TheKingsLady by Shannan Albright

out onto the beach. “I am not a very welcomed guest here.”
    It was a statement of fact not a question, and still he felt the need to buffer the harsh reaction her appearance brought out on his men.
    “The past can be hard to overcome or forget.”
    “And you, can you forgive?”
    “There is nothing to forgive,” he pushed out of a throat dry as ash.
    “Oh, I think you’re wrong there.”
    He frowned down at her as she passed him, arms wrapped tightly around her waist. He followed her onto the beach, her words rolling through his head like the sound of the sea meeting land. Didn’t he forgive her? He would always remember her betrayal, kept away from relationships because of it.
    He used his job as his armor and shield, keeping him from risking his heart. No he didn’t forgive her, he realized. Worse, he didn’t think he ever could. The thought bothered him more than he cared to admit.
    Her voice carried to him on the wind, faint and wistful as a soft breeze. “I would never ask for forgiveness from you. What happened…what I did.”
    He heard her ragged sigh as she straightened her shoulders and turned to face him. Her gaze was haunted.
    “Those are things, which could never be absolved.”
    “Yes, but they also can be learned from so it won’t happen again.” The words left him without a thought. Longing seared his heart, carrying with it an emotion he refused to name.
    Gwen turned to face him, eyes wide with surprise. “So you don’t adhere to the old adage of history repeating itself?”
    “There are always exceptions to the rule.”
    “And am I an exception, Arthur?”
    Her gaze threatened to pull him under, he could resist any woman but the one standing in front of him. She would always be the bane of his existence, the weak chink in his impenetrable armor.
    He closed the distance between them, crushing her against him so tightly he could feel her rapid heartbeat. “You will always defy the rules, love,” he whispered against her cheek a brief moment before his lips claimed hers in a searing kiss.
    And he knew with the clarity of hindsight he was in deep trouble.

Chapter Ten
    Gwen’s world tilted under the onslaught of Arthur’s kiss. Her heart thundered in her ears. Her pulse skittered, sending a scalding wash of awareness through her. Helpless against the sheer force of her attraction, she allowed the passion to drive her, admitting, if only to herself, it would be alright to feel without being self-conscious about her many body flaws.
    He deepened the kiss, his passion demanding she match his desire with each stroke of his tongue against hers. Passion coursed through her limbs, settling at the apex between her thighs with an almost painful throb. Her fingers speared into his thick hair on their own accord, reveling at the softness of the strands and the heady scent of bergamot and pine filling her lungs, his spicy taste in her mouth as he fed from her.
    “I want you, Gwen. I can’t deny the truth or dismiss it any longer,” Arthur rasped out, his voice hoarse with need against her lips.
    His words swirled around her, covering her in a flush of warmth before sinking into her brain and turning her into a puddle of goo. How could his admission have such an effect? With all she knew now, why would she even contemplate doing anything with him, the man who took her love and discarded it so ruthlessly? The man who put all others before her…yet, here she stood caught in the same persuasive spell as before. She was held fast by her traitorous body and the only man whose touch could make her forget self-preservation and logic.
    “Come, there is a place I want you to see.” Arthur’s warm breath caressed the delicate shell of her ear, and she bit back a whimper as desire spiked through her body at the dark erotic note in his voice.
    Goodbye logic and hello insanity.
    She should have her head examined because she just got on the crazy train called hurt and devastation. She opened her mouth to