Page 126 of His Darkest Desire

“Yes,” Vex said, voice gravelly. “She took my freedom, my name, my seed. She wanted a child with my looks, my magic, and her blood combined.”

He closed his eyes and simply breathed Kinsley in, letting her scent soothe him. “She was not subtle in her cruelty by that point, not with me. She made it clear that the child I sired would be a pet. A thing for her to shape, to control, to display.”

Kinsley touched her forehead to his, her grip on his hair tightening, but not pulling. “Vex, I am so sorry.”

“I could not allow an innocent babe, my child, to be born into slavery, into cruelty. To be birthed by her. I used a tincture to ensure my seed had no potency, a mixture so simple that the lofty fae of her court were unfamiliar with it. That was my only means of defying her until I was able to make my escape.”

“But she found you,” Kinsley said softly.

“I’d always known she would give chase. But I thought I would’ve had more time, that I’d exercised appropriate care. I knew she’d turn her fury toward those under my protection. Not for a moment had I believed her threat to be mere bluster. I was weaving a spell to transport my realm and its people out of your world, to shelter them in a plane beyond her reach, when she arrived.”

Vex gritted his teeth against the pain, rage, and guilt rising inside him. A growl sounded in his chest, and he clutched Kinsley closer. Her breath hitched, and her body jerked when his claws prickled her skin a little too deeply. He hissed, opened his eyes, and immediately loosened his hold, soothing the hurt he’d caused with gentle strokes of his fingertips.

Kinsley drew back and cupped his jaw. Her eyes, so full of compassion, met his. “It wasn’t your fault. None of it was your fault. You did everything you could to protect them.”

“Everything but fulfil my pact with the queen,” he said, the jagged words scraping his throat as they came out.

“A pact you were forced to make. And what would that have accomplished? Had you given in to her, had you allowed her to have your child, they would’ve been a slave. No, you couldn’t have done that. You would have regretted it for the rest of your life. You were a slave to her yourself, and the position she placed you in was vile.” Kinsley brushed her thumb over his cheek. “All the blame is hers, Vex, not yours.”

“I chose to escape, Kinsley. Knowing full well the consequences, I fled from her, I led her back to my tower. Back to my people.”

“But you went back and tried to save them. To bring them all somewhere safe. Because even if you had stayed with her, how long would it have been before she went after those people anyway? How long before she would've started to...to bring them in, to march them in front of you and harm them to get what she wanted out of you?”

He lowered his gaze, as though he could find the answer elsewhere, but Kinsley coaxed his eyes back up by guiding his chin toward her.

“Listen to me, Vex. Hear my words. Their deaths were not your fault.”

Their deaths were not your fault.

For hundreds of years, rage and guilt had defined Vex, had consumed him. He’d been left with naught else. And hadn’t that been the queen’s goal? She could easily have slain him or locked him away in her dungeon for eternity, but she’d chosen this. She’d chosen to keep him alive and alone in this place—his home warped into a prison cell—where the weight of what he’d lost, the weight of his failures, would slowly crush him until the end of time.

Yet the greatest magic of all was before him. Kinsley’s words could not erase the past, but they were a balm to his soul. They soothed those old wounds, eased his burden. They uplifted him.

Vex had made mistakes in his dealings with the queen, but her maliciousness, her tyranny, had existed long before she’d ever sought him out. Even had he played every round of her game to perfection, she would’ve stopped at naught to secure her victory. She would always have won in the end

He lifted a hand and slipped it into Kinsley’s hair, cradling her head. “Would that neither of us had been forced to walk roads paved with such hardships to find each other.”

She smiled and leaned into his palm. “If we hadn’t walked them, we might never have found each other.”

“I would again endure all I’ve suffered and more to ensure you were mine, Kinsley.”

“You don’t have to endure anything else, Vex. Let go of the past.” She smoothed a hand over his shoulder, creating a delightful thrill in the wake of her touch. “We both need to let it go and live for the future. One that we can have together.”

Vex grinned and slid his hands to her ass, gripping both cheeks and holding her snugly against him. “Oh, I’ve fully embraced the future. And I’m never letting you go.”

Kinsley laughed and wriggled against his cock, making him groan as pleasure shot through his core.

“Hold on to me for as long as you’d like.” She raised her hand, showing him her palm. “But I think we should get out of the tub. We’re turning into prunes.”

He leaned forward and pressed his lips to her palm. “Few prunes retain their beauty as you have.”

Kinsley smirked. “I never would’ve guessed you were such a romantic when we first met.”

“I wasn’t.”

“Liar,” She replied, smirk stretching into a grin as she pushed herself up onto her knees. “Come on. Let’s get out of here.”

Vex trailed his eyes over her body. Her skin glittered with lingering flecks of paint, and water streamed in rivulets down her chest, dripping from her rosy nipples, tempting him. And Vex gave in to that temptation. With a growl, he sat up, wrapped his arms around her, and captured one of her nipples with his mouth.

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