Page 30 of Crownless King

“You gave up any chance of ever having a family,” Sparrow said softly. “It’s not just sex, you essentially ended your bloodline with that promise. Willingly.”

Turned out, that part bothered him the least.

“I didn’t see much sense in perpetuating my father’s bloodline, Sparrow.”

She looked flabbergasted. “So, you gave up sex as revenge against your father?”

He winced. When she said it like that, it made the whole thing sound rather foolish.

“Not as much a revenge as I just didn’t care about preserving the bloodline that I happened to belong to. The main reason for that promise wasn’t taking revenge on anyone. It was to get me where it eventually did.”

The frown remained on her face, that slight crease staying between her dark-brown eyebrows.

“What is your bloodline, Voron? Who was your father?”

He squirmed in the chair uncomfortably.

“I don’t know. And that’s exactly the point. My father wasn’t there, either for me or my mother.”

“Maybe he died before you were born?”

Irritation stirred in him. When he was little, he wished that were the case. That his father couldn’t be with him because he was dead, not because he chose to ignore his son.

“Even if he died, he never was a good man to begin with. My mother refused to speak of him, dead or alive.”

He rose to his feet. She squeaked in surprise as he took her with him, lifting her in his arms.

“I don’t want to talk about him, Sparrow. Not on the night when I finally found such a delightful way out of this promise.” He carried her to the bed—the only place where he wished to spend the rest of the night with her. “Now that I can fuck you any way I please, that’s all I want to do.” He placed her down. “Please tell me you’ll let me.”

Linking her hands over her head, she arched her back, stretching like a lustful little kitten in the silky sheets.

“Far be it from me to deny you, my lord.” Now of all times, his little vixen decided to speak like a proper lady. And it went straight to his crotch with another shot of lust.

Rolling to her side, she rose on her elbow. “So, you came here tonight with the intention of having sex, right?”

“Wasn’t it obvious?” He climbed onto the bed after her. “And I’m far from done yet.”

With his hands on her knees, he opened her legs, dropping his head between them.

“Wait.” She took his head in her hands, making him look up at her. “Before the book, though, you thought the promise applied to me, too. You didn’t know it would be okay for you to make love to me in the way that… um, may lead to procreation.”

“Right. It’s been so long since I made that promise. ‘No fae’ or ‘no one.’ In my mind, they meant the same, and that’s how I remembered it ever since.”

It didn’t even occur to him that she was different and the promise might not apply to her because of that. To him, Sparrow was his equal.

She rubbed his temples with her thumbs, smiling at him warmly.

“You knew you might die a horrible death, yet you still came here.”

“For the entire night, sweetheart.” He grinned.

Deep inside, he’d known it might not be much longer than just one night. But he’d lost his fucking mind. He’d wanted her so much and for so long that at some point, trading his life for a single night with Sparrow had started to look acceptable.

Had his promise been worded differently—“no one” instead of “no fae”—he’d be going insane and feral right now and would’ve died within days.

By the look of her, she knew it too.

“Voron…” She closed her legs, sitting up. “Do you understand that one word, one single word, could’ve killed you? Literally. You were the one who taught me to always pay attention to the words.”

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