Her Last Protector. Jeanie London

tiny triumphs after hard-won accomplishments that were never good enough.

      One step forward. Two back. Ninety-nine to go.

      Once inside her glittering shell, she would return to looking at Drei but never really seeing him.

      How could she not have seen him?

      He lay so still around her, he might have been carved from marble.... No, nothing as refined. Stone, she decided. Craggy and rugged and enduring like these mountains.

      And she couldn’t stop touching him. That faint vibration she felt inside urged her to greater boldness, to see if a fire could be stoked from a single flame.

      She nestled her face in the valley between his neck and shoulder, inhaled the scent that made him him. She liked the whimsical thought and shifted again. Just enough so her breasts lifted from his chest, a slight motion that grazed sensitive tips against wiry chest hairs.

      The heat low in her belly flared as Drei’s hands locked hard around her waist. Mirie gasped, a sound that startled the quiet as she was hoisted off his lap as easily as he might have removed a pet.

      “Your Royal Highness.” He used her title as her name, his tone a warning that she had crossed a line. He forcibly scooted backward as if she had become an ember that burned him.

      Mirie stared at him across the blaze-soaked distance. She found the bright green of his eyes indistinguishable by firelight, found herself pierced by the reproach in his expression. And something else...

      “What do you fear from me, Drei?” she asked, surprised.

      “What are you doing?” A demand.

      “I was...testing.”

      He arched a quizzical eyebrow. “Testing what? I’m still breathing, Your Royal Highness.”

      His indignation made her bristle. Or maybe it was the title that did. She had a name. He knew it.

      Was it so wrong to want to be a woman? For one stolen moment, she wanted to think of nothing but what it felt like to feel again, to respond and to care. She already responded as a woman because she felt hurt by his withdrawal.

      He dropped back into a crouch, a defensive stance, as though she were Eve with the apple. The muscles in his thighs bulged with the motion, drew her attention to the way he moved, so easy with his nakedness.

      How had she never truly seen this man in all these years they had been together? She must have been blind.

      The firelight cast his body in gold, his long legs, his narrow hips, the vee of his waist that spread into that chest that had provided shelter against the storm raging outside.

      The storm raging inside.

      Reason told her to retreat, but Mirie couldn’t stop. Not when retreat meant the spark inside would smolder to ash.

      “You protect me.” Her voice wavered. She could be so weak.

      Placing her hands over her heart, she stood her ground. “Protect me from this loneliness. Right here. Pretend I am only a woman who wants a man.”

      “You’re a princess.”

      His retort stung. Always the voice of reason.

      “I’m a woman, too.”

      And she could not lose this feeling that made her feel alive. To be like Bunică. Her family. Mirie did not want to live her life as one ready for the grave.

      She feared that fate worse than men with guns.

      “Please.” The word broke, not a demand but a plea.

      Drei’s expression was unreadable, but his gaze pierced her as if he’d plunged a hand through her heart. She resisted the urge to shrink before him with her selfish demands.

      Then she noticed his hands. They were balled into fists at his sides, tense-knuckled and desperate almost. Not because he didn’t want her, she realized.

      Because he did?

      There was much about this man she didn’t understand, had never taken the time to learn. But Mirie recognized the chiseled angle of his jaw, as though he ground his teeth to meal inside his mouth.

      And foolish, foolish woman she was, so naive and self-absorbed, she had ignored the most obvious sign of all. Running her gaze down the muscled terrain of his body... Her breath hitched at the sight of him in his arousal, concealed by his stance, but such proof of his want.

      He was a professional, and an honorable man.

      But she had no such honor and simply couldn’t bring herself to stop.

      Swaying toward him, Mirie felt her motion as though her body had turned to liquid, warmed by the flames. Not of the crackling fire, but the fire Drei had created inside her. Reaching out, she ran her fingers lightly along his thighs, savored the shock that visibly rocked him on contact.

      “Drei, please.” Another plea.

      His growl ripped through the quiet, a sound of the purest frustration. But Mirie knew, even as his arms shot around her with whipcord strength, that he couldn’t deny her.

      He sprang up with the physicality of a man well-trained, and pulled her to her knees along with him. One swift move brought her into hard contact with his body.

      She gasped as he locked her against him, arm a vise around her waist that anchored her close until suddenly all she could see was him. His broad shoulders blocked out the firelight. She could feel every ridge and hollow of his chest, the hot arousal that branded her belly, the steely thighs that braced her upright.

      She had no chance to react before he speared a hand into her hair, coaxed her head back to tilt her face to his.

      And his mouth came down on hers.

      Time stopped. Her heartbeat simply paused. Somewhere inside she recognized how she had provoked him, but his kiss tasted of a need that shocked her, a hungry man.

      Mirie couldn’t think past her surprise, not when his need became hers, catching her in an upsurge the way the fire sucked in the surrounding air.

      She sighed against his mouth, her lips yielding eagerly. Their tongues tangled in discovery. And she was so grateful she had pushed, so glad he had given in.

      Winding her arms around him, she ran her hands down his back, thrilled when he trembled beneath her touch. He was no longer Drei, but a strong, handsome man making her body hum with his kisses. Yet he was still Drei, a man who had always been there, a man she could trust with her needs.

      Mirie felt comfortable with him, able to abandon herself to this haze of sensation that stole her breath, made her bold and eager and heedless of the consequences.

      But not so her protector.

      “You better be sure about this, Your Royal Highness,” he whispered against her lips. “There’s no turning back.”

      She could practically feel the battle raging inside him, the tension in the body against her, even though his words might let her go.

      Gently nibbling his upper lip, she teased his skin into her mouth, determined to win him to her side. He should forget who he was because she was no longer Mirie. She would shed the limitations of rank and duty to become a nameless woman who savored the moment with no inhibitions. A woman able to forget everything that normally dictated her life.

      For one stolen moment, she would be only a woman.

      “I have never been more sure,” she admitted. “Let this moment be ours, Drei. Just this one.”

      He didn’t believe her. She could see doubt all over his face. Maybe she was a fool to believe her own words. Or naive.

      But Mirie didn’t care because she felt.

      Drei coaxed her head back to expose her throat. Deliberation carved stern lines in his handsome face as he considered her as if she were some tempting morsel he wasn’t