“Are you going to get off of me and show me this surprise of yours?” I ask, trying to sound exasperated. It’s not very convincing, considering the series of events that led up to now.

“Hmm, I’m not sure,” King Lazuli says, pretending to ponder my words. “It’s not very often that I get my bloodthirsty wife-to-be on her back.”

My face heats both with anger and embarrassment. He removes one of his hands from where they grip mine to brush his thumb over my lower lip. Heat ripples through my stomach. I don’t want to react this way, not in the middle of some hall in the king’s palace in front of palace guards. Not with him, and not after he’s just tackled me to the ground.

I lie there, watching, waiting for what he’ll do next. He gazes at my lips, and then he leans in.

He’s a hair’s breadth away from my mouth when I speak. “Don’t,” I say.

“Why not?” The king’s breath fans against my lips. He’s smiling down at me rapaciously.

I don’t speak. There are a hundred reasons why this shouldn’t happen right now, but my mouth can’t form a single one.

“I’ll tell you what,” he says, his voice low. “I won’t kiss you if you can offer me something better.”

“I’m not your fucking employee, and this is not a business transaction,” I snap.

His grin deepens. “You’re right, it isn’t.” His mouth presses against mine, and my stomach clenches. His tongue strokes my lips, encouraging them to part. Caught up in the moment, I let them. I’d forgotten how much I enjoyed kissing and how good the king’s, in particular, are.

His tongue brushes against mine, and I relish the heady taste of him. With Will, my mind had loved him while my body had remained unmoved. In this situation, it’s the exact opposite. I hate the king, yet I crave him. I want him to suffer, but I also want this.

Love and hate really aren’t so very different.

He bites my lower lip, sucks on it, and I all but moan at the sensation. The king pulls away from me, and I lazily open my eyes, not realizing I’d closed them to begin with.

I just got owned, and the king knows it. I can tell by the way he bites his lip. He releases me and stands up.

I push myself up on my forearms and watch him. He reaches out a hand to help me up.

When I don’t take it, he says, “Do you want to see my surprise, or would you rather I get back on top of you?” he asks.

I run my tongue along my teeth and take his hand, giving it a hard yank as I get up. He doesn’t flinch.

I follow the king out of the palace. The cool night air raises goose bumps along my skin, but it’s the sound of crashing waves that captures my attention. This is the first time I’ve been outside the palace since I arrived, and it’s ecstasy.

I take a deep breath, relishing the smell of the salty sea breeze and let myself forget my past. The sea and the sky can do that—make me feel like an ageless thing.

This is the surprise, I realize. I’d like to be snarky about it, since it’s so simple, but instead I feel a little unnerved. This is the best thing he could’ve surprised me with: escape.

I lift the skirt of the dress I’m wearing and run towards the waves, kicking my shoes off in the process. Behind me I can hear the king jogging, and I wonder if he’s worried that I’m going to throw myself into the water like some tragic Greek maiden. ’Cause he should be. That’s exactly what I’m going to do.

I yip as my feet hit the water and then I dive in, ruining my outfit and my hair and my makeup. Good riddance.

When I come up for air, I’m laughing. A moment later I feel hands wrap around me and haul me to my feet. It takes the king a moment to realize I’m fine.

He swipes the wet strands of my hair away from my face. “Jesus,” he says, “you scared the shit out of me!”

I can’t see him in the dark, but if I could, I bet I’d see that vein in his temple throbbing. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were concerned.”

“Why would you think otherwise?”

Water laps around us, swirling with the tide. My dress tangles itself around the king as he holds me to him. I taste saltwater on my lips and try to ignore the way Montes’s dress shirt clings to his chest.

“Oh, I don’t know,” I say, “maybe because you killed my parents, destroyed my homeland, and are now forcing me into marrying you.” My voice comes out flinty.

Rather than responding, the king releases me. He walks out of the water and back onto the beach, leaving me staring after him.

“Oh, now you walk away!” I yell at his back, mostly just to rile him up.

It works.

He comes stalking back into the water. “What do I have to do to prove myself? I’ve already moved mountains—an entire half of the world will prosper because you wanted it to be so. What more do you want me to do?”

“I want you to leave me the hell alone.”

He grasps my jaw and holds it firmly, and in the dim moonlight I can just barely make out the shine of his eyes. “That is the one thing I cannot do.”

He lets me go and leaves, this time for good.

Chapter 16

Serenity

The day of the wedding I sleep in. Normally I’m loathe to waste away the first hours of the morning, but not today. Today I want to forget that I have to get married. To the king. I make a face in my pillow.

People have been knocking on my door for the last two hours, and up until now I’ve done a pretty good job of ignoring them. But the pounding on my door right now is louder and more insistent than the others.