Page 510 of Flirting with Darkness

“Because you are blind,” he said. “But it isn’t your fault. You're just a mortal.”

“Then why am I here?”

“Because a long time ago, you tied yourself to our fake Kingdom.” He gave me a look that was sharp and dangerous, his smile doing nothing to dim the predatorial gleam in his eyes. “Actions have consequences.”

“I have no idea what you're talking about.”

“It seems you have no idea about much of anything.”

“Take me back,” I had to force the words out. So many people were staring at us that it was overwhelming for me to speak. The words seemed to stick my throat, so they came out flat and hard.

“I'm not going to do that. The magic wants you here.”

“Somehow, I doubt very much that the magic is sentient.”

“Then that just goes to show, once again, how little you understand.”

His eyes were glittering and mesmerizing in that condescending, smug, impossibly beautiful face.

“I understand one thing. I will never love—”

The fire in his eyes blazed even higher. Before I could finish, he wrapped his hand around the nape of my neck and dragged me toward him. I started to pull away, and his fingers tightened, before he scoops me up as if I weighed nothing and carried me up the stairs of the days toward the throne.

I struggled in his arms, pushing against his rock-hard chest. I couldn't escape him period up this close, I breathed in his peculiar scent of the woods.

“Let me down,” I said. Tor’s words—be polite, be obedient, be safe—played in my head, and so I only whispered the words.

In response, he bowed his head to mine, his eyes still lit with that strange fury—and sealed his lips to mine.

He kissed me as if I were already his, as if he had every right, his movements sure and certain. His lips pressed mine hard, but they were soft and pillowy; he never closed his eyes, and those unearthly, beautiful eyes stared into mine as if he were hypnotizing me. I didn’t kiss him back—I couldn’t even breathe—but he didn’t seem to need me; his mouth against mine was hot and intense.

I’d never been kissed like that before.

I’d never been kissed.

And my body responded to him, softening against his chest, at the same time as my lips parted.

Even as I thought,Tor.

As soon as he pulled away, his eyes amused as if he could tell what impact he’d had on me—and I was suddenly aching and hot with need—I glanced away at the crowd, searching for Tor. Had he seen that? Was he hurt? Was it ridiculous to think he might be? What was I to him?

Because I was looking out at the crowd, for the first time I noticed the restless sense of tension in the room.

“What is wrong with you?” The prince asked softly.

It was a sentiment I had heard, in a hundred ways, from a hundred different people, all my life.

“Put me down.” If he thought something was so wrong with me, why had he just kissed me and left my head spinning? Why was he still holding me against his chest, carrying me as if I were a bride?

“No.” he settled onto the throne, settling me on his lap. I tried to push him away, tried to escape to my feet. But all I succeeded in doing was straddling one of his massive thighs, his arm looped tightly around my waist, holding me against his chest.

“You are confused,” he said. “I will explain everything to you.”

I wasn't happy by the traitorous tightening of my body as his breath touched the shell of my ear, but an explanation sounded fucking fantastic.

“I'm listening.” For the moment, I made no effort to get away from him.

“My people need a queen, and you bound yourself to this land and its magic a long time ago.”

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