Page 18 of American King (New Camelot Trilogy 3)
I trace the line of her lower lip with my thumb. “Embry left me today.”
I see the moment the words register, the second they transform into terrible, terrible meaning. “What?” she whispers.
Her lips are so soft, and the place where they blush from skin into plump rosiness is unbearably silky. “He visited last night actually, to tell me in person. But he called with his official resignation this morning. He’s leaving so he can join the Republican Party and run against me in the next election.”
She blinks once, her mouth parting, and I know that she’s already grasping all the political and administrative ramifications of this news. The PR, the strategy, the math of states and votes and polls. She’s better at that than I am. Better at seeing and understanding, when it feels like all I’m good for right now is standing still.
“Kay and Merlin know?” she asks. Then talking mostly to herself, she says, “Of course Kay would know. You’ve asked her to fill Embry’s role, I’m sure. Which means you would ask Trieste to be Chief of Staff. And what does Merlin say about the election? We’ll have to—”
“We don’t have to do anything,” I say in a gentle voice. “Embry left me, Greer, not you. He doesn’t have to be your enemy, and I would never ask you to help me campaign against him.”
She stares at me. “You must be joking.”
“I’m not,” I say firmly. “I mean every word of it. Embry loves you and you love him and I love you both. It’s my intention to honor that as much as possible.”
“But you’ll still run, right? You’re not stepping aside out of some misguided nobility?”
I smile weakly at that. “It may still be misguided nobility, but no, I’m not stepping aside. I’m afraid that my disagreement with Embry is too fundamental.”
She bites her lip for a moment. “Is it about me?”
“Yes.”
She waits expectantly for me to elaborate, but I won’t. I shouldn’t. “It’s Embry’s story to tell,” I explain. “He should be the one to give you his reasons. It would be wrong for me to speak on his behalf.”
“Oh Ash,” she murmurs, pressing her face back into my leg. “Stop being so good for just a second and talk to me.”
“I’m not being good,” I promise her. “If I were really being good, I would have accepted his resignation without provoking him. But I couldn’t do that, and we—”
I take a breath. “It got messy.”
“Messy how?”
My curious little cat. Even with everything that’s happened, I’m still charmed by her fascination with Embry and me. “We fought and then we came, so business as usual,” I say. “It wasn’t good of me to do. He wanted dignity in that moment and I made sure he didn’t have it.”
“He wanted whatever you wanted,” she says, glancing up at me. “And you wouldn’t have done it if you didn’t know that he wanted it too.”
“That’s pleasant to think, but I’m not sure how true it is.” I smooth her hair away from her face. “The most important thing for you to know is that I gave Embry my blessing to be with you. And I’m giving you the same blessing. I don’t expect or want this shift in loyalty to break the two of you apart. I certainly won’t curtail my relationship with you, and should the moment arise between Embry and me again, I can’t imagine I would stop myself from doing what I want.”
She has no answer to this, and I can see the tiny pulls and parts of her mouth as she struggles for words. “Ash, I don’t think I can…cheat on you,” she finally manages. “There were times when it was just me and him, but that was when we were a three. If we aren’t a three anymore, then I don’t know how I feel about being with Embry.”
“You won’t ‘be’ with him, you’ll fuck him. And at the end of the day, you’ll come home to me. My bed. My body. I will always be your husband and your king and your master, and it doesn’t matter who I let you fuck, you’ll always belong to me, understood?”
“Yes,” she breathes, her eyes wide and open. Her body has gone hot and pliable in front of mine, practically begging to be handled.
I ignore it for the moment, ignore the angry throb of my cock against the wool of my suit pants. “This isn’t cheating, Greer. We promised each other on our wedding night, and we keep our promises. That means you and Embry have my full consent and permission to be together, and that means I don’t expect you to help me campaign against him or to do anything else that would divide your loyalty. I care too much for you to do that.”
“But I don’t want to hurt you,” she insists. “And this will hurt you, I know it will.”
“I choose the pain too, angel. I always have.”
“And I’ll campaign by your side,” she says. “No matter what.”
I’m touched by her loyalty—more than touched, I’m fed by it in all the wrong ways—but I don’t tell her that. Instead I say, “You should wait until you talk to Embry to decide that. You might agree with him that I should no longer be President.”
“Never,” she vows. “There’s nothing he can say that will convince me you shouldn’t be in this office.”
“I didn’t keep you safe from Melwas.”
