AllFreeNovel
Share Us
His return frown was suspicious. “I don’t see why I need to say it if you already know what I’m talking about.”
Without answering, she simply murmured, “Hmm,” and tapped her chin as she studied his face. Then she dropped her hand suddenly as if ready to try a new track to get under his skin. “You know, I think it’s simply delicious how devoted you are to her.” Trickling out a flirty laugh, Yasmin walked her fingers up the center of his chest, making him lurch back and gape incredulously.
“Oh, don’t be shy, darling,” she said, shifting closer to him. “It’s okay, I won’t hurt you. In fact, I could make you feel very, very good.”
My mouth fell open, unable to believe what I was hearing. But had she just… No. No. Yasmin wouldn’t… But then… Holy shit. She would, and she had. She’d totally just propositioned my man.
Urban narrowed his eyes and shook his head, squinting. “No, thanks.”
“No?” she asked on a questioning smile. “Are you sure about that? Because…if you’re waiting on Vienne to decide to be disloyal to her husband so you can finally have her for yourself, you may be waiting a very long time indeed. She simply doesn’t stray from her vows. But me, on the other hand…” Her laugh turned husky as she pressed a hand to her chest. “Let’s just say, you wouldn’t have to wait that long for me.” Then she winked. “Or at all.”
“No,” he said again, his voice stronger and sterner this time. “I know she won’t be disloyal. And I’m not waiting. I just have no interest in you.”
Yasmin gasped from his rejection. “Why, you…” She swung out her hand to slap him, but he caught her wrist before she could make contact.
“I know why you’re sniffing around me,” he spoke quietly. “But it won’t work. There are some things that belong to your sister that you just can’t take.”
“You really are a stupid, High Cliff bastard, aren’t you?” she snarled, jerking her hand free from his grip. “You’ll regret this.”
“I doubt it.”
Sniffing, she spun away and stormed from the room, leaving through a different exit than the one I was hiding behind.
With a muttered curse, Urban rubbed the palm of his hand on his thigh as if trying to dispel her touch before saying, “Never fear, my lady. I would’ve turned her down even if I hadn’t felt you near, listening to everything we said.”
Since he’d already addressed me, I stepped quietly into the room with him.
He glanced my way. “Did you know she was unfaithful to the king?”
I shrugged. “It hadn’t occurred to me before, but it doesn’t necessarily surprise me.”
He nodded and glanced down before lifting his gaze again. My cheeks instantly heated and I had to turn away, unable to keep eye contact with him for too long. I irrationally feared I might burst into hormonal flames.
“I…I should go,” I said, already stepping toward the exit.
“You’re uneasy around me today,” he said softly. There was confusion in his voice.
I paused and squeezed my eyes closed, before slowly swiveling back around. “Well, can you blame me?” I said on a nervous laugh. “After… After that dream last night?”
The skin around his eyes crinkled, showing his confusion. Then he tipped his head to the side. “But it wasn’t our first sex dream.”
I laughed out a harsh, uncomfortable sound and glanced around the room, as if searching for something to help me stabilize myself, because I felt entirely unhinged. “Yes, but… Last night wasn’t just a sex dream. You can’t stand there and tell me it was like every other dream we’d shared before. It was…it was more. It was—” With no idea how to explain how it had completely rattled my foundation, I lifted my hands and sent him a desperate, pleading stare, and I didn’t even know what I was pleading for.
“Okay,” he finally relented with a single nod. “It was different. It was more. But—”
“No buts,” I cried. “It was wrong. That’s what it was. And it can never happen again. It took feelings and emotions and words and mixed them with touches and kisses and…and it...it was just too much, too wrong. It totally crossed a line.”
I whirled away to flee, but he leaped after me to touch my hand. He didn’t even try to grab it, he merely slipped his fingers briefly across the back of my palm. But it stopped me as if he’d tackled and pinned me to the floor.
I turned back to him, feeling wild and unbalanced. He lifted his hands in surrender and backed away, giving me space. He didn’t stop until nearly fifteen feet separated us. But even from that distance, his blue eyes looked worried. I tore my gaze away, feeling my entire body flush with embarrassment and hot memories and shame. God, this was so agonizing.
“My lady,” he said softly, causing me to meet his gaze. “It was just a dream. My dream,” he insisted. “Everything you did and said was because I wished it so. It was what I wanted from you.” Shaking his head, he said, “I know you haven’t given me some grand declaration of love. I know that. It was my dream. My pretend.”
I nodded and started to turn away without speaking, only to stop myself and then whirl back to him. “But I’ve never seen the Great Sea before.”
He shook his head slowly, clearly not understanding. “What?”
“I told you in my dream that I’d never seen the sea before. And that’s actually true. I haven’t even been outside Donnelly. All I know is desert and sand and the one oasis that is Mandalay. So, how did you know that if it was exclusively your dream? You didn’t know any of that outside the dream, did you?”
