Page 60 of The Princesses of Ruin (The Princesses of Ruin #5)

Chapter fifty-six

Alastair

“ N o, that’s no good,” Lily says as she pulls the city plans closer. “You see this choke point right there—that’s going to cause loads of traffic.”

I stand over her shoulder and look down at the map.

It’s true. Several of the wider roads narrow down before rejoining the main streets to allow for larger estates to have better gardens.

While I would tell them we need serviceable streets so to hells with your garden, Lilianna takes a gentler approach.

“I love these big, huge displays. It screams refinement and culture, but perhaps we can ask the lords to surrender a portion of the backmost lots so that we can have roads that don’t bulk up with full carts.

Their gardens won’t be places of peace if they have screaming merchants just beyond their fence line, yes? ”

“Yes, my queen,” the designer says. “You’re quite right. I’ll find the title holders and make the request.”

The man rolls up his map and strides from the room. Lily sits back in her chair and groans.

“This is why I didn’t want to rule. So much work , no time for dirty jokes or filthy poetry. ”

She reaches up for me to embrace her. I wrap my arms over her chair and kiss her temple, letting my hands cradle her swollen belly. She grabs the back of my neck and holds me against her, sighing contentedly.

“There once was a woman from Nimpoi, who had a peculiar limpoi,” she starts.

“That doesn’t work,” I say, cutting her joke short.

“Why not?” she asks, sitting forward with more speed than a woman five months pregnant should be able to.

“Because, limpoi isn’t a word,” I say.

“It’s almost a word. I could make it a word. I am queen,” she says, settling back against the chair.

“You’d make a word all for the sake of your joke?”

She scoffs. “Have you met me, Alastair?”

I chuff. “Yes, I suppose you would. Finish it, then.”

“There once was a woman from Nimpoi, who had a peculiar limpoi. When asked why she shuffled, she heartily chuckled, ‘It’s all because of my simpboi!’”

I shake my head. “Terrible.”

“I know. I’m out of practice.” She sighs again. “Too much work, like I said.”

It has been a lot of work. Getting Fynren back up on its feet has been no small thing. So many of the wealthy lords and merchants fled, taking their money with them. With no way to pay anyone for work, we’ve had to rely on a lot of charity and promises to get things done.

My mother has pulled some strings, of course, touting how we defeated the dark goddess like gospel all across the five kingdoms. Every bard has a song for it now .

“Let’s take tonight off,” I say. “I want you to experience the new and improved Cherry Kiss.”

She pouts. “But I can only have one beer. That’s not enough. Little Vine will take it all anyway, the greedy girl.”

She rubs her belly affectionately, and I cover her hands with mine. “You will have no beer, but there is a new tonic that Zane has concocted—”

She groans loudly. “No, not another.”

“He promises this one tastes better, and it will help improve the development of the baby.”

She leans forward, and I pull her chair back so she can stand. I grab her hand and tug her toward me, settling her head against my chest as her belly keeps us from coming together fully.

“We want her to be the strongest she can be,” I murmur.

Lily’s fingers tense on my back.

“I know,” she whispers.

So little time. We have so little time to train our warrior to fight a beast that neither of us could defeat, even together. It feels insurmountable.

“Please, wife,” I say, stroking my hand through her hair and loosening the knot of her bun. “I don’t know how hard it is, but I know you’re struggling. I know…”

I trail off from a conversation we’ve had a hundred times.

She misses her sister. She feels responsible for the plight of our daughter. She hates herself with every breath and there’s so little I can do to make it better.

“This is a fight that doesn’t end for twenty years. Twenty more years, Alastair.”

I nod. There’s nothing I can say .

Her voice warbles with tears. “And what if…she…she’s not strong enough?”

I hug her tighter, my demon arm pulling her so close I can feel her heartbeat through my chest.

“We can’t think like that. She will win. She will be strong enough.”

Lily sniffles and nods, but says nothing else.

I hold her for a while and imagine a world where I didn’t bring her home. Where I had succumbed to the demon’s wish and took her into the wilderness. Where I bathed her in hot springs and ate her pussy every day. Made her breakfast and built her a shelter she probably could’ve built better herself.

The vision is consumed in fire, the leaking, molten mess that was Scarlett’s magical essence. The thing that would spread and destroy the realm—if Iksah, Zane, and Reina hadn’t stopped it. It was fast thinking on Adrik’s part, to use the backup flask to open the realms again.

Was that the design all along?

“All right,” Lily says, pulling back from me. “When does the Cherry open?”

I smile, dragging my claws over her soft cheek. “We can go now, if you want.”

She half turns and looks at the notebook on the desk. “No good. I have to meet with the agricultural representatives soon, and then another meeting with the leadership board. This ‘three queens and four kings’ is really throwing things off for them,” she says with an impish smirk.

“I love to watch the bureaucracy scratch its head,” I say, though it’s probably the farthest thing from the truth I’ve ever said .

Her posture softens and she smiles at me like a woman in love. “What would I do without you?”

I kiss her tenderly. “You’d be the same, strong, beautiful woman that you are—desperately in need of a man who can tolerate your bad jokes.”

She smacks my arm. “My jokes are good . Just you wait, I’m going to make a whole book of them.”

I grunt and nod.

“It’ll be published all throughout Fynren and the world! People will read them to each other over dinner and laugh so hard their stew comes back out their noses.”

I can’t help but laugh.

“You doubt me?” she asks, her voice tender, her heart exposed.

“No, my sweet wife. I’m inspired by you.” I kiss her head again. “Perhaps I will write some poetry.”

“Absolutely not.”

I huff. “Why?”

She grabs my cheeks in both hands and squeezes my face.

“Those are just for me.”

She kisses me, and what started cute and brief quickly becomes something passionate and fevered.

“When is the next meeting?” I ask between kisses.

“Twenty minutes, maybe less.”

I pick her up and lay her gently on the table. She laughs and pushes the notebooks aside. I push between her thighs.

“Is this okay?” I ask, touching her stomach and then her legs.

“It’s perfect,” she says, running her hands down my arms.

I push back the skirt of her dress and rip open her undergarment. Her laugh is drenched in sultry need. I drag my finger through her center to circle her clit, and that laugh transforms into a moan quickly.

My other hand undoes the buckles of my armor at my waist as I work Lily to completion for the first time. The multitasking is difficult, and so it takes longer than I’d like, but she gets there. Before she has a chance to come down, I push into her.

Gone are the weapons that kept her safe from pirates. Gone are the fangs that saved her life. She’s gentle and soft, but I love every inch of her still.

Lily holds my gaze as I thrust into her shallowly. She grabs my hand, moving it over her clit.

“Please, sir,” she begs, and my release threatens to spill over.

I steady my breathing and rub her clit in time with my hips. The papers fall off the table and flutter to the floor as Lily moans louder, and louder. It’s no secret to anyone on this floor what’s happening in this room.

Good.

Let them know that I fuck my wife well, and never leave her wanting.

Her legs tighten on my sides and her brow scrunches. “Alastair, I…I’m so close.”

I don’t change a thing. I keep up the same rhythm, focusing on making sure my hand matches the pace. She tosses her head to the side and sucks down a deep gasp. I let myself go, coming into her as she fights through the last bit of resistance.

“I can feel you come,” she moans. “Oh, fuck, Alastair.”

Her muscles tighten and she screams. The sound nearly makes me come again. I keep thrusting until her balled fists are twitching beside her head. Slowly, I relax my pace. She pants heavily, her tussled hair glowing in the light of the sun through the window .

I lean over her and kiss her neck, loving the way her arms come around me and pull me close. I will never grow tired of loving her. Never grow weary of the sounds she makes or the way she accepts me. Never.

“Promise me,” she whispers.

“Anything,” I reply.

“If she fails, we’ll save her.”

The brand on my wrist burns.

“Somehow…we will.”