that began in the garden end.
The urge to press myself against her is overwhelming, as if there’s a magnet drawing my body toward hers. Suddenly, I’m hyperaware of everything about her.
The softness of her body.
The sweet, pleasant scent of her skin.
The heart-shaped lips she just moistened with her tongue.
The brightness in her eyes—completely unmalicious.
The absolute opposite of the desires that abruptly invade my mind.
Still, I content myself with simply looking at her face, trying to understand what it is about this woman that’s making me act unlike I ever have.
“Are we dancing here?” she asks, laughing.
I narrow my eyes at her, unimpressed by how little she’s taking me seriously.
“We are. Unless you’d rather go back inside.”
“I don’t want to. But we don’t have music.”
I pull my phone from my pocket. With a few taps, a soft melody fills the space around us.
Nina bites her lip and shakes her head, but follows my lead as I begin moving us through the garden.
The steps are short—ones that wouldn’t fit on the dance floor—but here, in this unexpected moment, they feel perfect.
It doesn’t take long before I stop resisting the magnetism between us. Our bodies draw closer until they’re pressed together, and at some point, holding her gaze is no longer enough.
Discovering what her lips feel like becomes an unstoppable need.
I lower my head slowly, giving Nina time to pull away. To reject me.
She doesn’t.
Instead, her breath catches in anticipation. Her shoulders relax as they curve inward, toward me, and her head tilts back just a little more.
She gives me every sign that she wants this as much as I do.
I abandon restraint.
I touch her mouth softly at first, testing. When she receives mine in a perfect fit, I slide my tongue over her lower lip, then the upper, before sucking them in the same order.
Her tongue seeks mine—and when it finds it, it wraps around it in a wet, delicious kiss I absolutely did not imagine I’d be giving when I left the house tonight.
“Give me your phone,” I ask, keeping my forehead pressed to hers as I pull our lips apart and open my eyes, drinking in the sight of the flushed, breathless woman in my arms.
She smiles brightly before answering.
“That kind of violates our deal. The agreement was that I’d pretend to be a princess only tonight.”
I laugh again.
She definitely has claws. She just needs to learn how to show them more often.
