“In our land, consummation is not allowed until you are wed.”
Now her eyes went wide. “Aw, c’mon. That’s not true. Is it? You don’t really think there’s not some woot-woot happening in Shamalot, do you? Do you really believe everyone in the land waits for marriage? Have you ever watched Game of Thrones? God, someone’s always doing someone. Sometimes they do their own…” She paused to rethink her words. “Forget I asked that. I still don’t get the problem.”
“I will not be a party to endangering your stellar reputation. Or rather, your almost stellar reputation.”
“Okay, I’m going to let that crack slide because we come from totally different eras, but this isn’t about my reputation. I have no reputation in Shamalot other than that poor girl with a death knell on her head. I’m likely all the rage at the henchmen’s dinner. So I’ll say it again. That’s not what this is about. What is this about?”
“I need a promise first.”
“Speak.”
He pursed his luscious lips. “First the promise.”
“Okay, I promise.”
“Promise you will not fall into fits of laughter, and remember, our worlds are infinitely different.”
She nodded solemnly. “I promise—infinitely.”
“My virtue remains intact.”
She tried to keep a straight face. No way. “So you’re a virgin.”
“Indeed.”
Toni grabbed a pillow and held it over her face to keep from screaming her frustration.
Jon pulled it away and peered down at her. “Milady?”
She sighed. “This is a predicament, for sure. You’re taught to save yourself for marriage and I’m all enticing you to break your code of man-honor. Maybe you could have mentioned this much earlier.” Like before they were grinding each other into the bed.
“Maybe you might have told me your experience with bedsport is vast,” he offered in a comically haughty tone.
She poked a finger in his chest with a reproachful glance. “It is not vast. Where I come from, it’s by and large sort of pathetic, and I’ll thank you to stop mentioning it like I’ve pillaged and plundered every man from here to Jersey. I mean, who would ever in a frillion years think you were a virgin?”
He rose up on his hands above her, his brow furrowed, his expression adorable. “You say this why?”
“Because look at you, all muscles and ripples and angels singing over your head while shafts of light glow all around you—”
“Angels, milady?”
“Never mind. Anyway, hello. I can’t believe someone as unbelievably gorgeous as you hasn’t at least been tempted. I would have thought you’d use your amazing looks as a manipulation tactic to twist some pantaloons, which I realize is incredibly sexist, but where I come from, it happens all the time. It’s wrong, but it happens. Sex sells and all.”
“I know not the gibberish you speak of manipulations, but I follow a strict code of honor, milady. I made a vow to myself and my realm to wait for marriage. It is just what we do here in Shamalot. Thus, I do not twist pantaloons.”
“Haven’t you ever been tempted?”
“Including now?”
She hid a pleased smile. “Yes.”
“Then yes, but I always consider the maiden and her good name. Hence, I would never sacrifice her reputation for a momentary dabble in the temptations of the flesh.”
God, he was so chivalrous and decent. So what did a girl say to that? No way was she compromising his values for her own hormonal satisfaction.
Pressing a quick kiss to his lips, she said, “You’re a good and decent man, Jon Doe. You’re kind and smart and you care. It’s one of the many reasons I like you so much,” she said as she tried to slip out from beneath him.
“But wait,” he responded, tucking her back under him and brushing his lips against her jaw.
“For?”
“Does anyone have to know I’ve sacrificed your good name for the temptation of your delicious flesh?” he teased, his shaft rigid, pressing against her thigh.
But Toni didn’t want to take something from him he’d saved for marriage. He was thirty-five and he’d waited this long—she wasn’t going to be a party to that, as much as she wanted to be intimate with him. To take that back with her to Jersey so she’d be able to revisit this moment.
Toni’s throat clogged, but she was determined not to let him see her regret.
“See what this is? This is the hormone thing I was talking about. You’re all hot and heavy in the moment, but when the hormones fade, you might regret giving something away you’ve saved for thirty-five years, Jon. No one has to know, that’s true. You’d know, though. You’ve waited a long time for the right woman to come along. I’m not going to be the one to compromise—”