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Heat rushes to her cheeks, and she lifts a finger to her lips. “Shh, you mustn’t speak so candidly about that which must remain private. All you must do is lie there, mistress. Let him find his pleasure within your body so you may bear him an heir. It really won’t be so bad.”
I swallow hard. Horrified doesn’t even begin to cover my feelings on this subject. Sleep with Taranus? No freaking thank you. Not a chance in hell.
I’ll die first.
But I still need that key, and if the fact that he hasn’t touched me yet is any indication, he will not want to sleep with me until after we’re married. Here’s hoping he doesn’t want a preamble. “Take me to my future husband.”
Bea smiles. “With haste, Mistress.”
Our soft leather shoes move soundlessly across the floor as I follow Bea up a set of stairs and down a long hallway boasting a hunter-green runner. Every step I take brings more and more nerves to the surface, and I wonder if perhaps that’s not why he wants to meet beforehand.
Because he’s trying to rattle me.
So, instead of allowing my fear to show, I take a steady breath, then another, and remind myself that I am a woman who has faced down death every day for the last five years. I have fought against an unseen enemy who has been trying to claim my life every moment, and I am still standing.
Bea knocks, and a muffled, “You may enter,” reaches us through the door. She shoves it open and moves inside with me right behind her.
“Mistress Ember, My King.”
“Good. You may both come in.”
Taranus’s room is humongous, boasting a desk in one corner, two high-backed leather chairs in another, an enormous copper sunken bathtub, and—to my dismay—a perfectly made bed with four large posts and a crimson quilt.
Lloren stands beside where he’s seated behind the desk, holding what looks to be a quill in his hand.
I relax slightly. Surely he is not going to want to have sex with an audience. “You wished to see me?”
“Yes.” He slides the paper across the desk and leans back in his seat to study me. “You dressed well.”
“This is the outfit that was left out for me today.”
“Indeed, it is.” His gaze shifts from me to the woman beside him. She offers a curt nod, and he turns back to me. “Take it off.”
All air whooshes from my lungs like I’ve been sucker-punched. “Excuse me?”
“I said, take it off.”
“No.”
He shoves to his feet. “You are to be my wife. Tonight. Which means I will see you without that dress sooner or later.”
“Then it can be later.”
“No. I will see you before the marriage contract is signed.”
“I’m not undressing.”
“Bea.”
“Yes, My King.” Fingers brush the laces at the back, and I try to move forward, only to find my feet frozen in place.
“Let me go. Please.”
“Remove her dress.”
“Bea, please.”
But Bea does not listen to me, so I shift my attention to the woman beside him as I clutch my hands to the front of the dress. Her eyes shine brightly, and she grins at me.
