Page 14 of Knotting Sleeping Beauty

“Don’t tell anyone I cried.” I sniff. “You have a reputation as a scary warrior king to maintain. I have a reputation as a fierce princess to keep.”

“You’re terrifying, sweetheart.”

I press my face into his chest and let him feel what I can’t say yet through our bond. My wonder, and a bone-deep certainty that matches his.

His arms tighten around me, his lips pressing on top of my hair.

Ten

KAEL

We hear banging on the tower door, and my body snaps alert, every muscle readying, every instinct firing, a growl building in my chest before I even fully registered the sound.

“Your Majesty?” Ronan’s voice is muffled, coming from the base of the stairs. “It’s been a while, sir. You’ve been in there for…” A pause. “Quite some time.”

I glance out the window. It’s dark outside. Fuck, we’ve been here for hours.

Rose is wrapped in the remains of the bedsheets, looking spectacularly claimed. Her hair is a glorious disaster. Her skin, marked. And she’s fucking glowing. She’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, and I will never, for as long as I live, get tired of looking at her.

She catches my eye and mouths, Is that your guy?

I nod.

She mouths, Tell him we’re busy.

I bite back a bark of laughter.

“Tell King Alaric his daughter is awake,” I call down. “She’s well. She’s safe. But we need more time.”

A pause. “How much… more time, sir?”

“A day. At least.”

A longer pause follows. I can practically hear Ronan trying to phrase his next question diplomatically.

“And the, uh… bonding situation? Should I mention…”

“No,” Rose and I say together.

She grins at me. Wide, wicked, and delighted. “I want to see my father’s face when he finds out.”

“You’re a fucking menace.”

“Yes, Your Majesty, you bonded a menace.”

I pinch her waist, and we both dissolve into laughter.

Ronan finally retreats, his footsteps fading down the stairs. And the tower is ours again.

Rose stretches, lying across the bed, sheets twisted around her long, shapely legs, and the sight of her, thoroughly fucked, satisfied, marked with my bites, wakes something primitive inside me.

“My father’s going to lose his mind,” she says, with an amount of satisfaction that suggests the overprotective king and his caged princess have some things to work through.

I nod. “I’ll give him assurances. A marriage contract, alliance terms.”

She tilts her head. “Do you care about any of that?”

I wrap my arms around her soft, warm body, inhaling her scent. “Nope.”