Page 40 of Lethal Saint

“Making you happy,” he clarified. “Being a good husband. The idea of making you unhappy, of this marriage being restrictive instead of liberating, and you learning to hate me, is nauseating.”

“Do you—want this to be real? Not just to keep me safe, but—” I glanced away, unable to bear the eye contact. “Do you want us to be husband and wife, not just on paper?”

“I do,” he said, his voice gravelly and soft.

He hadn’t flirted with another woman on our wedding day. He was kneeling before me, his heart on his sleeve. He’d only ever tried to make me happy.

“That’s the second time you’ve said that to me today, Saint.”

I dared to look back down at him and found his eyes warmer, but no less intense. The rage faded, softened, and a strange awareness in the back of my mind assured me he’d never been angry at me. At the barista? At himself?

“I’ll say it a thousand, four hundred, and forty times a day. Once for every minute. I do, Vasilisa.”

“Do you—want to kiss me again?” I whispered, my heart quickening.

“I do.”

“Do you want…more?”

“I do.”

“I do, too,” I replied, grazing my fingers along his stubbled jaw, the movement natural and easy. “Why did you say—”

A knot bunched Damien’s brow when I paused. “What did I say, my queen? I’ve said a lot of things today.”

“You wouldn’t have sex with me,” I reminded him, my face heating. “I asked and you said no.”

He blinked, his eyes widening a fraction. “That was you asking?” He lifted his hand like he wanted to touch me, or run a hand through his hair, but set it back on his knee with a rough movement. “I thought you were voicing a fear.”

“No.”

I wasn’t scared of sex. Not with Damien. Especially after seeing him shirtless in those grey sweatpants.

I swallowed, looking down at him. “I want this marriage to be real. Legal.”

I wanted it to bemine.But I didn’t dare say that part.

Nerves tightened my stomach, prickling the back of my neck until sweat beaded but I bent, slowly, to bring us closer together. His breath kissed my face first, and his eyelids fluttered, heavy and low on his dark eyes. It was the first time anything had been my choice, on my terms to use his wording earlier. There was no part of me that didn’t want him, no part of him that made me want to run right now.

I brushed my lips over his, my heart thudding in my ears and a tingle of thrill going down my spine when his face tipped up, his mouth moving over mine, meeting my kiss in a way that made me lightheaded.

It was chaste and quick, but when I drew back, my stomach was in knots.

“Am I allowed to stand?” he asked, and when I nodded, he rose slowly to his feet, something about the movement less…graceful than usual. Less precise. Like some of his control had chipped away.

I froze when he skimmed my flushed cheek with his knuckles, but it wasn’t fear that kept me still. Anticipation? Thrill?

“Do you want a real kiss, little queen?”

I bit my bottom lip, a swarm of nervous butterflies in my belly.

“Yes,” I breathed.

CHAPTER 15

VASILISA

Iinhaled a stuttering breath at the sensation of Damien’s thumb brushing my bitten lip, the pad calloused and rough as it pulled my lip from between my teeth.

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