Page 47 of Merciless Is My Crown

“You were right. I did think you were like her. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I believed you were exactly like Adele.” Green eyes burned within a mask of ice. “Julian told me how cruel she was and maybe…that’s why I thought the worst of you. I made assumptions instead of seeing what was right in front of me…”

Tavion’s voice trailed off and my aching shoulders sagged.

I was so fucking tired of fighting.

“I’ve done you wrong, Anaria. Many, many times. And yet you never give up on me, do you? You always fight for me…for us, no matter what. Why is that?”

“Because when you love someone, you don’t give up on them.” I held his gaze, seeing the hope lurking beneath the raw hurt. “Because even when we lose faith in ourselves, we won’t allow each other to fall. Not ever.” I ran my hand through my greasy, tangled hair, and now it was too late and I was too damned exhausted to bother with a bath.

“I overheard you in the kitchen. Talking to my father.”

I went still, barely breathing as I searched his face, those glittering eyes, wondering if I could get to the door before he unleashed his brewing anger on me.

“Tavion, I was only trying to—” He held up his hand and I snapped my mouth shut.

“I was waiting for you, so I could yell and scream about how you’d wronged me and overstepped your bounds and about a hundred other imagined slights you’d committed over these past days.” His finger rimmed the mouth of the bottle, his eyes glued to my face with that unnerving intensity.

“That was my plan, anyhow, before you came in.”

“And now?”

“And now I’ll admit I’m a fool.” He shrugged, took another long draw on the bottle, and I wondered how much of this was Tavion and how much was the liquor talking. “I was hurt. And scared, looking for someone to blame. You were the closest target.”

His teeth were so long they dented his bottom lip. “I’m sorry, Anaria. For all of it. I’m sorry I let my anger get in the way. I’m sorry I can’t seem to trust you like you deserve to be trusted. I love you so much it scares me. So much I lose myself in that fear sometimes.”

He shook his head, slow and sad. “That fear…makes me do foolish things. Even when I try not to.”

I swallowed. This…was far more intimate than any moment we’d ever shared.

Tavion was more vulnerable than I’d ever seen him.

And he loved me. I rolled that word around on my tongue, finding I very much liked the taste. “I love you, too, Tavion Montgomery.” The words hung between us like a promise, like a truth we’d known for a long time now but had been too afraid—too stubborn—to say out loud.

“I’ve waited a long time to hear those words from you, Anaria. A very long time.”

“You have every right to be hurt and angry and scared about this, Tavion. I’m scared.” I nodded to the chair. “Do you want to sit? We can talk about this, figure it out. Lucius has healers coming for Tristan. They’re on their way.”

I expected a glimmer of hope when I mentioned the healers, but he just shook his head.

“Gods no. I’m too fucking tired to sit. I’m too tired to argue. Too tired to even think about this anymore.” He glanced to the bed, then his gaze settled back on me.

“I want to sleep. Here. With you. With my wife.”

I opened my mouth to protest, and he held up a placating hand. “Just sleep. That’s all. I’m drunk and tired and I haven’t slept in a bed in my own house for fuck knows how long.” He smiled, an exhausted, honest to gods smile, and something inside me melted. “Indulge me, Anaria. Only for tonight. I want to hold my wife.”

“I stink.”

He grinned wider. “I know. I don’t care.”

“Just sleep,” I insisted, even though my damned libido lifted her horny little head in interest. “I mean it, Tavion. I…” I licked my lips and instantly realized my mistake.

He set the bottle aside, his molten gaze never leaving me. “You…what, Anaria?” He prowled toward me, infinitely graceful, impossibly deadly, an indomitable wolf in a beautiful Fae body, every bit of that male attention focused on me.

He was right in front of me, so enormous I braced my hand against his chest and had to crane my neck back to see his face. “I…I can’t stop thinking about the other night. But I don’t want our second time to be because you’re drunk.”

His expression sobered, but he skimmed his knuckles down my cheek, so gently they were a rush of heated air against my skin. “No, that won’t be what our second time is like at all.”

His eyes darkened to the color of pine needles and all I smelled was the scent of windswept pines. “I should have been gentler with you. I should have taken my time worshipping every inch of your beautiful body, but my wolf is a fucking impatient prick and all he wanted was to claim you for his own. But next time…”

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