Page 48 of Thief of Souls
What is happening here?
He rolls me onto my back again, and then he’s kissing his way down my throat and Ilethim.
“They’re all truths,” I blurt as his lips reach the edge of my neckline. I can’t believe the dress is still in place.
He lifts his head, his eyes shining like lighthouses in the night. “You’re only my enemy if you believe it, Mira.”
Mira.
I can’t breathe.No. No, this isn’t happening.
“And yes, I will hold you to me for a year and a day.” His roughened palm skates up the silk of my dress, right where I want it. I gasp and can’t help undulating as it curves over my breast. “I will hold you to me forever, if you let me.”
“I.Can’t.”
Frustration firms that sensual mouth, and his hand stills. “Why not?”
Why not, indeed?
“Because you’re a prince!” I yell. “Youownme.” And my father will kill me if he catches wind of this, or worse—he’ll see a means to bend the Prince of Dreams to his whims. I don’t know which is worse. I have to stop this. “And you are meant to be flirting with other women! What happened to our plan?”
“Change of plans.” His eyes are like molten pools of fire as he stares down at me. “There will be no more of this distance between us. You belong to me. You’re my promised bride.” He leans closer, his breath stirring against my scalded lips. “And I don’t care what anyone thinks. You will be by my side until this plays out. You’ll sit on my fucking knee if I have to make you. You don’t leave the room without me, you don’t vanish into thin air—”
A growl of frustration escapes me. Trust a fae prince to start making power plays when I definitely do not need them. “Why not just tattoo ‘property of the Prince of Dreams’ on my ass?”
There’s a look in his eyes, one I don’t like at all. “Don’t tempt me.”
“You’resupposedto be the distraction. Not painting glowing foxfire all over me that says ‘this bitch needs to be watched.’”
He captures my chin. “You’re already being watched. You have a fucking blood curse wrapped around your heart, Zemira.” His voice comes out half-growl, all menace. “You want a choice? Then here’s your choice… you obey my new rules, or I’ll go after Belladonna and remove the threat of that blood curse.”
He’s going to set the entire court on fire.
Or maybe rip her heart right out of her chest.
I can see it in his expression.
I shove against his chest and escape the close confines of his body. “Fine. No more solitary sojourns. Drape me over your knee, pretend I’m the woman who stole your heart, stomp the ground and beat your chest like some pagan beast making his claim, but donotruin this for me. If you kill the princess, I lose any chance we have at getting our hands on that horn.”
And that, I can’t allow.
Keir’s lips curl in a satisfied smile. “I won’t kill her, Zemira. But an affront to my claim on you like this must be satisfied.”
I thump his chest with my fist. “Don’t—”
He captures my hand and presses a heated kiss into the palm of it. “I’ll do nothing that will risk the horn. I swear to you, by the Goddess who Blessed me, I won’t harm a single hair on her head.”
It will have to do.
I finally nod.
And then I escape to the antechambers so I can breathe again, knowing I just left a territorial dragon in my bed unsated.
9
“Did you sleep well?” Keir purrs the next morning, leaning down to brush a kiss against my throat as I stab a plump berry on my plate.
The brush of his lips lingers like a particularly irritable ghost long after he’s taken his seat across from me at the breakfast table. But his words conjure an entire night of tossing and turning as a shadowy figure crouches over me, his golden eyes gleaming as he kisses his way down my abdomen.
