“All right. You are inferior, that's a fact. But I don't need you to be stronger than me or have magic. It's your frailty that concerns me.”
“And the fact that I will die,” I whispered.
He met my stare and something winced in his expression. “Yes.”
“We may not have as much time as we'd like, or we may only desire each other for a few months. Maybe we will end things before the garden is finished. Gods know you're inclined to do so. But whatever time we have, I will savor it. I hope you will too, and that one day, you'll be happy, maybe with an immortal lover, and you will fondly look back on your time with the human who helped you remember how to live.”
Shale stared at me. His throat worked.
“Your Majesty?”
“Great fuck, Sebastian!” he cursed. “That was dark. Beautiful, but dark.”
I burst out laughing.
The Dragon King smiled softly at me, then took my hand. I thought he was going to say something sweet. But no.
“Yes, the thought of you dying has crossed my mind, and it is not a pleasant thought. But I can't love you. You must remember that. I don't want to watch you die or even grow old. So when the time comes, be it in two months or two decades, I will end this, and I will be fine. Will you be fine, Sebastian? If not, perhaps we—”
“I'll be fine,” I cut him off. Not because my words were true but because I couldn't hear him talk so casually about ending us. Because I wouldn't be fine.
I was falling in love with the Dragon King.
Chapter Twenty-Four
After dinner, the Dragon King stood up. He held his hand down to me and helped me to my feet. Then we left the hall together, the courtiers standing to bow to the King. Even in the corridor, we weren't alone. Shale's knights dogged our heels until we reached the royal tower. Only then did they break off one at a time, taking posts along the way up.
“Fuck,” I huffed as we reached the second floor and the first knight took up his position there. “These stairs are brutal.”
Shale glanced at me, then casually picked me up with an arm around my waist. Holding me against his side, with my arm slung around his shoulders, he carried me up the rest of the stairs. I looked back to see the second knight still following us, his eyes wide. I widened my eyes back at him. Then he stepped onto a landing, taking his post on the fourth floor, just below the King's bedroom.
Shale stepped out of the slim tower stairwell and shut the door. The tower formed a column within the open arches, as all the other slim towers that circled the main one did, but the others didn't hide stairs. I think they were only decorative.
“Uh, thank you, Your Majesty,” I said after he set me on my feet.
“Take off your clothes,” he said.
I swallowed past the dryness in my throat. I had expected this. This back and forth between tenderness and reserve. It shouldn't have surprised me. Shale was trying to get past years of abstinence in both body and mind. He had held himself apart from others to the point where he was seen as indifferent. Now, I was bringing him back, but, like a waking limb, it could be painful. He was retreating into numbness again.
But he still wanted to fuck me.
Yeah, I could work with that.
I unbuttoned my tunic slowly as I headed for the royal bed. Shale's stare locked on me like a predator. His hands worked at his own tunic but he never looked down. When I reached the bed, I let my tunic fall from my shoulders, sliding down my arms, then kicked off my boots. I crawled onto the bed with my pants on, then, on my hands and knees, I looked over my shoulder at him.
“Would you help me with my pants, Your Majesty?”
“We're alone now, Sebastian.”
“Will you help me with my pants, Shale?”
He growled and rushed me.
I sighed as Shale's hands ran up my outer thighs and swept forward, their heat penetrating the thin fabric. He pulled at the ties that held up my pants, then hooked his fingers into my waistband. With a growl, he yanked the pants to my knees. Then I lifted one knee, and he pulled the fabric down further. Then the other knee.
The King pulled my pants off and tossed them away.
I looked back at him and grinned. I hadn't worn any undershorts.
