Page 78 of An Heir to Blood and Power

“It’s not arrogance. It’s confidence.”

“Yeah,sure.I get it. Your rizz is so strong that your body count is in the thousands.”

One side of Nicolai’s mouth curved just a little. “I don’t need a ‘body count in the thousands’ when women arealwayswilling to get on a plane and come to me, any time I text, any night of the week.”

Ottalie, Charlotte, and Poppy, for starters.

Yuck.

“Yeah, well,” I stumbled. “I don’t know why any woman would do that.”

“I could show you.”

Pavlovian snark popped out of my mouth, a latent burn from high school. “Oh, my dude.Pass.”

I didn’t mean it, not about Nicolai.

Not for his sad, desperate eyes that first night, his laugh while we married, and his smolder as he held himself above me, staring down at me, his gaze steady on mine.

And if I was being honest, it wasn’t the undeniable fact that he was gorgeous that attracted me so damn hard. It was his touches all night, holding the back of my hand to his heartbeat, his almost imperceptible caress at the narrow part of my back reassuring me while he introduced me to his dozens and dozens of friends.

The fact that my social media friend count had quadrupled in the last few hours because he’d vouched for me to his friends, giving me the opportunity to know them better.

The fact that he’d instantly made a crazy-grand romantic gesture in the middle of a crowded casino, just to piss off my ex for me.

The fact that when I’d straddled him in the car and kissed him, his brilliant eyes had gone sleepy, that his breath had quickened.

But now, his eyes hardened, narrowing with anger.“Pass?”

“Yeah,pass,”I said, wrinkling my nose at him. “I’m an expert at refusing. You couldn’teven.I’ll bet evenyoucouldn’t getmeto change my mind.” I stared straight into his bright, narrowed eyes. “I dare you totry.”

“Then tell me to stop.”

Nicolai dipped like he was doing a pushup, and his lips caught mine and he was kissing me.

And I was swept away.

How was kissing Nicolai—the brush of his lips and his sweet breath deeper in my mouth, his tongue delicately touching and then stroking mine, his hand slipping up myneck to the back of my head and strong fingers gripping my hair—how wasthatsuch an utterly different experience than battling the mouth-kraken that had been Jimmy?

I floated.

My arms drifted upward to tangle around his shoulders.

The weight of his muscled chest and torso on me felt like I was pressing upward into him against gravity.

Momentum spun all thought away. The heat of his body flowing through his clothes tumbled me, and I was dizzy. The firm pressure of his hand stroked the hourglass curve of my body from the side of my breast to my hip as I gasped.

Nicolai had lifted his head away from me.

Falling, plummeting into the endless sky of the blue of his eyes, and drowning.

He rasped, his voice hoarse like he’d been screaming, and he whispered,“Tell me to stop.”

“No,” I said, steeling myself, and yet I could hear the pleading in my voice. “Don’t stop.”

He pushed himself up on his arms, pulling away.

I almost cried but definitely wanted to grab that oversized bed pillow and smack him upside the head with it.“No!”