across his face again.
Dios, he was in danger of slipping deeper into her web. Maybe this trip hadn’t been such a good idea.
Or maybe he just needed to take a leaf out of his sister’s book and follow his heart rather than his head for once. He and Jasmine might have arrived at this arrangement unconventionally, but fate had gifted them a compatibility that he would be foolish to ignore.
Tomorrow morning, there would be a vote to elect a new council, after which he’d be named Prince Regent. The palace press had already announced his impending wedding. His father’s doctors had assured him that the King’s health was holding for the moment and he’d seen a slight improvement in his father’s condition when he’d visited him today.
As for Mendez, the Valderran prince knew something was up. He’d been putting out feelers as to Santo Sierra’s position on the old treaty. Reyes had ignored him so far. Let him stew for a while.
For now, Reyes intended to enjoy an evening free of guilt and anxiety. With the woman who would become his in less than forty-eight hours.
The woman who was carrying his child.
He paused as a bolt of satisfaction lanced through him. Reyes realised having Jasmine and their child in his life was a prospect that didn’t terrify him as much as it had this time yesterday. Yesterday, he’d convinced himself it was duty driving him.
Today, his feelings were more of...elation.
Bending, he swung Jasmine into his arms. She gave another giggle and curled her arms around his neck. Her nose brushed his jaw and his belly tightened.
Sí, a worry-free few hours were just what he needed.
‘We don’t have a carriage, but I have something in mind that might please you.’ He strode to the top of the hill, turned ninety degrees and nudged her with his chin. ‘There,’ he murmured in her ear.
* * *
Jasmine pried her gaze from Reyes’s breath-stoppingly gorgeous face and jawline and glanced where he’d indicated.
She was aware her mouth had dropped open. Again.
Could she help it when Santo Sierra had so far delivered one stunning surprise after another?
‘It looks like a giant, gorgeous wedding cake,’ she whispered.
‘Because it was designed as a present for a bride’s wedding day. But it’s actually a summer house.’
‘Set into the hillside so it looks like layers. It’s perfect.’
The smile that had flashed on and off for the last half hour curved back into sight. Again her heart beat wildly, sending her blood roaring in her ears.
Although she was thankful he wasn’t growling at her or walking away from her as if she didn’t exist, she was terrified at seeing this new, relaxed side of Reyes. This Reyes was too much for her senses. Too breathtaking. Too charming. Too...close.
But not too much that she wanted to get away. Or return to her lonely palace suite. She tightened her arms when he started towards the utterly splendid structure.
If she’d truly believed in fairy tales, this would’ve been her dream house. But she didn’t, so it was just as well that the effects of the punch had worn off enough for her to realise this was nothing but a short interlude in time for both of them.
He climbed the stairs to the surprisingly large square structure and the wooden shuttered doors slid back. Jasmine’s gaze slid from the love seat on the porch to the interior.
Bypassing the simple, lamplit living room furnished with more love seats and twin sofas festooned with cushions, Reyes walked her into the bathroom and set her down on a pedestal next to a wide porcelain sink.
He stepped back and turned on the tap in the extra-wide bath.
‘Umm...is one of us taking a bath?’
His mouth tilted. ‘I thought you might want to wash your feet since you’ve been walking in the grass.’
Jasmine looked down at her feet. ‘Oh, I guess that’s a good idea, what with the wall-to-wall white carpeting.’
She started to step down from her perch. He stayed her with a hand on her waist and leaned over to add bath salts to the warm water.
This close, his scent assailed her, claimed her senses. When he breathed his body moved against hers.
This was getting out of hand...
Despite the thought trailing through her head, she stayed where she was.
Once the water reached a quarter way, he turned to her. ‘Lift up your dress.’
She tugged the material up her hips. He picked her up and sat her on the edge of the tub. Expecting him to leave her to it, she gave a small gasp when he dropped to his knees beside her.
Grabbing a washcloth, Reyes dipped it in the scented water and started to clean her feet.
The punch of feeling through her chest made her jerk. He looked up, took her arm and slid it around his shoulders. ‘Hold on to me if you think you’re slipping.’
Nodding dumbly, she held on. Traced her fingers over the strands of hair at his nape. Her fingers brushed his skin. A rough sound escaped his throat. The soothing cloth cleansed her feet.
Jasmine looked from Reyes’s arresting profile to what he was doing. She, Jasmine Nichols, originally from one of the roughest neighbourhoods in London, had a bona fide prince washing her feet.
The moment couldn’t get more surreal than this. And yet she didn’t want it to end.
‘You have the most perfect feet,’ Reyes murmured.
‘Thank you.’ Her voice emerged as shaky as she felt inside.
He raised his head and pierced her with eyes wild with raw, predatory hunger. ‘The most perfect legs.’ His wet hands cupped her ankles, drifted up over her calves.
Jasmine forgot to breathe. Her hand gripped his nape, her only stability in a world careening out of control.
‘The most perfect thighs.’
‘Reyes...’
His gaze dropped to her lips. Her heartbeat spiked a second before his mouth claimed hers.
Groaning, she fell into the kiss, wrapped both arms around his neck when he lifted her out of the tub and out of the bathroom. He returned to the living room and lowered her in front of the fireplace.
Lowering his body on top of hers, he deepened the kiss, ravaged her mouth with an appetite that grew sharper, rougher by the minute. His hand trailed up her leg, her thigh, to close over her bottom.
They both groaned when he squeezed her flesh. ‘Dios, you’re perfect,’ he breathed into the side of her neck when he let her up for air.
But
