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“What was she...before?” I asked, my pulse thrashing in my ears. His answer was another riddle for me to dwell on, and it struck a strange kind of feeling in the pit of my stomach that felt like a warning. “Our enemy. A slayer of the Clan of Storms.”
“I knew you wanted me to be afraid of you,” I said coldly, my heart rate ratcheting up. “Only in the name of control,” he muttered. “I don't take pleasure in seeing you flinch if that's what you're thinking.”
I shrugged continuing with my act. He'd fucked with me all day, so I was going to fuck with him right back. “I'm not sure, your highness. Perhaps you sat on it with your royal ass.” His mouth twitched and I was almost certain he was about to smile. Instead, he pocketed the phone and gave me a sweeping glance. “Funny, I didn't realise my royal ass could be so destructive.” “Oh, I suspect royal asses can be quite destructive when they want to be. Arrogant too.”
“I did, drakaina hjarta. You and I are bound now.” His reply held no room for doubt, no space for hesitation. Like there had been no reality in which he wouldn’t have come for me. My throat bobbed as I stared at him, unable to understand why he had chosen me when it would have been so much simpler to run. So much easier to leave me behind.
He leaned in, the rough graze of his jaw scraping against my cheek as his mouth moved to my ear. “The fates guided you to my door, drakaina hjarta. I won’t let them call you from me so easily.” My heart pounded at his words, my whole body prickling with awareness as his grip on me tightened and the urge to turn my head consumed me.
“What words?” I asked, my chest rising and falling heavily, his powerful body so close to mine and yet so far away. “Ask me to take that pretty mouth of yours and quiet the lashing of your tongue.”
“I have never been denied anything, and I will not be denied of you.” He grabbed me, throwing me over his shoulder and making me cry out in fright. In the next second, he was scaling the wall with impossible ease and equally impossible speed. My head spun as he made it to the top and rose to his feet, tugging me off his shoulder and swinging me around to hold me like a baby instead.
I saw true emotion in Erik’s eyes, and it baffled me to find him looking so damn human. “I'm sorry,” I breathed, unsure why those words passed my lips or if I even meant them. He rose to his feet just as the moon broke through the clouds above, shafts of light spilling through the canopy and bathing him in silver. “Why would you be?” he muttered, striding towards me with the moonlight illuminating his pearly skin, making him appear more ethereal than ever.
The tears fell and Erik's cool palm came to my cheek, wiping them away. My vision was restored, and I found him before me, leaning in so close I couldn't draw in a single scrap of oxygen. His cypress scent filled my lungs, lulling me into a sense of calm, and the walls I’d built against him began to slip. “Is that true?” he rasped, eyes unblinking, seeking the answer in mine. “Yes,” I choked, another tear hitting my lap. “Fabian runs the Realms,” he revealed with a snarl. “They're his responsibility.”
He shoved to his feet, and I stood too, refusing to let him walk out on me and get the final word. “Then where do they end?” “Right now?” He prowled toward me, and I inhaled a shaken breath at the carnality to his expression. “They end with you.” He leaned down, his mouth capturing mine in a sinful kiss, his hands tugging me flush against him in an instant, almost lifting me from my feet. The rage in me liquified, rushing to my head and melting my thoughts before they could truly form, and melting me right along with them.
“How could anyone want a monster like you? You’re vile, you make my skin crawl. The only reason I kissed you is because you’re made to lure me in, you’re built to fuck with my head, but the truth is that I’m your prisoner and I fucking hate you.” His smile fell, and I swear his kingdom fell with it, because all the light in the world seemed to stutter out. I wasn’t even sure if I’d been lying or not, but part of me was desperate to believe my own words, yet the lust I’d felt had been so terrifyingly real.
