I bite my lips together, a flush creeping onto my cheeks.

Take me! I want to scream, because I don’t know how or why, but there’s something about Prince Leo that turns my body to jelly.

But I gather every ounce of wits I have, and even though my entire body is heated beyond recognition, my core aching and hot, I open my mouth.

“That’s not up to you,” I whisper.

His face doesn’t change at all, but I swear there’s a fierce, wild light that comes into his eyes, a light that sparks something deep and needy inside me.

“Don’t lie to yourself, Princess,” he says, his voice practically dripping with danger and sex. “I can tell what you want, even from here.”

He tilts his head forward, until his lips are nearly on my ear.

“And I promise to give it to you until you scream my name,” he says, his voice vibrating through my entire being, sending shivers down my spine.

I’m holding my breath, eyes shut tight. He’s right and I hate that he’s right.

Suddenly he takes a step back, the spell broken, and he straightens his suit.

“I’ll see you at dinner, then?” he asks, one hand on the doorknob.

I open my mouth. I close it. My whole body is a riot of want and need and desire and revulsion, so it takes me a moment to find the right words.

“Yes,” I finally say. “Yes, of course.”

He gives me one more long look up and down, then pushes his door open.

“It’ll be my pleasure,” he says, and then enters his chambers.

I turn on my heel and walk as fast as I possibly can without running toward my own rooms.

* * *

I shut my door and lock it, breathing hard, and lean back against it.

What just happened?! I think, frantically.

Prince Leo — beastly, unseen, uncivilized — is the man from last night. The man who stepped in and rescued me, the man who protected me, the man who graciously let me use his phone.

The man I couldn’t stop thinking about last night, the way his shoulders filled out his leather jacket, the way his hand was rough as he gave me his phone.

And I don’t know what happened just now. It was completely uncalled for, rude, arrogant — not to mention it’s a total breach of etiquette to pin a princess against a wall and tell her that she’s yours.

But now my heart’s beating wildly, my whole body tingling and surging with pure, unfiltered want. If he’d gone on, if he’d kissed me, yanked the top of my dress down and rolled my nipples roughly between his fingers, if he’d pulled off my skirt and ripped away my thong —

“Quit it,” I say out loud, even though there’s no one in my room but me, and I walk away from the door and start pacing back and forth, trying not to think about what just happened.

Or how much I wanted more to happen.

I don’t even know what I wanted to happen. I’ve never done more than kiss a boy before, my very strict parents have seen to that.

I mean, I’m not an idiot. I know about sex and how it works. I’ve just never done it. Or even been within miles of doing it.

I sit on my bed, hands planted at my sides, and make myself take deep breaths.

This is normal, I say. It’s... hormones or something, I don’t know, you’re just really worked up because something like that has never happened to you before.

I know it’s not hormones. I’m twenty-three, not sixteen. And I also know it’s not because I’ve never gotten laid. I’ve had crushes before, and I’ve definitely had sexy thoughts about men before, but not like this.

This was all-consuming, totally enthralling. Like every nerve in my body was lit on fire at once.

Gently, so I don’t mess up my hair, I lie back on my bed and pull the skirt of my gown up, the material slithering up my legs and to my hips.

Just don’t think about Prince Leo, I tell myself. Take care of things, just don’t think about him.

When I slide my hand under my thong, it’s soaking wet, my lips swollen and aching with desire. Quickly, I run two fingers along my seam, shuddering as I do — Prince Leo’s tongue darting between my lips as his hands — NO, stop it! — and start circling my clit.

God, it feels good. Better than it has in ages, because I’m so ready for this. I bit my lip and turn my head to one side, clutching my sheets in my left hand.

Not him, I think. Not him. Think about the cute gardener or something.

I try. I think about the cute gardener, taking off his shirt in the shed behind the castle... and then when he turns, he’s got Prince Leo’s face.

A bolt of pleasure shudders through me.

Dammit.

I rub myself faster and faster, desperate for release. Now I’m panting for breath, gasping for air, desperately trying not to think about anything but it’s not working.

Prince Leo, pushing me against a wall, his hands so tight on my hips it might bruise.

Prince Leo, one hand in my hair, pulling my head back roughly as he growls.

Prince Leo, spinning me around and bending me over the bed, one hand holding me there as he teases me, parting my lips with the impossibly thick head of his cock, as he pushes harder and enters my tight, virgin pussy for the first—

I come. I come so hard that I cry out, fingers clutching at the bedsheets, toes curling. Even though I’ve gotten myself off hundreds of times, I come harder than I ever have before, so hard it surprises me.

I just lie there, letting the waves roll over me, until I can finally think and move again, and I sit up, pushing my dress back down, still a little shaky.

It’s okay, I tell myself. People fantasize about things they don’t really want all the time.

Right?

I stand, then walk slowly to my bathroom to wash my scent off of my hands before I go have dinner with the man my parents want me to marry.