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Well damn, he had me there, and he knew it, as he laughed. The sound only made him more unbearable. But determined not to surrender with what little dignity I still possessed, I shifted again, attempting to wriggle free. It was a terrible decision. The movement earned me a sharp swat on the backside that echoed through the corridor, immediately freezing every coherent thought in my head.
My mouth literally fell open…. like a guppy. A very pissed-off, shocked guppy. Because seriously, the nerve of this man!
I lifted myself up slightly, pushing against his lower back to glare at him upside down.
“Did you seriously just smack my ass?”
“Why? Did you enjoy it, little bird?”
He looked down to his side, where my face dangled, and I made a strange, strangled noise that was anything but dignified.
“So, what exactly is your plan here? What are you doing?”
“I’m doing what I should have done from the beginning.”
The smug satisfaction in his voice was enough to make me seriously consider throwing him onto the floor for a second time, only this time onto a bed of nails, because surely someone had one in this kingdom.
“Again, I hate you.”
“And once again, no, you don’t.” Was his quick, amused reply.
“Fine, I don’t, I love you, but that doesn’t mean I like you right now,” I said, repeating my previous statement, and he laughed.
“Then, lucky for you, I know just how to change that.”
The smug bastard sounded far too certain of that fact, and I wasn’t surprised, as he could feel for himself how much it made me squirm over his shoulder.
The corridor stretched ahead of us as Atlas continued walking, seemingly unconcerned by my threats and complaints, or my repeated attempts to convince him that carrying me around like a sack of potatoes was deeply inappropriate royal behavior. Every now and then, a servant would appear in the distance, take one look at the scene unfolding before them, and immediately decide they had somewhere else to be.
Honestly, I couldn’t blame them.
Eventually, I huffed out an annoyed breath and let my head hang slightly.
“Okay, so where exactly are you taking me, oh mighty king?”
Atlas’s hand adjusted fractionally against the backs of my legs as he continued walking without breaking stride. The movement was almost absent-minded, yet strangely careful all the same, and for a moment I wondered if he’d even answer.
Then his voice drifted down to me.
“Where I’ve wanted to take you since the first moment I laid eyes on you.”
The words sent an entirely different kind of awareness through me, and I swear my stomach performed an alarming little flip.
Slowly, I lifted my head.
“And… erm… Where’s that?” I stammered out.
A smile appeared in Atlas’s voice before it ever reached his face.
When he finally glanced back over his shoulder, the expression waiting there was equal parts victorious, amused, and entirely too handsome for his own good.
Especially when he said…
“My bedchamber.”
Being carried upside down over Atlas’s shoulder wasn’t exactly my idea of fun, but at least now I knew where the destination was, although I wasn’t sure that made it any easier.
Knowing where we were going seemed to be making me even more aware of it. Every step he took only reminded me that he had very deliberately announced he was taking me to his bedchamber. And let’s just say that judging by the pace he was setting, he appeared just as eager to get there as I was.
