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“What has he done to you?”
“I’d rather you kill me than face more torment and lies.”
“You’re safe,”
Caged within the arms of a king with frost for a heart, I was given the sole option he gave everyone. Complete surrender.
To remain in the dark archives of the heart is to ignite grave consequence. If you cannot find the balance, then you must feel nothing at all.
Nothing gave purpose quite like revenge.
But I didn’t hate him enough. I certainly didn’t fear him as much as I should have, especially given all I’d endured. Perhaps I no longer had it in me. The ability to care.
“You don’t wish to talk.” “What is there to say?” “Too much, perhaps,”
“You will kill me, Florian,” I whispered. “You were supposed to kill me.” His fingers stilled but only momentarily. “I’ve just cleaned blood and goddess knows what else from your hair, sweet creature. Is that how a male treats someone he wishes to kill?”
“The moment I laid eyes on you was the moment I knew I could never end your life.”
“I was always supposed to kill you, butterfly.” His dark lashes dipped, his thumb glossing my lower lip. “But now, I will bring you the remains of anyone who tries.”
Offspring were a blessing gifted by the goddess of creation. And I’d now learned that being considered as such did not guarantee any form of love.
If regret had a fragrance, then perhaps he wore it.
“Run and hide from me if you must, butterfly.”
“How astute you’ve grown, butterfly.” “No.” I flattened my palm over the glass and spread my fingers, ruining the scribbles I’d made. “The stupid was merely beaten out of me until my eyes opened properly.”
“If they were, you’d see that I care far more than I ever wanted to.” He laughed, but it held no humor. “You’d see that I feared for you. I’ve tortured and killed for you. I went insane with desperation to get you back, and I couldn’t, Tullia. I couldn’t reach you.” His chest heaved. “Every time I came close to sleep, it was stunted by terror.”
Maybe he did care, after all. Maybe that was why I still breathed and why it mattered to him if I didn’t.
He just held me as snow fell and my heart finished breaking.
I wanted what she was giving him—enough trust to let go.
“Shame won’t allow for it. Won’t allow her to let you that close.”
“Every decision she’s made led her to receive nothing but humiliation and brutality from the male she was so eager to find.” His gaze lowered. “From the father who was supposed to protect her.”
“My violent little butterfly.”
“My mate.”
“My wife.”
“My fucking ...
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“I don’t want your forgiveness.” Our lips grazed with the edged whisper. “I just need your surrender.”
“Monsters do not dream, Majesty.” “Is that so?”
“Then why is it that when I close my eyes, all I ever seem to see is you?”
“My father once told me to save something,” he said, almost ragged. “To have my fun but to save something for the one I wished to keep.”
“If I am at your mercy, then you will be at mine.”
He made me forget, perhaps intentionally, that I’d ever dared to want anything other than this.
Dangerous, certainly, yet there was safety in forgetting.
Since you came back to me.
“I trust you, though I likely shouldn’t yet. I trust you because I want to.” My thumb skimmed her lush lower lip. “Because never have I craved anything in all the ways I crave you.”
“This is madness, Florian.” “You do not seem the least bit concerned.”
“For you, I would do far worse than wage war, and I do hope you’re finally beginning to understand that.”
“There’s no glory in victory if you’re not present for it, sweet creature.” Firelight flickered over his features as he watched me. “Besides, you’re safest with me.”
“You’re no queen,” he said, already hurrying away. “You’re a fucking goddess.”
“I’m not being used if I’m willing.”
Then again, monsters so rarely believed they were monsters at all.
“We’re not here to admire the scenery.” Her fingers stroked the giant petals of an orange wildflower. “Then why do you keep ogling my ass?”
“You know better than anyone that fathers, and even mothers, are not always loving.”
“Anything else feels like a lie, and I don’t want lies.” She paused, then whispered, “Not from you.”
I was her place of refuge.
“Nothing, not even death, will keep me from being the only one who can see to your greedy needs.”
“Never doubt the power of a scorned lover, butterfly.” He sipped his whiskey again. “Especially one with exceptional talents.”
“I can tell you that I have no desire for anything that isn’t you until the sun and moon cease to rise.”
“You make me want to kill anyone who’s ever looked at you.”
“That I’m so wretchedly in love with you, it’s both saved and damned me.”
“Just tell me that you’re mine,”
