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So, he experimented. Between the two books, he was making some headway toward reducing Marli’s skittish, claw-threatening attitude.
He’d also discovered that the more she relaxed around him, the more he enjoyed having her around.
His goal had changed from ‘just a good fuck’ to actually having her like him.
And in order to do that, he had to set aside his expectations, observe, and maybe put some effort into being likable.
Practicing etiquette had great perks.
Not snarling and growling at everything that displeased him, as was expected in a male-dominated domain. Females viewed that as threatening.
Looking her in the eyes, which, if he wasn’t careful, would get him lost in their amber glow, lit by her blinding smile.
Once, he heard her laugh, and tried to think of ways to hear it again.
He had thought he wanted to dominate her, and abhorred the idea that she might want to do the same to him.
Now?
He didn’t like the idea of domination so much as mutual lust.
The delight in her face over that book had been too much, and the urge to kiss her blocked every other thought in his brain, though he’d dimly noted the title he’d been there to find was right by her head.
Still, he had leaned in, drawing her scent deep into himself.
She smells so fucking sweet. I can’t get enough of her.
And her taste. His mouth on hers, drinking her in.
Intoxicating.
It’s just as well the librarian broke the spell, otherwise I’d have taken her right there against the shelf.
It took him a moment to breathe and try to control the blood rush to his dick.
He reflected on the overwhelming instinct to have her. The desire to make her his—but not just in the sexual sense.
Stenlen wanted more. The need for more of her pounded through his heart.
The need to protect her.
His need to be the one to make her smile and the one to taste her lips.
The only one to make love to her, when the time was right.
He still examined his old self. The youngling self that had gotten his heart ripped apart and hedged that sense of devotion and single-minded adoration.
I haven’t been that dragon in a long, long time.
He also examined his more recent self, after decades of remaining separate from everyone else, as Kargassa had advised, as ‘the best way to control every situation to your benefit.’
Sten lately realized that Kargassa knew what he was talking about because it was like a pyramid. His subordinates were isolated and focused on their duty—to him.
Sten had been called ‘traitor’ so many times in the weeks since Kargassa’s fall that it was starting to roll off his scales. He had disobeyed his king. Technically, he was a traitor. And he still warred with himself over this.
The new king didn’t expect absolute loyalty in the same way Kargassa had.
Nor was he weak.
