Page 67 of The Nightbound Soldier

Reality splashes me like a bucket of cold water.

He won’t court me. He’ll never court me. If he wanted to court me, he wouldn’t come to me at night as if we have something to hide, as if we’re sneaking around the palace the way a queen might hide out with her general. Or worse, he thinks of me as a female available at his disposal whenever he so pleases.

Although I said I wasn’t his whore in anger, I’m starting to believe he thinks of me as one. “I take as many lovers as I wish, and I make no excuses for it since my brother and many other males don’t either,” I say, squaring my shoulders. “At the Summer Court, we live life to the fullest, indulging our desires with a mutual understanding between two or more people. When we share intimacy, we get what we came for in a night or a few nights, and then move on.”

“Are you seeking an arrangement with me?”

“I thought we had an understanding, but you disappeared for spans. I waited. You never showed, and that makes me feel…sad. Then, suddenly, you show up and pretend as if everything is fine, and I’m left wondering if it’s me. It probably is me. It’s always me. I expect to receive the same amount of attention I give. And I can give a lot of it. If you’d only let me. Most people let me. Most people want to be heard and attended to. But you? You…”

Nottuza is not even blinking. I guess I have his attention now. “Go on,” he orders.

“I want more from you.” I touch my fingers to my lips, surprising even myself.

“You want a relationship,” he concludes.

“Yes,” I admit.

Oh boy, oh boy. I had no idea this was what I wanted from him. I’ve always wanted a relationship, but the partners were all wrong until he came around and righted it all by making me want the most “wrong” male for me of all. The Winter Court’s vampire military general.

My mother will have a good laugh when she hears about this.My sweet barren daughter lies with a vampire. Useless seed in a useless womb. How fitting.

The conversations start to die out, and if I thought I could get away with whispering, I was wrong. I didn’t think that, but I hoped people found their own conversations more interesting. Apparently not.

Nottuza’s gaze sweeps over the room, and he stands, picking me up with him. Using his claw, he pierces the middle of the fishtail dress and slices through it, tearing the fabric down the middle, exposing my legs.

He puts me down on the floor.

Oh my fates, this is the most humiliating moment of my life. I can never recover from this.You shouldn’t have come here. You never think. Impulsive Fleur, always seeing only the good in people.

“I regret to inform you that the princess is retiring for the evening.”

He interlocks our fingers and starts walking away from the table, and since he tore the bottom of my outfit, I can walk alongside him.

28

FLEUR

The moment we arrive at the empty hall, Nottuza grabs me andvelosisup the stairs. He’s so fast that before I can even scream from the surprise grab, he’s pinning me against my bedroom door with his body, looking down at me with red eyes.

“I’m pissed, hungry, and horny, and you’re the only prey in the room.”

Heat I didn’t think could ignite inside my body flares in my lower belly. The Summer fae rarely experience winter heats. We ovulate, but don’t actually go into heat, and what I’m experiencing feels like a heat only this vampire knows how to stoke.

“You have me cornered and at your mercy,” I tell him.

Nottuza bends slightly to grab the backs of my thighs so he can lift me. “You say all the right things, siren.”

I wrap my legs around his waist. “Only because I wish to please you, General.”

“You do please me, Fleur. You do know that, don’t you?”

I shrug. “You don’t come around for spans.”

“I’m busy.”

“Doing what?”

“Things.”

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