Page 92 of Tarnished Queen

The sound of Nikolai’s voice vibrates through me like a gong, shaking me out of my trance and propelling me to the door.

“Nikolai,” I breathe. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to see you.”

I press a palm to the door. “You’re not supposed to see me in my dress.”

“Crack the door open at least. I can barely hear you.”

Slowly, I twist the handle and pull the door open. Nikolai’s arm darts in, his hand open and searching. “Where are you?”

I twine my fingers through his. At the contact, my heart finally slows. The last few minutes melt away. “I missed you.”

“That’s your own fault. You’re the one who wouldn’t sleep in my bed last night.”

“We can’t wake up in the same bed on our wedding day!”

“But we can fuck the night before?” he scoffs through the door. “I think you’re picking and choosing traditions here, Belle.”

My face flushes at the memory of his body on mine last night. I told him I had to leave by midnight, which he took as a challenge to wring as many orgasms as possible out of me before then. When I woke up this morning, my body still felt warm and oversensitized.

But it’s coming alive again now.

“And I think you’re trying to break all of them,” I tease back.

I hear him shift on the other side of the door. His next words are velvet whispers dripping over my skin. “Damn right. As many as I can.”

My hand tightens on the knob. I have to fight the urge to yank the door open and pull him inside. After Makar’s unplanned visit, I could use the distraction. This empty room isn’t making things any easier.

I cleared everyone out of here, but it wasn’t because I wanted to be alone. It’s because I wanted to be with someone who could make me feel better. Someone who knows me.

Elise’s absence feels like a tangible thing. An elephant in the corner, a fourteen-year-old-sized hole in my heart. I can’t bite back a sigh.

“What is it?” Nikolai asks, instantly alert. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”

“If you lie to me, I’ll break this door down.”

I have no doubt at all that he’s completely serious. “Really, it’s nothing. It’s probably pregnancy hormones or something.”

“If it’s nothing, that means you can tell me.”

I chew on my lower lip before I remember Amanda specifically told me to “stop picking before you ruin your lip stain.” I groan. “I just wish Elise was here. And that I wasn’t in this room by myself.”

“You’re alone in there?” he asks.

“Yeah. I sent everyone out a minute ago. I needed some space.”

“To think?”

“Yeah. To think and decompress. It’s been a kind of stressful day.”

“It’s been a stressful few months,” he says. “Your life has turned upside down, Belle. We didn’t know each other two months ago and now, you’re pregnant and we’re getting married.”

I blow out a breath. “It sounds crazy when you say it like that.”

“It is crazy,” he laughs. “But I don’t regret anything. Do you?”

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