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I shrugged. “I didn’t want to break up the lovers’ reunion.” “She’s not my lover.” “Does she know that?” A low noise rumbled from his throat.
“That if a man made you doubt whether his love for you would survive anything, he does not deserve you.”
had never imagined my flesh as something to be admired
Luther sighed. “Just say the word and I’ll hang him upside down from the rafters.” “Not again,” Taran moaned. I laughed and settled back into the cushions.
“Sorry Lu, you’re out as my favorite cousin. I think I’m in love with this one.” “Sorry Lu,” I echoed sweetly.
“This was a bad idea,” Luther muttered. “You two becoming friends is my worst nightmare.”
“None that I’m going to say out loud.” I patted him lightly on the cheek. “You’re smarter than you look.” Taran clasped my hand between his and smiled even wider. “Oh, I’m definitely in love.”
“Sorry Ellie, she’s definitely my favorite Corbois now,” he crowed. “Mine, too,” she laughed. “I step away for a few minutes and the conversation has already turned to sex?”
Every hair on my neck stood on end as he turned his lips to my ear, his voice low and rough. “Something I cannot have.”
“The weapon in your head is more important than the weapon in your hands. You’ve always been my bravest soldier. As long as you keep fighting, I know you can win.”
The thick presence of his aura seemed to curl around me, brushing my skin. “You’re safe with me, too.”
“You worried me today, at the funeral.” His voice was soft, almost tender, as he lowered his chin. “Are you alright?”
He moved more hungrily now, emboldened by my body’s treacherous reaction. His broad hands curved around my sides and traced the edge of my gown’s open back, following its hem until his hands rested perilously, scandalously low.
This was Luther laying his claim on what I hadn’t dared to reveal. Asking for what I hadn’t yet offered.
His heartbeat thundered against my cheek, and I held my breath. I wanted badly to pull back and see his face, but I was too terrified of what I might see, and what I might do next.
“The truest reason,” he repeated with a sigh. “I wish...” His arms tightened around me. “I... I can’t—”
I looked back to Luther. “What do you think?” “Are you asking me to advise you?” he asked, mischief in his tone.
his lips curving up as he fought a losing battle with a smile. “You said I have yet to earn your favor. I’m giving it my best shot.”
knees.” He shot me a dark look. “With all due respect to my lovely cousin, the only person I’m getting down on my knees for is you, my Queen.” Taran cackled loudly. “Queenie, you hear that? Lu wants to get on his kn—”
“And now when you claim I kissed you, you’ll finally be telling the truth.” He shook his head, eyes glittering, the words in them clear—I was always telling the truth, and you know it.
“If a kiss is the reward, my Queen, I’ll get on my knees for you whenever you want.”
His lips parted as he looked me over.
His gaze traveled the expanse of my body, nostrils flaring as it caught on my bare thigh. When his eyes cut back to mine, the hunger raging behind them had my blood humming.
To the room, he looked entirely unbothered, perhaps too indifferent to even be listening. It was his aura that gave him away—the one sign only I had strong enough magic to detect.
He grabbed my waist and dragged my body towards him until the back of my thigh slapped against his hips. My lips popped open, and his eyes gleamed with challenge, daring me to object.
“She’ll make a lovely Queen Consort for you once I’m dea—ah!” A husky, mortifying sound slid from my lips as Luther’s thumb found just the right spot on my foot, sending a lightning bolt of pleasure up my spine. He circled it again, and my back arched against my will, hands fisting into the sheets.
“Good girl,” he murmured. My thighs clenched. Diem one, Luther ten.
“When you said you wanted to serve me, a foot massage isn’t quite what I had in mind,” I joked, my voice turning hoarse.
“Tell me then, my Queen, how would you like me to serve you?” Both palms dragged down my legs, resting low on my thighs and nudging them apart with the faintest pressure. “Shall I get back down on my knees until I earn another kiss?”
in the gust of his ragged breaths. “We may be vipers, but you’re no mouse. You’re a fucking dragon
“I don’t care,” he thundered back. “It’s my job to know the true motives of the people closest to you. I will keep you safe, and I will not apologize for it. Not now, not ever.”
“Not even if you despise me. Not even if I am nothing to you. Because my calling comes from a higher authority than even you can claim, Your Majesty. As she guarded my heart, I will guard over yours. Even if it kills me.”
“He said he’s never seen anyone handle themselves so well with our family before. He said you were born to be Queen.”
I rolled my eyes at his sudden modesty. “It’s just skin. You’ve seen me in much less, remember?” His glittering eyes shot to mine. “Impossible to forget.”
Lily leaned in to kiss my cheek. Just as she was about to pull away, she hovered close and whispered, “Perhaps you can save one dance for my brother? It would mean the world to him.”
“Those were your plans, not mine. Diem is my Queen. I will choose her over everything
“Let me make myself extremely clear. If you or anyone in your family makes a move against Diem, it will be the last thing you ever do. I will see to it personally that House Hanoverre is destroyed.” “Is that a threat?” Iléana hissed. “It’s a promise.” He paused, his voice turning dark. “And you know I always keep my promises.”
hooked my other arm over his shoulder, and a shiver rippled through him as my fingers grazed the nape of his neck. The power of knowing how my touch affected him made me acutely aware of every place our skin connected.
“Fighting all your battles is quite literally my job.”
“The most precious rewards come from the battles most fiercely fought.”
rightness of it, the overwhelming sense of being safe and protected. Accepted. Loved. I inhaled sharply. My pulse broke into a sprint. Lust. Physical attraction. Nothing more.
“Even before you had the Crown, I felt her urging me toward you. The more I see of you, the more I understand why. She wants change, and she believes you can achieve it.” His thumb brushed across my cheek. “And so do I.”
“You are my Queen, and I am your sword. Point me at your enemies, and watch them fall. Lead this world, Diem, and I will follow you—into war, into death, into the tundra of hell itself.” He took my palm and set it against his chest, just above the patch of unscarred skin that lay beneath his jacket. “You are the fate my heart was spared for. As long as it beats, you will never fight alone.”
“What would happen,” I breathed, “if we gave into this thing between us?” “I don’t know,” he said roughly. “But that question consumes my every thought.”
He let out a shuddering sigh. “And I have failed. Completely, irreversibly failed. I don’t just want a piece of you—I want them all.”
“I want every breath, every laugh, every tear. Every taste of your mouth, every inch of your skin. I want to kneel at your feet, soaked in the blood of your enemies, then worship your body until you scream my name.” His hands slid to my hips and tugged me closer. “Yes, Diem, I want to serve you—in every way a man can.”
“I want to burn alive in that fire in your eyes. I want it to melt me down and forge me into the weapon you need me to be. I want to stand by your side for the rest of my life, and I don’t need you to marry me and make me a fucking king to do it.”
“I pledged you my loyalty, and you have it, no matter your choice. But I cannot keep lying to you or to myself. I want all of you, Diem.”
“You already have all of me.”
It’s a reminder that no challenge can destroy the parts of us that truly matter. We’re not reborn in the flames. We’re revealed
