“Better?” He pushes a wild strand of hair behind my ear, and goosebumps rise on my neck where his fingers trail down. The heat in his eyes is doing funny things in my lower abdomen.
I nod. His smirk sends coils of pleasure through me.
“Perfect. Now I think it’s time we talk straight, lay out some ground rules of this thing. Explicitly.”
“Agreed.” Rules are good. Rules mean safety.
“Fucking is a hard limit for me.” A small tick in his jaw slips through his carefully practiced façade.
“Really?”
“What?” He flashes a cheeky grin over the rim of his glass. “Do you think all royals are really as randy as the movies portray?”
I shrug. “I mean, yeah. Prince Claus is certainly trying his best to live up to the standard, if the gossip sites are to be believed.” The prince’s younger brother is a staple in the tabloids, not that I put much stock in what those rags print.
Prince Friedrich lowers his whiskey as he studies me. “And do you frequent the gossip sites? If so, thenperhaps you’ll understand the reason I don’t have sex with women.”
“I mean, I don’t troll them regularly, but sometimes my friend likes to send me the particularly salacious bits. Why? Did they out you as some kind of deviant or something?”
He turns to the window, one hand braced on the sill as he throws back a heavy gulp of alcohol. “Something like that.” His fingers play with a gold ring on the pinky finger of his left hand for a long moment.
I don’t know what to make of that.What does something like a deviant mean?He obviously doesn’t want to delve into it, but he can’t honestly expect me to just drop the subject. And the man I’ve come to know over the last few days, which now actually feels like a really short time—because it really is—doesn’t seem like the type to be into anything dangerous or illegal, at least.
Draining the last of his glass, he turns back to me, still leaning on the window ledge. “I’m in this for you, Aurelia. Any pleasure I take from this situation comes purely from the enjoyment of your exploration.”
It’s my turn to study him. “And any orgasms you might experience along the way?”
His smile makes the fluttering in my stomach start back up again. “A happy byproduct. Now, tell me about your experience.”
I crinkle my eyebrows. “Experience?”
“Yeah, like, whathaveyou done?”
“I kissed my high school boyfriend a few times.”
Prince Friedrich cocks his head. “Just kissed,” he repeats.
“I mean, like, heavy kissing.”
“But that’s it. Lip to lip. No hands anywhere?”
I roll my lips between my teeth, my mouth making a tight line. “A little. Always over the clothes. And sometimes we would… um.” My face grows hot. “Well, sometimes we would like, dry hump,” I say to the floor. “But never to completion,” I hastily add, like that distinction makes any difference.
Jaston was the pastor’s son at the church my mother and I attended most of my growing up life. Sexual purity was preached on so heavily over the years that we were afraid to take things too far, more out of fear of our parents rather than fear of god. But church kids are always good at finding loopholes.No genitals were touched, and no orgasms were had, so it doesn’t count, right?
I glance back up when the prince hisses and rubs a hand down his face. “Christ.”
Flushing, I bite out each syllable. “Well, pardon me.”
“No, it’s just… Are you sure about this? About doing this with me?”
I plant my feet and cross my arms. His gaze drops, and I lower my arms quickly, noticing the attention the pose draws to my boobs.
“I was enjoying the view.”
A thrill runs through me at his licentious smile, and I blush again for an entirely different reason.Isthat what Margaret would call a panty-melting smirk?
“Does that make you uncomfortable? When I say something like that?”
