Total pages in book: 29
Estimated words: 27631 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 138(@200wpm)___ 111(@250wpm)___ 92(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 27631 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 138(@200wpm)___ 111(@250wpm)___ 92(@300wpm)
“If it’s not him,” I point out, “it’ll eventually be someone else.”
His stare is haunted. “Are you trying to kill me?”
Why would my impending engagement bother him? He’s leaving. That’s all he’s wanted since he arrived. “You’re confusing me, Commander,” I whisper. “You hated me yesterday, now you seem almost angry that I’m going to be engaged soon.”
“Almost? Almost angry, Greta?”
“What do you want from me?” I explode.
“Right now?” His mouth is suddenly pressed firm to mine, parting my lips, his breath moist and minty, his palm keeping my backside in place while he rocks into the notch of my hips and the stirrings of a kiss. “I want to know what it’s like to kiss a brave girl who lived through kidnapping. Torture. Then left the palace today because she’s selfless and wanted to do a kindness for someone else. I want to know what it’s like to kiss the most beautiful girl I’ve ever fucking seen. Sound all right with you?”
I wet my lips, overcome, tears swimming in my eyes over the praise. The way he’s noticed me, made note of my actions, appreciated them. “I’ve never kissed anyone.”
He groans brokenly, slanting his mouth—
There’s a knock on the door of the SUV. “We’ve arrived at the ranch, princess,” calls the chauffer through the window. “I’ll wait for the Commander’s order before I open the door.”
The physical pain represented on Conrad’s face almost alarms me. Based on the famished way he’s staring at my mouth, at first I think he’s going to kiss me, despite the interruption or the fact that we’ve arrived. Instead, he bites off a curse and sits up, raking both hands down his face. Taking several moments to gather himself.
“Stay beside me the whole time, Greta.”
“I will,” I say, sitting up in kind of a daze, my body still thrumming.
My thoughts are so scattered by what just took place—and the change in Conrad’s attitude toward me—I haven’t had time for nerves. They creep in now, however, when I look out the window and see the ranch I’ve not visited for a year, the stables looking different, new faces staring back at me. New, different, scary.
So many places the rebels could be hiding.
“Nothing gets through me,” he says in my ear. “Nothing.”
My pulse slows before it can spike.
And I wonder what exactly I’m going to do without him when he leaves.
six
. . .
Conrad
If I didn’t know better, I’d think I was having a fucking heart attack.
She reminds me of her intention to marry a prince while I’m on top of her, seconds from kissing her mouth for the first time? Jealousy is causing my blood to pump at a rate that rivals the speed of sound, along with the need to kill. I can’t be blamed when her mouth is a masterpiece up close. An honest to God masterpiece. It’s the softest thing I’ve ever felt against my lips and I could have lain there on her pliant body, teasing and testing it for hours. Days. Weeks.
And it’s more than her mouth.
More than her luscious body.
Her perseverance and self-sacrifice and honesty has untied something in my chest.
I’m almost disoriented by the flood of emotions she unleashes in me.
For the first time in a long time, I’m uncertain of what to do. What the future holds. I am the highest ranking of soldier, but I am not a prince. Not a royal. At the moment, I’m a glorified bodyguard, and that ranks far below princess, for god’s sakes.
She’s the future queen.
On top of that, I’ve been rude to her since making her acquaintance. Rude is my default. I don’t know how to be anything other than an asshole. Still, she’s making me want to…try and be a little nicer? See if I can make her…smile? Be happy?
What the fuck are you trying to do? Woo a princess?
The thought of it—and the potential of failure being so high—is making me sweat.
“Are you all right, Commander?” Greta asks when I lift her out of the SUV by the waist, settling her in front of me. “You seemed upset.”
“I’m not upset,” I snap.
“Oh.” Her eyes are drawn to the perspiration at my hairline. “Are you sure?”
This is her first time leaving the palace grounds since her kidnapping—and torture— and she’s worried about me. “Did you think I’d be able to lie on top of you for so long without…reacting?”
She blinks up at me innocently. “Reacting?”
The princess is a goddamn virgin.
Of course she is. As though I need another reason to feel viciously protective of her.
“Never mind me, Greta,” I say, forcing my voice to soften, despite the aching dick in my pants. Despite the sudden awareness that I like her very much and she’s not available to me. “How are you?”
“A little nervous.”
“Yeah?”
“A lot nervous.”
“Okay, we’re going to work on that.” Without thinking, I smooth back these little curls at her temple, humbled by the way she leans into my touch. “What would you normally do at the ranch?”