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Her chin lifted. “Who cares what Lysander wanted?”
I stared at her, horrified. How could she think that?
But she’d barely known him. I might have more memories of her father’s love for her than she did.
“My father set something in motion,” she said stubbornly. “And he left children to deal with it. You and me. We were both just kids.”
“Stop saying that. We weren’t both kids.Youwere a kid, and I was ten years older.” I still was.
She shook her head, rejecting the idea.
“Lysander shouldn’t have made you make that promise,” she said. “You wanted to please him. He was like a father to you, right?”
The words stung. “We’re not talking about me right now. We’re talking about the stupid shit you—”
“But it’s all tied up together, isn’t it?” she demanded. “You’re so furious because you try to keep your distance, because I’m supposed to act and be a certain way, so your sacrifices are worth it. But no one should have asked you to make those sacrifices in the first place!”
“I would have spent my life protecting you without Lysander’s promise!”
“And why is that, Damyn?”
“You know why.” The words came out a growl, yanked from my chest.
“No.” She shook her head. “I want to hear it.”
“Because I care about you, you insufferable brat.” Even that word,care,was so insufficient. But it was the only one I could manage.
She stared up at me, still lit with defiance. “Was that so hard to admit?”
She wasn’t going to say the words back.
“Yes. Because you’re still just a girl, who has so much growing up to do, and I’m—”
“A scary hardened dragon knight, I know, I know,” she said, and then she leapt toward me, her hands steadying herself against my chest. I stared down at her, not sure what she was doing, as she bobbed onto her toes.
Her lips crashed against mine.
Shock held me motionless. Her lips were soft and warm and everything I ever wanted. She was so beautiful, with her red hair falling around her face, her lashes drifting shut. There were faint freckles on her nose; I was never close enough to see them.
As reality came back to me, I pulled away, gripping her upper arms. She looked up at me with those eyes still flashing, with her impertinent pouty lips.
“Stop trying to keep a distance between us that was never meant to be,” she said. “You know you’re mine.Mydragon knight. Meant to serve me as queen.”
There was something vulnerable in her gaze, no matter how brash her actions. She caught her red lower lip between her teeth.
“You are always my queen,” I admitted. She had to know that.
Her winsome smile blossomed across her face.
“But queen or not, all I want to do right now is spank you.”
That smile widened, and she might as well have saidyes.
“You are defiant and willful and selfless to a fault,” I scolded her as I wrapped one arm around her waist and threw her over my shoulder.
“Selflessness can’t be a fault, Damyn.” She sounded very relaxed for someone hanging upside down over my shoulder.
“It very much can be,” I disagreed. “When I want you safe.”
