Page 33 of Royal Salvation

Reaper stepped back, the urge to touch her was so potent his hand shook, so he clenched his fist to stop the feeling.

She stepped inside and he stepped further back to give her room that he didn’t want to give. He wanted to touch her, feel her skin, and see if it was as soft as he imagined it to be.

“So, this is the young Justice Carson’s bedroom.”

He looked around seeing it through her eyes and the modest furniture and space. He shrugged. “Yep, this is me.”

Her lips twitched into a smile that lit her face, the bruises marring her perfection making his blood boil. Without thought, he reached out to brush his fingers over the skin of her cheek, the bruise already beginning to fade from the horrid black to the hideous yellowy-green beneath her make-up. “Does it hurt?”

She shrugged and his eyes moved to the delicate curve of her shoulder. “Not too much.”

His eyes moved over her, and he saw the way she shivered, the pulse in her throat beating in cadence with his own. “You’re a tough one to resist, angel.”

He could hear the gravel of desire in his own voice even as the noises from the rest of the house reached his ears and still, he couldn’t seem to break the spell that came over him every time she was close. It was a bad thing for a man trying to protect her to be so distracted. He knew deep in his heart though nobody would protect her like he would, because in that second as her breath whispered out of her pouty lips, he knew he’d die for her.

“Then don’t.”

His control gone he hooked an arm around her waist and gently pulled her close, careful of her injuries as his lips found hers and she sighed into his kiss as if she’d been waiting for it all her life. He understood because to him it felt like he had. He’d never been so affected by a simple kiss, but the way she surrendered to him, her body softening and melding to his hard one, made it feel like so much more.

She tasted of strawberries and mint, so innocent and perfect he wanted to consume her, to own her in ways no other man ever had, and the thought shook him enough to make him pull away.

Her finger rose to his lips, her eyes dark and liquid as she watched him, and he knew he could drown in her expression right then. “Don’t say you regret it, please.”

He didn’t regret it. The kiss had been beyond his expectations to the point he could spend all day just exploring her mouth and listening to the sounds she made in the back of her throat. “I wasn’t going to. I was going to ask what you wanted to do about this thing between us because it isn’t going away.”

She tipped her head to the side, exposing her elegant throat and he wanted to feel the pulse there with his lips, to mark her perfect skin so every man knew she was his. But she wasn’t and that was the hardest pill to swallow.

“While I’m here, I’m Lucía, not a Princess but a woman, so I propose we have a fling and get it out of our systems.”

“You think you can get me out of your system, angel?” His words were said with a smirk, but he waited, his breath still in his lungs for her answer.

“I can if you can.”

And there it was, the ultimate dilemma. He knew deep down that there was something different about Lucía for him and that once he’d tasted heaven, he’d never get her out of his system. Yet he nodded, knowing that he agreed to the impossible because not knowing the way she felt under him, over him, touching him, wasn’t an option.

“So, a short-term fling that ends when we leave Australia and then we go back to bodyguard and principle? No harm, no broken hearts, no regrets?”

He tipped his head finding her eyes, needing to know she understood because from the start they’d never had a future but right now might be enough. It had to be.

“Yes. Let’s treat this like a slice of time where I can be who I want to be, not who the world and everyone thinks I should be.”

His lips found hers, as he spoke against them. “I think you’re perfect no matter who you are, because inside here,” he tapped a finger to her chest where her heart lay, “you’re perfect as you are.”

“Don’t make me fall in love with you, Justice. It won’t end well.”

He frowned, not moving his lips from where they fluttered against hers. “I’m not trying to make you fall for me.”

“Yeah, that’s the problem.”

Lifting on her toes she kissed him this time, sealing the deal they’d just made and promising things that made his body ache for her in a way he’d never felt before.

“Justice, get your butt in here and set the table. Just because you’re the prodigal son doesn’t mean you get out of chores.”

Caleb appeared around the door his eyes twinkling, eyebrows waggling at the scene he found, and they both laughed.

“Come on, Princess. Let’s go eat with my crazy family.”

Chapter 14