I can’t think about anything else. The christening festivities for Stefan are still ongoing, and I’m still being called on to discuss delicate matters of politics, foreign affairs, or even whether Naralta’s military uniforms are a bit outdated or not.

I’m useless as a eunuch in a whorehouse at all that. All that’s on my mind is Aurora.

The fact that she said yes. The heat that was between her legs, the way she trembled in my arms. The feel of her lips under my fingers, how she’s the perfect combination of bold and innocent.

I’m going to teach her everything. Everything. I can tell that underneath her demure, proper, princess-like outer layer she’s going to turn out to be wild, utterly filthy, the kind of girl who’ll love everything I do to her and beg me for me.

The perfect girl, in other words.

But then I remember the catwalk nearly falling, Aurora almost tumbling to her certain death, and my stomach constricts, vision narrowing.

What if I hadn’t been able to grab her? What if I’d lost my grip and she’d fallen? She whispered something about the curse as I pulled her into my arms, and it opened up a black hole in the center of my chest.

Because there is a curse. I don’t think she takes it seriously — why would she? — but there are rumors that her parents did.

I’ve heard that after her crazy cousin Malvina stormed into Aurora’s christening and told everyone she’d die before she was twenty, her parents took her to another witch. A good witch, who claimed she couldn’t reverse it completely, but she could lessen its effects.

Instead of dying, now Aurora will just fall into a deep, deep sleep. Until awakened by true love’s kiss.

Total bullshit, obviously. Curses don’t exist, they can’t be mitigated, and that whole true love’s kiss thing is just fucking stupid. But today’s near-death incident was just enough to give me pause and make me nervous.

* * *

At last, the ceremonies and formalities are finished. I haven’t spoken with Aurora since we left the church — ever since Grayson found us together, he’s been hovering around her, giving me dirty looks.

Not that I can blame him. I probably wouldn’t want someone like me near my little sister, either. Especially not someone who’s planning the dirty, filthy things that I’ve got in store for her.

It’s not going to be once, obviously. I can already tell that we’re both going to want more, instantly. Girls always do, and even though I don’t, I’ve got a strong feeling that Aurora’s someone I won’t be able to get enough of.

Fuck, I already can’t get enough of her. I’ve kissed her once and it’s been all I’ve thought about for hours now.

Near the end of tonight’s banquet, between discussing Naralta’s Olympic ice dancing team with a Russian dignitary and trying to talk a very stupid socialite through what Parliament is, I manage to get a note to Aurora, right under her brother’s nose.

Then I watch as she opens it, across the room from me. She reads it, twice, turning faintly pink the second time through.

And then she looks up at me, her face half anxious and half excited, and my dick goes rock-hard instantly.

She folds it again, glancing at her brother, seated next to her. He’s deep in conversation with someone else, and she tucks it quietly into her bodice, where it’s pressed against her full, perfect breast.

Then she smiles at me. It’s perfectly demure, a princess-like smile and nothing more. One royal to another, but my cock throbs and twitches when she does, because I know it means yes.

Yes, I’ll meet you in the west tower, where the rooms we’re not using are.

The rest of the dinner is sheer torture, knowing what’s going to happen tonight. I try not to think about it too much, because my cock is making a bad habit of announcing itself at inopportune times, but I can’t help it.

Aurora, naked, spread below me on a bed. So wet for me it’s dripping onto the sheets below her.

I think about how I’ll make her come the first time. Maybe with my fingers, using my thumb to rub her clit while I slide a finger or two inside her, stroking that soft, sweet spot that makes women’s toes clench.

Maybe with my tongue, lapping up her sweet honey while she moans above me, clutching the sheets and breathing my name over and over.

Or with both, fucking her with my fingers while I lap at her clit relentlessly, driving her right up to the edge before stopping, then getting her to the brink again. Making sweet Aurora so desperate that she begs me to make her come.

Or... no.

I can’t fuck her. Not her first time. She’s a virgin who’s never orgasmed, and I’m enormous. No matter how good I know it’s going to feel, and no matter that before I’m through with her I’m going to take her in every hole, there’s no way I can fuck Aurora to her first orgasm.

It’s just ungentlemanly.

...Right?