Free Prince and Single Mom by Morgan Ashbury

When she tilted her head to the side, he just smiled at her.
    The soup had been delicious, with a slight infusion of saffron that made her taste buds sit up and take notice. Wait staff whisked away their empty soup bowls, and set small plates with the grilled pieces of cheese and toast points before them.
    “There is one important matter I would like to address, before we go any further.”
    His serious tone instantly put Catharine on guard. “Yes?”
    “I really need to know your position on dancing.”
    “Usually on my feet, on a dance floor.”
    “Yes, see? You are even a wise man, just as I am. We do have much in common.”
    “That’s wise guy ,” she corrected. And she knew that he was right, on both counts. Which meant, she mused, the little turn she’d decided to take might not be as simple as she wanted it to be.
     
    * * * *
     
    Hannah checked the time on her watch. Just after nine. Jamie had been asleep for nearly an hour. He’d had an active day, and she didn’t expect him to awaken till morning. She didn’t know how long Catharine would be out. She hoped she hadn’t mistaken the message she thought she and Alex had exchanged earlier.
    After bathing Jamie, she’d showered again herself, and put on a simple cotton nightgown—and nothing else. The padded lounge chairs on the patio felt comfortable, and Hannah relaxed, her feet up on a stool. She tried to get into the book she’d chosen, but wasn’t having much success.
    She found it pretty hard to get interested in a fictional romance while having a real one of her own.
    Well, not a romance exactly, but—
    She turned her head to the left because a sound had alerted her, and smiled up at Alex.
    “How long have you been standing there?”
    “Not long. You make a picture, Hannah, your eyes wide and unfocused, that soft smile on your face.”
    “So do you, looking dark and dangerous in the shadows.” Perhaps, she mentally amended, this affair held elements of romance, after all. The look in his eyes told her he liked, very much, being considered dark and dangerous.
    “The young man is in his bed?”
    “Sound asleep, yes.”
    “Any idea what time his mother will be back?”
    “No.”
    He came to her slowly, and the closer he drew the taller he seemed. So easy, dressed in only a thin nightie, sitting in the low chair, to feel temporarily overwhelmed. Dominated.
    “Then we likely don’t have much time. I wonder, Hannah, are you the adventurous sort?”
    It was the kind of question that made a woman’s stomach clench and her heart race. In that moment, she fully understood that she really didn’t know this man at all, and her sense of vulnerability rose up, a solid and tangible presence. Despite that, or maybe because of it, she felt free to answer him in a way she’d never answered anyone before.
    “Today, for the first time in my life, I fucked a man I’d known for barely twenty-four hours. What does that tell you?”
    “It tells me you’re adventurous. At least for me.”
    As she watched, he slowly moved the stool out of the way, grabbed a cushion from the chair beside her, and tossed it on the ground. Then he got down on his knees in front of her. His hands on her legs caused a shiver to race up her spine, and her nipples to tighten. His hands slowly pushed up her nightgown until she sat, exposed to him.
    “Come forward.”
    The sound of his husky whisper inflamed her. The heat of arousal in his eyes intrigued her. She felt a little outside of herself as she obeyed him.
    “Do you know, there are things I have heard about all my life? Things that men and women do with and to each other that have always been only intellectual concepts. And it occurs to me, Hannah, that the same may be true for you. And that we could have a number of firsts together, you and I. If you dared to be adventurous enough to do as I ask. Adventurous enough to make demands of your own. You can say yes to satisfy intellectual curiosity. Or you can say yes, just