The Council would never accept her.
Our children would be half-bloods.
The political alliances I’m meant to secure through marriage to Serina would crumble. Everything I’ve been raised to protect — my kingdom, my bloodline, my duty — would be thrown into chaos.
For a suspicious human who goes through my desk drawers. I know nothing about her or her motives, and yet I do know that the blood calling is never wrong.
I look at the shattered decanter. At the ruined rug. At this clumsy, beautiful, impossible human who has just upended my entire existence without even knowing it.
And I do the only thing I can think of to make her leave before I ruin us both.
I’m cruel.
“Three days,” I say quietly. “You’ve been here three days and you’ve already proven that the human work-visa program is a waste of the household’s time and resources. You are additionally proving that humans are stupid and unworthy of my goodwill. I will speak with Mrs. Vasek about reassigning you to the grounds. Somewhere your particular talent for destruction can do less damage. The stables, perhaps.”
I watch the words land. Watch her face shift from apologetic to something else. Something hot and defiant that makes the hunger in my chest roar louder.
Don’t, I think.Accept it. Bow your head and leave. Make this easy for both of us.
She doesn’t make it easy.
“You know what?” she says, and her voice isn’t squeaking anymore. It’s sharp. Angry. Magnificent. “Where I come from, when someone breaks something by accident, we say ‘are you okay’ before we start treating them like an idiot. But I guess basic decency is too much to expect from an arrogant, condescending asshole in a leather jacket.”
Silence.
The word “asshole” hangs in the air between us.
I have commanded armies, negotiated treaties, buried my parents and taken a throne I never wanted. No one has spoken to me like this in my entire life.
And this tiny, furious, devastating human just called me an asshole. To my face. In my own chambers.
For one terrible moment, I want to laugh. I want to cross the room and kiss that defiant mouth and find out if she tastes as good as she smells. I want to tell her she’s right, I am an asshole, and I’m being one on purpose because the alternative is throwing her onto my desk and?—
Her hand flies to her mouth. The defiance drains from her face, replaced by horror. “Your Majesty,” she whispers through her fingers. “I’m supposed to... I should have said... Your Majesty.”
Yes. You should have.But hearing my title in her voice only makes it worse. I want her to say it again. I want her to say it while I?—
My fangs are fully visible now. “Get out,” I snarl.
She stumbles around the broken glass, nearly slips in the puddle of whiskey, and half-runs for the door.
I watch her go, my eyes on the perfect curve of her ass. Every instinct screams to follow her, yet I stay rooted in place until the door closes behind her.
Then I stand alone in my study, surrounded by broken glass and the lingering scent of my mate.
The Council wants me to marry Serina.
My blood has chosen a human maid who calls me an asshole.
I am so utterly doomed.
Chapter Three
Claire
Ijust called the Vampire King of Krovenia an arrogant, condescending asshole. On my third day of work, while caught snooping through his desk and standing in a puddle of his expensive alcohol.
Ugh. I am so fired.
