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“Perhaps not a wilting wallflower, no. But you are a virgin. Your clan dubbed you the Virgin Queen. We already know how important that title is and what your father’s intentions are.”
My eyes sharpened on him. He knew? No, no, he couldn’t know. No one knew for sure of my father’s intention of handing the kingdom over to me. It was an exceptional move, a delicate time. It wouldn’t do for his plan to come out before everything was set in place, before my own clan accepted me as queen.
“Anything between us would be…complicated,” he concluded with a frustrated sigh. “Impossible.”
I flinched. Touché. There was no denying that.
His lips swept over the corner of my mouth down to the edge of my jaw and back up again. “Don’t think for an instant that I didn’t want you then or that I don’t want you now. Even though I tried to convince myself I hated you, I want you every moment of every day. Don’t even get me started on the nights…thoughts of you sleeping nude in your bed torment me. Tortures me. Why do you think I’m so sleep-deprived?”
“I thought you didn’t sleep because of my nightmares,” I whispered. “And I don’t sleep nude in this house.”
I did at home, but that was none of his business.
“Your nightmares wake me up, of course, but I don’t need you to sleep naked for me to be tormented by fantasies of you doing that and more. So much more,” he murmured against the shell of my ear, giving my earlobe a nip that had me biting down on my lips to suppress a strangled groan.
My heart rate picked up, and he could feel it underneath his fingers. I squirmed in my seat because his husky voice was doing things to me that I had no business allowing, but my body had a mind of its own when it came to Tatum.
“I’d said anything between us was impossible, but the night of the hurricane—not knowing if you were dead or alive—changed everything. Everything. I blame myself. You should’ve been under my roof, where I could watch over you. You should’ve been in my bed, with me balls deep inside you.”
My head was shaking emphatically. I placed my hand over his soft lips to shush him before he went on because anything between us was still impossible. Wasn’t it?
He gently pushed my hand off and continued, “Now, sweetness, now the world has tilted on its axis. What was once impossible will become reality. The ball’s in your court. You decide what you want but know this: I’m at your beck and call. Just say the word, my queen, and I’ll give it to you because I’m all in.”
The walls I’d erected against this man were crumbling fast, leaving me helpless, but I couldn’t lower my defenses. Not only was he giving me whiplash with the fast turnabout, but I’d worked too hard to get to where I was. My father and family depended on me. He’d blasted away the anger of our first kiss, but I still didn’t trust him. What if this was a ploy to get me to go easy on the Lupu clan, to let them in, and once in, they would take and take until we were but figureheads and nothing more?
These Lupu men were wily, and while I believed the authenticity of his concern, it didn’t mean he couldn’t exploit my feelings for him. Erode my suspicions, wheedle himself into my heart and then, pow, manipulate me to give away too much of the Hagi power, leaving the Lupu clan to rule over Los Angeles like they did New York City. Even if he was completely genuine, I still had to focus on my goal, which was a smooth transition to Hagi sefhood. I’d worked too hard to get to where I was and wasn’t about to renounce my crown for him.
As much as my body clamored for him, as much as I ached to open my heart up to him, I couldn’t allow anything to happen.
“No,” I said, placing my hand over his securely collared around the base of my throat and attempting to push it off. “You were right to call it a mistake. It was.”
His grip tightened for half a second before he allowed me to remove it. Just in the nick of time since Alex’s grandmother walked into the dining room carrying his plate of omelet.
Tatum unclenched his jaw and turned to thank Bunica. Coward that I was, I took the opportunity to slip out of my seat. I grabbed my empty plate, hurried to leave it in the kitchen sink, and then took the long way around through the living room and sped up the stairs to hide out in my bedroom.
Twisting the lock closed, I leaned back against the door. Regret bled into my aching heart, but I’d done the right thing. He was right when he said it was an unnecessary complication. My ego had smarted after our kiss, but in retrospect, I had to admit he’d made a wise move.
While Tatum hadn’t looked happy downstairs, he’d accept my decision.
I chewed on my lower lip.
He will accept it, won’t he?
Knowing Tatum, anything could happen.
