Nodding, I hold his gaze, being there for him as he always is for me. Arienna’s hand squeezes mine, and with a flicker of pain twisting his face, Jace stabs me without hesitation.
Agony shoots up my arm, my whole hand burning with the flames of fucking Niflhel. I grit my teeth as I worry I’m squeezing Arienna’s hand too hard. Her fingers bunch tight beneath mine. She doesn’t whimper or pull away though. She just leans in and kisses my shoulder.
She offers her other hand to Jace, but he ignores it. His eyes leaving mine, he pulls out the knife. He turns to clean it, and my gaze finds Nicholas’. Pain in his eyes, he raises his glass of ambrosia to his lips. It shakes so much, it barely meets his mouth.
Seeing the hatred for his ex-wife in my eyes, my brother shook his head, pleading with me as he always does when it came to her.Don’t hurt her.
Relaxing my grip on my wife’s hand, I broke his gaze.
It’s his choice, I told myself.
Just like being queen was Arienna’s.
Turning to her, I bring her hand to my lips. She smiles at me, helping me carry my pain.
“I love you, my queen,” I say, thinking of all the times I’ll be able to say that. Every day for the rest of our lives.
And all the lifetimes after.
“I love you too, my king.”
Epilogue
A good little slut knows how to convince her king to let her keep a cutie.
Who’s a cutie? You are! Yes, you are!
- Arienna
One week later…
“What are you doing?”
Flinching at the sound of my king’s voice, I hurriedly wipe off the last of the blood on my thigh, hoping he can’t see it from his position behind me. The healing wand lays beside me in the bathroom, recently used, thank gods. If Richard had come in a few seconds earlier…
“I was sparring with Nicholas,” I say. “He hit me, and I didn’t want you to see.”
I wince at how quickly the lie comes out, but Richard won’t kick his brother out of the castle. Hewillremove the snake that bit me though. Even though Bitey didn’t mean to bite me. She’s blind, so she probably just thought I was a mouse or something.
“How bad?” he demands.
“Not too bad,” I say, turning to face him. I hold my leg out so he can look at it. “But I know how you don’t like anyone hurting me.”
His eyes lift from my thigh to mine, and I hurriedly blurt, “How about I help you with the Okahi treaty?” Our two kingdoms are nowhere near declaring peace, but they’re the next ones he wants to approach. “I could suck your cock as a stress reliever?”And make you feel good enough to let me keep Bitey!
He looks like he wants to say something, but instead he holds out his hand. Rising, I grab it with a wide grin.
Gods, he’s easy.At this rate, I will be able to keep all of Bitey’s babies too; I’m absolutely certain she’s pregnant and will give birth any day now. She’s certainly eating enough for a brood.
And ah! Then they can grow up together with Hyatt’s babies. They haven’t come out of the scorpion yet, but once they do, they’ll kind of look like snakes. Fat, chunky snakes. I’m sure Bitey’s babies will accept them in an instant.
Following Richard out of the ensuite, I check out his ass. Then we head towards the royal study side by side. Pulling back his chair, Richard gives me room to move beneath his desk, and I do so after a quick peck on his check. Kneeling, I wait for him to take his seat.
Running my lips across his thighs, I start to tease him. Papers rustle above me, but soon he won’t be concentrating on his work at all. With a low groan, he reaches down to undo his belt. I whack his hand away, wanting to tease him at my own pace. His fingers twisting in my hair, he pulls me to him.
Chuckling, I kiss him through his trousers, then slowly pull his cock out. But just as I wrap my lips around him and start sliding down, the study door bangs open.
My eyes widening, I freeze. As the person walks over to the desk, I wonder if I should crawl out and say hi or if I should stay hidden...
