Page 94 of Marked By the Dark Lord
“Perhaps my definition of it isn’t perfect,” he added hurriedly. “But it’smydefinition of it. I love you, Mila.”
I shuddered.
“I love you,” I whispered. “In some strange way, throughout all this, I have managed to fall in love with you.”
He reached for me and placed a hand on my chest. I stayed perfectly still, watching his face as warmth built under his palm, turning to heat. My skin started to crawl, but I fought through it, my eyes locked on his. The pain grew as the heat burned me.
I didn’t cry out.
Red and gold light swirled around his fingers, catching my eyes, but I couldn’t tear them away from him. Not yet. Irritation turned to agony. I gritted my teeth, breathing sharply as he pulled the bond from my chest.
As it tore free, I cried out.
The pain receded swiftly, and my white-knuckled grip on the chair's arms eased, blood returning to the digits. I breathed, refocusing my gaze on Korr’ok, who still had a hand on my chest.
“Hi,” he said softly.
I smiled. “Hi.” I took stock. “I don’t feel any different.”
“Nor should you. It was only active when I used it. Why? What did you expect?”
I blushed a little. “I figured that this … uh,feelinginside me would calm. That I wouldn’t be quite as, um, well, you know …”
The tips of his fingers slid slowly past my collarbone while he grinned. “Oh, so you thought this wasn’t natural? That the way I make your body react was something I made you feel?”
“Well, not entirely,” I whispered as he stole my voice. “But perhaps amplified.”
“Nope,” he chuckled. “That’sallyou.”
“Oh,” I said.
He placed a hand on my inner thigh, causing all sorts of chemical reactions in my brain.
“Oh.”
“Come with me,” he said, standing abruptly.
“Where are we going?”
“Somewhere private,” he rumbled. “So I can fuck your brains out until that feeling fades.”
“Uh-huh,” I managed, stumbling down the steps of the throne after him. “Yeah. That sounds good.”
Korr’ok swept me up from the third-last step into his arms, holding me close.
“And then,” he said, carrying me from the throne room pressed hard against his powerful chest, his equally bulgingarms wrapped entirely around my tiny body, “you’re going to give me what you owe me.”
“What’s that?” I asked, suddenly nervous.
“A second date,” he said, reminding me that I’d only ever ended up going on one with him.
Chapter Forty-Five
Mila
“Well, that’s that,” I said as the stone door closed behind us, sealing off Irrt’ok’s corpse. “Any other loose ends we need to handle?”
It had taken us two days to get around to dealing with him. In the flurry of activity that had followed the fall of Kraw’ok, he had sort of slipped my mind for a bit.
