Page 19 of Straw and Gold
Goddessdamn me, I just wanted to know.
What did it feel like, being ravished by a man who actually knew what he was doing?
Something told me Killian would know exactly what he was doing.
And then I’d be fucked in more ways than one.
If my husband didn’t intend to have such a relationship with me, the last thing I needed was to have him just once or twice and forever remember what that was like.
Focus, Morella, focus.
“I know what you’re thinking,” he murmured softly as we rounded a corner.
“Y-you do?”
“You’re thinking you’ve made a mistake.”
Wrong.
“You’re thinking that this castle is not for you. This king you married is not for you.”
Wrong and more wrong.
We approached an arched doorway leading to worn stone stairs that wound upwards, disappearing into the tower. He took a candle from the lit sconce and led our ascent. “You’re thinking that the three month amendment to our contract is looking more and more like a Goddessblessing and a way out of this marriage.”
He fell into silence. The only sound was the flickering of the small flame and our footsteps up the stone spiral. We soon cameto a small landing and old wooden door that I doubted saw much use.
Trying not to puff my breath from climbing the stairs, I finally spoke. “None of those things have crossed my mind.”
Frowning, he pulled a long copper key from his pocket. Sliding it into the keyhole, the mechanism clicked and the door hinged inward in a resounding groan. He offered me the candle and I took it, stepping into the dark room that boasted a single sliver of an open window facing west. The lowering sun gilded the room in a dim orange glow. Stepping further into the tower room, I held the candle aloft, lighting another covered in dust along the stone wall. He stepped in behind me and shut the door.
The room didn’t hold much. In fact, it appeared to be used more as storage than anything. A few trinkets lay in an old trunk and some wooden chairs were stacked near the door. A bed of straw lay under the window and an old spinning wheel was laced with cobwebs nearby.
“Why didn’t you break the contract?”
The question filtered through the small circular room, still unanswered from the first time he’d asked it.
I turned to face him. “I told you. I didn’t want to.”
His mask of stone wavered. “What do you want from me, Morella?” he asked slowly.
Everything.
All of it.
All ofyou.
“Is it so hard to believe Iwantto be your wife? Why do you resist this marriage every step of the way?”
“Because from what I’ve observed, you’re intelligent. Intelligent women don’t show up in a foreign kingdom after thirteen years and marry a foreign king unless they have a goal in mind.”
Well, shit. He had me there.
I stepped closer, drawn to his voice. “Did you just compliment me again? That makes a miraculoustwotimes.”
“You’re counting?”
“On one hand.”
