Page 126 of The King's Man
“Since the bond took?”
“No, but… it’s overwhelming, Jann. You can’t tell me that you don’t feel drawn into that ocean of current—Ido! Our bodies respond to the connection and—”
“You think I only want your body?” I muttered.
Her lips thinned and she gave a one-shouldered shrug. “I suppose… yes?”
“Do you only want me for mine?”
“No, but I’m a woman.”
“What difference does that make?”
She huffed, like the answer was obvious. When I didn’t stop looking disapproving she tipped her head. “Jann, you stood me in the forest after we’d gone looking for Gall and Istral and told me in no uncertain terms that our jobs were to put aside ourfeelingsand do what needed to be done.”
“That was before—”
“It is how you think,” she said calmly. “You view emotions like gnats, buzzing around our head to be ignored and… I don’t.”
“I never said—”
“You never said anything except that you wanted me, and that I was the one God chose for you. That was… beautiful. But… neither of those things is aboutme.”
I let a low rumble of a growl putter in my chest. “How many times do I have to tell you that Iseeyou? That I understandwhyyou’re the one for me? How many times before you’ll believe me?”
She shook her head slowly, but her lips curled towards a smile. “One more, I suppose,” she said, then gave a quiet laugh when I grabbed her and marched her backwards towards the nearest tree.
“You, my dear, are infuriating,” I growled.
“That message is received loud and clear,” she said—but she was smiling, and for some reason that drove meinsane.
“This isn’t a joke—you are mymate.Myone.Yet you think I only care about taking your body? When I speak of your courage and your strength and your loyalty? When I commend your heart—you think all those words are just pretty flirtation? You think I speak to every woman that way, Dee?”
She seemed to actually consider the question. I couldn't decide if that made this better or worse.
“No,” she said finally. “I don’t think you speak to every woman that way. And I do… I do see how you’ve… softened since this began.”
She came up against the tree I’d been aiming for, and there was a flash of something in her eyes that reached me in the bond as well. I planted one hand on that trunk and leaned down over her, nose to nose.
“Trust me,softeninghas nothing in this for me,” I growled.
Diadre snorted, but I took her chin in my fingers and made her meet my eyes, waiting until her smile faded before continuing.
“Do you remember that last meeting with Melek and Yilan?” I asked quietly. She blinked and frowned, but she nodded. “Do you remember the instruction from Melek to me?”
Her frown lines deepened. “To get the information to him—”
“No. Matter. What,” I said darkly, pinning her to the tree with my gaze as surely as my body.
Diadre looked confused.
“You are my mate, Dee.No matter what.And…I lied to him, not you. Because it’s true that I will do everything in my power to make sure Melek gets the information he needs. He will have me at his back. My spear at his call. My body ready to bleed and die to put him on that throne. I’ll face down Lucifer himself if that’s what it takes. But you? Only you are myno matter what.When I told Melek I agreed to that, it was the first time I lied to him.”
Her eyes widened and she stopped breathing.
I nodded. “I half-suspect it’s why he seemed so stern—he understands the pull of a mate. He acknowledges the battle. Deep down… deep down I believe he knows onlyyouare the other half of my soul.”
Her throat bobbed. “Of course, with the bond—"
