Page 62 of Steal a King (Five Kings 2)

“When?”

“She didn’t say but I’m not going.”

“Why not?” His words don’t match the relief on his face and I laugh lightly, “Because they plan on setting me up with a friend of Evans.”

“Then you’re right.”

“What about?”

“You’re not going.” Lucas looks pissed and part of me loves that, but there’s the other part of me that’s annoyed.

“If I want to, I’ll go.”

I feel my eyes flash as I grip on tight to my freedom of choice, and he scowls. “Do you want to go, with him?” He spits the word and I shrug. “He might be nice.”

“You don’t want nice.”

“Maybe I do. Maybe I long for a bit of nice in my life. Perhaps this is all getting old, and the excitement is wearing off.”

I face him with a battle cry and his eyes glitter with danger as he prowls toward me. “You don’t want nice, you never have. If you wanted nice, you wouldn’t be here now.”

“You speak as if I have a choice.”

He laughs. “You don’t.”

Stopping before me, he pulls me roughly into his arms and growls, “If you want nice and if you want a safe life with a man who will bore you to sleep every evening after giving you unemotional sex, then go ahead, make the arrangements. If you want a man who excites you, tears down your principles and carves his name into them, then strip naked and kneel.”

Despite myself, I laugh and he says ominously, “Are you laughing at me, flower?”

“Sorry, you make it impossible not to.”

Growling, he leans down and nips on my neck hard and I squeal. “Stop.”

He does it again and I feel myself rise to the challenge as I groan. “You don’t play fair.”

He laughs against my neck and says roughly, “Maybe we need an evening in the playroom to remind you who owns you.”

Just the thought of it is enough to make me shed my clothes in seconds because that is fast becoming my favorite place to be and so I fold yet again and bend to his will.

“Yes, I think that’s what’s needed.”

I feel the relief rather than see it and as he holds me hard against him, my heart fills with love for the complicated man who guards his heart so well.

“First we eat, then we play.” He growls darkly and as if on cue, we hear the elevator ping and Lucas pulls back reluctantly. “Come, I’m hungry and you will need the energy it gives you while I remind you where you belong.”

As we head to the dining room, my heart is full but that voice in my head that never goes away, reminds me what a fool I am. It’s inevitable we’ll walk away from each other—the clock is ticking but neither of us is prepared to face that. Maybe a trip away is just what’s needed. A reminder of normality and even Harvey may play a part in making up my mind whether I come back at all.

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