Their Hidden Princess novel · Chapter 16 of 32

Chapter 16: Lysander

"Yes," I said.

He didn't move.

"Say it again. I want to be sure I didn't dream it. I've dreamed of you before, and it went very differently."

"How differently?"

"There was a cliff. And a very large Dunstan."

I laughed into his chest.

"Yes, Lysander," I said. "I'm staying. I want this. I want you."

His shoulders dropped, and his arms tightened around me.

His hands found my waist and he lifted me onto the bed like I weighed nothing.

"Then lie back," he said. "And let me unwrap my prize."

I laughed.

"Your prize.

I'm not a parcel from the quartermaster."

"You're better than a parcel." He knelt over me, one knee between mine, and started on my blouse buttons. "Parcels don't argue."

"I'm not arguing. I'm correcting your metaphor."

He pulled my blouse open and looked down at me, and the teasing went out of him like a snuffed candle.

"Gods," he said quietly. "I've thought about this since the gate."

"You've thought about my breasts since the gate?"

"I've thought about everything. Your mouth. Your laugh. The way you looked at me like I was a problem you wanted to solve." He bent and kissed the hollow between my collarbones, and his voice went rough. "The way you look right now."

He unhooked my skirt and worked it down over my hips, and then his hand paused on my stocking, just above my knee.

"May I?" he asked.

His voice had gone serious, like it had at the door.

"Lysander," I said, "if you stop to ask permission for every inch of me, we'll still be here at the morning bell."

He grinned.

"Then tell me what you want."

"I want your hand higher than it got in the boathouse."

His eyes went dark with something that wasn't laughter.

"I've thought about that too," he said, and his hand slid up my thigh, over the top of my stocking, and his fingers found me through my underwear.

I was already wet.

I'd been wet since he pulled my tie loose.

He made a sound low in his chest, like he'd found something he'd been hunting.

"You're soaked," he said. "For me."

"Don't sound so surprised."

"I'm not surprised." He pulled my underwear down and off, and his fingers came back to me, bare now, sliding through me. "I'm undone."

He touched my clit with his thumb, slow, watching my face, and I grabbed his wrist.

Not to stop him.

To hold him there.

"More," I said.

"More what?"

"More of that. And less of you looking smug."

"I'm not smug." He circled his thumb and I arched up off the bed. "I'm delighted."

He worked me with his fingers, slow and then faster, and I let my head fall back and let him.

The lamp made shadows on his ceiling.

Somewhere below us a door closed, far away.

"I wanted your hands on me in the stillroom," I said. "When you had them over mine on the bench. I couldn't think about the comfrey. I couldn't think about anything."

"The comfrey was an excuse." His fingers slid inside me and I gasped. "I wanted to touch you. I wanted any excuse to touch you."

← Chapter 15 · All chapters · Chapter 17 →

Want to keep talking to characters like these? Chat with AI romance characters: AI Boyfriend · AI Girlfriend · Dark Romance · Fantasy Romance · BL (Boys’ Love) · Billionaire Boyfriend · Mafia Boyfriend · Possessive Boyfriend · Hockey Boyfriend · Older Boyfriend · K-Drama Boyfriend · Anime Boyfriend · Vampire Boyfriend · Werewolf Boyfriend · Demon Boyfriend · Fae Romance · GL (Girls’ Love) · Anime Girlfriend · Goth & Alt Girlfriend · Gamer Girlfriend · Tsundere Girlfriend · Fantasy Girlfriend