Page 126 of The Shadows Between Us
“And you let me talk about my mother. You helped me challenge the council. You put a stop to nearly every problem in my kingdom. You were not only perfect for me, you were perfect for Naxos. So then I knew that marrying you was what I had to do. For the good of the kingdom. Even if it meant I would be miserable every day having you near and nothaving you.
“But the most exquisite torture of all was the night at the gentleman’s club, when I could feel your reactions to me touching you. I didn’t know if it was because it wasmetouching you or if it was just because you hadn’t been touched in a while, as you’d mentioned before.
“I want a life with you, Alessandra, one without the shadows between us. And I don’t care about being vulnerable. That’s what my guards are for. I’ll get a poison taster. I will live as other kings do. I don’t need this centuries’ old gift that is really just a curse.
“And even if you don’t want me in return, I am still going to remove the law about people touching me. I don’t want this anymore. I’m tired of living a shadowed life.”
By now, Kallias’s knees dig into the other side of the tub, he’s so close. I can’t move. I’m both terrified and desperate to believe him. To let him be what he wants to be. To marry him for real.
Because there was Hektor.
But—
Kallias knows I killed Hektor. He knows all my secrets, and he doesn’t care. He wants me in spite of them. Because of them, even.
“Please say something,” he says.
“You made this decision before the attack tonight?”
He nods.
“You’ve wanted me… from the beginning?”
Another nod.
And I realize that if I tell him no, I’ll be just as he was. Alone becauseI’m terrified to be vulnerable. But I can get past that, as he is now, and I can have it all.
The power.
The kingdom.
The man.
“Come here,” I say, because my feet still ache slightly, and I also don’t know if I can move with the way he’s looking at me.
Kallias keeps his eyes on mine as he removes his gloves and lets them fall to the floor.
I swallow.
Between one blink and the next he’s before me. He raises one hand, cups my cheek. I lean into that touch. The one I’ve been craving for so long.
Then Kallias lifts me, holds me with one arm at my back and the other beneath my knees. My arms go to his neck, and I draw his face toward mine.
“I wanted to do this the very first time I saw you,” I say before our lips touch.
And then I’m aflame.
There is no softness or patience to this kiss. For Kallias, it is one he has waited a whole year for. And for me, I feel as though I’ve waited my whole life.
He stumbles slightly as he tries to veer around the tub without breaking the kiss, and I laugh against his lips before he silences me with his mouth.
I don’t know how he manages not to drop me. But he makes it all the way to my bed. All while giving the utmost attention to my lips.
I’m flat on my back while he holds himself above me, his mouth moving to investigate the slope of my neck.
“Promise me—” I start, and then I lose my train of thought as he finds a spot at the base of my throat and runs his teeth across it.
I put my hands on his shoulders, pushing him away for a moment, just so I can collect my thoughts. “Promise me you won’t send me away because I’m the one making you mortal. Promise me you won’t change your mind later and decide I’m not enough for the price of mortality.”
