Page 30 of Cruel King

CHAPTERTHIRTEEN

Matthias

She’s sobeautiful lying beneath me in that white robe. So beautiful and so sweet. I can’t get enough of her. It’s like she’s a drug, and after only one day, I’m addicted to her.

But that’s not the truth. I’ve been crazy about Ava for years. I just haven’t been able to do anything about it.

Until now.

I know if my father finds out, he’ll probably exile me to some far corner of the earth. If he doesn’t have a branch office of King Industries at the Arctic Circle, he’ll order one opened immediately. I don’t know why he doesn’t want us together, but whatever the reason is, it’s serious for him.

Too bad. I don’t want to give up feeling this way. Ava makes me happy. She makes me smile. She makes me want to be the kind of person who she’d be with. How could that be something bad?

“Please tell me you aren’t having second thoughts because that would be cruel.”

Her words tear me out of my thoughts about being shipped off somewhere for being with her, and I shake my head at the very idea that I wouldn’t want to be with her right now. “Sorry. Just thinking about Santa’s workshop at the North Pole.”

Ava draws her eyebrows in, and for a second, she looks like a mixture of confused and angry. “Are you going to tell me another dirty joke that involves the word pole and Santa? Because I don’t know if I can take that right now, especially since you’re nudging up against me and all I can think of is your pole.”

I had no idea she could be this cute. I don’t want to laugh and ruin the moment, but I can’t help myself. “Did you just call my dick a pole?”

“Yeah.”

“That’s funny.”

She rolls her eyes and shrugs. “That’s me. Funny Ava. I guess I’ve killed the mood, but in my defense, you were the one who was talking about Santa Claus while you’re getting me all hot and bothered here.”

I push my hips forward and press against her pussy through her robe. “I like that about you. You didn’t kill my mood. I’m ready to go.”

Sliding her hand between us, she reaches for my cock and wraps her hands around it through my sweatpants. “Good because I am too.”

Something in the way she doesn’t play any games when it comes to us being together makes me want her even more. So many women try the cat and mouse thing, teasing and toying with a guy, but Ava is straightforward. Mystery’s nice on TV, but give me a woman who lets a man know what she wants any day.

“I do love a woman who isn’t shy about palming my cock.”

For a second, she stares up at me like I’ve said something odd, but then I realize what’s wrong. I said love. It’s not that I don’t feel that for her or some version of it, but I didn’t want her to know that.

Not yet, at least.

But then she smiles and tightens her hold on me as she says, “I like that better than thinking you hate me.”

Leaning down to kiss her, I whisper against her lips, “I never hated you, Ava. Never.”

“I’m happy about that.”

I slide my hand under her robe and open it to reveal her naked body to me. I don’t move, my body still as I stare down at her in awe at how beautiful she is. After all those fantasies about what she’d look like if we were ever together, I can’t help but think I suffered from a lack of imagination every time.

“Is something wrong?” she asks in a worried voice.

Shaking my head, I lower my mouth to hers and kiss her. “Not a thing.”

Her hands cradle my face as she looks up into my eyes with concern. “Oh. I thought maybe something had changed from before since you aren’t moving.”

I know I deserve that question since I’ve been nothing but a miserable bastard to her until today, but I hate that she thinks there’s something wrong with her because of me. I never meant to cause that to happen.

As much as I wish I could explain myself and why I acted like I did for so long, I can’t. I just have to try to make her understand that who I pretended to be isn’t the person who’s crazy about her and has been for years.

“Don’t ever think you’re anything less than incredible because of me, Ava. No matter how I act, now you know the truth. I never hated you. I never will, no matter what it seems like.”