His hand was still at her jaw, though his grip had relaxed to a barely-there touch. He kept it that way as his fingers traced down the underside of her chin and the hollow of her throat. When he could go no lower than that, he returned his hand to her cheek, canting her jaw up so that her mouth sat below his, like an offering. She followed his lead, letting her fingers trail through the beard he’d grown, trying to decide what she thought of it. He looked … older. More rugged, not that he needed much help there. His eyes had always been fairly guarded, but they were even more so now.

She had done that to him. With her lies and secrets. She wondered if there was a way to undo that hurt, or if she was being selfish by following this pull again. Her fingers kept exploring, until they found the place where his facial hair gave way to the smooth skin just below his lip. She touched there, once, and when he did not object, she let her finger wander higher, to the full bottom lip above. There was a tiny scar she had never noticed just above his top lip. She wondered how long it had been there, and how she had not seen it before. She met his gaze, wondering if she was brave enough to kiss it, and she found nothing but encouragement in the dark pupils that had taken over the rest of his eyes.

Slowly, Aurora trailed her finger along the curve of his upper lip, then let her hand fall to his chest to rest over his heart. She drifted closer, bringing her mouth in line with his. A simple lift of her chin was all it would take to bring their lips together, but she did not want to make that choice for him.

He had been the one to walk away. And she knew he had his reasons. She had made mistakes, and no matter how intensely she felt, she could not make him want the same things as her. She had not given him the choice the first time on whether he wanted to be involved with a princess. This time, he would know exactly what he was getting.

His knuckles brushed over her cheek, gentler than she would have thought possible. She searched his eyes, desperate to know what he was thinking. She saw no answers there, only a depth of feeling that made everything inside her spontaneously loop itself into knots.

Then he kissed her, and she began to unravel.

It was a slow, glorious exploration of a kiss; she felt the tension inside her loosen in small measures, advancing, only to tighten again when his tongue brushed hers in a way that felt new and exciting. By the time he pulled away, she felt like they had been reintroduced. And every knot inside her had been untied.