Page 33 of A Bond in Flames

His hand exploded out of the water and gripped the edge of the tub like he was about to bound over the side. “Do not remind me of that. We still need to make it to land, and if you talk about what they were going to do to you, Zinnia, I will get out of this tub and slaughter the entire crew. Do you know how to sail a ship? Because I can’t do it alone.”

He meant it. Vengeance burned in his eyes. He was fighting it, the need to slaughter every one of them. “I won’t mention it again, promise.” I pretended to zip my lips. “So that’s a yes on the two questions?”

“Yes, but I get two as well.”

I guess he had jumped into the ocean during a storm to fight a giant sea creature, so it’d be rude not to agree. “Fine.”

He smirked.

Goddess, that smirk was dangerous. I tapped my lips and mulled over the best way to ask my question while he waited patiently. I cleared my throat. “How many times have you made this trip with one of your consorts?”

His nostrils flared. “Twice.”

“Twice? You’ve had an unverified number of consorts. How could it only be twice?”

“Is that your second question?”

Was it? “I don’t know.”

“Well, while you decide, I’ll ask you one. During the times you’ve been away from me, have you fucked anyone else?”

The vein pulsed at the side of my throat. He was obsessed with my sex life, and the way he’d been looking at me when he asked that… goddammit, I was having trouble breathing again. “Anyone elseimplies that we’re already fucking,” I said, for reasons unknown.

He bared his teeth in a way that should be terrifying but didn’t scare me anymore. “Answer the question, wife,” he said, using my title as if it held all the weight in the world.

As if that title actually meant something. As if me being with another male would actually be a betrayal. “Would you truly be angry if I had?”

The steel tub bent under his hand. I’d take that as a yes.

“Answer the question, Zinnia,” he growled.

“No, I haven’t been with anyone since I revealed who I was to you.”

He visibly relaxed.

“Why do you care?” I said before I could stop myself. “You don’t love me. You didn’t choose me. I was chosen for you, just one of, well, possibly ten random other females to darken your castle steps. I don’t get it.”

His jaw tightened. “That’s obvious, but what you need to understand is, you are mine, Zinnia. You are everything I want, all I want. I have no use for any other female, no desire to be with anyone but you. You don’t need toget it. That’s just the way it is.”

I stared at him, stunned, for several seconds. “So what you feel, it’s like a mate bond?”

“Yes, it’s a lot like that. Which is why being parted from you is… hard.” The tub buckled further under his hand. “And why the thought of you with someone else…” His lips peeled back. “I don’t like it.”

I was stunned. I had no idea. He’d never shown it—well, not until the last week or so. Until he’d just spelled it out, I’d had no idea what he was thinking or feeling. “I feel sorry for you then,” I said into the silence. “This must truly suck. I don’t know why your consorts keep… dying or why fate has an endless supply of us lined up for you, but it has to be painful to feel a connection like that to someone, then have them taken away over and over again.”

Something shifted through his eyes that I couldn’t read, and then his head tilted to the side. “You feel sorry for me? You think you’re going to die in the near future, but it’s me you’re concerned about?”

I shrugged. “Don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to die, not yet. But I have family waiting for me. Loved ones who will welcome me with open arms when that time comes. This… it’s endless for you.”

“Don’t,” he said roughly. “Do not accept death as the outcome. Do as I say, and you will live.”

He was delusional. The odds were not in my favor. The way he was looking at me, the pain and desperation, the need for me to believe it, to be the exception, was hard to look at. I was a realist, though. Whatever the fates had in store for me was what would be. No, I wouldn’t go down easily, but I needed to come to terms with the possibility of my reality.

“Right, next question,” I said, not wanting to talk about my death anymore. “Did you sleep with all your consorts? You’re old as hell. You wanted my number, but I’m assuming yours is pretty freaking high.” Where the hell had that come from? I was trying to lighten the heavy mood that had fallen over the room, but now it sparked with electricity.

His chest rose and fell as if he was trying to steady his breathing. “Not quite as old as Hell.”

“Answer the question.”

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