Page 104 of The Throne Seeker

The ruins came into view. A good thing, too, because just as they arrived, the gentle rain turned into a downpour, forming large mud puddles that splashed onto the hem of her dress. They took cover in the largest open room, its walls draped with familiar green vines and tiny white flowers. Silently, they tied their horses to the arched pillars holding up the crumbling building while rain drummed on the exposed ceiling above them.

She gathered her courage as she turned to meet Tristan’s gaze.

In that moment, she tried to justbe. She tried to memorize him—how his hair lay upon his head, how his blue eyes gleamed when he smiled, the addicting smell of his fresh forest scent.

He stepped forward, and within seconds, he was holding her. She slid her arms around his neck in response, pressing him into her as hard as she could, as if to make sure he knew how much he meant to her. His arms responded with the same need, crushing her body into his as he spread his fingers wide on her back.

She leaned back to look into his eyes. They ensnared hers, dragging her down—down so far she feared she might get lost, never to be free of them. His eyes were sure to haunt her memory forever.

She bridged the distance between them, kissing him, taking what she wanted for the first time in her life, and damning the consequences. She attempted to convey all the love she had for him through it, committing the taste of his lips to memory.

She pulled back, and Tristan’s lips slid up into a half smile. She stared at his mouth, memorizing the creases there.

His smile faded as he gazed at her uneasily. “You’d better stop looking at me like that, or I won’t be responsible for what happens next.” He was half teasing, half serious.

She snapped out of her daze. “I’m sorry.”

He tucked a stray hair behind her ear. “No,I’mthe one who is sorry,” Tristan apologized without hesitation. “I don’t know what came over me. I should’ve never treated you like that.”

She put her finger over his lips as she shook her head, dismissing it. “I forgive you,” she whispered, accepting his apology, her thumb brushing his lower lip.

His breaths became shallow as desire shone through his eyes. “What are you doing to me?” he whispered.

“I’m just trying to remember you like this… Mine.”

His body went rigid as his eyes darkened. “No.” He took an immediate step back, swatting her hand away. “Not you, too.”

Her saddened eyes gave her away. “I know how much you care about me?—”

“You have no idea how much I care about you, how much I think about you, how much I crave you.” He cut her off with a low rough voice.

She reached to touch him again, but he took another step back.

“I don’t want to say it, just as much as you don’t want to hear it.” She kept her voice steady. “But you and I both know youmustsign the treaty. If you don’t, everything—the succession, the war, the resources, all the men who have been lost—will have been for nothing.”

“You want me to marryher?” he spat, repulsed. “Damn it, Rose. Do you think anyone in this world could compare to you? After drowning in your eyes? After tasting your lips? After feeling your skin under my fingertips? You think I could evenstomachwanting to be remotely near any woman other than you?”

He wasn’t going to make this easy. As much as she selfishly reveled in his words, she had to dissuade him from thinking that way. “I don’t want to think about you with someone else either,” Rose admitted. “But this is bigger than you and I, Tristan. It always has been.”

“We can leave,” he said in distress. It was like she could see his mind reeling through his eyes. “We don’t have to stay here. We can leave right now, just you and me.”

Her heart wilted that he would offer such a thing. It wasn’t that easy.

“Where would we go? What would we do? What of my mother? Of your family? What happens to Cathan? To all of Vallor? We can’t just run away. You must stay; you are the king Cathan needs. I saw it in the challenges, and so did the high council. The only reason they were against you is because of me.”

Tristan’s face turned vile. “All I care about is you. None of this is worth it if I can’t have you.None of it.”

Rose avoided getting sucked into the whirlpool of his deep-blue eyes. She’d known he loved her, but she didn’t realize just how much until he looked at her like that. Until his voice cracked like a crevice forming a canyon, until his shallow breaths gasped for a lick of air, until his anger rippled like a violent storm. It was all living proof he loved her with everything he had.

But sometimes… that kind of love was more than passion.

It was dangerous.

“What will become of you?” he asked. “What will you do? You and your mother will have nothing. You’ll be—” His eyes widened with realization. “You’ll marry Grant,” he seethed through his teeth.

She shook her head, dismissing it. “It doesn’t matter who I marry. This isn’t about me.”

“Of course it matters!” he roared.