Tour Stop, Excerpt & Giveaway: The Fake Prince Jake by Geoffrey Knight

He smiled and took my hand. At first, I thought he was going to take me out onto his balcony terrace, but instead he turned away from his suite and said, “Come with me. Earlier today I found a place.”

“Earlier today?”

“A-ha. Before dinner, while you were all resting. I couldn’t relax, I guess I was too excited. So, I went exploring. I found the most beautiful little turret. I’m not sure anybody even knows it exists or why… other than to look pretty from the outside.”

I didn’t question or pull away. My stomach tingled with the thrill of being led by him down the corridor and behind a curtain where he opened a creaky old door that concealed a spiral stone staircase leading upward. Old hissing gas lanterns on the walls illuminated the way.

I followed him, checking out his firm, round arse cheeks as he led the way up those narrow stairs, wondering if he knew just how much he was turning me on right now, taking me by the hand to someplace secluded. I was still dizzy, but it was no longer from the mead. Now my giddiness was fuelled by thoughts of kissing Jace, of running my fingers through his hair, of tasting his lips pressed against mine. My nose was filled with the scent of him, fighting off the cold musty smell of the stone walls and breathing in the same cologne he had worn the day he walked into my apartment— sandalwood and shea butter and that of hint of spiced rum.

God, if he were a drink, I’d take a case of it.

“Here we are,” he said, turning back a moment before opening a hatch above him.

Following him into the cold night air, I stepped up into a small castle turret no larger than three metres wide, a hexagonal unwalled structure with columns holding up a tall conical spire above us. But it was the view beyond the turret that took my breath away.

As Jace led me to the edge I looked out over Zsnovania in all of its fairy tale beauty.

The castle’s peaks and buttresses were like fingers all around us, pointing to the stars. The sheets of ice on the cottage rooftops below were like blankets pulled tight and snug over the village. Beyond that, fields of snow had turned pale blue under the midnight sky stretching all the way to the far horizons.

Without telling me to sit with him, Jace lowered himself down and patted the stone floor next to him. I didn’t have to be urged twice, quickly sitting beside him as we dangled our feet over the edge of the tower.

“It’s kinda magical, don’t you think?” His voice was soft, as though he didn’t want to disturb the stillness of the night air.

“It’s positively enchanting.”

“Still feeling light-headed?”

“Yes… but I don’t think it’s the mead anymore.”

He looked at me and smiled. He let his eyes be an open book, he wanted me to read the signals. I urgently wanted to kiss him, and if I wasn’t mistaken, he wanted to kiss me too. But at the last moment I shied away and filled the space between us with stupid words.

“So, how about that Zorg? He’s quite the character.”

Jace looked confused, almost as though he had misread the room. “Oh. Yes, I guess he is.”

Fuck, fuck, bollocks, fuck!

How did I manage to fuck that up?

I tried again.

“But this place is surprisingly romantic, wouldn’t you say? I mean, except for the claws in the soup. That wasn’t exactly satin sheets and a bath filled with rose petals, was it?”

Fuck!

“Are you okay?”

“What? Me? Why?”

“You’re acting a little weird all of a sudden.”

“I am. Maybe it’s the cold air.”

“Do you want to go back downstairs?”

“No!” I said, a little too emphatically. “I’m sorry. I guess I’m just a little nervous, that’s all. I mean, being up here. With you. What I mean is, I quite like you, and I think you don’t exactly hate me. Well, I hope you don’t. And here we are together in this magical little turret, overlooking this magical little kingdom, and if there was a magic spell you could cast on me right now to make me shut the hell up and just enjoy the moment, I wish you’d do it right now. Please.”

Jace laughed.

As he did, snowflakes began to dance from the skies above, fluttering on the light breeze to land on our cheeks and hair.

I felt several of them settle on my lips and desperately I wished Jace might lean forward and kiss them.

Then suddenly… my wish came true.

Before I had a chance to fuck things up yet again, my pretend prince leaned in and pressed his lips gently against mine, melting the snowflakes along with all my fears.

I almost melted too.

Had I been standing my knees would have given way.

Had I been holding something it would have smashed on the floor.

Had I been speaking the words would have turned to butter in my mouth.

Thankfully, I was not standing or holding something or speaking, so I could simply let him kiss me.

His lips were soft, his tongue gentle as it parted my lips and ventured into my mouth. There we sat, tenderly kissing on a precarious precipice overlooking that somehow enchanted, faraway land; a place that the world had seemed to have forgotten. And so it was for those precious, spellbinding moments that I in turn forgot about the rest of the world. I forgot about the pressures of my job and the demands of Meredith and even the reason why I was here.

All that mattered was that kiss.

All I cared about was the man sitting beside me, one hand lightly touching my knee now, his other hand caressing my shoulder.

All I could think about was the fact that with each passing moment, this adventurous, charming, happy-go-lucky American was becoming less of a stranger and more like someone I wanted to know.

Someone I might dare to love.

With my heart racing, I touched his cheek and rubbed his earlobe between my fingertips while we kissed. Yes, I wanted to know every part of him.

Every inch.

Every idiosyncrasy.

Every chink and imperfection.

The thought of it triggered a soft involuntary moan from my lips.

Jace pulled out of the kiss and smiled at me, knowing exactly what that moan meant: that I wanted more… that I wanted him.

“Shall we go back to my suite?” he asked as the snow drifted down around us.