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Gabriel blasted Axton, Prince of Sin.
I decided if one asked a stupid question, one surely expected a stupid answer in return.
Despite my brothers’ constant teasing over the years that I’d end up with the hellion, I harbored no secret affection for her. I simply wished to win our private war.
Failure just means you’re trying and there’s no shame in that. Don’t let anyone tell you who you are. Believe in yourself. It’s your life and you’ve got to live how you see fit. To hells with everything else.
Love conquers all. Or so the philosophers and poets claimed. Love was the magic that crossed realms, breached worlds, and threaded them together.
True love also had the power to slay the strongest dragons, the greatest evil.
Once it cleared, Wrath and Emilia stood hand in hand, dressed in their signature black and gold.
Envy made a strangled sound, choking off his laughter. Probably because Wrath kicked him under the table. Wrath exhaled, then glanced up at the ceiling.
“You mean the wife who chose to leave his ass?” Lust folded his arms across his chest. “He needs to take a hint.”
Each time I imagined how furious the prince was, I couldn’t help but grin.
Axton’s voice was soft as he peered inside the bag. Wonderful. I was now being pitied by the worst possible male in the realm.
Dearest, insufferable Miss Saint Lucent,
His most charming royal highness, unrepentant rake and rogue, who I assure you has no issue with staying scandalous, Gabriel Axton, Prince Gluttony
I hadn’t filled my second in yet on my plot to tie Adriana to me. And even though she’d counseled me several times throughout the years to either bind the reporter, banish her, or stop sparring with Adriana Saint Lucent in public, I hesitated to share my plan.
“Axton.” “Adriana.”
Adriana would be the only other soul who entered my personal domain.
Fate was a twisted prick, but I owed him another debt.
Sinner certainly, never a saint. Villain, antihero, nothing quite suited him. He was wicked and kind and aloof. Mysterious and dangerous, yet concerned for others, even someone like me who he disliked. He was brutish and dominant and crass and still retained a sense of softness when the need struck. He was also devious when it suited. Ruthless Rake.
Adriana was already haunting my thoughts, and the urge to track her down the corridor to see what nefarious plot she was up to now was growing rather irksome.
“Because.” He held my stare. “I thought you were the most devastating thing I’d ever seen. A comet speeding directly at me.
I’d sent my staff ahead earlier to set up a romantic picnic at one of my favorite locations on the property’s grounds. Behind the flowing curtain of water was a natural cavern made of thick slabs of ice, the walls taking on a beautiful pale-blue tint from the frozen water.
“I have hungered for you in ways you cannot comprehend. I’ve craved you. More than my sin. You haunt me, Adriana.”
Do you have any idea how many careful lies of omission I’ve told over the years? The role I’ve played this last decade. All to hide the truth of how deeply, wholly lost I am to you?”
My sweet enemy was about to surrender to her future; she just didn’t realize it yet.
“Sweet nemesis. You act as if your soul hasn’t already been mine from the start.”
“That wicked tongue is only one of the many reasons I love you.”
“You are my favorite indulgence, Adriana Saint Lucent.”
If Adriana wanted us on equal footing, I would go to her, crawling if I must.
“I choose you, Adriana Saint Lucent. From the first moment I saw you, a decade ago, you have haunted my dreams. It has always been you.”
“Adriana Saint Lucent, my sweet nemesis, will you marry me?”
I would sacrifice my court for her and not regret a wretched moment of the decision. I’d made peace with my moral compass long ago. If I had to choose between her and the realm, it would be her. Always.
AXTON’S AND MY love story was doomed to never to be written.
“I’ve adored you from nearly the first moment I saw you. I loved you when I didn’t like you. I loved you when you bested me. And when I bested you. I love your smart mouth, your clever mind, your darkest fantasies. Your brightest joy. I love that you never let me win, that any victory I have is fleeting but earned. And I will live out the rest of eternity loving you.”
“Marry me, Adriana Marianna Saint Lucent. Fight with me, vex me, love me for the rest of our days. Just as I vow to do to you.”
“This is Vex. He’s been vexing me almost as much as you, sweet nemesis.” I gently placed him in her arms, monitoring her shiver. “If you bite my intended,” I warned him, “I will bite you back harder, Vex. Understood?”
I held her tightly to me. “I’ve got her.” Good, try not to let go. “That, dear dragon, is a vow I intend to keep forever.”
