Queen of Chaos (Legacy of the Nine Realms, #5)(31)
The night we’d shared together before I’d left had made it harder to leave. I’d wanted to stay in the security of his warmth, and the protection of his arms. But I couldn’t, not if we wanted to end the threat against all of us. It wasn’t just about me, or I’d have considered doing exactly that. The thing was, there was an entire world depending on us. I couldn’t lay about in bed with him, no matter how badly I wished to do so. Plus, I needed to put the bitch down for what she’d taken from me, from us.
The man wasn’t just my enemy through one bloodline, but rather both. If I hadn’t been born in the human world, how differently would I see Knox’s plight? Would I have lived as oblivious as those within the new realm were?
I’d survived an upbringing that would’ve broken most beings. It was what had sharpened my claws to lethal points. In that place, they had never accepted me for who—or what—I was. From the first moment I could remember, I’d never felt at home in that place. My whole life, I’d wondered why its entirety exuded wrongness, depriving me of the ability to fully appreciate its merits or flaws, but it was because it wasn’t my home. This man, he alone, made me feel at peace. Knox might have been brutal and I was certain we weren’t past all the bumps in our road, but I knew I didn’t want to walk down it without him beside me.
A flash of brilliant color forced my eyes from the perfection of my mate. In the garden beyond the circular courtyard, women were using fans to battle the afternoon heat. Swallowing past the need to rip their spines out from their mouth, I watched one rise from her seat. Slowly, she ambled closer to the men without a care for the deadly swords they were using. Grinding my teeth as she paused next to the younger men, she dropped a canary-yellow cloth on purpose.
At the same moment she’d dropped it, Knox disarmed both men in a calculated, skilled move of swordsmanship. The woman, who was even now moving closer as she waited for Knox to retrieve her swath of fabric, toyed with the bodice of her gown. My teeth sank into my lip as my back twitched and my nails pushed through the flesh of my fingertips.
Knox bent to retrieve the scrap of fabric, giving the woman’s greedy eyes a chance to devour the sight of his shirtless chest. Instead of holding his hand out, he turned to say something to one of the men, and the woman stepped closer to him. My heart clenched as I stepped back, allowing the shadows to swallow my presence. When he turned back, her palm reached for his chest, but Knox stepped back from her.
The woman didn’t take the hint. Instead, she smiled enticingly as he lowered his head. My mind whirled with suspicion as I wondered if he was staring at the cleavage the bodice of her gown put on display. Nausea churned in the pit of my abdomen as I felt the floor crumbling at my feet. Her hand snaked up, running over my guy’s chest.
“Step away from the king, Fay,” Killian snapped, which forced her eyes to flash with anger. “I won’t ask you again. When the king tells you to step back? You fucking do as he commands. King Karnavious isn’t interested in the flesh you’re peddling here. Now, step the fuck back.”
Fay, who I was guessing was a courtesan, didn’t appear to care about Killian’s warning. Her hand remained on Knox’s chest, which forced a rattle to rip from my throat. Knox’s head swung toward the palace in which I stood, creeping up the side of the tower until his gaze clashed with mine. The moment our eyes locked, the world fell away. Silence enveloped us as only we existed within the surrounding space.
It was what told me he wasn’t just a man I enjoyed being around. It created an entire storm within my body. It rolled through me in violent waves, as if he was a hurricane sweeping over my shores, battering anything in its forceful, destructiveness as he made landfall. My nipples pebbled. Heat unfurled in my abdomen, and then flowed to a pulse located in my clit. I felt my spine arch with a gentle curve as if every part of me belonged to him, and him alone.
Stepping into the sunlight, I continued rattling in warning. It grew louder until the woman’s focus settled on me as well. She retreated, showing she had at least two brain cells in her head. The sugary tang of her fear carried to me on the gentle breeze, enticing to the beast within me who wanted her blood for touching what belonged to us. The smile on Knox’s lips caused everything inside me to grow taut with lustful need. A smile played on my lips as my palms braced on the wooden railing of the balcony. Knox sauntered toward me, which sent my need, fear, and anticipation to new heights. The combination was heady, yet undeniably erotic as I followed him until he vanished beneath the balcony railing.
Losing sight of him caused my heart to ache. I’d enjoyed drinking in the hard muscular body that was tense from straining from defending against the men trying to disarm him. Covered in a fine sheen of sweat, it had fucking glistened beneath the suns warm, heated rays.
Knox without a shirt on was criminal. His entire body was deliciously hard edges, smooth lines, and inked to utter perfection that I could stare at day in and day out for the rest of my existence. Hell, I didn’t blame Fay for trying to lure him between her thighs. If I were her, I’d want that man too. Only, he was mine, and if she thought she’d take him from me, she was wrong. Dead wrong. Because that was what she’d be if she touched him again.
The woman had slithered back to her group on the edge of the garden, and I doubted she knew how lucky she was that Knox hadn’t responded to what she’d been offering him. My attention slid to Brander, who offered a wave with a boyish grin on his kissable lips. Killian, being Killian, confidently folded his arms over his amply muscled chest, nodding a silent ‘hello’. A bevy of shirtless men sat in front of Greer, listening intently to whatever he was currently telling them with wonder stamped on their faces.