Ruling Sikthand (Clecanian, #7)

by Victoria Aveline

Hair, white and thick, was pulled back from his face and braided in a haphazard way that didn’t align with his tidy armor or brutalist hand tattoos. His skin was ghostly pale, almost as light as his hair, and his hood was the darkest black she’d ever seen. The contrast made his glowing silver eyes and bright fangs so striking that he was difficult to look at.

If I hear you’ve dashed out into the desert in the night, understand that I will be the one to hunt you.”

She turned away from the mirror at Alno’s words, and Sikthand swayed forward. He hadn’t had time to examine that reaction when the chaperone’s question hit his brain. The golden fuck had asked to smell her.

Sikthand hadn’t watched her. Suspended in time, he’d beheld her. A goddess carved from the moon itself. Even if she left tomorrow and he never saw her face again, that vision of her would live with him until the day he joined the sky.

After all, it wasn’t every day a girl had a perfectly reasonable excuse to rub up to a muscular alien king.

He didn’t understand this. Didn’t know what she was doing, but her soft lips kneading his was the loveliest paralytic. Her mouth was warm and giving, her fingers gentle where they dug into the hair at his nape. His heart was stuck mid-beat, breath no longer necessary. He could nearly taste her, and then her lips parted, and her tongue swept across the seam of his mouth. Sikthand, the king harder than askait, trembled.

“This is a temporary fascination, human,” he hissed. “You are but a Season. Calamitous, powerful, consuming. But like the rains, you too will pass.” He dropped her chin and straightened to his full height, towering over her, not revealing the crippling ache constricting his stomach. “I need only weather you.”

“Sitting duck,” Alno whispered to himself, smiling. He did that often whenever he found one of her human sayings funny. “I’ll have to tell that one to Difila. She loves hearing all your human phrases. They’re adorable.”

The next morning Sophia awoke feeling better. Sometimes a night of sulking was all it took. Just a few hours of self-approved wallowing and her determination returned. Today will be better.

I’ve memorized it all so I know exactly where to find you when the pressure in my chest threatens to crush me.

He’d fallen in love with his future wife. He was the biggest fool of them all.