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“Your two days to calm down and be rational are up, little killer.” His softly spoken words ought to sound condescending. They don't. After everything I’ve been through, the deep timbre of them, confident and smooth, shouldn’t be arousing. They are.
“Implications that a woman is hysterical and irrational because she disagrees with you is the height of toxic masculinity, Hunter. Even a minion such as yourself is surely above such insipid statements.” I’m playing with fire, but I’ve walked hand in hand with death for years. I’m not afraid.
“Ah, but I’m a minion who would be king. Remember?” Hunter takes a step toward me with every word he speaks until only the island of the kitchen separates us. Perhaps it's the wide polished concrete between us that lends strength and courage for my next words.
“A king only bows to his queen. I would have you on your knees before me.” I raise my chin and attempt to look like more than the abused girl with barely a high school diploma. I remind myself that before I fell prey to Xavier’s horrors, I had a life. I was a person with dreams and goals.
And maybe too much time has passed for those dreams to live again, but it’s not too late for me to set new goals for myself. Goals that will position me in a place to hold the power and peace to keep Snow safe. It will be enough. At least, that’s the story I’m telling myself.
“If I go to my knees for you, my queen, you will never want me to leave them.” Possessive heat flames in his dark eyes and for the first time I realize they aren’t devoid of expression. I wonder how I could have missed how clearly he transmits his emotions in them. Then again, until a few weeks ago, I rarely lifted my head high enough to meet anyone’s gaze, much less Xavier’s right hand man. Shame and fear are powerful motivators, and both kept me silent and as invisible as possible.
“Dream on, Hunter. I’d sooner chain my legs together than have you between them. Any union between us will be solely because you’ve blackmailed your way onto the throne and not because I’ve welcomed you into my bed.” I’m only lying a little.
The last time I took a lover for pleasure, I was still in high school. A child playing at being a woman with a child playing at manhood for a partner. A decade under Xavier’s torment should have doused any possible feminine desires. I’m finding being around Hunter, sparring with him verbally with the knowledge that I have the inner strength to protect myself, is an unexpected aphrodisiac.
Even now, weight from the revolver I liberated from the shelf in Xavier’s closet pulls my shorts to droop low where it’s crammed into my pocket. I haven’t spent a moment since his death without a weapon on me. I don’t know that I ever will again. What I do know is that I will never be any man’s tortured plaything again.
“You wound me, my queen.” He clutches a hand over his heart and pulls a sad face. Not that it stops him from rounding the island to stand before me.
“Would that it was so simple, you son of a bitch.” Every insult I fling at him makes the smile in his eyes brighter. Like a father proudly watching his son pitch a strikeout.
“Tell me what you want in exchange for leaving Snow alone.” I try to make my voice firm. Hopefully, I succeed.
“Straight to business, I see.” He lifts his hand to tuck a lock of hair that’s come loose from the sloppy bun I threw it in this morning behind my ear. My body doesn’t listen to directions to pull back from him, but I manage to resist the urge to rub my cheek into his palm.
This man is not for me, no matter what my unruly libido is claiming. After everything I’ve been through, the fact that I’m feeling arousal at all is shocking. I haven’t even taken care of my own sexual needs in more years than I can count. My body picking now to suddenly wake up and crave intimacy is dangerous and definitely not appreciated.
“What else is there?” I ask.
“I don’t think you’re ready for me to answer that, Glory.” Hunter so rarely says my name aloud. Hearing it now has my heart cracking and longing leaking out.
“Then stick to business and tell me your terms.” I need this conversation to be done with so I can get to my room and figure out why my body’s prickling with arousal and affection for the one man still alive I should be running from.
“My terms are simple, little killer. Marriage to legitimatize my place beside you as the head of the family. It will stabilize operations across the portfolio of businesses held by Kingston and settle the men down. You’ll also have less to worry about if the other families know you’re not available for their marriage plays.”
I hadn’t even thought about the heads of the other families thinking to move into power in Kingston through marriage to me. I knew Snow would be at risk, which is why I sent her away.
“No one’s making a play for marriage to me, Hunter. Snow, maybe. But she’s safely away from here and she’ll stay that way. Do I make myself clear?” Nothing matters more than that.
“You’re lying to yourself if you think others aren’t having the same ideas I am. Marriage to the queen lays claim to everything Kingston stands for.” He shakes his head at me like I’m a naive child for believing myself safe from the machinations of men playing with power.
“Fine. Marriage to stabilize the Kingston holdings. In name only. No sex.” I know I’m throwing down a gauntlet I can’t hope to maintain. Eventually, if this man tries to fuck me, I’m going to let him. I can lie to him, but I can’t lie to myself.
Six
Hunter
Glory’s proclamation that she’ll marry me in name only has triumph warring with defeat inside me. Irrationally, I want to scoop her into my arms and beg her to feel the way I do. Logically, I know that’s not possible. While I was wrapping my head around how I felt about her and how to get her out of the suffering she was enduring at Xavier’s hands, she was just trying to survive and protect her stepdaughter.
“The officiant can be here in two hours. Will you require additional time to make arrangements or should I send Juliet to fetch the dress I’ve selected for you?”
“You picked a dress. Why doesn’t that surprise me? You’re going to be every bit as controlling as he was, aren’t you?” Her words wound me more deeply than she knows.
“I don’t want to control you, my queen. Protect and cherish you, yes. Control, no. But the best way to protect you and Snow both is to ensure the world knows you’re under my protection.” It’s no exaggeration, but the notion that she thinks I’m just like her dead husband rankles.
There’s already backchannel chatter capitalizing on Xavier’s death to grow the holdings of some of the other families. I’ve done what I can to squash it, but without claiming status as head of the family, there’s only so much I can manage.
“Men like you don’t cherish anything but power, Hunter. Don’t expect me to believe you feel something for me beyond ownership and dominion. Xavier may have been a lot of things, but at least he never played at being a caring husband. I’ll warn you now, I may marry you to protect Snow, just as I did Xavier, but you’ll get the same end as he did if you think I’ll accept more cruelty.” Her words strike me deep, and my fists clench involuntarily. I want to fight, to overcome her opinion, but I’ll never strike her in anger.
