Page 15 of Pregnant at the Palace Altar

Because she could not. She was powerless in the face of him, in the face of the heat that erupted between them when they got too close. Even knowing it was wrong and she would regret it, her body simply insisted she give in, as if it cared not at all what her mind told it.

So she did. She gave in, held on, kissed him back with all the passion that had not died inside of her though she had tried desperately to quash it—both before and after.

She fell into the maddening heat all over again. No matter the many costs.

CHAPTER FIVE

LUSTWASLIKEsome kind of wildfire in Diamandis’s mind, turning every rational, important thought to ash. When Katerina had been his assistant, when he’d felt such a loss of control coming over him, he’d been able to order her away, to excuse himself.

Except that one time. When it hadn’t been work, but...disaster.

That one time, which had haunted him every night since. He’d controlled himself because there was only ruin if he didn’t. Because she knew too much...and those who knew that much had only betrayed him.

When he’d come into her room this morning, he’d tried to remind himself of the inevitable betrayal, the inevitable end and loss—all the ways he could not trust what he felt, because the crown came first. All the ways she should never trust him because, deep down, he was not what he seemed.

But she’d been sitting in the bed, hair rumpled, cheeks flushed from the warmth of the blankets and pillows piled around her. He’d seen the swell of her belly where their children grew and it had given new fangs to old feelings he thought he’d vanquished.

Then she’d gotten out of bed, wearing an oversize T-shirt that barely skimmed her thighs and was most certainly not fit for the queen she would soon be. Her feet were bare, her hair a sleep-tangled maze of curls. He had never seen her in such a state.

He’d tried, valiantly—if he did say so himself—to resist. But she was like a magnet. She was like air, and he had forgotten how to breathe.

There was no choice but to kiss her. No choice but to devour her mouth as he once had. But this time his hands moved over her round belly, marveling at what he had had a hand in creating.

She was carrying his children. She would be his wife—no matter how many objections she tried to throw at him. The plans were in motion;everythingwas in motion. It was a risk to form this union, but letting her go would be a bigger one.

So why shouldn’t this be his reward?

Particularly when she met his kiss with all the passion she had shown him that night, as though she too had been fighting to hold herself back from this.

This.A need like no other. And for those first few weeks after, he’d been able to convince himself that he had solved the problem by giving in that night. That by tasting her, by being inside her, he knew what it was and could then resist it. A known enemy was always better than a mysterious threat.

But he knew, here in this moment of heat and passion and desire, that it had not been his impressive control or some vanquished feeling that had kept him from kissing her again.

It had beenfearthat had meant he’d kept his hands to himself in those weeks afterward. Fear that nothing else could ever matchthis, and it was best never to know it again. Fear that she’d seen too much, and now held too much power over him. She might be a good person, but he was not, and if he fell into forgetting that, too much was at stake.

But Katerina was inextricably linked to him now. There was no turning back or sending her away. He would have to find a way to win when she was in his orbit because she would be Kalyva’s queen.Hisqueen.

Something strange roared inside of him—too many emotions that if he named would become unwieldy. Dangerous.

So he pushed his thoughts away and focused on the taste of her. The way she moaned as his hands slid under the ridiculous T-shirt she wore, to find warm skin, soft and supple. Her rounded belly, her delectable breasts, nipples pebbled tight and wanting just for him.

“Diamandis.”

His name on her lips, her breathless sighs, and the way she gave in to him after spending so much time fighting with him... She was a curse, and he reveled in it.

He pulled the T-shirt off her, revealing her beautiful body. She fumbled with the buttons of his shirt as his fingers dove into her tangled hair. As he drowned in the pleasure of her mouth once more. As she rid him of his shirt, her own hands touring his body as though he were her long-lost lover, returned from the unknown. As if she were desperate for someone she’d once lost.

But he had not been lost. She’dleft.

That might have broken through the thick sexual haze, maybe, but she ripped her mouth from his.

“Diamandis. This... We... I’m too...big.” But this was not a refusal. Not ano. It was merely...foolish self-doubt, when she was nothing short of perfect. She was the only woman who had ever tested him, ever bested him.

“You are a goddess,” he murmured, lowering himself from her mouth to the round glory of her breasts, her stomach, and lower still.

She sank onto the bed and he got to his knees to worship her, spreading her out on the bed behind them, drinking deep until she was shaking and saying his name, over and over in breathless desire.

But he wanted more than his name. More than her hands in his hair and the taste of her a drug he’d never survive. He had had her once and had convinced himself it was enough.

---