He’s furious that he fooled himself.
“I cannot undo what has been bound.” His voice is sharper, resentment threaded through it. “The answer to your question,wife…is no.”
A spark of new hope. So the marriage stands, securing me a second wish.
Vale watches my face and knows exactly what I’m thinking. “Oh,” he murmurs. “For once, I seem to have made my wifeveryhappy.”
I lift my chin. “I wish?—”
“I know exactly what you want to wish for,” he purrs, lifting his hand to beckon me toward him. “A bedding, isn’t it?”
Heat crawls up my throat. Fear, too, once I walk toward him, if only to buy myself time to think. The bedding is essential, that much I’m certain of, but…is it more important than getting him to show me his true form?
My mind flashes to the stanza on the paper.In the bed of the night, the sovereign shall yield, Receiving Death on the corpse’s field.
Not Vale.
Death.
On a corpse’s field, which—a glance through the woods is all it takes for my eyes to snatch on the lower graveyard nearby—this should serve. I can wish for him to fuck me. I can wish for him to show his true form. I won’t make myself look a fool by asking for both, inviting his cheery denial.
So which one?
I don’t realize how close I am to the ancient oak until Vale’s hand slides down my waist, palm flattening over my hip. His thumb strokes once, slowly, the touch more warning than caress.
“How would you like it? Against the tree? Right here in the dirt?” His whisper finds my neck—just breath and heat and the faint scrape of his lips hovering like a threat. “I don’t recall the wording of the rites mentioning any details onwhereon your body you’re supposed to receive me. Maybe I’ll choose your ass and take my time for once.”
That muscle clenches at the mere thought of that invasion. “You didn’t even hear what I demand.”
He scoffs, his other hand sliding down my thigh, fingers seeking the edge of my skirt. “What else could it possibly be?”
My breath catches when his fingers graze the inside of my thigh. “Maybe I want you to show me Death.”
His hand freezes.
Very interesting…
For one suspended heartbeat, the woods seem to stop breathing. The playful, predatory heat of his body turns to stone against mine, the air curdling with a tension that has nothing to do with surprise and everything to do with fear.
Then, just as quickly, the rigidity shatters.
“Don’t be foolish,” he murmurs, but the playfulness is gone, replaced by a frantic, heavy hunger. He crowds me, his hips grinding forward, letting me feel the hard, unyielding ridge of him beneath the black breeches. “You’ve been trying for this since the moment you conspired with that…filthy messenger.”
His hand shoves upward, rucking my skirts to my waist in a single, rough motion. Cold night air bites my skin, instantly replaced by the searing heat of his palm sliding between my legs.
I gasp, my head falling back against his shoulder. “Vale?—”
“Shh…” His teeth graze the sensitive cord of my neck, nipping hard enough to sting, while his thumb finds the slick heat at my center and presses. “Tell me you want me inside you. I shall grant it. A proper bedding.”
He kisses me then—a devouring, messy collision that tastes of desperation. He’s overwhelming me, drowning me in sensation, using pleasure like a weapon to beat back my request.
And that’s how I know.
I know…
I tear my mouth from his, gasping, my hands planting against his chest. My body is on fire, aching, but my mind is cold and clear as crystal.
“I wish,” I pant, shoving him back.
