Page 5 of Vows to a King
At the sight of him now, Jemima froze, her fingers pressing into the heavy oak doors. Her brown eyes widened, then swept over his features with a swift and greedy curiosity he’d known since he had shot up during adolescence.
A black silk dress with a high collar clung to her breasts and the thick outline of her thighs. Her cheeks had filled out, giving her a round face, and her smooth honey-gold skin glowed like the facet of some rare metal. Her mouth—so wide and so plush that it had once filled him with the filthiest of thoughts, was the only hint toward passion that wasn’t buried beneath steely reserve.
Her presence hit him like the last in a series of punches, knocking his breath out of him.
With her dark hair falling in unruly strands from the sophisticated knot and skin damp with a sweaty sheen, she looked…achingly real and stunningly beautiful for it. Having surrounded himself with fake and cheap things for so long, Adonis recognized raw beauty when he saw it.
At twenty-six, her beauty had sunk deeper into her skin, aided by her bright, whip-smart eyes and resolved chin. And then there were her rosebud thick lips that he knew the taste of…she was a decadent invitation to sin.
Had her innate composure unraveled in his brother’s bed? Had he devoured the blazing hot passion she had let Adonis taste? Had she loved Adamos enough to…
He gritted his teeth and arrested the torrent of questions, both disgusted and infuriated. Too late, he noted the stirrings of that old fiery attraction claw through his gut. It was bad enough to covet her when Adamos had been alive but now…it felt like it made every nasty thing that his father had said about his “dirty” blood was right.
“Prince Adonis,” she said, her voice fracturing. “What are you doing here?” Color streaked her round cheeks and she swallowed. “I mean…” Her slim fingers played with the pendant at her throat, betraying her nervousness. Perversely, her reaction to him calmed him.
“Should I be flattered or insulted by your shock at finding me still here?” he said, defaulting to mocking her. “Did you and your dear papa wish for me to disappear already?”
“Of course not.” Breaking their tethered gazes, she took in a deep breath and forced a smile to her lips. “Welcome home,” she said softly. “The Queen will be overjoyed to see you.”
“I want to see her. Now,” he said, moving past her.
Arms spread wide across the dark oak, she blocked him. “She just settled to a nap after a brutal day. Let her rest for now.” When he raised a brow at her imperious tone, she added, “Please.”
He stepped closer, unable to stop himself from reveling in her sudden, shallow breaths. The idea of his proximity affecting her…appealed to his perverse nature, to the bubbling that wanted to unleash destruction to morph his own pain.
“Still playing the role of the future Queen?” he said, curling his mouth into a sneer.
Amber eyes flashed with a mix of anger and hurt. She chased away both, donning equanimity as if it were armor, as if it were the bloody crown itself. “I understand today has been hard for you, Your Highness, but none of us have recovered from it either.”
“You cannot know what or how I feel right now, Ms. Nasar,” he said, biting the words out. “And I’m too old to be lectured about good behavior.”
“No, I can’t even begin to imagine how you must be feeling,” she said, even as her honey-gold skin turned pale. Her voice held steady and damned if he didn’t envy her steely hold on her composure. “But coming in here like an angry bull and unleashing your temper on everyone around you only makes a bad situation worse. Please get a grip on yourself before you…meet with the crown council.”
So the news of his frustration with the palace media had already spread. And yet the more she tried to appeal to his better nature, the more Adonis felt riled up. “You’re not the Queen-to-be anymore. Drop the Goody Two-Shoes act.”
She didn’t bat an eyelid at his name-calling. “Other than Queen Isadora, I might be your only ally here. So, if I were you, I would not burn the last bridge you have.”
“I don’t need you or your conniving father.”
“You do,” she said with the kind of conviction that he found both intoxicating and infuriating. “Youdoneed me, Prince Adonis. And I’m willing to be realistic about a difficult situation, about what’s coming for both of us. About the fate of Thalassos itself.”
That…stopped him in his tracks. She wasn’t faking the urgency in her tone or the very real worry in her eyes.
With the new and excruciating awareness that something was wrong with his father’s mind, the vacuum left by Adamos’s sudden death, and the new trade agreement renewal with their war-hungry neighbor dead on its feet, even he could see things had reached a boiling point. Could nearly feel the cold, metal shackles binding him to the crown, to the palace, to the place he hated.
And being pushed toward a decision he didn’t want to make turned him as tame as a caged lion. “Ahh…looks like the little mouse has finally grown claws.”
CHAPTER TWO
“ONLY SOMEONE WHOhas had every privilege served up to them since birth would be threatened by a simple offer of help.” A self-deprecating sound left her lips. “That you see me as a threat speaks volumes.”
Damn it, but she was right, again. Though it wasn’t her reach in the palace that threatened him as much as her composure, her conviction, that she belonged here.
In the seven years since he had left Thalassos, he had made a name for himself in the world. Built an adventure sports empire through nothing but his daring and sheer resolve to carve out his own destiny, separate from the crown and the royal family of Thalassos.
He thrust a hand through his hair, the restless energy that had always plagued him as a child clinging to him now. “You cannot blame me for resenting you for your closeness to my family.”
“And whose fault is that?” she retorted. “As for me, I’m as consequential as I’ve ever been, Your Highness.” She pushed off from the door, resignation coloring her every move. “Forgive me for my foolish naiveté in believing your mother and brother that there’s more to you than your reputation.”
