accidental 11 - accidentally ever after (20 page)

“And I would not begrudge you the chance. Family is important. I see these women, who behave like family. These women who protect and honor their friendships or fall on the sword…I admire them. They are strong, smart warriors not only in the physical sense, but of the heart. They speak of their husbands and children and friends with pride I can almost taste on the tip of my tongue. They make me reconsider my anger with my own family.”

Toni looked up at him, curious. “Why are you angry with them?”

His eyes drifted away from hers and to the window where he gazed at the snow. “They wish for me to do something I do not wish to do. A family obligation, shall we say. Yet, I long for them much the way you long for your brother.”

“What do they want you to do? Marry some hot maiden in exchange for a barrel of fish and a herd of bison?”

He barked a laugh, stroking her arm. “Again with the funny words. What are bison?”

She splayed her aching arms outward. “Big, big cows.”

“Ah, I assure you. No bison are involved.”

Obviously, he didn’t want to talk about whatever the obligation was, and if this was potentially their last night together, she wouldn’t press. “What about this Queen Angria? Does she get some prison time for sending in every nut she could get her hands on to capture me?”

“The king will see to her punishment, of that I promise. The king is a fair, kind man at heart. He’s a brilliant ruler for the most part,” Jon said with an admiration she hadn’t expected.

Somehow, she’d expected the king would be a douchenozzle like all the other fairytale kings she’d read about. Angry, greedy, hand happy with beheadings and doling out high taxes so he could dine on fine crops his villagers slaved day and night raising.

“That’s good to know. I can’t wait until he takes these shoes off. Have we figured out where these things came from and why the king has them?”

Jon shook his head. “I still know not. I admit ’tis an odd item for the king to have. Though, I don’t doubt they’re part of the reason you can now breathe fire and parse truths from lies.”

“How crazy. All of this has been just crazy,” she murmured.

“It has been an adventure, to say the least.”

“Will you be happy to go back to your quiet life?” She was fishing. She knew she was fishing rather than straight-up ask him how he felt about her, and she didn’t know why.

It wasn’t in her nature to skirt big issues and she wondered if it wasn’t because this was so important to her, she was too afraid to dig.

“I like your noise,” he offered without commitment. “I like you. I like your friends. I would wish our worlds were more easily traveled to and from.”

She smiled up at him, her heart fluttering wildly in her chest. “Really? And what would you do if you could travel back and forth?”

He appeared to give that some thought before he said, “I’d date you. I’d talk on this phone with you. I’d play this game Nina speaks of on the computer called
Minecraft
. I’d watch TV with you. I’d take you away from your horrible boss Bree and take care of you so you never had to fold another thong again,” he whispered against her ear.

Tears welled in her eyes. He’d date her. She realized now, she wanted that more than she even wanted a cup of coffee and a pastrami and swiss on rye with stone-ground mustard. He’d really been listening to their road-trip chatter, absorbing their lingo, and that touched her heart.

Cupping his jaw, she ran her thumb over the stubble on his chin and whispered, “You would?”

Jon brushed his lips over her fingertips. “I would,” he answered, just before he pressed his lips to hers, slipping his tongue into her mouth with that familiar rasp of silk.

She sighed, pushing her arms upward until she wrapped them around his neck, arching against him as he pulled her tight to him, his hands splaying across her spine.

He devoured her lips, licking, teasing, tasting, running his hands over her arms, the contact of his calloused palms on her hot flesh making her tingle.

Toni pulled him to her, gripping each side of his shirt, her nipples delighting in the delicious friction against the fabric and his hard chest beneath.

Jon rolled her to her back, lying on top of her, molding his thickly muscled frame to hers, moaning into her mouth. His fingers skimmed the underside of her breast then pulled away, skating along her flesh, moving the blanket farther down until she was almost naked.

Then he stopped just as suddenly, tearing his lips from hers and staring down at her, his eyes wide with concern.

“What’s wrong?” she huffed, trying to catch her breath.

“Milady, we must stop. We must stop now.” He began to move off her, but Toni grabbed him and pulled him back down on top of her.

“Explanation?”

“Your virtue.”

She blew a bit of air from her lips. “Oh, that? Long gone.”

“You have bedded men?” he asked, his sapphire eyes incredulous.

“Well, not by the dozens. Only three.”

But Jon didn’t look relieved. In fact, he looked horrified. “
Three?
”

“You say that like I said a million. Yes, three. For my age, I’d say that’s pretty close to virtuous in this day and age, buddy.”

“And what is your age?”

“I’m thirty-two. Too old for you?”

“No,” he blustered, his skin flushing. “I’m in my thirty-fifth year.”

“Then what’s the hang-up here?”

“Where you come from, this is allowed?”

“Allowed? Well, yes. As long as you’re over the age of eighteen. Though, that’s not always the case. Most of us lose our virginity in high school. Not all, but a good percentage. It’s when our hormones are at their freakiest.”

“What is a high school and a hormone?”

“One of the most lethal combinations in the history of man.”

“In our land, consummation is not allowed until you are wed.”

Now her eyes went wide. “Aw, c’mon. That’s not true. Is it? You don’t really think there’s not some woot-woot happening in Shamalot, do you? Do you really believe everyone in the land waits for marriage? Have you ever watched
Game of Thrones
? God, someone’s always doing someone. Sometimes they do their own…” She paused to rethink her words. “Forget I asked that. I still don’t get the problem.”

“I will not be a party to endangering your stellar reputation. Or rather, your almost stellar reputation.”

“Okay, I’m going to let that crack slide because we come from totally different eras, but this isn’t about my reputation. I have no reputation in Shamalot other than that poor girl with a death knell on her head. I’m likely all the rage at the henchmen’s dinner. So I’ll say it again. That’s not what this is about. What
is
this about?”

“I need a promise first.”

“Speak.”

He pursed his luscious lips. “First the promise.”

“Okay, I promise.”

“Promise you will not fall into fits of laughter, and remember, our worlds are infinitely different.”

She nodded solemnly. “I promise—infinitely.”

“My virtue remains intact.”

She tried to keep a straight face. No way. “So you’re a virgin.”

“Indeed.”

Toni grabbed a pillow and held it over her face to keep from screaming her frustration.

Jon pulled it away and peered down at her. “Milady?”

She sighed. “This is a predicament, for sure. You’re taught to save yourself for marriage and I’m all enticing you to break your code of man-honor. Maybe you could have mentioned this much earlier.” Like before they were grinding each other into the bed.

“Maybe you might have told me your experience with bedsport is vast,” he offered in a comically haughty tone.

She poked a finger in his chest with a reproachful glance. “It is
not
vast. Where I come from, it’s by and large sort of pathetic, and I’ll thank you to stop mentioning it like I’ve pillaged and plundered every man from here to Jersey. I mean, who would ever in a frillion years think
you
were a virgin?”

He rose up on his hands above her, his brow furrowed, his expression adorable. “You say this why?”

“Because look at you, all muscles and ripples and angels singing over your head while shafts of light glow all around you—”

“Angels, milady?”

“Never mind. Anyway,
hello
. I can’t believe someone as unbelievably gorgeous as you hasn’t at least been tempted. I would have thought you’d use your amazing looks as a manipulation tactic to twist some pantaloons, which I realize is incredibly sexist, but where I come from, it happens all the time. It’s wrong, but it happens. Sex sells and all.”

“I know not the gibberish you speak of manipulations, but I follow a strict code of honor, milady. I made a vow to myself and my realm to wait for marriage. It is just what we do here in Shamalot. Thus, I do not twist pantaloons.”

“Haven’t you ever been tempted?”

“Including now?”

She hid a pleased smile. “Yes.”

“Then yes, but I always consider the maiden and her good name. Hence, I would never sacrifice her reputation for a momentary dabble in the temptations of the flesh.”

God, he was so chivalrous and decent. So what did a girl say to that? No way was she compromising his values for her own hormonal satisfaction.

Pressing a quick kiss to his lips, she said, “You’re a good and decent man, Jon Doe. You’re kind and smart and you care. It’s one of the many reasons I like you so much,” she said as she tried to slip out from beneath him.

“But wait,” he responded, tucking her back under him and brushing his lips against her jaw.

“For?”

“Does anyone have to
know
I’ve sacrificed your good name for the temptation of your delicious flesh?” he teased, his shaft rigid, pressing against her thigh.

But Toni didn’t want to take something from him he’d saved for marriage. He was thirty-five and he’d waited this long—she wasn’t going to be a party to that, as much as she wanted to be intimate with him. To take that back with her to Jersey so she’d be able to revisit this moment.

Toni’s throat clogged, but she was determined not to let him see her regret.

“See what this is? This is the hormone thing I was talking about. You’re all hot and heavy in the moment, but when the hormones fade, you might regret giving something away you’ve saved for
thirty-five
years, Jon. No one has to know, that’s true.
You’d
know, though. You’ve waited a long time for the right woman to come along. I’m not going to be the one to compromise—”

He pressed his lips to hers again, whispering against them, “’Tis true I’ve waited for the right woman to come along…and now she
has
.”

Her heart thrashed against her ribs and her toes curled. She knew in her gut this was right. She didn’t know why she knew, which was as cliché as it got. She didn’t know how. She just felt it in her bones—in her heart—in her mind.

Rather than answer him, she reached up and cupped his jaw, letting her fingers roam over his chin, skimming her thumb over his lower lip, pulling him to her to place her mouth over his with a sigh.

And Jon responded in kind, driving his tongue between her lips, caressing hers with precise strokes, pushing the blankets away from her until she was naked, the firelight dancing over her skin.

He swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple visible when he sat up and unbuttoned his vest, pulling it and his shirt over his head.

His chest was just as she’d imagined, wide, thick, rippling with muscle, his nipples dusky and erect. Skin dusted in bronze stretched over his arms, strong and long.

Jon looked down at her, his sapphire eyes following the line of her neck, her collarbones, until he reached her breasts. His eyes grew dark, stormy, his body stiffening with tension.

“Aye, milady. You are everything I imagined.
More
,” he whispered into the room, his voice husky and deep.

Her cheeks flushed hot as her hands found his forearms, running her fingers over the muscled flesh, relishing his strength.

He lifted tentative hands, hovering over her breasts until she gripped his wrists and brought them to her chest.

Jon inhaled a sharp breath, running his fingers over her hardened nipples until she squirmed beneath him. Toni’s eyes closed as he explored, brushing kisses over her shoulder, down along her sides and back up again, until his lips were on the underside of her breast.

He flicked his tongue out, drawing it up over the full flesh until he reached the tight bud. When he placed his lips over it, enveloping it with his hot mouth, Toni bucked beneath him, gripping his hair in her hands as her eyes rolled to the back of her head.

Jon let his body fall flush to hers, sliding to rest at her side as he stroked her nipples, nipping, pulling, tugging, as the heat in her stomach grew and the ache between her thighs began to swirl with need.

Her hands went to his breeches, unlacing the front of them, inching them downward as he traced circles of wet-hot heat over her straining nipples. He lifted his lower body, allowing her to push his pants off until they were both naked.

Rising up, he pressed his forehead to hers, their noses touching as he reached for her hands and held them still. His breath came in short bursts, their chests crashing together. “I fear I may burst, milady. I may not know the ways of the flesh as well as I’d like, but I do know ’twould not be pleasurable for you if my needs came first. We must slow our pace.
You
must be the priority,” he said, almost as though it were an order.

An incredibly intoxicating, sensual order.

Arching into him, she ran her tongue over his lower lip and nipped it. “We should
both
be the priority,” she whispered.

If this was going to be his first time, and if it would be their last, she wanted him to remember. She wanted him to understand how much she was coming to care for him—that she’d always consider this time with him a gift.

“Show me, milady. Show me what you wish. I have these thoughts…running amok through my brain like a herd of wild horses, but I want for you to treasure this memory. So tell me, and I shall do your bidding.”