Page 28 of The War Queen's Daughter

I could push. I want to. My body aches with the need to make him give me what I want. Such a small nudge. And yet.

I slow. Pull back. Meet his eyes. His lips are red and swollen from our kisses, his eyes wide, pupils blown despite the anxiety there.

“You don’t want this,” I say, trying to keep my voice steady through the need throbs so powerfully that I’ll come if he touches me again. It’s not anger I feel, though, or frustration.

It’s sorrow. Odd, that, and smothers the drive to take him and use him for my pleasure.

“I do,” he says quickly. “Remalla, I do. But… this place. My father.You.Everything is complicated.”

I rest my forehead against his. Because now I know the truth, and despair will win if I let it. “You’re not picking any of us,” I say.

He sighs deeply. “I can’t,” he says, voice breaking. “I knew you’d understand.”

I do, I think. While he has no idea, in his principles and his choice to defy his father, that he’s signed my death warrant, or that of my people.

He exhales, shuddering, and touches my face like it might break him to let go. I’m already stepping away, straightening my skirt, accepting this truth. There will be another path, another way.

“Remalla…”

“I should go,” I say.

“Don’t,” he whispers. Then stops himself. “Don’t hate me.”

I’m already turning for the door, heart pounding, thighs slick, pulse thrumming a war drum rhythm in my chest.

There are battles I know how to win. This is not one of them.

And while my mother will no doubt be very disappointed in me, I will not make him choose me when doing so will break him.

Chapter 16

I walk back to my quarters, the early morning light filtering through the high windows, illuminating the polished floors, stares following me as I exit the tower. Those who observe must know from whence I come. Let them talk. Though I didn’t achieve my end goal, rumors will spread regardless.

And paint a target on my back.

The air feels cold against my heated skin, my arousal fading slowly. My body is exhausted, my mind now a tangled mess of new emotions. I’m confused, frustrated physically as well as mentally, and not sure what to do from here.

The Overprince is a surprise I hadn’t planned on, and the further I get from him, the harsher I am on myself for walking away.

I face the breakfast hall with a resolve carved from sexual frustration, knowing I must smell of it and not caring if the princesses catch that scent. I don’t linger over the meal, as is my way, instead liberating a cloth napkin and piling it with food, taking it with me to my quarters to eat in peace.

It’s clear from the furious stares in my direction that they’ve already heard where I spent my night. Vae’s loud use of cutlery is my only satisfaction.

She follows me to my door, and I’m tired enough that I don’t notice until we’re almost there. Vae, radiant in a gown of rose silk, doesn’t touch me to turn me to face her. She uses her voice for that.

“He might use you for sex,” she snarls, “but that’s all you’ll be to him.”

“Like you’d know,” I say, now very weary and uninterested in jousting with her.

She flinches, looks away. “I see,” I say. “Turned you down, did he?” The rage in her strikes through her eyes, but I’m immune to that attack. “A shame. He’s quite well endowed and happy enough to learn from someone with more experience.”

“You fucking bitch.” She spins and runs off, slamming her bedroom door behind her while the other princesses, all come to spy on our talk, stare at me in shock.

True to turning me down, he’s rejected us all. I salute them and go inside, sighing as I lean back against my closed door. Well, at least he’s consistent.

I do feel a bit guilty over claiming him, though, and will apologize to him this time when I see him again. Hopefully, he won’t mind so much. Especially if it gives him the deflection from his father’s unhappiness that he’s looking for.

That has me thinking, undressing with a plan unfolding. By the time I head for the bathing room to wash away the ache of his denial, a quick and deft touch of my own in the warm water bringing me the orgasmic ending he could have assisted with, I have a seed of an idea that might work.

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