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Kleitos nodded and stood as well. “I’ll go now. Your meeting with the King provides the perfect distraction. I’ll head out first and wait in the woods until I see your carriage.” Then he turned to me, his voice calm but resolute. “You, make sure you're taken care of. I’ll be back by morning. And then, we begin.” He came to my side for only a moment, placing his hand on my shoulder before he and Lord Draco departed the room, leaving Valentina and me alone in the office. The air felt heavier in their absence. Now, both of them were on their way to the King’s palace, and suddenly my small world felt tilted on its axis.

If Kleitos were caught… if Lord Draco were exposed for working alongside him, working for me, then what? My blood turned cold, a sharp chill twisting in my stomach. These two strangers had somehow become my pillars in a world that still didn’t feel entirely mine. Watching them walk away made my chest ache in ways I didn’t expect. My only comfort was that Valentina was here, safe, and her name hadn’t been linked to that massacre.

Still, everything around us felt fragile. Every corner came with a new threat. First, Mark and his strange, shifting allegiance, and now, these guards posted in the city. I trusted Kleitos and Lord Draco. I knew they’d been working for years to protect me and the greater good of Eari. But it wasn’t them I worried about; it was the swarm of opposing forces tightening around us.

Valentina, always in tune with me, leaned her head gently against my shoulder. Her arm wrapped around my waist, drawing me closer. I melted into her touch, eyes fluttering shut, letting the warmth of her body soften the storm inside me. She just… knew how to calm me. “How about I take you to my room?” she asked, a sly smile laced through her voice.

My eyes opened at that, the mark on my chest tingling at her words. My mind immediately slipped into the unholiest of places. Raising a brow, I turned to her. “And do what?” I asked, voice low, teasing.

She bit her lip, her gaze dropping from mine to trace the lines of my tunic, like she was peeling the layers away in her mind. When her eyes finally met mine again, there was something different swimming in them. Something I’d never seen before.

It was want.

It was need.

It melted every coherent thought I had.

“Anything,” she said, her voice soft… but sure.

Fuck. What?

Blinking at her, I was stunned. My brain short-circuited, struggling to reboot. She couldn’t have meant that. Not like that. She was too innocent, too untouched. There was no way she understood what she was saying. What anything could mean. What I would want it to mean.

A deep crimson flushed across my cheeks, burning red. I tired to speak but words were caught somewhere in my throat. The heat that rushed between my legs was instant and alarming, and I had to physically shake my thoughts loose before they claimed me completely.

She didn’t know what she was saying.

Even if she did… she wasn’t ready for anything.

Her laugh rattled through my core, a soft, mischievous thing that made my heart stutter in my chest. The way her eyes sparkled at my sudden discomfort, at my complete lack of words, sent another wave of chills down my spine. I rolled my neck, desperate to regain composure, but my thoughts betrayed me.

They wandered, no, crashed, back to the dream.

To the way I’d watched a version of myself cup her breasts like they were molded for my hands. The way her curves fit beneath me, warm and yielding. The way my body had moved with hers, like instinct. Like fate.

It had been one of the most sexually awakening moments I’d ever experienced. And that wasn’t a high bar, my past encounters were brief, disconnected… forgettable. Nothing like this. Nothing like her. Closing my eyes and I exhaled slowly, dragging the air from my lungs like it might carry the tension out with it. “You don’t even know what you’re talking about,” I muttered, half to her, half to myself.

But her fingers… her damn fingers. They traced down the side of my neck, featherlight, curling along the slope of my throat to my collarbone. It was innocent enough. Barely a touch. And yet it lit my nerves on fire. Electricity sparked from my ears to just below my navel, white-hot and hungry. Leaning in, Valentina’s lips brushed against the edge of my jaw, soft, reverent. My mouth fell open. My tongue swept my lower lip, desperate for control I no longer had.

“I just want to feel you next to me,” she murmured against my skin.

A low, guttural sound broke from my throat. It wasn’t a word. It wasn’t even human. Just need, unfiltered and raw. “I can… sleep next to you,” I managed, forcing the words out. They tasted like surrender. I was fighting every instinct, every ancient, primal part of me, that wanted to believe she meant more.

Her body deflated against me the second I said sleep. The tension in her frame softened, but not in relief, in quiet disappointment. Valentina pulled away, her warmth slipping from my side, and the absence hit me like a sudden chill. I instantly missed her touch. And regretted my words. Sighing heavily she withdrew her hands completely.

Finally opening my eyes I looked down at her. The sight of her expression knocked the breath from my lungs. Her brows were drawn in, her lips tugged into a delicate frown, and her eyes… her eyes held something raw and wounded behind them. A silent kind of hurt that pierced deeper than any accusation. My chest tightened, heart aching with guilt. Without thinking, my hands moved to cup her face, gently, carefully, just so she couldn’t look away from me.

“What’s wrong?” I asked, my voice low, aching with concern.

Her eyes flicked up to mine, shimmering. “You don’t want me?” she asked, her voice trembling with vulnerability. It cracked in the middle, and I felt it echo in my ribs.

“No, Valentina, I didn’t say that.” I shook my head, searching her face like I could mend the hurt with just my gaze. “I do want you. I just said I’d sleep next to you. That’s all.” I didn’t mean for it to feel like rejection. I hadn’t meant to pull away. I respected her too much to take something from her in a moment of chaos, when the world outside was still falling apart. This wasn’t about doubt. It was about timing. It was about wanting the moment to mean everything, not just something to cling to when everything else felt uncertain.

Her angelic voice cut through those thoughts like a blade, soft, yet impossibly sharp. “I didn’t say I wanted to sleep,” she whispered. “I said I wanted to feel you. I want… every part of you.” My heart stuttered. My groin ached. And every inch of my restraint screamed under the weight of her words. She didn’t know what she was asking. Or maybe she did. Maybe she knew exactly what she wanted and it was me who wasn’t ready to admit the truth.

Because the truth was… I wanted her too. More than anything.

I just didn’t know if I deserved her yet.