Page 31 of A Darkness So Sweet

“No more lies.”

“I really don’t know a single thing about this. I haven’t lied to you about anything.”

“More lies!” he roared before dropping onto his hands and knees. He crawled over her, every bit the animal she thought him to be. It was so easy to loom over her, to wrap his clawed hand around her thin little neck and shake her so hard her head hit the stones behind her. “You will tell me everything your king has planned for my people, and why he would insult us so gravely.”

Her shaking hand came up to rest on top of his. Little fingers, warm and gentle as she held onto him. “My name is Maia. I’m a florist. I grew up near the castle, and my father provided the flowers to many nobles in the area. When the king asked me to create flower arrangements for the royal wedding, I did what I was asked. When I showed up, there was clearly another plan.”

“I don’t believe you.”

“I don’t care if you do,” she wheezed. “I’ve told you from the beginning, I was not meant to be here, and I don’t know why I was the one you married. I haven’t lied to you. Never.”

He hated how he believed her. Truth rang in every single word. She hadn’t known what the plan was. She was a pawn in all of this.

“A florist?” he repeated, his grip easing on her neck. “Is that what the magic helped you with?”

She nodded, although her eyes were still too wide for his comfort. She was terrified and thought he was going to kill her. He was still considering it. His people would expect that he do exactly that.

But the blood witch’s words still ran in his head. She was the one who’d been made for him, and he had searched his entire life for that person. Why did it have to be her?

He trailed his claws down her neck, watching the bright red welts that rose in their wake. “I should kill you for what you have done to my people. The trolls do not forgive easily, and you have betrayed us.”

“I don’t think I deserve that,” she said, her voice shaking with nerves, but he was proud to hear her argue with him.

“Why not?”

“I didn’t actively take part in this plan. If I had known what the king was going to do...” She trailed off.

“If you had known?”

Her jaw clicked shut, her throat working through the emotion. “I likely would have still gone through with it. The king is not someone to cross. I’ve seen what he does to those who disagree with him, let alone those who outright deny him. It’s said that his previous brides were all skinned alive because they didn’t please him. I’m not so brave as to fight a man like that.”

“My people have fought with him for decades.” Ragnar’s hand trailed down to the rip in her dress right over her heart. He could just barely see the swell of her breast, so plush that it distracted him for a few moments. “Trolls are far braver than humans, though.”

“You’re very much correct. From what I have seen in a very short amount of time, I think there’s a lot I could learn from your people.” Taking a deep, steadying breath, she forced herself to calm. He could feel her heart slowing beneath his fingers as he pressed them against her skin. “I ask your forgiveness, husband.”

Husband.

The word thrummed through him. It rocked throughout his entire being. This was the first time she had called him such, and he hadn’t realized what it would feel like.

This delicate, tiny creature looked to him to keep her safe. Big eyes stared up at him, her heart still and slow underneath his fingers as though she trusted him. No matter what decision he made.

“Beg me,” he said.

“For what?”

“For your life.” And also because he wanted to hear her beg. It made his blood boil and his cock harden. He wanted her to beg for her life in whatever way she saw fit.

He watched her chest rise and fall. Watched her eyes widen for a brief moment before she nodded.

“Please,” she whispered. Then her hand moved from his wrist to his chest. It was the first time she’d willingly touched him, not that he’d given her a lot of opportunity to do so. For a woman who had been pressed against his back while they ran, he didn’t really know what she felt like. Now, her fingers spread wide across his chest.

Her fingers lingered between his pectoral muscles and then dipping down to his stomach. He felt his muscles clench against her touch, even though he didn’t want to react to her.

“Husband of mine, I beg you to spare my life.” Her warm touch slid farther down, skating over the edge of his pants that he could already feel tenting just from this simple touch. “I will do anything you desire, anything you wish for. But please, spare my life.”

He grabbed her hand just before she tried to slip it underneath the leathers. “Wife,” he snarled.

As he said the word, a wave of gooseflesh rose on her skin. He watched it spread from her arms, across the skin of her chest that was just barely revealed, and up her neck. All the hairs on her body rose at that single, deep toned word.

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