With one hand holding her hair so he could position her head at the right angle, his tongue aggressively delved into her mouth. Another hand was splayed on her bottom as he pulled her closer to his body. Everything about the way the prince touched and kissed her spoke of raw, dirty, red-hot passion.
And because it was so, Cass was swept off her feet completely, just like she predicted. There was no way for her to think sensibly. All she could do was feel.
His mouth ravaged hers, hungrily so, almost as if he had missed kissing her. He tasted sinfully sweet, rich, forbidden, and exotic – something…someone she could only have in her dreams.
Julian could not stop kissing her. The moment he realized it was really her, the girl in his dreams, he had stopped considering all rational thought. Fuck common sense. All that mattered was he had finally met her – the only girl in his life who could make him so hard he was able to forget, even just for a few precious moments, all of his worries over Ethereal.
Her breathy little moans were exciting to hear, making his cock ache like it had been imprisoned in celibacy for a long time. She sounded so innocent and turned on at the same time, a unique combination that he had never gotten from any other woman.
He would have undressed her then and there if not for his lifetime training of exercising rigid control in public. Public displays of affection were not for him, not even if it involved the girl he had been having wet dreams about countless times.
Reluctantly, Julian lifted his head, and his lips curved involuntarily when she gasped for breath. Looking down at her, Julian was a little disconcerted to encounter her vague-like gaze. He had somehow forgotten she was blind. The fact that she was, in all honesty, threw him off. He didn’t know if her blindness should matter or not. It was something worth thinking about, but for now he had something more urgent to discuss.
The girl wriggled on his lap, and the embarrassed look on her face told him she had just realized how compromising their current positions made them look. The embarrassment was genuine as far as he could tell, which was refreshing. He could not recall dating any woman who still had the ability to blush spontaneously. Most of them faked it.
“I can feel you staring at me,” she said in that sweet, husky voice of hers. She swallowed right after speaking, as if speaking to him took a lot of courage.
Julian wanted to see her swallow again. It made him think of endless wicked possibilities about what she could swallow and how. That particular train of thought was tempting to follow, but he forced himself to focus on more important things. “Who are you?”
“My name is Cass.” It felt so odd to tell him her name for the first time. Technically, they had known each other for years but now that she thought about it, he had always called her ‘sweetheart’ or ‘princess’ in their shared dreams.
She felt nervous when the prince didn’t say anything after, and she heard herself rambling, “I’m the one you’ve been dreaming about.” In her mind, she could hear Sunny groaning. Don’t be too honest! Honesty is not the best policy! And for heaven’s sake don’t talk to strangers!
Well, she knew that, but Prince Julian, Cass thought defensively, wasn’t a stranger, right?
Julian did his best to get a grip on things. The girl he had been dreaming about…His lips compressed, the words working like a cold dose of reality. In his mind and heart, Julian knew the words were true. But in the cold hard light of day, the words became irrational. And he didn’t fucking do irrational.
At that moment, everything in him warned Julian not to pursue this. If he wanted his life to stay on its normal, predictable path, he had to walk away right now and never look back.
“Don’t leave!” Cass mentally winced as she heard herself blurt out her protest. Oh, darn, darn, darn! She knew she shouldn’t have said that. It would only make Julian distance himself even more from her.
Julian’s head jerked up at the words. “What do you mean?”
“I’m…I…” Would he freak out even more if she told him the truth about herself? She swallowed again, unaware of what the gesture did to Julian. “I f-feel like you don’t believe me.” It was her best attempt at lying, but she had a hard time looking in the prince’s direction as she did. “And I…w-want you to give me a chance because…” Her voice trailed off. Why was lying so hard?
“Because what?”
She tried to think of a lie and couldn’t come up with one.
Giving up, Cass mumbled, “Because…I’m the girl you’re destined to marry?”