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“That’s it? That’s all you have to say? I’ve been here for hours. Basically, a prisoner.”
His dark eyes landed on me. “Are you accusing me of locking you in my tower?” His smirk was irritating, but sexy at the same time.
This wasn’t some kind of game and I wasn’t the Rapunzel type.
“I don’t understand why you think this is funny.”
He crossed the room, kicking back the dark drink. My chest tightened. The smile had dropped from his lips. He looked like a tiger tracking his prey.
“I’m not laughing, Molly. Far from it.”
With his final step, he reached me and I froze. His piercing stare burned my chest. I was paralyzed with a bizarre combination of need and anger. I remembered what it was like to be touched by him. To be under him. To be pinned against his hard body. It took everything I had to control my breathing. The memories flooded me, but I was suddenly defiant. I didn’t want Damon to know what kind of power he had over my body. My reaction to him was undeniable despite how much I suppressed my natural instincts.
“Well, neither am I. Do you have any idea what I went through? I was embarrassed in front of everyone. I looked like a criminal. There’s no telling what they think. And then I was left up here with no information on why I was dragged away. There wasn’t a message. A note. Nothing.” I tried my best to muster a hard glared, but I could tell I was crumbling. He was too close to me. The air was tinged with heat and want. It was impossible to fend off the inevitable.
“And then I sat. And I waited. And I-I don’t think it’s fair how you treated me. Is this what it means to be a citizen here? You just order people around? People have no rights?”
He exhaled. His eyes closed. When they opened the lust in them stole my breath.
“I’m sorry, Molly.” His fingers landed on my shoulder, sliding under the strap of my tank top. “I did try to get here sooner.”
He stroked the side of my arm, letting the strap fall gently. I dared myself to fall for it. I dared myself to soak in the heat of his touch.
“But Galona was needy today.” He bent toward me, catching my lips by surprise. His lips crushed mine. The bourbon burned my tongue as he greedily kissed me. He growled lowly, tearing down the walls I had built during my hours in his tower.
I pressed against his fitted jacket, feeling the strength of his chest beneath my palms. “Why?” I whispered. I needed space if I was going to get my answers. “Why am I here?”
I caught a glimpse of his tanned skin where he unbuttoned his shirt. The tie still loosely dangled around his neck. It was the sexiest thing I had seen.
“I have just spent two days with the prime minster of XXislands. You were supposed to be here when I was out of my meetings yesterday.”
“I tried to return to the residence, but security wouldn’t let me in the elevator. There wasn’t much I could do.” I needed to defend myself.
He sighed. “Idiots.”
“And then I ran into the royal manager. He said I needed to go home.”
Damon’s eyebrows arched. “Sutcliffe?”
I nodded. I considered describing the man as the one with the stick up his ass, but it didn’t seem like a suitable royal description.
I continued my defense. “I did try to leave a message for you, but it seemed it was best I went home. Georgan took me.” I broke away enough from his hands to lean against the couch. “After the gala, I knew I was overstepping. And I’m not that kind of person, Damon. You don’t know me. I don’t know you. But I’m not the kind of girl who came here to land a celebrity. I’m in Freychon for my research.” I hadn’t heard my voice this clear and certain in a while.
“The gala was a whim. A crazy, irrational kind of whim that I’ve never given in to. I’m not rash and impulsive. I realize you have every reason to think I am. But that was one night. It’s not the real me. This is.”
I waved my hands from my glasses to where my yoga pants bunched below my knees. The woman in front of him was who I truly was. These were the clothes I walked in. The glasses I saw through. The skin I lived in every day.
He rubbed the sharp angle of his jaw.
I couldn’t stop talking. “My work is my life. I left South Carolina for this grant. I left my family and all my friends to do something amazing. Something that fulfills me. I made sacrifices to move here. I’ve worked extremely hard. And it wasn’t to become the king’s side piece.” My chest heaved defiantly.
He finished his drink, pausing to respond. I didn’t know if I had completely pissed him off, or offended him on every level possible. There was a chance he was going to call security and dump me outside the palace gates.
“Did you consider maybe that’s why you’re here?”
He deposited the bourbon glass and divided the space between us. He gently pinched the sides of my glasses, removing them from my face. He placed them next to empty glass.
My breath caught in the back of my throat.
