He was quiet a moment, then asked, “How does it work when I weave a fantasy in your mind? It doesn’t divert your attention from your healing efforts.”
“I can’t really explain it, except to say it’s easy to follow your lead and not put any serious thought into it, so I can leave my focus elsewhere. It’s almost as though I’m cloaked in serenity—and it’s completely mindless. More instinctual, so I don’t have to think about my actions.”
“But you would have to divide your attention if we were to have a conversation.”
“Yes. So please don’t be offended when it’s one-sided.”
“I deduced that was the case.”
She fiddled with a button on his shirt and asked, “Are you done quizzing me? I’m a bit muddled from the algebra lesson.”
He cupped the side of her face with a hand and guided her to him for a long, sexy kiss. Her insides instantly blazed.
“Oh that is so much better.” The heat flooding her veins chased away the lingering pain.
With deft fingers, she slipped the disks on his shirt flap through their small holes and peeled away the material.
“Christ, you are hunky,” she said as her palms smoothed over his chest. Her lips skimmed his warm skin. “And so delicious.”
Darien’s fingers curled around the satin and bunched it. She lifted slightly as he pulled the skirt of her nightgown up to her waist. His hands grazed her bare cheeks, gently massaging.
She kissed him, then whispered against his mouth, “I want you inside me.”
His hands slipped between them and he unfastened his pants and shoved them and his briefs over his hips. There wasn’t much room on the sofa, but she managed to straddle him and ease down onto his thick erection. She moaned softly.
“I like the fantasies,” Jade told him, “but reality is infinitely better.”
He sat up and she wrapped her arms around his neck as his cock thrust into her.
“Nothing feels better than this,” she murmured. “Feel free to stay as long as you’d like.”
His low chuckle brought a smile to her lips.
“I’ll eventually have to return to the castle or Morgan will think you’ve kidnapped me.”
She laughed. “Not kidnapped. Seduced you into never leaving so I can use your body for my own personal pleasure whenever I want…”
“Put that way, I’m not going anywhere. Sheena can run the castle.”
His hands roamed Jade’s front under the nightgown, easing up her stomach to her breasts. The loose structure of the bodice allowed him to cup the mounds. He caressed them tenderly.
“You’ve definitely lost too much weight,” he commented.
“Not into the flat-chested types?”
“You’re not exactly flat-chested, but you used to come closer to filling my hands.”
She suspected she’d lost ten or fifteen pounds since the first attack and because she’d been working out regularly with Tanner—unbeknownst to the king, of course.
“Are you complaining, my Lord?” she asked in a mocking tone.
He grinned. “Never. But I do want you healthy.”
“I’ll be fine. Especially if you keep doing that.”
His thumbs whisked over her tight nipples. Her head fell back as he kissed her neck, his teeth lightly scraping, his tongue teasing her skin. She felt all the glorious sensations he elicited as acutely as she had the first time they’d made love. Perhaps more so, because the bond between them continued to strengthen.
Their feelings for each other were intricately laced and Jade no longer considered them tenuous, but substantial and significant. Although she’d been honest with Sheena about castle life not being in her future, she was pleased Darien came to the cottage for her.