Chapter 32 #3
Being careful not to touch her, he brought his arms around her, holding his palms face up. His magic swirled, darkness twisting and writhing, and when it receded, a circlet sat in his hands. Black pearls and sparkling diamonds adorned it, making it simple and elegant and perfect for her.
He lifted it, carefully setting it atop her head. The onyx metal came to a point in the center of her brow, and she was no longer holding his stare but staring at her reflection. He couldn’t read her expression.
“What are you thinking?” he asked after a moment.
“I thought I’d feel different in this moment,” she said, her head canting to the side as she studied herself.
“How so?”
“This moment is a culmination of so much, and yet I question if it’s something I should have at all,” she murmured, and he wasn’t sure if she was talking to herself or to him.
“A ruler who feels deserving of their crown has become too comfortable on a throne,” Cethin said.
She twisted to face him, and he stepped back to give her space.
“You do not feel deserving of your crown?” she asked.
He shook his head. “I sit on a throne because of the blood that flows in my veins, so I spend my days trying to prove to the kingdom I am there to serve them.”
She nodded as another knock sounded. The door opened, Razik, Wren, Zayan, and Tybalt slipping in.
“Sorry to interrupt, but it’s time,” Tybalt said. “You are both ready?”
Cethin nodded, taking the crown Zayan held out to him. Silver and rubies, the contrast was stark compared to Kailia’s circlet. He would prefer something simpler, but tradition and all that.
He unceremoniously set it atop his head, then adjusted the sleeves of his jacket as the others filed out the door on the opposite side of the room.
“Breathe, Kailia,” he said softly as she slipped her arm through his.
She nodded, her fingers flexing on the crook of his arm.
“I need you to trust me tonight, wife,” he coaxed. “Can you do that?”
“Just for tonight,” she breathed.
“I’ll take just for tonight for now,” he replied, bending to brush his lips across her temple. It was scarcely a touch, but he couldn’t help himself. He’d expected her to tense even more than she already was, but she relaxed a fraction. Her shoulders dropped some, and she inched closer to him.
He led her through the door, the black marble floor gleaming beneath their feet. Banners of black with silver moons and stars hung from the ceiling. Zayan was off to the right of the balcony overlooking the hall. Tybalt, Razik, and Wren were already down the stairs and waiting at the bottom.
Zayan smiled brightly. Even if Cethin could tell it was a little forced, no one else could from below.
Extending an arm in their direction as they reached the top of the stairs, the Hand announced, his voice filling the entire hall, “Welcome his Majesty, King Cethin, and his wife and our new queen, Kailia.”
As one, the entire room dropped to a knee. There were easily a thousand people in attendance, likely more.
Bending down, he felt the shudder that went through her when he whispered into her ear, “I know the list of people you are comfortable dancing with. The others have been informed as well. If at any point the touching becomes too much or you need a moment, you find me. No one else. Understood?”
She turned to look at him, the move placing her lips a breath away from his, and it took everything in him not to steal a kiss. “At what point did you think you could give your queen orders?”
The unexpected retort had the corner of his mouth curling up in a smirk. “I think you’d find you like my orders, wife.”
She huffed a laugh, soft and delicate. “Somehow I doubt that.”
“You’d realize that touch is something to crave rather than avoid. I’d prove it to you.”
An unmistakable curiosity flickered across her features, but before she could reply, the sound of a throat softly clearing reminded them both they weren’t alone. That a room full of people were still on a knee for them.
Shit.
He led Kailia forward, and the moment they stepped onto the first stair, the entire room rose. Excited chatter broke out as they watched them descend the staircase, a path left open down the center of the room that led to the dance floor.
Once in the center, Kailia turned to him, and as they got into position for the first dance, he said, “Back to the topic at hand.”
She was looking at her feet, and she glanced at him before looking back down. “What topic?”
“Of me showing you touch can be more than torture.”
Her gaze flew back to his. “You want to discuss this now?”
He shrugged, taking her hand in his and sliding his arm around her waist. His magic lingered beneath his palms, dark tendrils winding between their fingers. “Seems as good a time as any.”
The music started, and he urged her into the first steps as she replied, “This hardly seems like a good time to discuss that.”
He hummed, twirling her out and pulling her back to him, tucking her in a little closer this time. “I stand by my comment.”
“What comment?” she demanded, her gaze locked on his and her amber eyes blazing.
“That you would like my orders.”
“Perhaps you would like mine,” she retorted.
“Oh, wife, you have no idea,” he said, his voice dropping an entire octave.
She scoffed, but there was a tentative spark of intrigue that danced in her eyes. “As if you’d let me give you orders.”
He twirled her again, her steps perfect.
All of this so effortless.
When he pulled her back this time, her front was flush against his.
His voice was low, his words feathering across her lips when he said, “You want me on my knees, I’m at your feet.
You want me crawling to you, tell me how far.
You want me to prove touch can be ecstasy, done.
Tell me how to make you feel good, and I’ll obey every word down to the letter.
As long as it’s my name on your lips when you fall into pleasure, I’ll take any orders you want to give me, wife. ”
She was staring up at him, her hand clasped in his against his chest and a flush creeping along her cheeks. “You act like you’ve been thinking about this,” she murmured.
“I absolutely have been,” he answered.
He’d spent every night beside her in bed since the nagasky, and as he’d known it would, every night became an increasingly difficult exercise in self-control.
Of forcing himself to keep his hands to himself.
He’d had moments of weakness though. Like when he was sure she was in a deep enough sleep, he’d gently brush a knuckle along her cheek or run his fingers through her silky strands.
If he were lucky, she’d roll over in her sleep, and her fingers would graze his arm or her leg would nudge against his.
He absolutely understood how utterly pathetic it was.
That he would hold his breath in those moments and hope that would be the night she’d seek him out in her sleep.
So yes, despite knowing it was a terrible idea, he’d been thinking about all the ways he could convince her to let him touch her. To prove that touch could be as pleasurable as it could be painful. To prove that she would only ever find the former at his hand and never the latter.
“Cethin I—” she started, but the song ended then, the crowd applauding. Her eyes widened as she stared up at him. “You were distracting me.”
He smirked. “Yes, but every word was true.”
He stepped back, wishing he didn’t have to, but this was still a celebration.
People came from everywhere to see them.
So he took her hand and twirled her under his arm, her train flaring around her, and she laughed, caught off guard by the action.
The crowd clapped more, some whistles sounding, and when he pulled her back to him, he pressed a kiss to the place just below her ear.
He felt her stumble into him, felt her heart stutter.
The musicians were starting their next number, and they were swept into another dance as others joined them.
Cethin managed to keep Kailia to himself for three more songs before others approached.
The guards were under strict instruction as to who could be allowed near Kailia, while he was more than comfortable dancing with whomever asked.
He’d been attending such events since he was born, raised to play the role of Crown Prince and then king from his first breath.
But after every dance with another, she came back to him without fail, relief flashing in her eyes as she took his hand and his arm went around her waist, pulling her close.
Maybe he was proving something after all.