Page 25 of Princess For All

I shrugged. “We’re dealing with a coven in Italy and they can make deals as they want. That’s for them to decide. I can’t help everyone and handle everything.”

“No, of course not,” he sighed. “It’s all too much and too stressful and I’m just on the outskirts of it.” He reached over and rubbed my hand before leaning in and kissing my hair. “You’re doing great, Inez. You’re keeping it together better than any of us ever could. I hope you hear me that we truly all feel that way.”

“I do but…” I focused on eating for a few minutes and then decided to be honest. “I don’t know the line to stop. It’s always just something else right there to help. One more thing. Two more things. A few more to add to the day could do so much more. And then I’m overloaded and I break. What’s the line? What’s reasonable? What’s me being lazy? What’s too much?”

“I feel the same and then see others doing only the requirement,” he muttered. “I’mreallyglad you took over Kaitlin’s coven and it’s thrown new life into everything. All of the visiting vampires and nobles have always worked their asses off because it was for their covens who needed so much. But we’ve been focused on getting structure and holding it together—I didn’t realize how lazy Safie’s coven really was.”

“Me either.”

We talked some more as we ate, especially about the ones we’d shown the door and how people were shocked about that and it had helped. When we slowed down on the food, we moved on to the next part of the night and I was glad it included a shower.

That part was fun, but after was… Awkward.

Even lame. It definitely wasn’t up to Branko’s normal level and I started to get really upset. Was he bored with me after only a handful of date nights? Was it really only the chase and fight to get near me?

Maybe I wasn’t putting enough effort in. He’d been putting all of the effort in and I’d just been showing up. That wasn’t fair. I would hate that.

I doubled my attention on him, kissing him fiercely as he thrust in me. I even moved his hand to my neck as I lifted my hips to meet his.

But he flinched and stared off in the distance again, completely losing the rhythm. I lost my cool. Totally unable to hide my upset. I shoved at his chest, annoyed when he didn’t evenregisterit, so focused on whatever was more important.

My magic did something new and moved him. It was like how I could hurt people, but it wasn’t a gash. It was like… It seemed like I punched him in the chest.

But it came from someone who could hurt him.

He was shocked as he had the sense to still pull out of me gently.

I was shocked too but more upset about how he was behaving. He grabbed for my wrist as I rolled out of bed and I used my nails to cut his arm so he’d get the hint to let me go. He got the idea but then jumped off the bed and blocked me from hiding in the bathroom.

“Let me explain. Please, my sweet Inez,” he begged. “It’s the fighting. I can hear the fighting and the old guys killing corrupted. I didn’t think of that.”

“Turn around,” I bit out, pissed he wouldn’t let me escape when I wanted to. I let out a slow breath when he did, feeling better about it. Then what he said hit me. “Wait—what? You—they’re coming that close to the house?”

“No, but my hearing is that good,” he sighed, rubbing his hand over the back of his neck. “And they’re joking about how useful our date is and then a huge group came and I got worried if we had to move or—then I was thinking they could hear us and—”

“I get it,” I whispered as I moved back to the bed. I wrapped myself up in the comforter and sighed. “You can turn around.”

He winced when he saw I was covered. “I’m sorry.”

I focused on my lap and let out a slow breath. “No, I’m sorry I acted like a brat. And whatever my power did. I just wanted you off of me when you weren’t focused on me.”

He moved next to me and slid his arm around me. “I’m glad you have a way to fight back against us who are so much stronger. I’m already healed.” He kissed my hair. “They got within a mile of the house. That was why I was so distracted. I’m sorry.”

“Do we need to move?”

“No, but I don’t think we should have intimate times when they’re hunting like this. I was…”

“Is it me?” I said before I could stop my stupid, insecure brain. “Am I not enough?”

He turned me towards him, cupping my face in his hands. “You arealwaysamazing and overwhelming, my sweet Inez. Always. The only thing that could distract me from you is keeping you safe. Only that. I swear it. I didn’t want to—your whole life has been the apocalypse and this crazy. I didn’t want it to ruin our night. I’m sorry I didn’t just tell you what was going on.”

I nodded and leaned into him. There was no right answer to something like this, and he’d tried really hard to plan something nice for us. I angled my head and kissed under his chin. “It’s fine. I’m going through a lot and overly sensitive. I feel like I could break at any second. Maybe one day I’ll learn how to respond calmly and articulate what I’m feeling.”

“We all need to learn that,” he said gently and gave me a soft kiss. “You do way better than you think.”

“And you’re putting in a lot of effort with these date nights and showing me you care. I see that. I appreciate it,” I told him honestly. “I know I’m being spoiled and doing all the taking and not—”

“Hey, none of that,” he chastised, his voice harder than I expected. He nodded that he wasn’t kidding when he tucked my hair behind my ears. “Inez, if you sat at home and did nothing all day and then expected this sort of behavior from a date, you’d be spoiled. But you giveeverythingof yourself to give us everything we’ve gotten back.

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