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He narrows his eyes on me and advances. “Always the arrogant darling.”

“I thought I was vicious,” I smile that word out.

He reaches the foot of the bed—

And he snatches out for me.

A yelp catches in my throat as he grabs me by the ankle, his hand as firm as a vine coiling around the neck. I swear his eyes brighten just that bit more before he flips me onto my back.

A reminder of his command.

“I said—” and the power of his command shudders through my bones “—lie down.”

I go limp.

Above, the gold trim on the cerulean ceiling flickers with the flames in the hearth.

“Do you mean to rape me?” I ask, softly.

The sheer honesty of my voiced thoughts startles him.

“Or,” I let a wicked and ugly smile warp my face as I look down my body at him, “do you think it is not rape if you force the command into me?”

Which one are you?

My father who sells me like cattle to a rapist, or my betrothed, the one who promises such vile things?

But Daxeel is neither.

His fingers slip away from my freshly lotioned skin. He reaches for the hem of his top leathers, then tugs it off over his head.

He tosses it aside, his chest bare, the ink of his tattoos glistening like freshly spilled tar beneath the moonlight.

“I mean to sleep in the bed with you, Nari,” he sighs, then leans closer, his knee dipping into the furs. “Not to take what you do not offer.”

I watch him move over me.

The sight of him alights a fire in my belly. The inky tendrils falling into his face, the burn of his eyes, the caramel hue of his complexion.

I reach out my fingertips to graze down his chest, feeling every contour, each jolt of his muscles under my touch.

“That’s convenient for me,” I murmur, my thoughts somewhat distant under his spell, “since I do not offer my life to be sacrificed.”

“Your jests won’t thaw me,” he says then dips his head to ghost a kiss along my jawline, but I know he only does this to hide that fleeting smirk from me.

“Then why are you smiling?” I ask. “Admit that I have always been the funny one.”

“Is that your identifier in Licht?” He runs his soft kiss along my cheek, his body prowling over mine, and I feel every bit the cornered prey he’s homing in on. “The halfling with the humour. Do you dazzle all at the High Court—do make your princes laugh?” His upper lip curls on the last words spoken.

I turn my cheek to him. “Is that what coils your heart?”

“Your slights that night are far beyond a kiss with a prince,” he growls. He presses his weight into one hand and pushes far enough to look down at me, at the glower I aim up at him. “I know how vicious you are, Nari—I know you let him spread your legs and take from you while my heart bled.”

My insides flip. Like eggs in a pan, they flip up too high, then billow down and—for a moment—I feel I’m falling, that Dare has snuck into the bedchamber and shoved me out the window.

I capture the breath before it can escape me.

My face is schooled as I blink up at him, slow. “Now why do you think that?”