Page 26 of For the Love of the Gods

“Tired? Stressed?”

A small indent appeared on the lower side of his cheek. Some might call it a dimple. “Exhausted? Distressed?”

I cut the amusement bubbling in my chest—Dominic made a joke, I was almost shocked into laughing—by snapping back.

“If you are trying to impress me with your excellent vocabulary, it's not going to work.”

Dominic’s eyes flashed with something dangerous, responding inherently to the challenge in my tone. “What would?”

“I am not answering that.” No way. I was not giving him ammo to make whatever effect he had on me worse.

He wasn’t deterred, he only looked determined. “Fine, I’ll figure it out myself.”

I didn’t want him knowing anything about me,especiallynot what turned me on. I changed the subject quickly. Cowardly. “Are we done here?”

Dominic, it seemed, was not ready to let me go. “As long as we can both agree that we’ve checked the entire perimeter and nothing seems wrong?”

“I only checked half,” I said, quickly. And then immediately regretted it for some reason. I didn’t think I was comfortable with him knowing I wasn’t completely helpless as a ruler. It was easier when he thought I was dumb and careless.

“I checked the other half,” Dominic said, tilting his head toward the north end. “That’s how I saw you on the wall.”

“And then scared me on said wall.”

Dominic took a step towards me quickly, as if physically moved by something. I tried to decipher the expression on his face and the only thing I could come up with was anger.

But that didn’t make any sense.

Before I could ask, to see what could cause the anger, Dominic spun on a heel and started back towards the house. His long strides moved him across the rocky ground quickly, and so I started after him at double the speed to catch up.

He was silent all the way back to the house, around the side, and up the stairs on the back deck touching the edge of the bay.

I was practically running after him. When he stopped abruptly at the door, I ran into his back, hitting muscle that felt like steel, before bouncing back.

Dominic kept one hand on the door knob, but brought the other to my wrist. For the second time that evening.

He jerked his wrist slightly, turning my reddened palm up. My hand shook. Well, was shaken. By Dominic.

He lifted my hand and shook it, as if to remind me of the scrapes. They didn’t even hurt, but he was treating me like I was walking around and dripping blood all over the floor.

“Don’t walk on the wall like that again.”

Oh, he didn’t get to tell me what to do. “What are you, my keeper?”

“No, your husband.” And before I could process that, “Because of that, I now have to care whether you die. Webothhave to name an heir. If you die because you trip or someonescaresyou again, then our powerline is fucked.”

I hadn’t had time to consider that. That we needed to approve that together. We certainly weren’t having children, and while a naming happened often, it required work.

We needed to do that.Now. Especially since I was pretty sure the volcano of my sins was about to erupt with the force of the Furies, likely taking me down with it.

I wasn’t sure that would improve under Dominic’s House name.

“I won’t do anything inherently dangerous,” I said. Walking on a wall wasn’t dangerous, and I wasn’t going to let that be the baseline.

“Rose. No hurting yourself,” Dominic said, almost possessively. As if someone else reserved the right to hurt me.

My heart was beating way too fast, lingering from the quick pace of the walk and the urgency in this conversation.

I swallowed.

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