Chapter Six
WHEN EMERALD WOKE up the next morning, her body was sore. There was no place that hadn’t been branded by Andrei. His hands, his mouth, his tongue.
She had been made his ten times over, in every way possible.
She was grateful for it.
But she wanted to weep.
She swallowed hard, looking over at the man sleeping next to her. He looked so much younger in sleep, carefree in a way that she had never seen him. He had been marked by trauma from the first moment that she’d met him.
And now they had scarred each other.
She might love him.
He hadn’t said that he loved her. She blinked hard, trying to hold her tears back. She really didn’t want him to say it.
Because if he’s said it…
Better to let it just be sex. Better to let it just be one night. One night that she would never forget, but one night all the same.
She swallowed hard and stood up, and then there was a knock on the door that made her startle. “Yes?”
Andrei stirred, and sat up, the covers falling down to his waist, her attention completely captivated by his half-naked form.
“Princess,” came the voice from the other side of the door. “I have breakfast for you.”
“You can leave it,” she said. “I’ll only be a moment.”
He looked at her, his mouth a grim line. “I will go back to my quarters and ready myself to be presented at the palace. You should also ready yourself.”
There were not going to be any soft words for her. No goodbye. When he got out of her bed, he began to dress in silence. And when he left the room he didn’t kiss her goodbye.
She cried. For a few minutes, she cried. Because there was no way to fix this. Not ever. She’d made her decision. She had signed an agreement. She had given herself away.
But last night had been something she’d chosen for herself. She had to be okay with it. She was the one who had set the terms.
Still, she sobbed as she got dressed. Forgot that there was breakfast outside and nearly tripped over it when she opened the door, as the yacht moved into the port.
She wiped her face, but she knew that she looked like she’d been crying. Maybe King Lucian would like it. It was rumored that he was a ruthless bastard.
Maybe it would suit him.
When she looked out at the view of Alabria, she was shocked.
It was a rocky, mountainous island, and a large black palace stood on top of the highest peak, like the tower of Barad-d?r in Middle-earth.
All that was missing was the Eye of Sauron.
If he wanted the world to think of him as a villain, he had certainly done a great job setting up the optics.
Dead wives not required.
She had been so focused on the grief that she felt over losing her chance with Andrei, that she hadn’t fully allowed herself to feel grief over the situation she was putting herself in.
Because there’s no point. Because you made your bed, and now you have to lie in it.
Hilarious, because the bed in her cabin still wasn’t made. It was demolished from letting Andrei have her all night.
As soon as the yacht docked, they lowered the gangway, and as they were preparing to get off, they were boarded instead.
Andrei was immediately beside her, his hands on her as though he were ready to flee with her if necessary. “We are emissaries of the king,” said a man dressed in a military uniform.
“What makes you think this is a necessary display? This vessel belongs to King Onyx of Basilia. And it is very easy for us to take this as an act of aggression,” Andrei said.
“Of course it is not an act of aggression,” the man said. “A treaty is signed between Princess Emerald and the king. There is no aggression here.”
Her heart hammered in fear as she allowed the group of emissaries to lead her off the ship and put her in a car. They paused in front of Andrei. “Your services are not required,” the man said.
“I am the princess’s personal bodyguard. I go with her wherever she goes. I think you will find the terms of that are nonnegotiable.”
The man looked Andrei up and down. “I will leave that for the king to decide.” He moved out of the way and allowed Andrei to get into the car next to her, and it was all she could do not to cling to him.
She didn’t have the right to do that, and he had made it very clear that physical touch, other than him protecting her, was not allowed this side of daylight.
The car drove down a long, winding two-lane road that wound around the mountain, bringing them closer to the evil tower.
Reality was setting in very hard.
Warring with memories from last night. His hands on her skin. His body moving inside hers.
Stop this.
Stop this.
Stop this.
Her heart was beating a powerful rhythm, and the words echoing in her head were making it ache.
The car pulled up to the front of the palace, and they were ushered outside the vehicle. Andrei attached to her like a shadow at her back.
The doors to the palace opened, and they were brought inside, into a stark, black antechamber.
“The king awaits in the throne room.”
A throne room? They didn’t have anything half so prosaic. Onyx had a study where he conducted correspondence, and there was a sitting room where he entertained people. He didn’t sit on an actual throne.
But it was clear to her that King Lucian really was stuck in the Dark Ages, just as the rumors said.
The double doors to the throne room opened, and she stepped slowly inside, feeling like it was entirely possible that movement might release axes from the ceiling that were waiting to swing across the walkway and cut her to pieces.
She looked ahead and saw a figure sitting on a large, iron throne. Blond, his skin damaged on one side, perfect on the other, his eyes crystal blue, piercing through her from the great distance between them.
Whatever they’d said about his looks…they had underplayed it.
He was, in part, the most beautiful man she’d ever seen.
But where he was scarred, that beauty was ravaged.
“Princess Emerald,” he said, his voice low, his accent indefinable. “Welcome to Alabria.”
“Thank you,” she said. “Your Highness.”
She didn’t genuflect because she felt that it would set a bad precedent.
“Let me see you.”
He didn’t move, he only sat there waiting for her to approach him. The way he looked at her made her feel like he was looking into her. “You are as beautiful as it is rumored.”
“Thank you.”
“You don’t have to return the compliment,” he said, smiling, the scars on the right side of his face twisting garishly as he did. “I don’t like lies.”
She had nothing but lies to offer him, and it had nothing to do with his beauty. Because she might have signed this agreement, she might make vows to him, but she would never truly belong to him. She would always be Andrei’s.
“You will spend the next month becoming familiar with the palace, our customs and my expectations. Then in four weeks’ time, we will have a ball and a wedding. And our nations will be united.”
“Of course your plan is best, Your Highness,” she said.
She knew that it didn’t seem honest. She could also tell that he didn’t care.
She didn’t know what to expect. She had thought that maybe he would want to spend some time together, but clearly he didn’t. He waved his hand. “Show the princess to her room.”
“And what about my bodyguard?”
He looked past her, at Andrei, as though he was seeing him for the first time. “The staff will find quarters for him.”
“He has to be near to me.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “Unusual.”
“Is it unusual for royalty to travel with her own trusted protection to a country she’s never been to before?”
“You demonstrate a lack of trust in me.” He smiled, slowly. “Smart.”
“A room. Near mine.”
She could tell that it was costing Andrei to be silent. He was not her staff, he was so much more than that. He was a leader, through and through, and to be put in a position where another man held power like this was likely offensive to him.
But it would be foolish for him to behave any other way than he was now. Silent. Waiting. Deadly, she knew.
With very little provocation he would and could leap across the throne room and tear out Lucian’s throat. That she knew for certain.
That was how she found herself bundled off to her room high up in a tower, with Andrei put in the one adjoining.
The temptation that she felt to open up the door between their rooms was real. But she knew that she couldn’t do that. She knew that it wouldn’t be met with welcome, not right now.
Because she was going to marry Lucian. She had made that decision, she had made that bargain, and for the good of her people, she couldn’t turn back.
No matter how much she wanted to.
Marriage had never been about her feelings.
And it couldn’t be now.