Page 484 of Once Upon a Fable

Kas was...sublime.

My heart raced double time, adding to my anxiety that’d been steadily building all day. Ever since I’d woken and found Kas sleeping in the garden again, I’d felt on edge and unsure.

I worried about him.

I worried about me.

I worried about Jareth and every other member of their Fable family.

Tonight was monumental in so many ways. It could go wonderfully right but also spectacularly wrong.

But now? Now I had no worries in my head.

Only potent, powerful lust.

Tears filled my eyes as I drank him in.

Every delicious, delectable, stunning,stunninginch of him.

His newly trimmed hair was slicked back but fighting the tameness with cowlicks appearing at his temples while his face had a few days’ worth of stubble from when I’d shaved him at the start of the week, revealing a sharp jawline, masculine throat, and highly kissable lips. His eyes glowed with an ebony ferocity that matched the glossy black tux encasing him from head to toe. His throat was bare with the top button undone of his white shirt, partially hidden by a waistcoat of black satin.

No bowtie, no tie of any kind—I’d tried to show Kas how to wear one, but he’d yanked it off, saying tonight would be hard enough to breathe without a noose around his throat.

I’d left him to get ready on his own after that, recognizing the signs that his temper was caused by panic, and if dressing for the gala was already pushing him close to his limits, I honestly didn’t know how the rest of the night would go.

I had half a mind to call YouTube and apologize that we’d wasted their time and wouldn’t be making an appearance, but that would be almost sacrilegious now, not to let the rest of the world see Kas for themselves. Not to witness the journey he’d clawed his way through from violent wildling to a drop-dead gorgeous man.

He raked both hands through his hair, making the locks messy, his tux jacket rising up and flashing me just how well he filled those black pants. His thighs pressed against the expensive fabric, and the bulge between his legs showed he liked how I looked too. He liked it enough that his self-consciousness rapidly faded beneath matching lust.

“You know what? I don’t fucking care what I look like.” He dropped his hands, stepping toward me in polished leather shoes. “That dressbarely hides anything. I can see the outline of your nipples.”

I swallowed again, desperately trying to get my voice working. I’d never been tongue-tied before. Never had a vibrant pain in my chest just from looking at someone.

Good God, I love this man.

And it wasn’t because he was the most beautiful man I’d ever seen. It wasn’t the pride I felt seeing him dressed like a millionaire mogul after witnessing him barefoot and naked, running through a forest like a madman.

It was because Ilovedhim.

Every single part of him.

His heart, his soul, his kindness, his protectiveness.

Tonight would be the hardest he’d ever had to endure since the evening he killed the guests and earned his freedom. My heart ached for what he was about to walk into—putting himself in a precarious situation not for himself but for those he still cared so deeply about—and I couldn’t stop myself.

I would do anything it took to grant him calmness to get through tonight.

Reaching for my shoulders, I pushed at the micro straps holding my dress up.

The heavy satin immediately slipped from my body, pooling to the floor.

Kas sucked in a harsh breath. “Jesus, woman, what are you doing?”

I glanced at the clock above the oven. 6:45 p.m. We had fifteen minutes before the limo arrived to take us to the gala.

That’s enough.

Moving toward him, swaying my hips, showing him that I wore nothing under the dress so no panty or bra lines ruined the effect of water over my skin, I didn’t stop until I stood before him.