Page 3 of Hers to Rule

He searched her face. “I don’t want to do this here.” With careless ease, he lifted her up in his arms as he stood. “Until we can remodel the place, I figured it was too weird to stay in the main house. Feels like he’s lurking around every corner.”

She couldn’t believe she hadn’t thought of that. “Where then?”

He grinned. “Your new room.”

Mari tilted her head. “Is it your room?”

He nodded. “Rio’s too.”

She let out a soft laugh. “I hope the bed is big enough.”

“Gigantic.” He carried her out into the hallway as if she weighed nothing at all, and she supposed for a gargoyle, she did. “Pool house.”

“Oh, I’ve always loved that space.”

“I know.” His lips curled. “A small crew has been down there straightening up.”

“And you want to parade me in while they’re still there, like the prize you’ve won.”

“Does that bother you?” He started down the back stairs.

“Not in the slightest.” She put a hand on his chest. “I’ve always been a trophy. Better yours than his.”

He kissed the side of her head. “I like it when you say that, probably more than I should.”

She reached up to where his skin was bare above his shirt, caressing him with one finger. Repeating it felt too vulnerable in that moment, like it was tempting fate. “I do too.”

“Stop causing trouble, or I’m going to have to ravish you as soon as we get to our new bedroom, no matter who’s around.”

Mari smiled. “Okay.”

He laughed as he kicked open the door to the courtyard. “Just remember, you asked for it.”

Chapter 2

Mari realized what Cisco was smirking about as soon as they were through the back door. Every member of her father’s very significant guard force was out in the yard, milling around and talking about what their next moves were. Of course they were. They had the second half of a coup to plan.

Two dozen curious gazes, sharp with feral intensity, pivoted their way. There were shifters of various types, a few hellhounds, and a handful of other paranormals that were strong and liked to hang out in packs. Her father’s recruitment was very single-minded.

Some of them didn’t watch them at all, but many of them did. Some of them had hunger in their eyes, but some had other emotions too. Pride. Awe. A couple of them bumped fists. There was even a high five. She could hear the murmur of their continued conversations over the beat of her magic in her chest. She could feel their desire rising up. Hell, when she squinted, she thought she could almost see it spiraling away from them toward her in every color of the rainbow.

“Fuck,” she said under her breath. Her eyes went to the pool house, where the wall of windows stood open in the warm summer night. She felt her cheeks heating already. She’d known something like this would happen eventually, but she didn’t expect it so soon. For sex witches, orgies and exhibitionism were common, even expected.

He leaned to whisper in her ear, “What’s your safeword, Princess?”

“Dandelion,” she said as steadily as she could manage so there could be no misunderstanding. Though she felt a bit shy, every inch of her stubbornness rose up to meet the challenge in front of her. “This isn’t even as many people as would be watching me at the club.”

He shrugged as much as he could while holding her, still grinning ear-to-ear. “That’s true.”

“That’s not helping as much as I thought it would.”

“Well, this definitely isn’t going to help then.” He leaned close again. “They know exactly what’s going to happen now.”

Mari suddenly felt like she couldn’t breathe. Her skin prickled with magic. “Oh, Saints.”

They were inside the pool house in another moment, and he ordered everyone out with the world’s most annoying smirk on his face. The large bedroom was decorated tastefully in neutral colors and had mostly been used as a guest house for business associates over the years, but it was spacious and had good light, so Mari had used it as a hideout from time to time.

He set her down on the bed, thankfully facing him and not the yard. He waited until the last of the crew that had been preparing the room left. “I haven’t heard the word yet.”

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