Eloping with the Princess (Brotherhood of the Sword #3)(44)

“You’ve been practicing,” he said.

“Perhaps a little,” she admitted.

“But you have some moves that I haven’t taught you yet,” he said after a particularly crafty placement of her foil.

She tilted her head, and her brows rose. “I might have found a book on fencing in the library.”

“A book?”

“Or two.” She made a surprising move that had him jumping backward to avoid her blow, and then laughed.

“Well done.” They bowed to each other before she collapsed onto the padded flooring. He fell to the floor with her, pulling off his gloves.

She shook her head. “They do not even know me.”

“No, they do not,” he said, trying to keep his tone measured. He rolled onto his side to face her.

Then she laughed, though it was a cold sound absent of any mirth. “Of course I don’t know me, either. Not truly.”

“Isabel,” he said gently.

She held up a hand to stop him. “No, ’tis true. Here I am trying to…” She shook her head. “You don’t know what it’s like,” she said, her voice no more than a whisper.

“What what is like?”

“To not truly be whom everyone believes you to be.”

He was quiet for a moment, simply watched her. How had this slip of a woman come into his life and seen straight into the core of everything? “You might be surprised as to what I know.”

She turned her whole body to face him. And in that moment, he no more could have denied himself a kiss than he could a breath. He leaned forward and placed his lips onto hers.

Jason pressed into her, her lips parted, and what had begun as tenderness changed abruptly to hunger. He took her mouth with a ferocity that surprised even him.

His tongue slid into her mouth, met hers, and merged as if they were one, as if this were the woman he’d been meant to kiss. He explored until he thought he would go mad from wanting her. And he kept enough of his senses to keep his hands in place, to not run them over her body. But this was the moment to explore her pleasure. He’d exhausted his body physically from their sparring. He would have expert control over his desires.

There was no denying, no pretending, what he wanted. He wanted desperately to spend the rest of the day exploring her every curve. But more than that he wanted to give her what she wanted. He would pleasure her until she forgot the wretched things those foul women had said.





Chapter Eleven


The moment Jason’s lips touched hers, the rest of the day faded away. Those foolish women and their treatment of her. Her feelings about being a princess. Right then she was merely Jason’s wife, and she wanted to shut off everything else and live only in that moment.

His tongue slid against her bottom lip, and she opened to him. Desire poured through her, seemingly liquefying her bones so that she was pliant beneath him. She ran her hands up his chest, and he sucked in his breath. She buried her hands in his hair and pressed her breasts against his chest. He released a low moan, then she felt his hands grip her buttocks as he pulled her to him.

“Oh God, I want you,” he said. His voice was low and deep, and his words shivered across her skin.

I want you, too, she wanted to say, but she didn’t dare speak for fear that he’d abandon her once more. She knew she was putting her heart in harm’s way, but she would take full responsibility for the heartache that was certain to come.

He pulled her to him again and kissed her fiercely. She busied herself with the front of his shirt and unbuttoned it the rest of the way, then ran her hands across the muscular hardness of his chest.

“Your hands are so soft,” he said. “And warm.”

He lifted her hand to his mouth and placed a sensual kiss to the inside of her wrist. His mouth created delicious sensations on her arm.

She tentatively leaned down and pressed her lips to his chest. His breathing stopped. She moved slightly, kissing her way across his torso. She felt invigorated, alive, and surprisingly powerful. He closed his eyes, and his jaw clenched in a sensual cadence.

She ran her hand down his chest to the thin line of hair that disappeared into his trousers. She did not, however, get the opportunity to explore that curious line of hair. She’d barely touched it when Jason grabbed her arms and drew her down to the padded floor, clearly shifting the position of power.

Desire surged through her. This would be a moment she’d never forget. He leaned down and trailed kisses across her neck down to her collarbone. She felt tingly all over, cold and hot at the same time. Sensations fired through her body, fighting for dominance. She didn’t know what to focus on, so she merely closed her eyes and ceased thinking.

He peeled off her clothes, layer by layer, until she lay before him completely nude. She’d never been nude in front of anyone, save some servants. On one hand, she wanted to cover herself from him. Hide her flaws. But he sucked in his breath as he removed the last piece of clothing.

“You’re exquisite,” he said. And her shame melted away. Instead of hiding, she wanted to spread her arms out and reveal herself fully.

Exquisite. And she felt that way, too, regardless of her less than perfect areas, because he thought her exquisite. That was all the invitation she needed to rid him completely of his shirt. She moved next to his trousers, but before she could unfasten them, he stilled her hands. “Not yet. There is much I want to do to you first.”