Chapter Nine

                                    

                                          
Theo was hovering in front of her, breathing heavily. The words hung between them, his lips having said the truths she understood all too well. His body was pressed nearly against her, and she ached with the closeness of it; the virility he exuded was too much. The faint smell of liquor wafted over her. It was intoxicating. He was intoxicating.
                          
Addie could not give him the answers that he so desperately craved, but she also could not walk away from this man. 
                          
Subconsciously, she leaned in further, needing more, and he took the opportunity. Theo's lips claimed hers in a searing kiss. She had never felt something so hard and hot but also soft at the same time. Addie melted against him as his tongue searched for entrance into her mouth. She obligingly opened for him, and he brushed against her in a jolt of awareness. He groaned, and the satisfaction of it flooded her with desire.
                          
Theo pushed her back so that she lightly hit the wall next to the settee, his hands roaming up and down her arms as he deepened the kiss. Her own hands reached up and around his neck, tangling her fingers in his bronze hair. Addie anchored him to her, kissing him back with unexplainable need.
                          
"Theo," she gasped.
                          
"I can't help it," he repeated in a ragged voice, clasping her face between his hands before drawing them together again.
                          
Addie clutched him tighter, her legs nearly giving way beneath her. She knew he was breaking her down from the outside in, but she couldn't stop. He devoured her with skilled passion, his tongue darting between her lips, teasing her to no end. It was an acute sensation she had never experienced before. She couldn't restrain a whimper in response.
                          
Theo jerked away, panting heavily. His face was flushed. "I shouldn't have done that," he said between breaths.
                          
All she could do was shake her head, denying his words. She was unable to speak, stunned by the passionate embrace. It was one she had been shamefully imagining in her head for weeks. For once in her life, reality triumphed over fantasy.
                          
"It's your turn, anyway," he said finally, spinning away from her as he did.
                          
"My turn for what?" Addie managed to say, not willing to believe they were reverting to casual conversation after what had just occurred.
                          
"To tell me the truth, remember?" Theo whirled back around, his face a mask of emotions.
                          
Addie swallowed nervously.
                          
He walked straight up to her, though didn't dare get as close as before. When he was an arm's length away, he took her hand gently in his.
                          
"Who are you?" Theo asked quietly.
                          
"You know who I am," she replied, equally quiet.
                          
He began to shake his head in response, and Addie added, "I am Addison Singleton, your maid."
                          
Theo closed his eyes for a moment, tilting his head up at the ceiling. When they opened, Addie saw the one thing she feared most—disbelief.
                          
She refused to believe that he knew the truth, however. If he thought her Princess Adelaide, surely he would have just said so already, especially with what he had revealed here tonight.
                          
God, she could not believe what he had revealed here tonight. 
                          
Theo stated that he was searching for Princess Adelaide as if it were the most offhand comment he'd ever said. As though it didn't break Addie's insides to hear. As though it didn't make her want to shout that she was right here.
                          
But Addie couldn't. The papers Theo had given her said it clear as day. It was unsafe for her to be anyone but Addie Singleton.
                          
By the last page she'd read, her gut was roiling. His notes were accurate and to the point. He had perfectly captured Princess Adelaide, her life summarized on these tiny pages. His assumptions of her uncle, the king, were valid, laying out the reasons why she had gone into hiding.