Chapter 6
Royal
I shouldn’t go back again.Not after I pulled out the knife last night.
I know it before my boots even turn toward my own door.Before my hand curls around the knob.Before the heat crawling under my skin becomes a pulse, I can’t ignore.
I should walk the other way.I should put distance between me and the girl I chained to my bed.I should remember the King’s orders.Legend’s orders.Watch her.Don’t let her get close.I should remember the six missing girls, the Reverend’s lies.
But all I can think about…is her voice in that room.Her heartbeat.Her breath.Her defiance.Her scent.And the way she says my name without saying it, like a challenge.
My control frays with every step.
When I open the door, she’s awake.Sitting up.Bare legs stretched out on the cot.Shirt rumpled.Eyes sharp and hot and waiting for me.
She does that on purpose, waits like she knows I’ll come.
“Checking the lock?”she whispers.
But her eyes go straight to my belt.
Straight to the knife.She notices everything.She sees more than she should.More than I want her to.I feel myself crack.I carry guns when I have to.
But knives… knives are the truth.
Knives demand intention.Knives demand proximity.Knives don’t lie.I didn’t come here to use it.
But when she regards it in a manner like she’s imagining it against her soft skin.Something unholy surges through me.
“Stop looking,” I growl.
She doesn’t.
Of course she doesn’t.
She rises slowly, letting the chain drag, letting each increment of movement feel like a dare.
“You came to check on me,” she says.“Brought your blade again.”
Not a question.
A fact.
The truth slams through my ribs like a hit from a goddamn sledgehammer.She steps closer.Too close.And I move before I can think, grabbing the chain at her wrist, yanking her into my chest.Her gasp hits my throat like fuel on an open flame.
“Always coming to me armed.I must be a threat.”
“Back up,” I snarl.
“Make me.”
I do.
I pin her to the wall.
Her breath mixes with mine.
Her pulse jumps under my fingers.
