Excerpt:
“My life—the brand new life I just started—is gone. Nobody seems to care about me,” Kelsey thumped her chest as her voice cracked, “the actual person in here behind the princess title. Except for you.”
Her aching vulnerability tore into Elias like a sword straight through his gut. It tore through the rules and protocol and every layer of common sense.
All that was left was a man watching a lost, lonely woman. It was blindingly obvious what she needed. So he wrapped his arms around Kelsey and hugged her.
She didn’t cry, or even tremble. But she did heave in a deep sigh, and when she let it out, her whole body relaxed into his. Except for her arms, which slid into a tight embrace around his waist.
They sat like that for long moments. Long enough for Elias to notice the determined buzz of a bee overhead. Long enough for a peacock to strut past them, its vibrant green and blue tailfeathers dragging on the ground like a train. Long enough for Elias to also notice how his arms wrapped so far around her small frame that the tips of his fingers grazed the sides of her breasts.
He knew he should move. Readjust.
He didn’t care about should. Elias only cared about making Kelsey feel better. Feel like herself.
Feel that he did, indeed, care for her.
Finally, Kelsey lifted her head from where it rested on his collarbone. “Thank you.”
“You’re—” but before he could finish the phrase, Kelsey kissed him.
It was just a soft, faint brush of lips over lips. Probably meant to be nothing more than a continuation of her thanks. Except that something sparked between them. The one, faint touch instantly morphed into more. Elias honestly couldn’t say which one of them consciously deepened the kiss. It felt organic.
It felt necessary.
It felt right.
They clung to each other, and that soft brush grew into a real kiss. The kind he gave after a date where everything clicked, where he and the woman connected deeply. The kind he hadn’t given anyone in many, many months.
Kelsey’s beauty had struck Elias from the moment that flimsy, splotched apartment door opened. But then, as she stood her ground with such determination, as she sassed him on the plane, as she approached every step of this journey with such bravery, his feelings had changed. The involuntary, primal acknowledgement of wanting her body had flipped over into wanting her.
The pressure between their lips, between their bodies intensified. Elias moved his lips harder against hers. Kelsey pushed right back. They kissed and kissed and suddenly their tongues were tangled, tasting and teasing.
Elias groaned. God, she was delicious. Sweet. Tantalizing. And so soft every single damn place they were touching.
His hands slid up through the silk of her hair to tilt Kelsey’s head back, to deepen his angle. But then he immediately slid one palm down her back to keep her pressed close. To keep those firm breasts rubbing against his chest as she swayed her upper body.
It didn’t make up for the fact they were seated side by side, that their hips and legs and bellies weren’t rubbing together. But it was damned sexy, especially sexy, paired with the breathy little moans she kept exhaling.
“Elias,” she murmured, as his lips moved down the tantalizing column of her neck. God, he just wanted to keep going. Push that prim and proper sweater out of the way and keep lapping at the pale skin that he couldn’t get enough of.
“Princess,” he replied.
And then froze.
His subconscious had just saved him. Tossing out that automatic title had been the necessary reminder that he wasn’t only kissing Kelsey. Elias was making out with a Princess of the Realm.
Also? He was making out with his best friend’s little sister.