Page 86 of This Prince Is Not Charming

He slipped out of me, and I cuddled against him, water sloshing around us, still warm, which must’ve been another part of Castle’s magic. I certainly didn’t have a tub that stayed warm like this at home.

“That was like nothing I’ve ever experienced,” I said.

He rested his cheek on my head. “I know. We really fumbled the last decade, didn’t we?”

“But now we have so much to look forward to.”

“Yes we do,” he said quietly.

Neither of us mentioned all the obstacles we had to overcome first. Not tonight. Tomorrow we’d face them. Tonight we’d live in this fantasy world, one where nothing stood in our way.

CHAPTER 38

Cillian

Islept with Ceri in my arms, her warm body tucked into mine, the sweet jasmine scent of her hair filling my nose, the rhythmic beat of her heart calming me. I didn’t sleep much, so in awe that this was happening, I didn’t want to miss any of it. I’d be tired tomorrow. Or maybe I wouldn’t. I was so energized by this woman and her love that I wasn’t sure I even needed sleep anymore.

Ceri, however, slept soundly, no longer needing to be on alert in case her father called for her. She snored a little, which made me smile because it was something I could tease her about in the morning. She’d get huffy, cheeks turning pink, eyes blazing. So much to look forward to with this one. With the one.

Sunlight barely peeked through the curtains in my room, and dread filled me. We’d find a way to be together. I knew we would, but something whispered in my ear, a voice that said so many things could go wrong. What if Ceri awoke to her father having a meltdown and she changed her mind about this entire thing? What if she didn’t win the trials? Worse, what if she disappeared like the other contestants? I couldn’t lose her, not after we’d just admitted our feelings for each other.

She was mine. Surely Castle knew that. Surely it wouldn’t rip her away from me. But Castle had never seemed to care about my feelings, about what I wanted, and that worried me, as much as I wished it didn’t.

Ceri stirred in my arms, her mess of curls brushing my face as she turned and blinked up at me. “Good morning,” she said, voice still full of sleep.

I’d never heard this voice before, the awake-but-still-sleep voice.

“Why are you smiling like that?” she asked, a little more awake this time.

“I have this checklist, you know, of all the firsts I’ve experienced with you.”

She straightened in my arms at that. “What? A checklist? Where is it?”

I kissed her nose. “In my head.”

“Well, I can guess what you added to it last night,” she said with a little smile that drove me wild.

“Mmm, yes, we added a lot to it last night. But that wasn’t what I was thinking of this morning.”

She shifted in my arms so she could crane her neck to look up at me. “What were you thinking about? That it’s the first time we’ve slept together?”

“We’ve slept together before. I checked that off my list decades ago.”

“We haven’t slept together.”

“Oh yes we have. How many times did we fall asleep together under our favorite tree back when Fairwitch Isle was on that cliffside? Or on your rooftop?”

“Those don’t count. I wasn’t curled up in your arms.”

“Actually, you were a few times. I just woke up before you and shifted our positions so that you wouldn’t wake up and freak out.”

“I wouldn’t have freaked out about that.”

I gave her a look, complete with a raised brow, and she huffed.

“Okay, fine. If I woke up in your arms, I might have spiraled a little about what it meant for our friendship.”

“Exactly.”