“You succeed.” He reached a hand up and cupped her face, trailed his thumb across her lips.
They existed in that moment for what felt like an eternity, poised on the edge of a fall that Sephia knew there would be no recovering from.
“I…I have another question,” she finally breathed.
“Ask it.”
“How do you feel about…us?”
A muscle worked in his jaw. “The laws—“
“I don’t care about the laws that bridge our realms. I don’t care about the bargain that was struck forever ago. What if these things didn’t exist? What if Iwasn’tyour stolen Sun bride, and I was…something else? Would you ever claim me as…as…”
His gaze moved across her face like a caress, lingering on her lips, her jaw, the pulse of her throat. “What foolishness is this?”
“Answer the question.”
“You are mine.” A simple, calm declaration. But just like his movements, there was power rippling underneath the surface of it.
She could scarcely catch her breath under the heat of his gaze.
“You are mine,” he repeated, sending shivers cascading through her entire body. “I stole you away from your kingdom because it was the expected thing, and I intended to carry out an obligation. But something’s…changed.”
“Changed?”
“I want you, and yes: I am beginning to think that I wouldstillwant you, whether all the laws in all the realms were for or against it. Is that what you wanted to hear? Is that enough to make you stop acting so strangely?”
Mine.
She wanted to believe it.
But the voices in her head were relentless—
Don’t be a fool, Sephia.
This can’t work.
The shadows lingering in her room were proof, such painfully devastatingproofthat this could not work. And yet she was still staring into the prince’s eyes, transfixed by the possibility of things.
The possibility ofthem.
“You are one of the most chaotic, confusing beings I have ever met,” he continued, roughly, “and if I was smart, I would send you back to your room and lock you inside it.” His eyes closed. His forehead leaned into hers. He didn’t kiss her. He just stayed there for a moment, breathing her in.
“I’d like to see you try to lock me anywhere,” she whispered, her lips nearly brushing his with the words.
Her challenge coaxed a quiet laugh from him, sent it spilling, warm and electrifying, across her lips. “I’m not going to try,” he said.
“Smart.”
“Not as smart as IthoughtI was before I met you. On the contrary—I’m a damned fool if ever there was one.”
The words emboldened her. Or made herstupid. She still wasn’t certain which, but for whatever reason, her reply was quick and daring: “If you are a fool for me, then why don’t you prove it?”
“Damnable woman.” His smile was more of a baring of teeth as he brought an arm around her waist, jerked her body flush against his. “I don’t need toproveanything to you.”
“Of course not. You can still send me away.”
He kissed her instead.
