Ashes of Chaos (Legacy of the Nine Realms #2) - Amelia Hutchins Page 0,154

was blue in the face, but it wouldn’t change his mind.

He started to argue when I refused to turn around, but I rolled my eyes. The man had my heart hammering painfully against my ribcage. The ravens within my belly were fighting for freedom, and the heated look in his stare told me he felt the magic at work.

I opened my mouth to speak, and Knox opened the bottle. A soft smile played on his lips the moment the scent lingered between us. I turned away from him, inhaling the rose-scented shampoo deeply. He lathered his hands before tossing it back toward the bag.

“Did you steal my shampoo, King Karnavious?” I questioned, sucking my bottom lip between my teeth to still the smile that was spreading.

“No. I had some commissioned for when I captured you. I brought it with me, knowing that once I had you, I would want you to smell as you had when we first met. I find the scent soothing and beautiful. I like it on you almost as much as I enjoy your cunt’s scent during your heat. Although, together, they make you irresistibility delicious smelling.”

I snorted, shaking my head at his reply. He collected my waist-length hair, working the blissful-scented shampoo into it before reaching my scalp. His fingers were heaven, massaging the soap into my hair, forcing me to moan at the skillful way he kneaded my scalp.

He’d done it before, obviously, and that knowledge created an ache in my chest that didn’t sit well with me.

“It was a little presumptuous to assume you would catch me, wasn’t it?” I asked, and his deep chuckle made my hackles rise. He abruptly shoved me beneath the water, and I shot back up, sputtering. “Dick move,” I said, coughing while he inspected my hair for any remaining soap.

“There was no chance of me not capturing you, Aria. Your scent lured me to you, and the idea of you unprotected in a world that enjoys harming pretty things didn’t sit well with me or my beast. You’re not pretty,” he stated, causing my eyes to narrow on him. “You’re fucking gorgeous. I won’t allow them to alter that beautiful soul or mind of yours, not even a little.”

“You think my mind is beautiful?” I countered, studying the way he watched me. He didn’t open up about his feelings for me easily or often.

It was several moments before Knox spoke again, and yet he held a guarded look in his eyes when he did. He studied me, sucking on his bottom lip before releasing it, nodding slowly.

“You’re highly intelligent where it counts. Naïve on a few things, like being with someone for sex,” he pointed out, carefully choosing his words. “You think the act of having sex should mean something deeper, and while it isn’t wrong, it is naïve. It’s not something people here consider when indulging in the needs of their baser urges or bodies. Your strength is in the way you calculate and plot your battles before you ever engage. That’s something rare, and not many can do it and be five steps ahead of their enemies.

“I plan things, knowing every misstep that can happen along the path I choose. It took me countless losses and over two hundred years to master the precariousness of war, yet you make it look easy. You have a softness for the weak and a need to protect them against what you feel is wrong. They’re your weakness, and you make it easy to use them against you because you wear your bleeding heart on your sleeve.

“You know they’re your weakness, and so you hide them to protect them while placing your own life on the line instead of theirs. That’s because you’re intelligent. Your mind takes a puzzle and looks at it from every angle, seeing it from both sides before you process how you feel about the situation. Most men take lifetimes to accomplish that ability, let alone use the findings to create a solution for both sides. You were born to be a queen.”

“I won’t ever be a queen,” I snorted.

“You will be one day, but you will never rule. You will be the face for the people, and I will be the one who rules through you.”

“So you’ll marry me and rule through me? You’d need my permission because of my bloodline, and that isn’t something I’d ever agree to do. Besides, Aria, Queen of Norvalla, and Queen of Vãkya doesn’t seem to have the