“Fritz?” Trixie shakes me from my racing thoughts.
“Sorry,” I mumble, absently twisting the ring on my left pinky finger. It’s tradition for the men in my family to receive a signet ring from our father on our eighteenth birthday. Mine is simple, just an engraved R with a sweeping tail that looks like a wave on the ocean and a braided rope around the face. “No, you’re right. I just?—”
I’m interrupted by the sound of the door opening, and I sit up to look. Aurelia peeks around the door and drops her eyes to the floor when she sees me.
“What is it?”
“I gotta go,” I tell my cousin.
“Just remember, don’t force the issue,” Trixie throws in her last bit of advice before hanging up.
I sit on the very edge of the couch, every nerve in my body dying to grab her, wrap her in my arms and soothe away every bad thought running through her mind right now. But my brain tells me that’s a bad idea, and for once I listen to it.I should let her come to me.
“Hi.”
Her voice is thick and raspy, and her skin is pink, like she’d been out in the sun too long. There are teeth marks on the corner of her lower lip, and her eyes are red and puffy. It’s taking all my willpower not to reach out and just—I don’t know—hold her hand or something; to stroke her still-wet hair and kiss her forehead, and tell her everything is okay.
“Aurelia, I?—”
She holds up a pruney hand to stop me.
“Please. I know you’re about to apologize, but please don’t.”
My heart is going a hundred kilometers a minute, and I think my ribs quit expanding. She shuffles to the opposite end of the couch where I’m sitting, tucking herself in the corner and hugging her knees to her chest. Her face is half covered by her legs, but she’s looking at me. That has to be a good sign.
The air around us is heavy, and I feel like I’m being pushed down by the shoulders into the couch. She’s chewing that spot on her lip again, and any other time it would be cute, but damn it, if I don’t feel like my heart is on the floor right now.
She clears her throat and finally says, “I’m sorry I’m so messed up.”
“Aurelia, no. I?—”
But she stops me again. “Please, Your Highness.” She huffs a sigh. “Friedrich.”
She looks me in the eyes when she says my name, and my heart hammers with that small glimmer ofhope. When she called me Your Highness through the bathroom door, I thought for sure that was it for us, whatever ‘us’ means.
“I need to get this out before I lose my nerve.”
I nod and sit back on the sofa, not getting fully comfortable, but showing her I’m ready to listen for the long haul.
Her eyes fall away from me, fixing on the floral pattern of the couch.
“What happened back there, in your bedroom, was nothing to do with you.” She clears her throat again and continues. “I was ready to share that piece of me. I told you I’ve never been physically involved with anyone before, and most of that has to do with how I was raised. I kind of already spilled some of the mess in my head left over my church days as a kid. And I haven’t really played into religion since I left home—for a lot of reasons really—but those lessons they drilled into us so hard… they’re hard to let go of.”
“I know, and I’m so sorry I pushed you.”
Her eyes snap to mine again, big and searching. “No. That’s not what I’m getting at. I’m ready. I want to try those things with you. You make me feel things I’ve never felt before. And that sounds stupid and cliché and whatever. But it’s true. My body aches for you. Just being near you has my brain sending signals to places that long for your touch. I want you.”
I rub the back of my neck with my free hand and let out a short chuckle. “The feeling is very mutual, mi’ lady, if that makes you feel any better.”
I think there’s a ghost of a smile trying to play at the corners of her mouth. “It does a little,” she agrees. “But something happened before I left home. I was already planning on moving here for college, but this, uh, thing that happened, it just made it that much easier to leave, and that much easier to leave the church behind too.” At last, she wraps her fingers around the top of my hand.
“You don’t have to tell me if you’re not ready. All I need to know now is how we move forward.” I see my own struggle mirrored back in her eyes. “I want to give you everything you desire. I’m honored if you’ll allow me to continue being the one to unlock the sexy side of Nanny Sumner.”
She smiles for real now, and my heart soars.Maybe I didn’t completely fuck this up.The old leather creaks as she scooches closer to me on the sofa. I hold out my arm for her, and she tucks into me, her head resting on my chest, and the smell of my shampoo in her hair does something to me. I will my cock to knock it off, and somehow it obeys. Our chests rise and fall together as our breathing becomes one. My arms are a cocoon for her, and maybe if I hold tightly enough, I can squeeze out every last drop of doubt and fear from her.
“Just don’t come on me, okay?” she mumbles into my chest.
“What was that, princess?” I kiss the top of her head because I can’t help it when she’s against me like this.
