“I don’t think so,” I replied quietly. I was beginning to wonder if I was giving the correct answer. Was I supposed to ask him for things? Princess Whitney certainly demanded gifts from those who would visit the castle from neighboring kingdoms, especially if the person in question was a potential suitor.
“Do you want me to kiss you again?”
The abruptness of his question caught me off guard, for it was not at all what I expected. I looked up into his eyes, and they were open and playful. His mouth was drawn up into that half smile as he darted out his tongue to wet his lower lip.
“All right,” I said. I felt the heat rise to my face as my eyes dropped to the ground.
“Look at me, Alexandra.” He leaned forward, his gaze on mine until his eyes closed, and his lips captured my mouth. He kissed me softly and then cupped my face. I felt his tongue brush across my lips, and I opened my mouth for him. I both felt and heard his words against my lips.
“Touch me.”
I placed my hands on his shoulders as I had done before, and he deepened the kiss. His tongue caressed mine, and one of his hands moved to the back of my neck while the other slid around my waist. He pulled me close against him and released me briefly before he changed the angle of his head and kissed me again and again. I could feel those strange, tingling sensations over my skin where his hands touched as well as other places around my body, and I found my hand slowly moving up and into his hair. I was surprised by how soft it felt as I easily slipped my fingers through it.
Branford groaned against my lips and pulled me tighter still. I could feel his body’s reaction to our closeness pressed up against my stomach. My heart began to pound in my chest, and he backed away just enough for his hand to move from my back, around my hip, and up to cup my breast. He lifted it slightly, and his thumb grazed over the nipple. I felt it harden as he touched it, and he continued to explore my mouth with his tongue.
“I want to see you,” Branford said as he broke away. He trained his eyes on mine and moved his hand from my breast to the ties at the front of my dress. He paused a moment, and I realized he was waiting for me to object to his desires. I nodded, stared up at him, and tried to keep my breathing in check as his fingers loosened the ribbons and pulled them from their loops. He glanced down as the laces opened, and my neck was further exposed. He tilted his head and kissed the edge of my jaw, then down my neck, and to the skin he had uncovered. He moved his lips over my collarbone as he used his fingers to further open my dress.
My grip on his hair tightened as he pushed the material off my shoulders and exposed the top half of my breasts to his eyes. He gazed down at them, and when I glanced down myself, I saw the top half of the circles around my nipples in plain view by virtue of the afternoon sunlight as it shone through the window. I bit into my lower lip, and I glanced back to his eyes, wondering what he may think of me. For a moment he was still, and then he looked into my eyes again.
“Am I…pleasing to you?” I asked. His eyes were dark, even with the bright sunshine cascading over us. I looked away quickly, sure he had found me lacking, until I heard his husky voice.
“Dazzling,” he finally said. He looked back down at me as adjectives flowed freely from his mouth. “Incredible. Beautiful and enticing. You are perfect, my wife.”
His breath was hot against my skin as he kissed languidly across the other collarbone, then back up toward the other side of my neck. I could feel his tongue tracing over my skin, and I felt his hands move up my sides. Branford brushed his fingers over my shoulder, and then he stopped abruptly and gasped.
“Did I do this to you?”
I flinched as his fingers touched the reddened area of my shoulder where it had hit the stone wall. I looked at Branford and saw his eyes closed and his jaw clenched.
“Will you ever be able to forgive me for this?” he asked.
“Of course, my lord.” My automatic response escaped from my lips.
He sighed, dropped his hands, and took a step back from me.
“When will you speak your mind to me?”
“I don’t understand.”
“That is obviously painful. I wish you would…I don’t know…yell at me or something. Tell me what an awful husband I have been so I can beg and promise to never do such a thing to you again.”
“Yell at you?” A humorless laugh escaped me. “No, I don’t think I could do that.”
“Why not?”
“You are…you are…” I stumbled over my words. Of all the things he wanted me to understand of his life, how could I explain this simple aspect of my own? “You are a prince, Branford. I would never be so disrespectful.”
“What if I deserve it?” He dropped down onto one of the chairs near the fire and stared at me. I reached for the edges of my opened dress and pulled the fabric back over my chest and shoulders, hiding my bare skin. I turned away from him and tried to get myself covered up again.
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“I deserve your anger for this, Alexandra.”
“I’m not angry.”
?
?How could you not be?”