Page 157 of Promise of Darkness
My cheeks heat and I force myself to focus on his eyes. They’re very pretty eyes, but they’re no match for the rest of him. All that sleek muscle and smooth skin just begging to be touched or licked…. There’s no softness about him. He was built to be a predator, built to prowl, to overwhelm. Every inch of him is hard and carved of sleek edges.
And as he wades toward me, water caressing those slick muscles, I realize that he’s been kind and charming and polite with me so far. The patient suitor. But right now, with the Darkness blackening his eyes, he’s clearly cast aside such aspirations.
Right now, I’m dealing with the Prince of Evernight.
One who looks at me as if he’s thinking of punishing me for my ruse with the Erlking. Only…. I think I’d quite enjoy what he has planned.
“Then talk,” he tells me.
I clear my throat, trying to gather my scattered thoughts. “Can you get dressed?”
“What’s wrong?”
You’re naked. And I’m trying really hard to focus.
I set my hands on my hips. “It’s difficult to have this conversation when you’re naked.”
“You mean, you want to yell at me and yet, you can’t keep your eyes off me.”
Something like that.
“No,” he says, enunciating the word. “I’m having a bath. You can either join me and scrub my back, or you can wait for me upstairs at my leisure.”
At my leisure....I scowl. “I know we’re married, but do you think I’m going to sit upstairs in your chambers like a good little girl and wait for you to tell me how wrong I was?” I lean forward. “Because if so, I think you must have hit your head in that castle. Or is it the fact thatIrescuedyouthe one you’re having trouble dealing with?”
Thiago rubs at his jaw, fingers scraping over the dark stubble as he growls, “I swear to Maia, you were sent to punish me.”
It’s a little bit disheartening to be considered punishment.
I know we’ve been dancing around each other for weeks, even months, but… there’s a little piece of me that started to believe his declarations. It’s a heady feeling to know someone loves you enough to sacrifice everything. I’d even started to believe that maybe there was a piece of myself worth loving.
Or maybe I’m just a fool who wants to believe.
“I never asked for this,” I say hotly. “I never wanted to be a pawn between you and my mother. And you’re right. Maybe I should leave this argument where it lies and go upstairs, but if you think I’m going to be waiting for you to finish it, then pray, think again.”
I turn toward the door, boots hammering as fast as my heart.
“Vi!”
The door slams in my face with a gush of wind.
I yank at the handle, but there’s no shifting it. And I don’t have enough magic to break his hold on it. Burning it to cinders is not a good idea. Certainly not one a mature princess can afford to entertain, no matter how tempting it is. Hammering a fist against it, I pause once, palm pressed to the wood, before turning back around.
“Open the door.”
The words almost sound calm.
“No.”
Oh, he’s going to regret this. “That was the only time I’ll ask. Next time, I’ll get a fucking axe.”
Thiago wades closer to the edge of the pool. “Aren’t you tired of running?”
It’s not the first time he’s accused me of that.
I plant my feet. “Fine. I’m not running this time. Let’s talk. Let’s punish each other.”
“Vi.” He curls his fingers into a fist, his jaw locking tight as he clamps down on whatever he intended to say. Finally, he opens his fist. “I didn’t mean to say it like that. You’re more than that to me. You’re more than a pawn. More than punishment. And you know you are. I would walk away from this war with your mother in a heartbeat if I thought she’d leave us in peace. But I can’t keep fighting a war on two fronts. I can’t keep fighting you as well as your mother. We have just over three weeks before time runs out, and this time, it’s forever.
