This woman.
She should have made me a mere man.
The gown she called a monstrosity was art.
Perhaps the body underneath it might steal the breath from my lungs when my fingers, my hands, my mouth, my entire body adored hers, but it was not about the gown at all.
It was about a moment in our lives, breaths sacrificed that we could never get back, when we stood in front of God and our families, repeating vows to one another on sacred ground. It was symbolic.
I was not a man to waste my time, therefore my breaths, on folly. I would have no regrets.
Her hand trembled as she lifted it to my face, but before she could touch me, I snatched her wrist and held it. If anyone could have glanced at us in that moment, it would seem as if she was about to strike me, and I had subdued the blow.
In that second, though, when my hand wrapped around her wrist, a fire lit in her eyes that I had never seen before. It caused her eyelids to lower and her mouth to part.
“Ah,” I breathed out. “I see.”
I saw what this queen wanted. Craved. Ached for. Not a tender king, but a ruthless one, just as she had said the first night we’d met. Even for her first time, she wanted the pain that heightened the pleasure.
She fought against my hold, turning her wrist violently from left to right in my hand, until I gripped hard enough that she couldn’t move unless she wanted her wrist to crack. Her breaths were leaving her in pants, and her pupils were starting to dilate.Her teeth were set into a snarl, like she might try to take a bite out of me.
I wanted her to.
Perhaps my blood would absorb into her flesh, run through her veins, and she would realize that we were not enemies but lovers.
We were one.
Our enemies should face us together.
“Let me go,” she whispered. Her tone was laced with venom and scalding heat.
I did, abruptly, and when I turned her so fast that she hadn’t had a chance to even understand what I’d done until after it was done, she gasped. Instead of delicately undoing the tightness of the dress, I ripped it with my bare hands, crystals, pearls, and silk landing on the floor and scattering into darkened corners like timid mice in the face of a monster.
“You are free from the monstrosity,” I whispered, “la mia spietata regina—” in English, “my ruthless queen.” I placed a chaste kiss on her bare shoulder. Goosebumps pebbled her flesh, and she shivered. Then a cunning smile came to her face.
It fell, but only for a second, when I turned her to face me again, pressing my lips to hers. It was a kiss that, at first, battled for control. Mine. Hers. Mine. Hers. Until I proved victorious, and she melted into the feel of my tongue teasing hers. She tasted like cinnamon, champagne, and the heat of her fiery temper. Even her palms were warm as she grabbed my shoulders, her temperature seeping into the fabric of my undershirt and touching my bare flesh. Her nails were like sharp daggers that pierced my skin, the punctures burning like small fires as she clawed me.
She set her hands against my chest and shoved me away. “I cannot breathe,” she snapped.
“Bene,” I said, our mouths still close enough I could feel her erratic breath dancing across my lips in a frenzy. “We will have to share air, ah? One cannot breathe without the other.”
“You are not my lungs, Rocco Fausti, and I am not your air.”
I took her hand and started to waltz with her around the room to some slow, romantic song serenading us through the speakers. “You said yes to this arrangement,la mia spietata regina,and yet you expect me not to be romantic. You know my family. You seem to know them better than I do.” I grinned at that. It was clear to see when we met, and she fit in without me having to school her.
She returned the grin. “All part of the research,” she said. “This is a job to me, Rocco Fausti. As your wife, I will help you ascend the throne. Beyond that…” She let her unvoiced thought linger.
Beyond that?
Only time would tell.
Rosaria Caffi had an idea of how this marriage would go, but this marriage was not only on her terms.
I stopped the dance, which I had led, and stared into her eyes.
Was this woman capable of love?
She was capable of loving power, control, fame, and the adoration that came with being the best.
