Nectar of the Wicked (Deadly Divine, #1) (27)
A shiver rolled through me, and I felt him smile against my neck when he lowered his lips to it. My eyes nearly drifted closed, my shoulders loosening with a shaken breath. “Bite your finger, sweet creature, or”—another press of his lips, this time to my fluttering pulse—“I will gladly do it for you.”
Temptation couldn’t outweigh the song of trepidation screaming throughout my body.
“But...” This was real. This faerie king was truly asking me to promise myself to him in marriage. “When will we marry?”
“When I decide it’s time, of course.”
Of course.
Really, it wasn’t as if it mattered. This contract would bind me to him in the same way a marriage contract would.
I closed my eyes and attempted to call forth all the questions I’d planned to ask, but they were jumbled and useless, and I knew he’d have an answer to all. “Where will I live?”
“At Hellebore Manor with me. Your rooms have already been prepared.”
The instantaneous answer shocked. It also reeked of startling honesty. But it was to be expected—that I would not share rooms with Florian. He was a king, and I was but a tool to secure his kingdom.
A tool he liked to play with.
Though it was for the best, a smudge of disappointment still spread. Stupid, considering I wasn’t ready for such a thing. Certainly not with a male who drew breath from my lungs with one word, one look, and one barely-there touch.
The contract blurred crimson and black as I recalled the images I’d glimpsed of Hellebore Manor within books. Its dazzling dark expanse was covered entirely in crawling blood-red ivy, the picturesque grounds in glowing snow.
I tried to resist losing myself to the awe of getting to see it all, and I promptly failed when I thought of living there.
Butterflies flooded my stomach. I cleared my throat and shook my head a little. Now was not the time for daydreams. I had to keep my feet and heart planted firmly on the ground. “How will you help me find my family?”
Florian was silent for a long moment, but his heat still warmed my back. “Should you have any, then I will have my people begin the search for the answers you seek immediately.”
“And if I wish to seek those answers myself?”
He hummed. “I suppose you may, though you will be confined to my kingdom.”
Something told me he was already aware that if I had any family, they did not reside in Hellebore. That perhaps he’d already done some searching of his own. Though that didn’t mean I couldn’t at least discover where they might be and do what I could to reach them.
My eyes drifted over the ink upon the parchment. Unease and excitement tangled, making it hard to think. His drugging presence made it nearly impossible. “This is only escapable via death, Majesty.”
“Florian.”
I smirked. “Florian.”
He made a sound close to a purr, as though he enjoyed hearing his name cross my lips. “These things are often dramatic. You can break such a commitment if both parties agree to it.”
“And if I do wish to one day leave the marriage?”
His mouth skimmed my throat, silken and hypnotic. “You believe I will give you reason to want to leave me?”
“I do not know you very well.” A ginormous understatement.
“Do you need to?” he challenged to my ear. “Know that I will keep you content, and you will want for nothing, including those answers you seek.”
He stepped back, just far enough for me to stare at him over my shoulder. I couldn’t help but believe him. Or perhaps I was merely so desperate it wouldn’t matter if I didn’t.
He had me, and he knew it. All I was doing was wasting his time, and my own, with my struggle to surrender completely.
Florian didn’t gloat. He watched in warming silence as I read the contract three times over and slowly lifted my finger to my sharp canines. It took a moment to find the courage to bite hard enough to draw blood.
Still standing at my back, Florian’s soft chuckle was a welcome and sensual distraction.
My heart shook, but my hand was steady as I lowered my finger to the thick parchment. Though the puncture I’d made was small, it was enough.
I pressed my blood to the awaiting space next to his own.
Florian snatched my hand when it rose from the contract and brought it to his mouth. The gentle heat of his tongue, the sucking pull as his lips enclosed the digit, created a string of fire that unraveled straight to my core.
Eyes glinting knowingly, he released me. “Sweet indeed.”
I ducked my head and inspected my clean fingertip. “When will I accompany you to Folkyn?”
The king rolled the parchment, and it disappeared inside a flurry of snowflakes. I watched them fall to the wood floor in wonder, as he said, “Tonight.”
Florian gestured for me to enter the apartment first.
It seemed surreal that he was here. A king in this place in which I’d spent most of my life trapped. But when I’d insisted on needing to visit the apartment before we left, he’d refused to let me do so alone.
We’d walked in brisk silence down the street, and though his hands had been tucked within his pant pockets and he’d been looking straight ahead, I’d sensed he was alert. I suspected it had nothing to do with the grumbling sky. Rather, it had something to do with the gold-eyed male from the alleyway.