KINGSLAYER

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"Okay," he said upon reaching the end of the next page. "Another one. Don't be afraid to get really detailed."

"I think you look positively stunning in pitch darkness."

"I think you'd look positively stunning in a casket underground." That made her laugh, a stupid, silly sound. He looked at her a moment then, not quite smiling, not veiling anything for once. And promptly went back to reading his book aloud.

The cycle went on for nearly seven pages, which Jaylah had to admit surpassed her expectations for how much pretentious literature he could stomach. Each time, she gave vague flattery that bordered on insulting. Until the last one, when he had been stuck on the final sentence, but never gave up until he got it perfectly. She watched as he nodded to himself as confirmation, then looked to her for approval. She never wished things were different more than she did in that moment.

"Look how far you have come since that first day," she said, trying not to fidget her clasped hands. "I am so proud of you."

She wanted to fuel the gladness that beamed across his face every day until he was sick of her. It was the least of what he deserved.

Putting the book down, Alexander straightened his posture to eye her expectantly. "Aren't you going to kiss me?"

Jaylah deliberated. Slipping off the top of the desk, she grasped a hand to the unruly curls at the back of his head and gave him what he wanted. She meant for it to only last a moment, but he slung his arms around her waist and held her closer.

"So desperate," she whispered a centimeter from his mouth. "It nearly makes me pity you."

"That's a lot of talk from someone who falls into a cycle of sweating and blushing every time I make innocent eye contact." He kissed her again. "Humiliating, huh? Thank your Gods that I take it as flattery."

Jaylah's eyes snapped open and she leaned back. "How dare you accuse an esteemed lady of blushing and sweating?" Never once in her life had she ever blushed, and certainly not because of a man.

All he did was laugh at her. Scowling, Jaylah bent her knees to tightly straddle his hips. That shut him right up.

It was dangerous how familiar she was growing with the taste of his lips, the hard planes of his physique, the self-assured manner he grasped her. Still, she would never be used to anyone wanting her, not what she could bestow upon them.

Her fingers went to the buttons at the collar of his heavy coat. "Tell me you want this."

"Of course," he breathed. Jaylah wasted no time unbuttoning it and tossing it to the floor, leaving only a simple shirt behind.

Alexander pulled back his hands to rest on the silk sash tied around her waist. "Now you tell me."

She hoped he could not feel the perilously rapid beat of her heart through her clothes. "Yes." The tight press of the sash against her waistline loosened as he untied it from the back. He undid the rest of her gown with surprising ease. Thank the Gods she had not worn one of her spectacular outfits that required several handmaidens to remove. She was left in her thin chemise. The loss of her heavy outer layer should have made her cooler but did nothing to quell the heat inside her stomach.

With each rough kiss, Jaylah's mind became hazier. She felt as though she had been drugged. A warm shock went down her spine as his hands slid up the curve of her hips underneath her chemise. Her fingertips dug into the sides of his ribs more than she meant to. Alexander gave a shuddering breath into her mouth. She liked it when she could feel the hitch in his breathing.

Though they were already chest to chest, she gripped him closer, never wanting to exit that moment, never wanting to return to a life that did not have room for him in it. As if sensing the direction her thoughts had taken, he pulled back ever so slightly. The image of him then—eyes black and half-lidded, lips swollen—took root in her mind. Their panting breaths mixed in the shadowed room. She was barely covered at all, yet his gaze never lowered, never left her face. The intensity of his eyes made her nearly wish it would.