The Controversial Princess (The Smoke & Mirrors Duology #1)(70)

“Me, too.” He takes my hand and brings it to his lips, kissing the back lightly. “Now, are you going to tell me what you were really thinking?”

My gaze drifts from his, willing him not to ruin it. On the one hand, I love how he’s understood me so well so quickly. On the other, like now, I don’t. “That’s what I was really thinking,” I counter quietly.

“I don’t believe you.” Returning my hand to my personal space, he moves back a foot or so, giving me more. “I have some questions.”

My instant stillness must speak volumes. “What questions?”

“And in return I’ll answer anything you’d like to know.”

“Anything?” I ask, testing the waters, now more focused on what I’d like to know about Josh rather than what Josh would like to know about me.

He nods, smiling through it. “Anything,” he utters quietly. I sense his amusement is because he knows what my first question will be.

So I go right on ahead and ask. “Why did you spank me the first time we met?”

“Who said you get to ask first?” he counters, tilting his head in question.

My face bunches in displeasure. “Have you not heard the term ladies first?”

“Oh, yeah, I’ve heard it. And I’m a firm believer in it.” He raises his glass and takes a sip. “When I’m in the company of ladies.”

I recoil, completely affronted. “I am a lady.”

“I’m jerking around with you, Adeline. Stop being so stuffy.”

I’m offended. As a royal, I don’t think I’m stuffy at all. I certainly don’t have too many plums stuffed in my mouth. “I am not stuffy.”

“Maybe less stuffy now you’ve had some American cock inside you.” He grabs his crotch and thrusts into his own palm, grinning a wicked grin. “Want some more?”

I very nearly spit out a resounding yes, my body flaming as a result of his crude mouth, but I pull up before I dive on him and eat him alive, realizing what he’s doing. “You scoundrel.” I reach across and slap his hip. “You can’t distract me that easily. Tell me.”

“Tell you what?”

“Why you thrashed my arse?”

“Why’d you love me doing it?”

“Wait, that is not what we agreed.” I shake my head in demonstration, not prepared to let him turn this on me, though it clues me in on his direction of questioning once it’s his turn to ask. “You suggested the game. Now play.”

“Fine, you win.” He huffs and refills his glass, and I watch him as he takes a long time to reposition himself and take more than half the glass in separate sips. He’s still showing signs of amusement. “Honestly, your self-assuredness bugged the shit out of me.” The shock of his words means my champagne makes a swift exit from my mouth. “I’m not used to women being so cocky. I wanted to pull you down a peg or two.”

“What?” I splutter, leaving my chin dripping with the good stuff as I stare at Josh’s handsome face. He laughs and reaches forward to clean me up, while I continue to gape at him, my mind not giving me the first idea of what I should say next. He wanted to punish me for being … me? Doesn’t he realize that my bravado and front was all an act that day? A shield? “So you whipped my arse to stroke your bruised ego?”

Taking my hip, he tugs me forward until our fronts are touching and our faces are close. “Pretty much. Control is something I strive for in all elements of my life but rarely get. My life, my career. It feels like a runaway train most of the time. Pressure sucks.”

I laugh lightly, completely understanding him. “But you are in full control when it comes to women.” Do I have no filter with this man? He’s obliterated my walls.

“Yes.” His nose touches mine. “Until I met you.”

“So you brought me down a peg or two.”

“I did. But you know what?”

His question gives me pause, and I assess his serious face as he searches my eyes. Dare I ask? “What?”

“With you, I don’t enjoy the control so much. It’s not about me having the power over you.”

I frown. “I’m not sure I understand.”

“With you, I realized quickly you weren’t accepting everything I threw at you because you wanted to please me. You accepted it because you needed it, and that flung my attraction toward you into fuckin’ orbit.” He takes his hand to my nape and pulls me onto his mouth, grazing his lips over mine. “With me, you do what your body and heart tells you, not what your warped mind is screaming. You love kissing goodbye to the power you battle to maintain every day of your life. You love letting me rule you. And that, Your Highness, turns me on more than anything.”

“In a nutshell,” I murmur, fully acknowledging his claim. And maybe because I’m falling for him. And because no man—no one, really—has taken the time to see me. Understand me. I swallow and look away from him, growing increasingly fearful for myself.

Josh jolts me until I look at him again. “I want us, Adeline. I love being your freedom. I want to be your freedom.”

“But you’re not my freedom, are you? Not truly. Not when we’re having to hide in a hotel room to spend time with each other.”