He tipped his chin up. “Well, Wynn, you’re about to find out.”
I returned my gaze to the window and saw that we were driving up a long road, clearly private since I didn’t see any other houses, just a huge castle in the distance.
It was too dark to tell what the landscape looked like, but judging by where the castle was, the ocean had to be behind it.
I gawked as I exited the vehicle and wasn’t much better once we were inside. It was like a fancy-museum-slash-library-slash-I-don’t-even-know. It was amazing, and words escaped me.
“Would you like a drink?” Julian asked, shaking me from my enamored state.
“Oh,um, yes, that sounds wonderful.”
I followed him down a hallway with walls covered in tapestries and paintings of royalty. It was breathtaking, and I didn’t think it could get more beautiful. That was, until we entered what he referred to as the sitting room.
The sitting room resembled a study, a living room, and a library all in one. A large oak bar took up a good portion of one side, and a roaring fire added calming ambiance, but it being behind tempered glass didn’t make the room hot. I was sure if I perused the shelves there would be a lot of first-edition books.
“What would you like?” Julian moved behind the bar.
“Well, what do you have? I’m not a big, fancy drinker. I usually stick to wine or beer.”
The corner of his mouth kicked up. “How about wine, then?”
Once he’d poured, he walked over and handed it to me. It was a blush wine, equally sweet and crisp. I was sure it was worth more than my car, and I didn’t dare ask.
“Shall we sit?” He motioned to a couch that looked both elegant and comfortable.
I joined him, sipping the wine, my eyes wandering everywhere.
“This place is truly outstanding. And you have three other castles?”
“Each is different. This was the main one once, so it’s a bit more ostentatious than the ones on Lamdera, Thrindell, and Korvanna.”
I snorted. “Ostentatious isn’t the word I’d use to describe it.”
He inched closer, and the scent of his cologne or maybe aftershave made me sigh. It was wealth, sex, and a hint of leather.
“And how would you describe it?”
“Magical,” I answered in a breath. Cheesy? Perhaps, but there was indeed magic in the air.
“Magical,hmm. Not sure about that, but I can admit there’s a lot of history here. Sometimes when I’m here alone and I walk the halls, I imagine what the atmosphere was like in the sixteen or seventeen hundreds.”
I’d already liked Julian, but one thing I was realizing was that the more time I spent with him, the more I truly enjoyed his company. He was handsome, smart, even funny. The unsettled feeling from earlier was long gone.
I sipped my wine, then placed the goblet on the table in front of me. “You’re nothing like I’d thought you’d be, Pr…Julian.”
His smile was lovely. “I like it when you say my name.”
“Julian.”
“Mmm.” He put his glass beside mine and moved closer to me. “You’re everything I thought you’d be, Wynn.”
We embraced the inevitable and kissed. The moment our lips touched it was as if I’d been cold forever and for the first time was shrouded in warmth.
“Delicious,” he mumbled before he began sucking on my tongue. I was hard as a rock and a heartbeat away from rutting against his leg when he leaned back with a smirk. “I want more.”
“Okay, yeah, I like more.”
He chuckled and stood. I was about to join him, thinking we were going to head upstairs or hell, right here on the floor, but he stopped me. I watched, transfixed as he kneeled between my legs.
