Page 19 of Break Her Heart
Halston ran his hand down my arm. His head tilted slightly, like a dog hearing a strange sound. “So soft and delicate.”
I’d like to show him just how delicate he would be in my grip.
“Your name, dear?”
“Bronwen.”
“And how did our king get so lucky?”
I smiled. “Manipulation.”
Halston let out a wicked laugh. “Carrow is going to love her.”
August’s eyes flashed. Just for a second, but enough.
I saw the way his hand twitched at his side and his body shifted forward, like a beast coiled and ready to strike. Halston saw it too. His grin slipped for half a heartbeat. He dropped his gaze with the kind of instinct only something lesser had when confronted with a predator. But he recovered quickly, straightening and schooling his face into something smooth again.
“Enjoy her while she’s yours.”
I waited for August to react, but instead he shifted his gaze to the balcony. “Where are they?”
“You know how they are. I am sure I can round them up later for you. They are going to barely contain themselves with this one.”
August stepped forward, putting himself subtly between me and the rest. “If you’ll excuse us, I’d like to show her around.”
Halston bowed again, slower this time. “Of course, Your Grace. We only hoped to welcome your bride properly.”
There was nothing welcoming in his tone.
August didn’t move. “You will have plenty of time tonight.”
He nodded, a new spark forming in his eyes before he raised his hand. And then, slowly, the red eyes began to fade back into the dark.
August grabbed me and pulled me through the hall, his grip tight around my wrist like he didn’t trust me to follow otherwise. We climbed one of the sweeping staircases, the velvet runner muffling our steps, then turned down corridor after corridor. The walls here were tall and narrow, lined with paintings whose eyes seemed to follow me as I passed. Most I didn’t recognize, but then my gaze caught on Carrow, unmistakable even in paint, and only a few portraits later, August stared back at me from the canvas.
I tried to trace each turn, count the doors, mark the windows—anything that might help me later if I had to run.
It was still a very strong possibility.
At the end of one particularly long hallway, he shoved open a set of double doors, revealing a chamber bathed in soft, flickering candlelight. I stepped inside and stilled.
The room was massive. Ornate crown molding swept across the ceiling, and heavy drapes pooled against the floor on either side of tall windows that looked out into the dark. A grand bed, larger than anything I’d ever seen, sat in the center beneath a carved canopy. A small dressing table stood in one corner, with a desk positioned in the other. A door on the left stood open,revealing a washroom, while two armoires faced it from across the room. Everything was symmetrical. Clean. Controlled. Perfectly placed, like no one had ever actually lived here.
“This is our room,” he said.
My heart nearly stopped. “Our room? There isn’t anywhere else I could stay in this giant castle?”
“And what would that look like if the queen wasn’t sleeping in the same bed as the king?”
“You don’t know how badly I’d like to take that smile off your face. Your magic is begging for me to take it.”
He leaned in close. “And we know just how much you love to use me.”
I caught it. It was barely there, but I heard the snap in his words. As if I didn’t already feel guilty for using him the way I did.
But he had done far worse.
“A handmaiden will be here shortly to dress you,” August said.
