Page 89 of An Heir to Blood and Power

“It’s not fair, otherwise.”

“I wouldn’t mind.”

“You would eventually.”

His hand caressed another long stroke over my skin. “Maybe I like touching you, watching you.”

“But that’s notallyou like.”

I was still watching him from where I was lying with my head on his chest, his heartbeat under my ear. The slow drift of his gaze away from mine was an acknowledgement, even if he didn’t say it out loud.

But his heart beat faster, racing under my ear on his chest.

He did say, “But obtaining an annulment is imperative.”

Thatdamnannulment again. I sighed, “Okay.”

“And no children. No pregnancies. That’s too dangerous. And that must be mandated in the pre-nup.”

We weren’t forever-married. Nicolai wasn’t my ever-after. “I agree.”

“My proposition is?—”

Yeah, this was turning into a proposition situation.

He turned my hand, gently examining the wedding rings. Or my cuticles. I couldn’t tell. “A doctormightbe able to discern whether you’re a virgin for the annulment. That would be incontrovertible evidence for an annulment, and they’dhaveto grant it. So, we’ll doalmosteverything. I’ll teachyou, or introduce you, to everything else. We’ll do everything,but.”

Disappointment was a sinkhole under my feet, and I fell.

But on the other hand, I had to respect his boundaries, even if his boundaries were only for me.

I sighed back at him. “Yeah, okay. I mean, I guess that’s still a lot, if you believe the internet.” An alternate version ofwhat he’d saidhit me.“Wait.”

“What?”

Nope-nope-nope.Horror infused energy into my limbs and traveled to my spine.

I sat the heck up. “When you say we’ll do everything-but, do you mean that we’ll do everythingbut,meaningexcept,you know,the actual deed?Everything,except?”I glared at him from where I towered above him because I was sitting up for this. “Or do you mean we’ll doeverything-butt.Like we’ll doeverything, in my butt.”

Enlightenment dawned in Nicolai’s bright eyes, and his mouth curved, but he stopped and sucked his lips inside his mouth before he said anything.

His eyes crinkled at the ends.

His throat bobbed.

And then he cracked up laughing so hard that he grabbed his stomach and rolled out from under my head, away from me, onto his side.“No!”

“Well, it’s not impossible you meant that,” I defended myself.

“That’snotwhat I—” He gasped for air through his guffaws.“Dear God,Lexi!No!I swear toGod,I wasnotsuggesting that you skip all the delights of lovemaking and go straight to—to—I can’t even say it.” He contracted, wringing another peal of laughter from his gut. “No, I didn’t meananal!”

It wasn’tthatfunny. “Well, some of the girls in my churchyouth group said that their virginity was sacred, and that’s why they only took it in the behind.”

Nicolai laughed harder, his head curled almost to his chest as he wrapped his arms around his ribs, sucking air and giggling while he laughed.

“No, really. It’s, like, a thing.” I cringed. “And then there was the outbreak of butt chlamydia last year.”

Nicolai lost it.