“Aurora, you don’t have to—” Kiran trailed off when she replaced her hand with her body, pressing skin to skin.

“I am cold,” she answered. “And I am tired. And I have missed you so much it feels like I am splitting apart sometimes. I have heard your reasons. I understand them. Now you will hear mine.”

He did not object, but she could feel through his back the way his breathing had picked up. She ran a hand down his muscled arm to the clenched fist at the end, and smoothed her fingers around the hard stone his hand made.

“I might be a princess, but I have no intentions of following in the footsteps of those who have come before me. I intend to listen to my people, all of them, and make decisions for the best of the majority, not just those with influence. I do not wish to become swayed by power like the ones before me, nor directed by fear as my mother was. I will not be taken in by greed, nor taken advantage of by those with ill intent. The best way I know to do this is to be true to myself. And I have never known myself better than when I am with you. Who else would I trust to tell me when I’m behaving too much like a high-handed royal than someone who loathes high-handed royals? I have no intentions of trying to make myself fit into this world you despise. I intend to make it fit me. And you. If you will stay. And I do not mean as my guard.”

After a moment, Kiran’s body still remained rigid, and Aurora began to fear the boldness that had come so easily before. As good as it had felt to kiss him again, she was determined. He had to be all in or all out.

She dropped her hand from his fist and began to back away, but before she had even finished peeling her body away from his, his fingers had found her wrist, and had pulled her back. Her chest landed against his back once more, even more firmly, for this time he had brought her arm around him, pressing her palm flat against his sternum.

“Are you sure?” he asked, still facing away from her. Aurora’s body surged with heat everywhere their skin touched, a stark contrast to where her bare legs touched his still-wet pants.

Aurora wrapped her other arm around his large body, resting it low on his hard stomach.

“I am rarely sure,” she told him, and she felt the muscles of his stomach strain beneath her hand. “But of this, I have no doubt.”