Page 51 of Princess of Thorns and Ruin

My forehead creases, a tingle of warning crawling along my spine. “You think that the Zhaos sent someone after her because they wanted to stop her marriage to Pereira?”

“It makes sense,” the king says. “They don’t want us to formalize our new military alliance.”

Only…it doesn’t. If this marriage was truly about a war alliance with the Pereiras, they would have kept it secret. Any formal plans would have been disguised as something else, and they would have made up a reason for the princess to visit Brazil.

But they did the opposite, spreading the news far and wide. Why?

Victor pats my back again, ever so condescending, and wrenches me out of my thoughts. “You’re leaving for Brazil tomorrow. Do not let me down, Beaumont.”

“Yes, my king.”

What the fuck else can I do? This man owns me, and the day I openly rebel is the day I commit to a life on the run. I’ve tracked enough defectors over the years to know that’s not a life worth living.

“Good. See you at the wedding,” the king dismisses me, and I’m forced to leave the grown-up table with my metaphorical tail tucked between my legs.

Ever since I let the woman who murdered Ludovic get away—a woman I’d seen suffer unspeakable abuse—a part of me had shifted. I’m done being a puppet, and my hope for a new king, a better king, is quickly drying up.

I’m getting more and more fed up with the whole loyal soldier thing.

Chapter 20

Bath Time Bounding

ARIELLE

Gurgles of water pervade the air as Leo fills up the tub to the brim. Lavender soap does little to cover Alec’s scent, and I’m simply drowning in him. Dried blood covers most of my neck and chest. If I was still a bloodling, I’d probably be creeped out by it. Vampire’s blood doesn’t tickle my tongue with hunger, rather it’s…intimate.

Only mates are supposed to taste each other’s blood, let alone be drenched in it, flakes stuck to the nape of my neck, behind my ears, and along the curves of my breasts. The heated thoughts I read in his mind while he was carrying me are haunting, and I almost wish I would have found the words to convince him to stay.

“About earlier—I’m sorry,” Leo whispers in the darkness, jolting me out of my daydream.

I’d been doing a great job of ignoring him, and my shoulders hitch. “Sorry for letting another woman touch you intimately, or sorry that I saw it?”

“Both.” He swallows hard, and the way his wool sweater licks the bottom of his jugular is simply bewitching.

The shape of his shoulders, the sharp angle of his jaw…no wonder Evangeline was so eager to drop to her knees in front of him. I wonder what he tastes like, down there, and if it’s at all similar to the spicy taste of his blood.

An ember of jealousy flickers and dies in my chest. “I’m sorry, too.”

“Who did this to you?” He’s angry again—though not at me, for a change—as he unfastens the last hook of my corset and drops it to the floor.

I sink inside the hot bath water, the temperature divine against my cold skin. “There was a demon at the party, but Alec shielded me from him. It’s his blood.”

He squeezes the sponge and starts scrubbing off the blood from my neck.

I search his eyes, surprised by the gesture. Sure, he offered to draw me a bath, but I fully expected him to leave once it was done. “You don’t have to do that.”

“I want to.”

I rest my head on the side of the tub and close my eyes. The rough pads of Leo’s fingers graze my skin, and I surrender to his caress, indulging in this unprecedented act of pampering. He combs his long fingers through my dark mane and fastens it in a loose bun on top of my head.

“You must have been scared,” he says.

“No… Maybe for a moment, but really, it’s been a wild, confusing night.”

Between Sebastian’s kiss, the taste of Fred’s orgasm, and Alec’s wandering hands, I’m melting from the inside-out. Alec’s leathery scent lingers in my nose as Leo washes me, and I grow breathless.

Adrenaline has been pumping through me all night. I’m a live wire—every brush of skin more potent and alluring than ever before. My nipples are hard and exposed, and I catch Leo staring at them.

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