Page 61 of Wicked Queen

“So we set limits and safe words and boundaries.” I refused to follow him into this cycle of self-recrimination. “If you need to take me back to our room right now and work this out, I’ll go. I’m not afraid of you.”

Alexander took a step away from me, shaking his head, horror-struck by that suggestion. He raised a hand. “Do you see how it’s trembling? I’m full of rage and I would love to hit something. But that will never be you. Not like that. I will never touch you while I’m angry. That’s a hard limit—for both our sakes.”

I nodded, wondering how I could soothe the war raging inside him. The answer was so simple I’d almost missed it. Reaching out I took his trembling hand and laced it through my own.

“I’m right here, X,” I reminded him. “We can do anything together.”

He looked like he wanted to believe me.

Chapter 20

Alexander

It was past midnight before I received the all-clear that the palace was free of guests. Clara dozed in a chair near the office fireplace, waiting for the rest of the group to meet us. There was no point in putting off the inevitable any longer. We’d tried. No one could say otherwise. But three days with Sarah was all the taste of hell-on-Earth I needed to know that another arrangement had to be made.

Norris entered the room, drawing off his tie. “I need a raise.”

“Consider it done,” I promised.

I didn’t know what I’d do without him, and I hoped to never find out. As often as I bristled against his advice, I trusted his counsel and more than that I trusted the man himself. Having him by my side was as close as I would ever get to being in two places at once.

As soon as I’d seen the scope of Sarah’s stupidity in inviting so many strangers into the Palace, I’d turned to him. Norris, as always, had a solution. The benefit of having a gated home and an entire Royal guard coupled with a more discreet private security force was that no one was able to leave without going through us. That had taken time.

I’d thought it was time well spent until I’d found my sister shagging Jonathan bloody Thompson. And then? All hell had broken loose.

“Scotch?” I offered Norris and he nodded. It was a sign of the calamity of the night’s events that he accepted.

“I’m off the clock,” he said as I passed him a glass.

Never in all the years I’d known him had he said that. I swallowed my drink quickly. “You don’t have to stay.”

“I’m here as a friend. I…” he hesitated for a moment, “I need to be able to speak freely.”

“And not as my advisor?” I leaned back in the chair, contemplating what that might entail. Norris always spoke freely as far as I knew. He’d told me off for being a wanker. He’d taken Clara’s side more times than I could count. If he’d been holding back…

“You’re here as family,” Clara said sleepily.

“You don’t pay family,” Norris reminded her gently.

“Don’t fool yourself. We’re in the family business,” she said with a derisive snort. “We’re all paid to be a family and you are definitely our family.”

“She’s right,” I added. “You’ve been more of a father to me than mine ever was, and you know it.”

“Should I come back after you’re through with the circle of love?” Georgia asked, leaning against the doorframe.

I gave Clara a sharp look, but she didn’t even blink.

“I asked her to come,” Clara said. “This involves her now.”

“Our past—”

“Let’s wait for everyone,” Clara stopped me.

Edward and David arrived last, although I couldn’t fathom why. “How long does it take to send a girl back to her room?”

“I don’t have as much practice with that as you,” Edward said dryly.

“And said girl was practically climbing the walls,” David said.