“Anything else?”
He wasn’t going to let it go. I knew that tone. “He thinks Princessa Catalina Jamesovna Berezina has a nice ring to it.”
The muscle under my fingers went rock hard. My marker slipped.
“Damn it.” I reached for a cosmetic wipe and scrubbed the ruined glyph from his skin. “Do you want to be here all evening?”
“Yes and no. I had plans for tonight.”
Ah ha. “Were you naked in those plans?”
“Yes.”
“Well, see, they came true.”
I redrew the glyph and knelt to get better access to his side and hip.
“In my plans, we were both naked.”
I glanced up at him. “Would you like me to take my clothes off?”
His eyes flashed with orange. “No, it might not be safe.”
“You’re doing your seductive voice again.”
“I’m so sorry,” he purred. “Is it distracting you?”
“A little bit.”
“Clearly, I need to try harder.”
“You need to hold still so we can finish this. Don’t talk.”
I redrew the glyph and kept going.
“Konstantin does bring a lot to the table,” Alessandro said, as if thinking out loud. “He can look like anyone, which provides endless variety in bed. He is wealthy, powerful, and witty. Able to hold a stimulating conversation. And then of course, the perks of being a royal. The bowing, the rituals, the status. The family would benefit by association.”
I stopped and looked at him.
He gave me that sharp and funny Alessandro smile, the one that made me stare at him like a lovesick idiot every time he did it.
“But to get all of that, you would have to put up with Konstantin every day. And that would be a fate worse than death itself.”
“Are you done?” I asked him.
“Possibly.”
“I’m so glad. Please stop talking.”
“I love you, Catalina.”
I growled at him.
“You are so smart and beautiful.”
“Alessandro, shut up.”
“Your wings are breathtaking.”
I would punch him.
“You cook like a goddess . . .”
“Damn it!” I threw the marker on the floor.
He grabbed my hands and pulled me upright. His eyes were like molten amber. “Every time I wake up next to you, I feel like the luckiest man ever born. I can’t believe you chose me. You have all of me forever. In this whole world, there is no one like you.”
He touched my cheek with his fingertips and kissed me. There was so much tenderness in that kiss. It was made of love and hope, and it broke me. I had been trying to keep it together for so long, but no defense could’ve stood up to that.
He wiped the tears from my face with his fingers and touched my forehead with his. We stood an inch apart, the glyphs still drying on his skin.
“Don’t die tomorrow,” I told him.
“I won’t. I promise.”
Chapter 18
The northwest corner of the wall widened into a patio originally designed to offer a scenic backdrop for wedding photos. The patio was crowned by a pavilion we’d dubbed the Wedding Cake because it was ornate and ridiculous. After buying the Compound, the Wedding Cake was converted into an observation post complete with reinforced walls and massive bulletproof windows. We still called it the Wedding Cake, despite all the renovations and the fact that its charming table and chairs had been replaced by a utilitarian counter offering a variety of cameras and binoculars.
I stood inside it now, drinking coffee from a white mug with golden lettering on it. The letters said, “You got this.”
Dawn was breaking outside the ballistic window, the sky slowly flooding with red and orange. It promised to be one of those unforgettable Texas sunrises.
On the patio behind us, shielded from view by the Wedding Cake, Alessandro was drawing a complex arcane circle. I had a clear view of him through the open doors of the pavilion. He was dressed in black and my null blade rested in the sheath on his back.
Leon whistled a spaghetti western tune next to me.
“Shouldn’t you be in your tower?”
“All in good time, ma’am. I’m taking in the sights and getting the lay of the land. A man only gets one Alamo in his lifetime. If he’s lucky. I’m committing it to memory.”
He was wearing one of the Scorpion ballistic vests and a helmet, just like me. Running in that getup to the tower wouldn’t be the easiest thing in the world.
We had split our forces. We had two gates to protect, this one and the one in the south that faced Grandma Frida’s motor pool. Arkan would be a fool not to attack from both points, so Grandma Frida, half of our guards, Runa, and Grandma Victoria took the south side. After some discussion, we all collectively decided that Arabella would join them. Nobody wanted to say it out loud, but both grandmothers had celebrated their seventieth birthdays some time ago, and while their magic was as strong as ever, everyone felt better knowing my sister guarded their backs.