Page 46 of Fit for a King

“You wanted it.” He gave a soft, humorless laugh. “You know what I wanted?”

“Tell me.”

“I wanted to be a prince for a night.” His eyes welled up, but then he blinked away the softer emotion until it was replaced with something harder. “But unlike you, I can’t have what I want. I have to be happy with what is. I can’t just switch places with someone and take a night off from my life.”

“Noah—”

He held a hand up. “You lied to me, asked me questions about yourself, to…what? Make sure I felt the same? That I was, in fact, feeling as miserable as I looked watching you with someone else? Then let me make it clear: I hated every minute of it, almost as much as I hate the fact that I wish I had the right to be jealous over it. But I don’t. So stop inviting me in. Stop looking for me in every room.”

My temper flared, my frustration over the situation reaching its boiling point. “And just, what, pretend you don’t exist?”

“Yes.”

“Impossible. That’s impossible. You’re my footman.”

“Exactly—sir.”

“Nicholas.”

“No.”

Noah stubbornly shook his head, and I marched up to him. “So I’m just supposed to forget the way you make me feel?” I asked. “To forget the way your eyes sparkle when you smile? The way your laugh makes my entire body come alive?”

Noah refused to look at me, his attention fixed on something beyond as I brought a hand up and gently stroked his cheek.

“I’m supposed to just forget how you respond to my touch, put my longing aside?” I moved in and put my lips by his ear, and a soft sigh left him. “Impossible.” I closed my eyes and took a deep inhale, his scent filling my lungs. “What you’re asking of me is impossible.”

Noah slowly turned, and I saw the turmoil swirling in his eyes. The want, the desire, the conflict.

“This can never be.”

I held his face as I leaned in and whispered across his lips, “Then stop me.”

15

NOAH

ICOULDN’T DO this.

That was what my mind was screaming at me, what I should’ve listened to.

But Nicholas was so close that I could feel his breath on my lips. Could feel his hand softly caressing my face, sending shivers down my body that I couldn’t hide.

He was looking at me with the same desire I’d been trying to shove down, to pretend it didn’t exist, and God…I couldn’t resist.

I leaned into his palm, my body giving him permission, since I couldn’t seem to utter, “I can’t.”

Heat flared in Nicholas’s eyes a second before his mouth crashed down on mine.

That was it. That was all it took. I was lost the moment he kissed me, just like I’d known I would be if I ever acted on my fantasies. Gone was the careful, closed-off new king who could burn you with a look, and in his place was Nicholas, the man with lips softer than his scowl let on.

As he wrapped his arm around my waist, hauling me up against him, my hands fell against his chest, and I was able to feel his heart beating fast even through the layers he wore.

I curled my fingers into his jacket, pulling him closer, a muffled moan escaping my throat as he angled his head for more of me. He ran his tongue along my lower lip, begging for entrance, and I gave it easily, dying to taste him after imagining it since the moment we met.

Oh dear God. This man was going to ruin me with his perfect looks and his perfect body, and his ridiculously perfect mouth. He slipped his tongue past my lips, meeting mine in a delicious slide that made me glad I was holding on to him.

Well, gripping his jacket for dear life so my knees didn’t buckle beneath me as he kissed me, leaving me breathless. Any logical thought I’d had about why we shouldn’t do this left my brain, making me wonder why I’d held back for so long.