Page 45 of Falling for the King

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‘Xavier?’ Kat stopped and swung around to where he stood.

She grabbed a hand to the opening of the same robe she’d worn that morning by the pool, her expression mirroring his surprise, turquoise eyes wide, lips parted. Lips whose texture was burned into his memory banks.

‘Xavier!’

He blinked and jerked his gaze up to hers.

‘Sorry, sorry.’ He shook his head. What he needed was a full body shake to get some sense into him. ‘Did the storm wake you?’ He stepped closer into the light spun from the chandelier he’d switched onto the lowest setting not wanting to impact the view.

‘I haven’t been to bed yet.’

‘Oh.’ Trained in the art of polite conversation since birth he couldn’t think of one single appropriate thing to say. The word bed swirling between them bringing up images, urges that he had no right to. Battling them back he remained silent and gave himself a stern talking to about all the reasons such things were wrong, dangerous and that he wasn’t driven by impulse, unlike his father. He could control his emotions, himself.

‘I didn’t realise you’d be in here,’ she said running a hand over her hair which fell free and loose down her back. Neither did he. They’d agreed there would no more night-time rendezvous. He reasoned this hardly counted, he hadn’t expected to see her here and judging by her reaction she hadn’t expected to find him in here either.

‘It’s the best place to view the storm,’ he said unnecessarily. Why else would she be here? She certainly hadn’t come to track him down.

‘It seemed to come out of nowhere. Have you ever seen it like this? This bad?’

‘Not at this time of year.’

‘Will we be able to leave tomorrow? I can’t get any internet access to check forecasts.’

He shrugged. ‘Depends on whether it keeps up overnight. Sometimes they’re short and sharp, sometimes they last days.’

‘Oh right, hopefully the former then.’

‘Yes.’ He cleared his throat. ‘There’s something I need to show you.’ Although it was the last thing he wanted to do. ‘I was going to wait till morning but since you’re here …’

‘Show me?’ she repeated with a frown.

He indicated the laptop sitting on the dining room table that he’d brought with him, hoping a change of location would loosen the impact of what it housed. It hadn’t.

‘Can I get you a drink first?’ he asked and hid a wince at the huskiness in his voice.

‘Do I need one? No. Don’t answer that I can see it on your face, please tell me what’s going on.’

He sat after she did then shifted the laptop so they could both see.

‘Photos were taken yesterday, at the station, that are going to be published online or possibly already have been.’ He opened up his laptop and pressed the on button.

‘Yesterday? Why the delay?’

‘That hasn’t been established. The storm isn’t helping with the internet connection, these pictures have been saved onto my hard drive.’ And burned into his brain.

An image of the two of them filled the screen.

Prepared, still it stole the air from his lungs.

This was them. Wrapped together, fully clothed on a platform full of people and yet the look they gave each other sizzled off the screen and scorched a path of desire down his body.

In full colour Kat stood with her arms around him, lips almost touching, eyes glued on each other.

‘Oh,’ Kat puffed out, her chair creaking as she shifted, ‘My. God.’

With effort he kept his eyes levelled on the screen not stealing even the slightest glance at her although he could count every breath she took.