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Some hours later...
‘You are so curvaceous.’
This pronouncement was followed by a firm squeeze of Sofie’s naked buttock.
She rolled her eyes. ‘You mean plump.’
‘Succulent.’
This was followed by a gentle bite of the same buttock.
She giggled. ‘Now you’re making me sound like food.’
Darius felt fairly sure he hadn’t ever made a woman giggle in bed. It wasn’t altogether unpleasant. It sparked a warm feeling in his chest.
‘You are food,’ Darius breathed. ‘The most succulent, juiciest morsel of flesh I have ever tasted.’
Sofie made a huffing noise.
Darius lifted his head. He was drunk on the scent and the feel of Sofie. ‘What?’
She made a face. ‘I’m sure you’ve had juicier than me. You just can’t remember, that’s all.’
She blushed, and he marvelled that she could still blush after what they’d just been doing. There was not an inch of this woman that he didn’t know intimately by now. And he wanted to know again and again. He realised at that moment that he was quite unconcerned about the fact that he had no idea who he was. It was as if he really didn’t want to deal with whatever reality awaited him.
He cocked his head to one side. ‘Technically, you’re correct. I can’t know. But does it matter?’
They were sprawled on the bed in a haze of post-coital pleasure, Darius’s head near Sofie’s lap, hence his proximity to her bottom, and her head near his feet. Black hair tumbled over one creamy shoulder. Her breasts were full and perfectly shaped, nipples rosy. The curve of her waist was an enticement to touch.
Darius was reaching for her when she said, ‘Do you wonder why you were on the mountain alone?’
His hand stilled. ‘Alone?’
‘Most people do that climb in a group or with a buddy. It’s safer.’
Darius didn’t know why but he suddenly felt a chill go down his back and felt exposed. ‘Maybe I don’t have any friends.’
Sofie bit her lip. She looked concerned. ‘Of course you have friends. Everyone has friends. I’m your friend.’
Darius pushed aside the onset of something very brittle that he’d felt at her mention of friends and the hollow ache it evoked. Was he some kind of lone wolf? Was that why he had a tattoo of a wolf on his arm? A tattoo he had no memory of getting...
His brain started to throb a little. He manoeuvred himself so he was alongside Sofie’s delectable body again. ‘You say you’re my friend...just how friendly are we talking?’
Sofie took his cue and reached for him, smiling shyly. ‘Very friendly. Some would say over-friendly.’
Darius allowed himself to sink into her embrace, and when she pulled back for a moment he wanted to growl in protest. He opened his eyes. She was looking at him with an expression on her face that was something like...guilt.
‘What is it?’ he asked.
‘It’s something I have to tell you. I have a confession to make.’
Darius felt amused at the thought of this woman committing any kind of transgression. ‘By all means confess.’
Sofie bit her lip for a moment, almost distracting Darius from hearing what she had to say. But then she said, ‘When you were unconscious...just before you woke up... I... I kissed you. You were so beautiful I couldn’t resist.’
He had a vague impression of a cool mouth on his...then going away...of himself reaching out to grab onto something. Her. Those big eyes. Wide and shocked. Guilty.
Almost to himself he said, ‘I remember...you woke me up.’
She blushed. ‘It was an unforgivable intrusion of your privacy. I don’t know what came over me.’
There was a dull throb in Darius’s head, and a niggling sensation that images and words were trying to break through the fog. But he wasn’t ready for that. Not yet.
He pulled Sofie close again, willing her to keep the world at bay for a little longer. He said, ‘Isn’t the Prince supposed to wake the Princess with a kiss?’
Sofie huffed a short laugh. ‘We both know I’m no princess.’
Darius wasn’t sure how to respond to that. She wasn’t a princess, and this wasn’t a fairy tale. But the knowledge that her kiss had precipitated his awakening unsettled him.
The throbbing in his head intensified.
Feeling a sense of desperation, and not sure where it was coming from, Darius pulled Sofie close again and said into her soft skin, ‘I forgive you for your transgression...now, where were we?’
