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My hand snapped to his throat, squeezing and digging into his flesh. “Eyes on me. You need to watch what you will never fucking have again,” I growled, my voice dripping with venom as my body sang with bliss.

Our mouths hovered a mere breath apart, so close I could feel the heat of him against my lips. It would be so easy to close that distance, to take what I craved like a drug. But I resisted, clinging to that final shred of control.

I wanted to curse him, to spit vitriol and hate, but all that came out was a desperate moan as he collided with me, stroking that spot inside me that made the whole world fall away.

A scream tore from my lungs as I broke around him, my nails raking bloody furrows down his back as my body dissipated into the fucking galaxies. It was as if heaven and hell had reached through the veil to snatch the soul from my body—a sin and a blessing colliding with an otherworldly force.

A roar ripped from his throat as he followed me into oblivion, his release flooding me as we clung to each other, fighting to catch our breath as the pleasure slowly ebbed away.

Reality came crashing back in stages—the sweat cooling on my skin, the rasp of his stubble against my jaw, his chest heavingagainst mine. Regret and self-loathing curled in my gut, warring with the traitorous satisfaction humming through my veins.

What the fuck had I done?

Disgust churned in my gut as I slipped off of him and pulled the blanket over my body.

Dukovich watched me, his dark eyes finding mine in the glowing candlelight. Something unreadable flickered across his face—an emotion I couldn’t quite place.

“This never happened,” I bit out, my voice harsh as granite. “It meant nothing.”

He let out a harsh laugh, the sound scraping against my raw nerves. “Keep telling yourself that, love. It will not change the truth.”

I whirled to face him fully, my eyes flashing with barely leashed rage. “The only truth here is that I despise you with every fiber of my being. This changesnothingbetween us.”

A smirk slid onto his face as he reached for his discarded clothing and pulled them back onto his body. “Like I said, if hate is all you have to give me, I will take it.”

I shoved myself off the bed, not bothering to cover my nakedness as the blanket fell from my body, and stormed toward the bathing chamber. I needed to scrub his touch from my skin—to wash away the evidence of my weakness.

The stone was cold beneath my feet as I stepped into the room, the chill a welcome shock to my overheated skin. I closed the door behind me, flicking my fingers toward the bath, watching it fill as my head fell back against the wood.

I fucking hated this place.

Hated the control it took from me, the need that it brought to the surface. Any other place I could have kept it buried, could have kept it caged in the depths of my soul.

Tears pricked at the back of my eyes and I blinked them away furiously, refusing to let them fall.

I would not cry over him—over this.

He didn’t deserve that emotion.

Chapter forty-one

HYACINTH

“You’regoingtohaveto make it up to me, you know,” I said, smiling across the room at Landers as he pulled the crown from his head, setting it in the drawer of the bedside table and locking it.

He peeled his wedding leathers from his body, shrugging out of them as a chuckle slipped from his lips. “And what do I owe you?”

“A wedding night not planned around a midnight invasion,” I quipped, watching the muscles across his chest flex as he pulled his fighting leathers over his head. A smirk flicked across his lips as he belted his sword to his side. I stood there, leaning against the door, gazing at the beauty of the man that was now my husband as he strode over to me.

“Do not fret, my Queen,” he said, slipping his hands up my neck and into my hair. “When this is over, I plan to do things that would make even the Gods weep.”

I lifted a brow. “You plan to make me cry?”

“Tears of my pleasure, Darkness. Only ever tears of pleasure,” he whispered, his lips brushing across mine.

If I died tonight, I would die the happiest soul in the realms.

I pushed my lips fully onto his, letting the kiss lock those words between us like a promise.