Now she was going to get dumped because she wasn’t a royal and she wasn’t Nye’s actual mother! Light years from home.
Without a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out!
She was at the lowest low she’d hit in her life when Gaelen arrived at her door.
She had reason to be grateful the water in the tank was so cold. After her crying jag she needed something to take some of the redness out.
Not that she had a lot of time to do a damn thing!
After checking to make sure Nye was still sleeping in his crib—where she’d put him so she could go in the other room and indulge in her crying jag—she went to the door to let Gaelen in. Prince Gaelen. Brother to Princess Bitch.
His smile fell when he saw her face. A frown took its place. “Valee say someting?” he demanded in a growl.
Emma blinked at him, but she knew instantly that the water hadn’t helped. “No. Really.”
“Somebody say someting?”
Emma chewed her lip, struggling with her emotions. “I think Nye thinks I’m his mother,” she confessed. “He doesn’t really love me. He’s just confused.”
Gaelen was also clearly confused. “He tink you mama. You tink you mama. Same ting, yah?”
Not really, but she realized she couldn’t explain it because his understanding of English was limited. And her understanding of her emotions was very limited and tainted with the same self-doubts she’d suffered her entire life—that she just wasn’t good enough—she wasn’t special enough to be loved just for herself.
She sniffed, struggling to push her misery to the back of her mind. “I’m glad you came to visit. Oh! Did you come to visit Nye? He’s asleep just now.”
“Came see Emma,” he said, frowning.
He looked pretty uncomfortable, but finally dragged a plain wrapped package from behind his back and extended it toward her.
Emma brightened immediately, recalling he’d said he had something for her. “Oh! I forgot!” she gasped, snatching the package and moving to the bed to sit down to open it. When she had, she just stared at the contents for several moments while they slowly blurred with the tears that filled her eyes.
“Wrong ting?” Gaelen asked in a gruff voice.
Emma sniffed and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “Doe,” she said through stuffy nose. “Oh Gaelen! Thank you so much! I don’t know how in the world you managed to find my things, but I am so grateful you just can’t imagine!” She launched herself at him then and hugged him as tightly as she could considering she couldn’t reach around him.
It was the clothes she’d been wearing when she left home, when she was captured.Hers.Something that was actually familiar and belonged to her. Not the under things. Those weren’t hers, but the jeans and t-shirt was hers and the only things she had left to her name—which made them more welcome than the most valuable jewels would have been.
And he had known how much they would mean to her, she thought! And he had cared enough to look for them to make her happy.
When she pulled away he stared down at her face for a long moment and pulled her close to cover her mouth with his own. Emma curled her arms around his neck and kissed him back with an enthusiasm he couldn’t, and didn’t, mistake.
In a few moments they had both stripped everything off and were lying on her bed skin to skin, writhing with the sheer pleasure of simply brushing their bodies together, immersing themselves in each other’s scents and the textures and shapes of their bodies.
It was more instinct that thought that prompted Emma to glance at the baby to make sure he was still sleeping when Gaelen broke the kiss. Relieved when she saw he was, she focused on Gaelen once more.
Amusement flickered through her when she saw that Gaelen had also turned to look at the baby.
He grinned at her a little sheepishly when he looked back at her and saw she was watching him.
She lifted a hand to his cheek, smiling fondly back at him, thinking, as she had before, that he would be easy to fall for.
Too easy.
She didn’t know anything about royals on Earth and less than nothing about what the customs were on their world, but she didn’t want to bet her happiness on the possibility when it was likely no chance existed.
It hurt to think that, which, she supposed, indicated that it might already be too late to fight it.
He touched her cheek, bringing her focus back. “What?”
She shook her head and lifted up to kiss him and distract him.
It worked wonderfully, diverting both of them. They generated fire with the exchange as Gaelen melded his lips to hers and then deepened it, until they were both coasting restlessly along the planes of one another’s bodies, stroking one another, kissing, teasing with light touches.
It felt every bit as good as it had before—better, because there was more physical comfort to be had without the distraction of bones grinding against hard surfaces or the cold that had seemed to freeze every part of her body not in direct contact with his.
It would’ve been a lie to say Gaelen commanded her senses entirely. More accurately, it was mostly, with a tiny corner of her mind keyed on the sleeping baby, but he didn’t even sigh deeply enough to divert her and Gaelen possessed her completely enough to hold her attention, building a steadily strengthening tension, building her pleasure until she completely focused on striving to reach the pinnacle.
Fortunately, either Gaelen was in sync with her or he just immediately grasped when she started trying to mount him that she was ready.
For a few moments, they fought over ‘the meat’, but finally Gaelen managed to break her hold and engage his flesh with hers. Despite the fact that Emma felt like she was
