Dahlia longed to tell him it wasn’t true. That she loved him, but it was too dangerous. If he knew the depth of her feelings, all it did was give him more power. She knew what royals did with power. They used it to their advantage. While she knew what kind of person Neve was, Loriia came first. Lia had betrayed Loriia just as much as its Frost King. Such things could not be swept underneath the rug. It had been easy to admit her feelings when she thought him dead. But loving him now ... the cost was just too high.
She swallowed hard. “I don’t have any justifications. I know what I’ve done is unforgivable.”
“It is,” he replied, voice thick with hate.
“And it has been eating me alive ever since I left you. But for a moment, can you imagine what it was like for me in our marriage? Do you think I didn’t hear the whispers and rumors of what you planned?” A hollow laugh fell from her lips. It was easier to lean into the scorn and rage than the hurt and fear. “You never meant for me to stay with you. You were planning to lock me up in a tower until I died. Or breed me and let me die in childbirth.”
“But I did not,” he snapped, leaning closer until he was all she could see.
“Only because your sister played games and you were stuck with me.” She glanced into his glittering eyes, just barely able to spot the difference between his black scleras and irises. “From the moment we met, I have been a means to an end, a pawn for you to do with as you wished. Is it really a surprise that I didn’t trust you? I wassoldto you, my lord. I didn’t know we were to be married. I was supposed to gohome.” Her mother’s faceappeared in her mind. She closed her eyes and shoved down the grief. “I’ve experienced more pain in the last two seasons than in my whole life.” She opened her eyes. “You took me from my home, gave me a crown, and expected me to be your perfect little wife. I played the part as long as I could.”
He inhaled deeply, his fingers flexing, claws gouging the table. Neve shook his head, a sneer on his face. “You reek of grief and pain. You have no right! You are the one who struck first.” He stabbed his pointer finger at her. “You are the one who leftme. You are the one who climbed into our bed with deceit in your heart and welcomed me to you.” She winced at the image he painted. “What right do you have to such sorrow?”
She pulled her dirty hair away from the mangled bite on her neck. “Because this is what your people do. You maim and destroy just as much as anyone.”
A hair-raising snarl exploded from him, and he shoved away from the table. The furniture skidded a few inches, and she stumbled backward with it. Why was she taunting the monster when he could literally break her in half?
Because deep down, you know he would never hurt you.
He paced in the dark, the muted moonlight a halo on the ceiling above.
“Why did you expect anything less from me? You are my enemy,” she whispered.
Lia braced herself when he spun around and stalked toward her. She gasped when his hands grasped her waist and tossed her onto the table. Her bum stung, but all she could pay attention to was the irate hulking male who stepped between her legs, his hand curving around her neck. He squeezed and her eyes rounded.
Perhaps she had been wrong. Maybe this was the play all along. He wanted to hurt her as much as she had hurt him.
With his fingers shackling her throat, she leaned back on her hands and waited for death. It would be a simple flick of his wrist to break her neck. “It’s okay,” she murmured. “Finish this.”
But no pain came.
He continued to stand there, his touch soft, fingers flexing. Neve leaned into her space and inhaled near her temple, and her heart sped up. His thumb tipped her head back, the muscles of his arm straining. He pulled back enough so he could really examine her face, his own slacking in shock and then scorn.
“You want...” he choked out, “me to end you.”
Shame washed over her, and she tried to school her expression to hide whatever secrets it revealed. “I don’t want to die,” she replied, feeling all too exposed.
Curses spilled from his lips, and he gave her a little shake. “But you do not want to live. I can smell it on you—the anguish and torment. The longing for oblivion.”
Lia looked everywhere but his face as her cheeks heated. “Just because you can scent emotions doesn’t mean that you’re entitled to mine,” she said sharply, losing some of her composure.
“That is where you are mistaken,” he growled, slipping a hand around her waist and sliding her to the edge of the table until she was pressed against all his intoxicating heat. “You bound yourself to me before your people and mine. Everything that you are belongs to me—your heart, your pain, your secrets, your lips...”
A lump rose in her throat when all his attention focused on her parted lips. He skated a black claw along her bottom lip, a groan vibrating his muscled chest. “I have had dreams about your lips. Your taste has haunted me for months,” he said raggedly, a whispered secret just for the two of them.
The air changed between them, and she shook her head. “Don’t you da?—”
He slammed his lips against hers.Hard.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Dahlia
He didn’t just kiss.
It was punishment. Torment.
Andbliss.
