Said No to the Prince and Yes to the King novel Chapter 254

Chapter 254 Confessed Heart

fluished

The sensation mirrored the vivid clarity of her nightmare, where she’d watched him fall from the cliff. Yet witnessing him whole and uninjured before her flooded Margaret’s chest with overwhelming sorrow.

She threw her arms around his neck without hesitation and buried her face against his shoulder. “Thank the heavens you are unhurt. I thought I’d lost you forever.”

Theodore froze mid–motion. He’d climbed onto the mattress beside her white changing her clothes, and her sudden embrace nearly sent his full weight crashing down onto her fragile frame.

One palm braced against the bedding to steady himself, while his other hand stroked slow paths through her disheveled hair. “Silly girl. This is no dream. I am alive, and you are safe now, too.”

Margaret refused to accept his words.

If this were reality, he would never hold me this softly. He keeps himself cold and distant every day, barely uttering two sentences at a time–he would never whisper such gentle things to me.

“All those times you called my name in your sleep… you dreamed I’d met harm, didn’t you?” Theodore’s voice stayed warm and tender, his arms drawing her closer against his chest.

“Rest easy, every danger has passed. Once your strength fully returns, I will formally request your hand in marriage from your parents.”

The phrase proposal sent Margaret’s already muddled mind spinning further into confusion.

She shook her head weakly against his shoulder. “I don’t wanna enter such an arrangement with you.”

A sharp twinge of panic tightened Theodore’s heart. “What reason do you have to refuse?”

Fatigue weighed heavily on her eyelids, and she let them drift closed once more. “You hold another woman in your heart. I cannot bear to share the man I love with anyone else.”

“I harbor no affections for another. You have finally admitted your feelings for me,” Theodore said, quiet elation swelling in his chest as he pulled her tighter.

r

Margaret’s mind swam in a hazy fog, the scene before her growing far too tangible to dismiss as mere fantasy.

She forced her eyes open again.

However, complete darkness shrouded the world outside the windows. Even with every shutter thrown wide, only dull gray gloom seeped into the bedchamber, reinforcing her belief that she remained trapped

in a dream.

She raised a hand once more to brush Theodore’s cheek; his skin radiated steady, living warmth beneath her fingertips.

“Why do I keep having dreams like this?” she murmured.

Chapter 254 Confessed Heart

Such intimate, unguarded moments with him repeated night after night.

Finished!

“What sort of dreams? Theodore caught the faint spark of clarity returning to her gaze, and a playful glint

flickered in his blue eyes

He pressed a light, fleeting kiss to her forehead, barely brushing her skin. “Dreams like this one?”

Margaret’s brows drew together. The soft pressure against her forehead felt unlike any sensation from her prior visions.

Since she believed this all a figment of sleep, boldness bloomed within her. She tilted her chin upward and pressed her lips to Theodore’s without hesitation.

A small muffled sound escaped her throat.

This sensation differs entirely from every dream kiss before it. Why?

Cool, soft lips pressed against hers, paired with warm living breath that sent heat flooding through every inch of her frame–nothing like the faint, distant touches of her dreams.

Before she could process the shift, a strong arm curled securely around her waist. Theodore shifted his weight and leaned over her, deepening their kiss.

She instinctively planted her palms against his chest to push him away, yet his fingers wrapped lightly around both wrists to pin them beside her head without effort. Warm exhales fanned across her cheeks, and a faint electric tingle raced through her veins, turning every muscle limp and pliant beneath him.

Long minutes slipped by before Theodore pulled back to break their kiss.

Dead silence filled the room, broken only by the quick thud of their hearts beating as one.

Theodore’s Adam’s apple bobbed once as he swallowed thickly. Maybe it was because of the shared quilt, a slow, unrelenting heat spread across his entire body.

Margaret began to say, “Theo…”

“Ted… Call me that from now on,” he murmured against her jaw.

She was stunned. This dream has grown far too vivid to process!

Before Margaret could gather her scattered thoughts, his lips descended to capture hers a second time.

Something new accompanied this kiss–an unruly hand drifting light paths down her waist, gliding slowly lower. A shiver raced down her spine, and Margaret strained to push his shoulders away.

“Stop… please.”

Theodore nipped gently at her lower lip before lowering his head to press soft bites along the curve of her shoulder.

A faint hiss of pain slipped from Margaret’s parted lips. “That hurts–don’t bite me.”

Theodore drew in a deep, slow breath and pulled her fully into his chest, burying his face in the crook of

Chapter 254 Confessed Heart

her neck.

“Rest now, my girl.”

His embrace wrapped around her like a furnace, warm and secure beyond measure.

finished

Even knowing she supposedly dreamed the whole scene, Margaret sank into his hold, every ache in her body melting away into comfort.

True exhaustion weighed heavily on her bones. Her eyes slipped shut, and she drifted into a deep, unbroken slumber within moments.

Sleep brought ease, broken only by faint tickling along her neck.

&

It felt as though a kitten rubbed its soft fur against her skin repeatedly, or a pair of lips pressed featherlight kisses from her cheek down to the curve of her throat, then drifted gradually lower across her collarbones.

The strange, intimate touches brought no discomfort–only an unnamable warmth spreading through her limbs.

3

The air beneath the quilt grew stiflingly hot, her skin prickling with goosebumps wherever his warm breath brushed across her flesh.

“Stop…” she mumbled half–asleep, faint complaint lacing her murmur.

Quit nipping at my skin… it tickles.

Margaret’s hands strained to push the weight atop her/away, yet her limbs refused to obey, heavy as lead, as if bound fast to the mattress.

The hazy, heated visions persisted until faint gray dawn light seeped over the rooftops outside the manor. Only then did the tender, restless touches cease.

When Margaret’s eyes fluttered open once more, gray haze blurred every detail of the bedchamber.

Dawn had barely broken, heavy clouds hanging low over the capital, promising an imminent downpour of

rain.

802