“I love you,” I whisper, reaching for his hand.
“Love you, too,” he says, twining his fingers through mine with a sigh. “Hopefully, that will make this next part easier.”
I roll my head to the side, catching his gaze and smiling wider.
“What?” he asks, grinning back at me.
“Nothing. You’re just pretty, and I like you.”
He squeezes my hand. “You’re pretty, and I like you, too. But we…” He sighs again. “We have to talk. We can’t go on like this, Bree.”
I blink, but my smile remains stuck in place. I’m too blissed out to be worried about anything, even the anxiety tightening the skin around Drew’s eyes. “It’s going to be okay,” I promise him.
“You don’t even know what I’m talking about.”
“No, but it’s still going to be okay.” I rock our joined hands back and forth. “We love each other, we have so much fun together, and the sex is ah-maze-zing. Nothing can touch us, man.”
He arches a wry brow. “Yeah? Is that all it takes? So we’re invincible now?”
“Pretty much.” I press my lips together, pondering the issue, but the sunshine flowing through me assures me I’m right. “Yep. We’re going to be fine.”
“Except that I can’t stand the thought of you going back to Rinderland alone,” he says in his serious voice. “But the press will rip you apart if I move you into the castle in Baden Bergen with me without a wedding somewhere on the horizon. I’d get pushback, too, I’m sure, but…” His gaze flicks from my eyes to my lips and back again. “We’ve already seen how unfair it is. A prince can still get away with a hell of a lot more than a princess.”
“That’s true, but I’m not some delicate flower that can’t stand a night or two out in the cold, Andrew. I’m not enjoying the press coverage, but they can’t really hurt me. Those reporters aren’t on my top people list. Only my top people get to criticize me and have me listen. And none of the people I love most are going to care if I’m branded the sluttiest princess on Earth. They want me to be happy and loved and…” I lift our joined hands, kissing his knuckles. “I’m both of those things when I’m with you.”
Andrew rolls onto his side, propping his head on his hand as he circles an arm around my waist. He draws me closer until I’m tucked against his warm skin and thinking slutty princess thoughts about his lovely self. “I agree, and you’re very wise,” he says, “but why not go with the current? We can always elect to get out of the water farther down the bank. But in the meantime, our boat will be headed in the direction the other boats expect it to be heading, and there will be less friction for everyone all around.”
“But I like friction.” I take his cock in my hand and give it a gentle squeeze, grinning as he starts to get hard again almost instantly.
He narrows his eyes. “You’re incorrigible. And far too satisfied with yourself.”
“I can’t help it. I think my hand might be magic, too,” I say, grinning harder.
“It absolutely is. You’re a magical sex fairy and the genie of my loins, but you’re not getting any more sexing until we finish this discussion.”
“Sexing,” I murmur, still playing with his increasingly hard length. “Good verb.”
“I’m serious, Sabrina,” he says softly.
With a sigh, I pull my hand away from my favorite toy and cross my arms over my chest. “Fine. I don’t want to get engaged because it’s proper or tradition or because your people expect it, Andrew. I only want to get engaged if we’re ready to take that step.”
“I’m ready,” he says.
I arch a brow. “No, you said you wanted to go with the current, but that we can always get out of the river. When I get engaged, I want to know that my partner and I are in the water forever.”
“You’ll get very pruny fingers if you stay in that long,” he says, but I know he gets it. He nods. “All right, then. We’ll wait to get into the water.”
I touch gentle fingers to his cheek. “Hey, I love you, I really do. But we’ve only known each other for a few weeks. If we were anything but royalty stuck in a weird arranged marriage situation, people would think we were insane to get engaged this fast.”
“I don’t think so.” He rolls on top of me, gently kneeing my thighs apart. “Not if they knew how good we are together in bed. Maybe we should leak a sex tape.”
I roll my eyes. “Right. Our parents would love that.”
“My mother is sex-positive,” he says, kissing my neck.
“My mother has never said one word about sex in my presence, and my father blushes if Zan or I so much as mention a boy at the dinner table.” I wrap my arms around his shoulders, sighing as the ridge of his erection presses against my clit. “And now we should stop talking about our parents.”