Raed. Raed wouldn’t let up. He brought her to one more climax, shuddering around him, and Lise shocked herself by living through the heat and the pleasure. He reached his own climax a minute later, and when he pulled out of her it was like a spell had broken. Some of the intense warmth dissipated from the room, and she drew in a deep breath as Raed rolled over onto his side. He propped himself up on one elbow and gave her a long, searching look before he hopped off the bed, disappearing into the bathroom. Lise’s eyes wouldn’t shut. If their first round had exhausted her to the point of a near-nap, the second had woken her back up again. Hello, night.
He crawled back into bed next to her and stretched out, the long lines of his body making her mouth water. Now it was Lise’s turn to trace a path down the front of his chest and over the ridges of his abs.
“You must need food,” she murmured. “To replace what you’ve lost.” Lise pushed herself up over him. When had her hair come out of its elastic? It brushed his bicep and Lise reached to pull it back, only to have Raed run his fingers through it. He leaned up to kiss her one more time. “Stay here,” she said into his mouth. “I’ll get you something.”
The air caressed her skin while she tiptoed out of the room and down the stairs, heart picking up the pace. If anyone knocked on the door right now, she’d probably faint. Lise left the kitchen lights off while she rummaged. They’d been having a lot of their meals in the palace, so there wasn’t much in the way of dessert food, but she found a bag of Choco Beans—candies from back home.
It gave her an idea.
On the way back to bed she detoured to the closet and tugged the sash of her robe out of its spot.
“What’s in there?” Raed called.
“Our entertainment,” she answered.
From the way he smiled at her, he thought Lise was his entertainment. She knelt beside him on the bed, keeping the chocolates out of sight, and made him sit up. “What are you planning?” He stroked a hand down her side and let it linger on her hip.
“We’re going to play a game.” She leaned forward and carefully tied the sash around his eyes. “Our time at the restaurant tonight inspired me. Now.” Lise sat back on her heels and plucked the bag of chocolates from its ridge in the covers. “I have sugar-coated chocolate candies, and each color has a different flavor. I want to know if you can tell the color of the candy shell while you’re blindfolded.”
A bemused smile lit up his face, and he reached for her again, pulling her onto his lap. Lise straddled him while he arranged a stack of pillows behind his back and opened his mouth. That was an invitation if she’d ever seen one. She kissed him, light and teasing.
“Wait,” she said. “There are rules. If you’re right, I’ll kiss you. If you’re wrong, then I get to eat one of the same color.”
“Start the game,” Raed growled with a playful stroke to her hips. “I’m waiting.”
“So regal,” she said, running a fingertip along his bottom lip. Then she put the first piece of candy on his tongue.
Raed’s hands moved up and down, up and down on her hips as he considered. “Red.”
Oh, thank God. Lise informed him of his victory with a kiss—a slow, sugar-soaked kiss that made her want to stay up all night and all the next day and all the next night just kissing him, again and again and again.
“Not bad,” she mused. “Let’s see how you do on the second one.”
It was orange. Raed guessed white. She kissed him anyway.
Because she wanted to. Because with every chocolate that dissolved on his tongue, she wanted more. Lise could hardly wait until he guessed to kiss him again.
Raed laughed after the fourth piece. “You’re letting me win.”
“I just want you,” she admitted. “To kiss you.” She reached for another chocolate. “I’ll have to go for a jog tomorrow or swim laps to work this off.”
“I don’t remember you ever saying such a thing the last time we were together,” Raed pointed out. “Are you even eating the chocolates?”
“Yes. Two for every one of yours.”
Raed gathered her into his chest then, kissing the top of her head. “You don’t have to exercise to enjoy some chocolate with me.”
“Now I do.” Vulnerability crept in, and though Lise had been naked all along, she suddenly felt exposed in front of the blindfolded Raed. “I’m not—I’m not the same person I was before.”
He seemed to understand, because he stroked a hand down her back and didn’t release her, didn’t insist on continuing the game. “That’s a problem for you?”
“Not a problem.” His heart beat under her ear. “I have some quiet concerns.”
“What are quiet concerns?”
“Worries you don’t necessarily want to say out loud. Like the fact that we’ve both grown over the past few years, and things have changed, and things could change again.”
He was silent for a long moment. “People grow and change,” he said. “I did, over the years. It made me realize that I was willing to take my influence farther than anyone else in my family. Reach for bigger goals and projects. The palace life is enough for my mother, I think, and my brother has all his attention laser focused on Qasha, but it isn’t enough for me. And maybe...” His steady heartbeat soothed her. “Maybe that’s what kept me away from you. Before.”
“Maybe.” The pressure of this conversation had become so heavy, and Lise pulled back from it like she’d pull away from hot stove. She sat up and pushed the blindfold away from his eyes and off his head, then leaned in to kiss Raed hard. They didn’t need to get into who he would have chosen before. Why go barreling into it now?
“What’s important is that I’m going to eat the rest of this candy, so if you wanted it, too bad.”
“No, you’re not,” Raed said.
She’d gotten so uncomfortable in front of him. Right there, sitting on his lap, and now Lise was fumbling with the bag of candy and staring down at it like some impenetrable fortress.
He put a hand over hers on the crinkling bag, and her green eyes snapped up to meet his.
“I’m not?” A small smile tugged at the edges of her lips. Raed wanted to drive the wariness from her eyes. “I think I have the bag in my hands. What are you going to do about it?”
He tried to take it from her, and she pulled back, and then the two of them were tumbling back onto the bed, Raed wrestling her for control of the sweets. When he wrested the bag from her he pulled one of them out and held it between his lips, then bent down to offer it to her along with a kiss.
Lise licked right between his lips, stealing it from him.
He wasn’t letting it go that easily. Raed put a hand on the side of her face and swept his tongue into her mouth, the kiss turning hot immediately, chocolate melting on his tongue.
“You tease,” he murmured.
“I’m not teasing, I’m taking the candy,” she insisted, and it made him laugh. Lise followed him, her laugh relaxing her face. The two of them rolled over again, Lise trying to snatch the bag from his hands. He didn’t let her. He kissed her again. Another swift battle, with both of them emerging victorious.