Empire of Desire (Empire, #1)

by Rina Kent

“Whatever knights in shining armor fight. And that means there’s not one noble, sacrificing bone in my body. The reason I’m marrying you isn’t because I want to protect you or King’s legacy. I’m protecting my firm. My own legacy. So the fact that you feel like a burden is needless and unnecessary. We’re using each other. Do you understand?”

“If you don’t stop flaunting yourself around, if you keep provoking me and don’t stay in your lane, I’ll be inclined to take action. I’ll swallow you down so fast, there’ll be nothing left of you, let alone your sarcasm and naïveté. You’ll stare in the

mirror and not recognize yourself anymore. This is my last warning and the only courtesy I will give you. Stop, Gwyneth. You don’t know what the fuck you’re dealing with. So go back to college, to your safe boys and vanilla milkshakes and boring little life.”

“Because I can only feel it. And that only happens in the moment.”

“Show me then.”

“What did you just say?”

“You’ll show me all those sexual urges. Now.”

“From now on, if you

have any sexual urges, I’ll be the only one who satisfies them.”

I never liked kissing. Never engaged in it either, but I want to keep kissing her until I’m out of air and she’s the only oxygen I breathe.

I’ve been dead for so long and my resurrection to life hurts in a bittersweet kind of way.

“Because you’re special. And also because you understand me more than anyone ever has. I meant what I said. I don’t do feelings, never believed in them, not when my own parents didn’t want me. Like you, I despise my birthdays because they remind me that my existence doesn’t matter. But what I didn’t say is that my perceptions have changed ever since you went on your tiptoes and kissed me on your eighteenth birthday. I wanted to grab you by the fucking waist and kiss you back, and I don’t even do kissing.”