His fingers skimmed higher, over a raw scrape below my ribs. He stilled, fury flashing across his face. “Who dared to mark what belongs to me?”
His reverence didn’t feel like chains. This was protection. A vow.
“It was a Skathe,” I said, my voice hoarse.
He bent and kissed the scrape with devastating care. “I’ll make them choke on their own ash for daring. The fates can take my crown, my throne, my blood. But they don’t touch you.”
Every weapon I’d carried into battle lay on the bench now. Every piece of leather had been tugged away. And still, I’d never felt safer.
My body hummed from his kisses, from the way he stripped me of more than weapons. But when I looked up at the cuts along his jaw, the dark bruises blooming above his tunic, and the exhaustion in his shoulders, my chest ached.
“It’s your turn.”
His golden gaze flicked to mine, heat sparking there. “Minx?—”
“No.” My voice didn’t tremble, though my fingers did as I reached for the first buckle at his shoulder. “If you undress me, you don’t get to keep your armor. I’m taking it all off.”
He stilled, staring down at me. He wasn’t the king any longer.Not the warrior. Just a man staring at the woman who dared to give him orders. His mouth curved, a wolf baring its teeth in something close to a smile.
“Do youevertake orders?” I asked, working the buckle loose.
His low laugh ghosted over me. “From you? Always.”
Fates help me, that was worse than any kiss.
“No one dares touch what’s mine but me.” My hands shook as I tugged his tunic up over his head, exposing bruised skin.
His growl was ruined by the rawness in his eyes. “Always.”
“I bled each time you were hurt.” Standing on my toes, I kissed a large bruise on his shoulder, another along his ribs.
He bent until his breath brushed my ear. “You have no idea what you do to me, Minx, but I’m going to show you.”
Heat slammed through me, scattering all thought. I reached for the fastenings that marched down the front of his pants, releasing them one by one. “You rule this kingdom, but undressing you makes me feel like I’m ruling you.”
“Oh, you are.”
Every knot undone revealed more of him—muscles, scars, skin pebbled with war. He let me strip him, though I felt the restraint in him like a bow pulled taut. He could’ve ripped the leather away in seconds. Instead, he let me command the pace.
When the last piece slid free and fell to the floor, he stood bare in the torchlight, a study of strength wrapped in bruises and scars. My throat tightened.
Before I could speak, he swept me off my feet and into his arms again. As if carrying me was as natural as breathing.
“Better,” he murmured, pressing his forehead to mine. “Now we’re both unarmed.”
Steam curled higher as Trew carried me up the stairs and down into the water. Heat lapped up my thighs, then my ribs, until the ache of battle began to ease from the warmth. He settled on the smooth stone seat, keeping me in his lap.
I rested my cheek on his chest, his heartbeat thudding steady,bringing me back from the hours of death and blood. For a long moment, neither of us spoke. We just breathed, letting the battle drain away in the hiss of steam.
Then his hand rose, cupping water, letting it trickle slowly through my hair. His fingers followed, combing careful paths down my scalp, massaging with a tenderness that unraveled me more than any kiss.
“I would scrub the blood of the world from you,” he said. “As long as it means you never have to carry its weight again.”
Sadly, the odds of that were slim. We’d won this battle, but it was just one of many we’d face until we killed them all or drove them back through the veil.
I closed my eyes, letting his touch loosen every knot of tension. “You’ll spoil me if you keep doing this.”
“That’s the idea.” He kissed my temple.
