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Soon, I would have her. Yet even sooner, I would lose myself in her.
Life halted like a breath.
“Now, now,” I husked. “You haven’t begun to learn what my tongue can do.”
On the other hand, if the princess wanted to turn alpha, that was her choice. I had no quandary there. Certain insipid and unimpressive men in this court would glance down to make sure their balls hadn’t fallen off by now, but neither my masculinity, nor my confidence suffered. The jester jewels weren’t going anywhere. It was the other vital organs, located in the upper regions of my body, that I’d begun to second-guess.
His eyes sank to my lips, the weight of his attention palpable, like a warm caress, which rose several degrees and simmered across my flesh.
for I’m the puppet who holds the strings.”
There’s the kind of static that tears people apart, and there’s the kind that draws people together like moths to flames, no matter how they try to prevent it.
But men hadn’t looked at me as Poet was doing. Like I wasn’t something but someone.
Never had a man visibly devoured me like this, like I was somebody to crave, to consume. Never had a man made me feel desired, beyond all measure of civility.
I shall only say this. Had we been alone in the cottage, that night would have turned out differently. Had the princess given me a trace of permission, the counter would have been swiped of its dishes. Had she given the slightest indication, she would have been hauled off the ground—and that fucking water glass would have shattered to the floor.
There was Poet, utterly enamored with his son. There was me, utterly stricken by it.
“I’ve developed a fetish for your strength of will. It does things to me.”
Poet had seen me loud. And now I’d seen him quiet.
My head veered back to him, only to find Poet’s gaze fastened on me. Instantly, I felt its scorching effect, a tingling sort of burn, tangible in its intensity.
I wouldn’t release her until I had drained that precious sound for all it was worth, until I’d tasted every bit of it, until she was mine. Mine.
I wanted to take care of her.
Our eyes stumbled across one another like thrusts of lightning, sudden and perilous. In those fleeting seconds, our gazes held fast. They collided, like fists and lips.
He took measured steps, the look on his face electrifying every pulse point I possessed.
“We’re different for endless reasons and the same for just as many,” Poet continued. “Therein lies the incandescence. There’s the true harmony.”
For the dancing made her happy, and that happiness made her the brightest fucking thing in this garden. Enthralling woman. Hypnotized jester.
And if that reason had to do with a certain redhead to whom no one could compare, who I couldn’t evict from my head, and whose skin I craved like a drug, I certainly wasn’t in the mood to analyze it.
“Poet—” “I see you. I see your resilience and strength of will. I see your determination and tenacity. I see your desire for control and your longing to dance. I see your integrity and daring, even when every other fool in a packed room fails to. I see it all, and I want it all, for you’ve bewitched me out of my wicked fucking mind.”
“Now you’re in my head like a verse and a curse. You’re a plague and a fantasy.
Whatever happens from now on, you will be my ecstasy and my downfall.
Something else took over. Something dynamic, unprecedented, and tender.
The whole time, he studied me, and I studied him. Somehow, the staring felt even more intimate, more penetrating than what his body had done to me.
I want you to destroy me.”
“Breaking down the walls.” “Burning them to cinders.”
He soaked in my features, as if waiting for my approval. The vision sent eddies of pleasure through me. That look was mine. He was mine.
“Poet,” I entreated. “Please.” Done with words then, the jester pressed a finger to his lips. Hush.
!!!!
Her own name dangled from my tongue, but I kept it in, kept it close, because she was mine. And I was hers. All hers.
The Royal thorn had slayed me to the besotted edge of lunacy.
We stood in the heart of the mightiest weapon of all, a place of learning and knowledge,
I wanted his heart. I wanted to give him mine.
Nicu had leaped into my heart. And his father had stolen it.
It hurt, and I hated them for it, and I was sorry for it, and I understood it, and I didn’t understand any of it, and I missed them, and I longed, and I craved, and I needed, yet I shouldn’t, but I wished, and I wanted, but I couldn’t, yet I felt, and I felt, and felt.
No one would be safe from me if they touched her.
Dear ones. Only ones. I did my best, but I lost my way, for I’m not in your league. If this chase ends badly, and this tale ends worse, I might not see you again. So, remember, try to remember, my heart is yours. Be good and happy. Be loved elsewhere.
His instructive voice could have sliced through rock. “Sweeting, if the princess doesn’t want to be touched—” he increased the pressure on the guard’s trachea and enunciated, “—you do not touch her.”
“The greatest courage a person can have is to love another, for there are only two outcomes. Either the love lasts, and our lives are compromised, or it doesn’t, and our lives are emptied. Either way, we suffer more than we celebrate. I’ve enjoyed suffering with you. We are a tale for campfires.” His mouth descended, pressing flush and hot against my own. “That is all. That is everything.”
“Should she wish it, I shall do this to her forever, even as the walls crumble around us and the land burns to ash. I will stay with this woman, follow this princess into hell, and keep touching this future queen the whole time. I will keep wanting her, keep sparring with her, and keep coming back to her.”
I loved this devilish man so much it hurt. He was everything that enflamed and emboldened me. He was my craving and my comfort, my abandon and my bedrock, utterly out of control yet safely rooted to the ground.
“I don’t want to be good. I want to stay with you.” “I’ve never heard a more splendid compliment.”
I’m his. I’m yours. You come first because you’re my family, as are my mother and my father and Eliot. You are my family.” Her eyes glistened. “I’m not ashamed to love you, and I will fight for that with everything I am, and I won’t hide it. I have pretended long enough. I’m
