Page 252 of The Dark Lord’s Guide to Honeymooning (and Other Acts of Tyranny)

“Just realizing I conquered the wrong kingdom.” I turned down the final corridor to our chambers. “All those years obsessing over Solandris when I should have been conquering you.”

“You did conquer me.” She nipped at my throat. “Repeatedly. Enthusiastically. In many different positions.”

“And yet you conquered me right back.” I shouldered open our door. “Seems we’re at an impasse.”

“Mutual conquest, then.” She slid from my arms the moment we crossed the threshold, already pulling at the leather of her armor. “Though right now I’d settle for conquering a bath.”

“No.” I caught her wrist, spinning her back against me. “Bath later.”

“Kaz, we’re filthy—”

“Good.” I backed her toward the bed, my hands already working at her remaining clothes. “I want you exactly like this. Covered in the evidence of what we survived. What we won.”

Her pupils dilated, and I felt the spike of heat through our bond. “That’s… unexpectedly romantic.”

I tore through the last of her armor, baring her to my hungry gaze. Dark purple bruises were forming over her ribs. I traced each one reverently. “Romance is clearly a tool for men who are catastrophically in love with their wives.”

She laughed, the sound bright and alive and everything I’d been terrified I’d never hear again. “Catastrophically?”

“Utterly. Completely. Catastrophically.” I shed my own ruined clothes, not caring where they landed. My runes pulsed in anticipation. “I tried to resist it. Failed spectacularly.”

“Your first failure in years, I’d imagine.”

I pressed her back onto the bed, covering her body with mine. “I’ve been failing at resisting you since the day we met.”

Her legs wrapped around my waist, pulling me closer. “The day you kidnapped me, you mean.”

“Best decision I ever made.” I caught her wrists, pinning them above her head. “Even if you did ruin all my careful plans.”

“Your plans were terrible.” She arched beneath me, testing my grip.

“But they worked out okay in the end.” I leaned down to bite the junction of her neck and shoulder, marking her. “Instead, I fell in love with you. Gave you my power, my fortress, my entire fucking heart. Completely destroyed my reputation as a proper villain.”

“You freed an ancient evil to save me.” Her breath hitched as I moved lower, my lips and tongue trailing over her breastbone, my tongue tasting the salt on her skin. “I think your villain credentials are intact.”

I released her wrists to grip her thighs, spreading her wider. “I love you.”

She tangled her fingers in my hair, tugging hard enough to make the runes along my spine flare with delicious pain. “I love your methods. I love your darkness. I love—oh fuck, Kaz—”

I cut off her words with my mouth on her, determined to worship every part of her properly. She was wet and wanting, her body responding to my touch like we were made for this—made for each other. I’d had her countless times since our wedding, but this felt different.

No secrets. No ancient evils. No unspoken feelings. Just us.

I licked her slit from one end to the other, tasting her before plunging my tongue inside her. My shadows wrapped around her thighs, holding her open for me.

She gasped, hips rolling against my mouth, her grip on my hair tightening. I replaced my tongue with my fingers and began working her, curling them to hit that spot that made her see stars. She shattered with my name on her lips, her release flooding through our bond and nearly undoing me. But I wasn’t done. Not even close.

I kissed my way back up her body, savoring the salt of her sweat, the rapid beat of her pulse. When I reached her mouth, she kissed me while wrapping one hand around my erection.

“Inside me,” she demanded against my lips. “Now.”

“I’ve created a monster.” I positioned myself at her entrance, rubbing up and down with the head of my cock. “A beautiful, deadly monster.”

She wrapped her legs around me again, using the leverage to pull me closer. “A monster that can match your darkness. That has killed for you and would do it again.”

I slid inside her, her walls stretching around me, forcing me to pause as I adjusted. “We fit together so perfectly.” I caught her throat in a light grip—not squeezing, just holding. Claiming. “The way you’ve carved out a place in my chest and filled it so completely, I can’t imagine existing without you.”

“Good.” Her nails raked down my back, leaving marks I’d wear proudly. “Because you’re stuck with me. Forever.”