She was.
“Gross,” Imperia said.
“Shut up,” Grace said.
“No,” Imperia said.
“Dad likes her,” Grace said.
“So?” Imperia said.
“So I do too,” Grace said.
Charming smiled. Mellie could feel the smile on his lips as he continued to kiss her.
“You’re not going to marry her,” Imperia said.
Charming pulled away from Mellie for just a moment. “Not this week.”
“Next week?” Imperia asked.
“She’ll still be on tour next week,” he said, continuing to hold Mellie close.
“The week after?”
“We’ll see,” he said.
Mellie smiled. She couldn’t help herself. She leaned into his arms. He was letting his daughters know that Mellie was going to be part of their lives, and they needed to get used to that.
“I hate ‘we’ll see,’” Imperia said. “‘We’ll see,’ means ‘Yes.’”
“It means we’ll see,” Charming said, and kissed Mellie again.
“Oh, yuck,” Imperia said.
Mellie eased out of the kiss. “They’re not ready,” she said softly.
“Not yet,” he said.
“I won’t be forced on anyone again,” she said.
“I know,” he said. Then he touched his brow to hers. He whispered, “I love you.”
She leaned close. “I love you back,” she whispered.
It felt liberating to say those words. She had wanted to tell him how she felt for a long time.
“That’s a start,” he said.
“In a fairy tale, that’s the end,” she said.
“And this isn’t a fairy tale,” he said.
She laughed. “Thank God,” she said. “Thank God.”
About the Author
Before turning to romance writing, award-winning author Kristine Kathryn Rusch edited the Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and ran Pulphouse Publishing (which won her a World Fantasy Award). As Kristine Grayson she has published six novels so far and has won the RT Book Reviews Reviewer’s Choice Award for Best Paranormal Romance, and, under her real name, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, the prestigious Hugo award. She lives in Oregon with her own Prince Charming, writer Dean Wesley Smith (who is not old enough to be one of the original three, but he is handsome enough) as well as the obligatory writers’ cats. www.kriswrites.com.
Watch for the next Charming book
Utterly Charming
Coming October 2011
From Sourcebooks Casablanca
Wickedly Charming Page 30
