Page 21 of The Crimson Princess
“Thank you for sharing what you knew of my mother.”
“I’m sorry it’s not more.”
“Me too,” I rasp, my lashes lowering with the emptiness inside me my mother had once filled.
He releases my hand, and his finger slides under my chin, and he lifts my gaze to his. “You okay?”
“I don’t think I’ll ever be okay again.”
“You will be. That’s an order.”
“You’re not my king.”
“Pretend I am.”
Heat pools in my belly at what sounds and feels oh so intimate. “Why would I do that?”
“Because what happens between us stays between us, princess.” His thumb strokes my jawline, the tenderness and intimacy of his touch, stealing my breath, a trembling quake deep inside me, and then his hand falls away, and the moment, whatever that was, is gone.
“How are you getting back to the kingdom?” he asks softly and I swear there’s an affected quality to his voice but quickly dismiss the idea. He’s King Toren, master seducer. There’s nothing vulnerable about him.
“Car service,” I say. “You?”
“I’m on foot, and as much as I’d like to offer to share a car, I’m afraid word will get back to your father. I’ll walk you to where the drivers pick up riders.”
I’d like that, I think, but I don’t say that out loud. I’m confused by Toren, by what is between us, and I wonder if his reference to being my king should bother me. He pulls out my stool to offer me room to exit, and I scoop up my box while he grabs our cups. I motion toward a set of steps that keeps us away from the main crowd, and we head that direction.
Toren tosses our trash, and I savor the normalcy of the act that allows me to pretend that we’re just that: normal, at least for a few beats. But the truth is, the one thing we both know we have in common is that we have never been anything remotely resembling normal. We step onto a stone path, the cool ocean airsoothing the unexplainable heat of every moment I spend with Toren. He should put me on edge, and perhaps it’s the credit of his world-renowned seductive powers at work on me, but my powers are not simple, nor are they without shelter.
We begin walking away from the shopping part of the village, and I dare to try to understand the vampire king. “The tales of your seductions are many, but I’d think you’d choose a queen to produce an heir.”
He laughs low and deep. “I see you share your mother’s directness. She asked me the same thing while visiting with your father.”
“And you said what?”
“Standing by my side is a dangerous proposition, and not one I would wish on anyone I would call my queen.”
We halt at our destination, with no cars in sight, a dangling streetlight attached to a thick chain illuminating our conversation. “What of an heir? You can’t let your brother become king.”
“He will never be king.” There’s steel in his tone, with just a hint of bitterness. The king is not without emotion, of this, I am now certain.
A car pulls up beside us, and in that moment, he steps closer to me, oh so close, my nostrils flaring with the earthy scent of him. “I’m here if you need me, princess.” There’s a rasp to his voice.
There’s a rasp of my body.
“I’m sure that would be perfectly unacceptable,” I whisper.
His hand settles on my waist, and his head lowers intimately toward me. “You’d be surprised what I will do for my friends.”
My hand covers his, as if I am somehow negating the absurdity of allowing such a thing by doing so, as if I somehow am in control. “Is that what we are?” I dare. “Friends?”
His mouth is close to mine, the heat of his warm breath teasing my lips. “Unless you want to call me king, princess.”
This jolts me, and my hand presses hard against his chest, pushing him back. “You are not my king.”
“I’m brutally aware of that fact.” He steps back, wide enough that my hand falls from his chest, the chill of the night icing myfingers instantly. “Go back to your kingdom, princess.” With that, he turns and walks away, and I have the strangest need to call him back. Instead, I climb inside the car, and I don’t look back at the vampire king, who so cleverly seduced me. My mother was right. Toren is dangerous.
Chapter eleven
