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That girl—the one she barely remembered, who belonged to a different name, a different family—would she have looked at him the same way? Or would she have just seen another prince, another player in a world of titles and duty?

Would that have been the truer picture?

Taly used to think the world had him wrong. That she was the only one who saw the real him—the smug idiot buried beneath the title, the power, the myth wrapped around his name.

But now… now she wasn’t so sure.

Because lying there in the firelight, all sharp lines and quiet strength, he looked every bit the man people whispered about. The man she’d never let herself see until he stole a kiss in a darkened library.

It was like coming home and finding the furniture rearranged. Same walls, same foundation—but now it had abs that she sometimes fantasized about licking.

Shadows flickered over his skin, highlighting the flex of muscle, the sharp vee leading down beneath the waistband riding low on his hips. Her eyes followed like they had a mind of their own.

Taly chewed her lip, heart thudding a little too loud in the quiet room. A bold, ridiculous thought crossed her mind—a kiss, right there, on the lower plane of his abdomen… The kind that would make his eyes flutter open, heavy-lidded with surprise.

It would get this night back to where she was hoping it would go. Not that she was brave enough. Someone brave would’ve taken the chance when he put her to bed—said what she wanted, reached for what she needed, made it clear that sleep wasn’t at the top of her list.

She sank deeper into the blankets. She’d hoped a bath, a bed, and a little control would be enough to settle her nerves.

But nerves would’ve faded by now.

Nerveswouldn’t make her feel like one wrong move could wreck the only thing still holding.

Skye had always been her constant. Unshakeable. But now even he didn’t feel solid beneath her feet.

She could deal with everything else falling apart. But not him.

She swallowed hard and let herself whisper, just once.

“What if we’re making a big mistake?”

“Wow,” came a low, graveled voice. “Way to hit me with the heaviest question possible in the middle of the night.”

Taly blinked. “Wait, you’re still awake?”

A hint of a smile played at Skye’s lips as he cracked one eye open. “Of course, I’m still awake. Big feelings, remember? You’re a flight risk.” He stretched—shoulders flexing, abs tightening, smugness radiating. “By the way, stealth isn’t really your strong suit, but I didn’t mind the effort.”

Her cheeks burned at the memory of the solid warmth she’d brushed against in her apparently not-so-daring escape. “Oh, my Shards, you ass.” She reached behind her, grabbing a pillow and whacking him in the face.

He laughed from beneath it. “Just so you know, in my version of this, you woke me with a kiss… or whatever it was you were thinking about that had your heart racing a minute ago.”

Taly’s cheeks blazed even hotter. She hit him again. Then again when he kept laughing.

“Why is violence always your first choice?!” he cried from beneath the assault.

She punctuated each word with a swing. “Because! You! Make! Everything! Difficult!”

“Really?! Because it kind of seems like you just enjoy beating me.” He deflected the next strike with a smirk, wrestling the pillow away and tossing it into a shadowy corner of the room. “Lucky for you, I like a little pain with my pleasure.”

Her thoughts shorted out in eight directions at once—mouth opening, then closing when nothing came out.

Fantastic. She was fish now.

She growled like that would erase the heat crawling up her neck. “Not everything has to be a joke, Skye.”

He raised an eyebrow, the corner of his mouth lifting as he said, low and wicked, “Who says I’m joking?”

Something low in her stomach clenched. He made it too easy to want him—too easy to forget why that terrified her.