Free A Royal Mess and Her Knight To Remember by Jill Shalvis Page B

hand, might have fought him if he hadn’t held on.
    â€œI have to go,” she whispered.
    â€œHold on.” Her breath sounded funny as she struggled for control, and his heart slipped. “No, don’t…” He took her shoulders and gently pulled her resisting body close. For comfort, nothing more, but he realized the mistake instantly, as there was far more than comfort at work here. She was soft against him, so soft, and she burrowed close, burying her face in his shoulder as she struggled with composure.
    So strong. So alone. To soothe, he stroked a hand over her hair, down her slim spine.
    You’re asking for trouble, man, in a big way.
    It didn’t seem to matter, not when she sniffed and burrowed a little closer, pressing her face into the crook of his neck.
    â€œI was trying too hard.” Her words whispered against his skin. “You’d probably would have rather been eating peanut butter and jelly.”
    â€œNo.” Her soft, warm lips against his flesh were killing him slowly. “We just didn’t know what you were dishing out, that’s all.”
    What she was dishing out now, with just this one embrace, was going to give him a king-size heart attack any second now.
    â€œI’m sorry,” she said on a sigh. “I’m just ever so tired of making a fool of myself.” But she snuggled closer, heating his body. “I was just having so much fun being needed for a change. At home, I’m important, but not needed. ” She sighed again, still against his skin, and he nearly went to his knees. “You have no idea how nice it is. To be needed.”
    Needed.
    Whoa. Big mental step back.
    When had it gone from her needing him to him needing her?
    With a good amount of shock, he lifted his head.
    She lifted hers, too, and for one moment they hovered like that, their lips a fraction of an inch apart, until one of them—he had no idea which one—closed the gap.
    Then they were kissing as if their lives depended on it. And in that moment, his did.

7
    C OMING UP FOR AIR , Natalia pulled back a fraction. Her mouth was wet, her eyes slumberous, her fingers entangled in the hair at the back of Tim’s neck. The look on her face nearly undid him.
    â€œDon’t take this wrong,” she murmured, sending delicious shivers down his spine with her fingers, “but I’ve been wondering what that would be like.”
    The admission was as big a turn-on as her kiss had been. He slid his hands over her hips. “Yeah?”
    â€œDid you wonder, too?”
    No. He hadn’t wondered. He’d been too busy. Hadn’t he? “After that kiss, I can think of little else other than doing it again.”
    â€œAgain would work for me.”
    He was smiling when he kissed her this time. Smiling. He couldn’t remember ever doing that while kissing a woman before. Her body against his felt good, and he pressed closer for more of it, sliding his hands beneath the flannel and over the soft curves he’d been thinking about all day—
    He had been thinking about her all day. About this.
    At his low, surprised laugh she pulled back. “What?” she asked suspiciously.
    â€œNothing.” He leaned in for more kisses but she slapped a hand on his chest.
    â€œYou stopped to laugh.”
    â€œNo, I—”
    â€œLet me give you a hint about women, Tim. Laughing at their kissing technique is bad form.”
    Uh-oh. “I wasn’t laughing at you. Honest. Now come here.”
    â€œFor what? More kissing? You’d still be doing just that if you hadn’t laughed.”
    â€œI laughed at me. Okay? I didn’t realize until now that I have been thinking about you all day.”
    â€œAnd this is funny because…”
    â€œIt’s not funny, believe me.” He held her hands when she would have turned away. “It’s distracting.”
    â€œNot exactly a compliment.”
    â€œNo?”