Page 47 of Untouched Queen by Royal Command

‘A noose around my neck.’

‘Family,’ he said softly, and at this she broke years of deportment training to wrap her arms around her waist and hunch forward as if preventing her stomach from falling out.

‘I already have a family,’ she whispered, and tried not to think of the pictures in the paper she’d seen recently. Casimir of Byzenmaach, half-brother, wholly in love with his new bride and bastard daughter. A king whose sister had recently returned from exile to claim her rightful place. ‘I am Sera Boreas of the High Reaches, daughter of Yuna, pupil of Lianthe, member of the Order of the Kite, and courtesan until you release me. I need no royal titles. I want no royal duties.’

‘Not even for me?’

‘I don’t know what you want from me!’she cried.

‘Yes, you do. I’ve been saying it all along. I don’t need a courtesan, Sera, I need a wife. And you, for all that you’ll service me while I’m looking for one, aren’t interested in the position. For what it’s worth, I don’t blame you. You have the world at your feet. Why take on royal duties when you don’t have to?’ His face hardened. ‘But you can’t stay here any more. I won’t look elsewhere while you’re here. And it appears I do need to look elsewhere.’

She stood immobile. ‘I can’t leave. The accord—’

‘You can leave. In fact, I insist.’

He sat so still and silent. She couldn’t read him. She didn’t know what to say to him. ‘By the terms of the accord—’

‘I have the right leverage now to do whatever the hell I want. And, believe me, Sera, and with no disrespect to you or your secret Order, I’ve had enough.’

* * *

If anyone had ever asked Augustus of Arun what it felt like to be in love, he couldn’t have told them. He’d never been in love before, not once. Not until Sera Boreas walked out of his office and took his beaten, bleeding heart with her.

He put his hands to his face and took a couple of deep breaths. It didn’t hurt any less but breathing was a function of living and he still had to do that.

Sera had chosen freedom over duty. Freedom over him, and it was a fair call. Last night had been brilliant but he’d been reading too much into it. Passion did that. Wanting something too much did that. So they’d made love. So what? Courtesans did that. Didn’t mean she wanted to stay and be his wife.

He reached for the phone.

‘Get my lawyers in here. I’m drafting a written offer of marriage to Katerina DeLitt.’ Another proposal that was likely to be rejected but it would serve a purpose and he didn’t have to present it to Katerina yet. ‘I also need you to find out what Sera weighs, double it, and I want that weight in gold removed from the vaults. I want a copy of my offer of marriage to the Baroness DeLitt and the gold delivered to Lianthe of the High Reaches and I want it done today.’ He needed to stitch up the gaping hole where his heart had once been and he didn’t need an audience. ‘And then I want Sera and her guards escorted from my goddamn home. Today.’

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