His Majesty's Forbidden Temptat - Maisey Yates Page 0,46

should.

“You can hold him.”

“I don’t want to.”

“For me?”

She smiled at him. And the strangest thing happened. He found himself smiling back. “I’ll pet it,” he said.

He reached out and brushed his hand over the animal’s ears. Tinley lit up like a beacon.

“Is that a smile?” she asked.

“At you,” he said, putting his hand back at his side. “And you didn’t even get your way. I didn’t hold it, I petted it.”

“I knew you’d never hold him,” she said. “I suggested that so you’d downgrade it to petting. I won.”

“You look ridiculously pleased with yourself.”

“I am. I only wish I had taken a picture.”

“I would have you thrown in the dungeon.”

“You’re really not so scary.”

“I am. I promise you. Ask my enemies.”

“You haven’t got any, have you?”

“None living. So actually, I suppose you can’t ask them. Dead men tell no tales and all of that.”

She rolled her eyes at him. “You try to make me believe you’re that scary. But I know you’re not.”

“Do you?”

With an impish grin she reached out and pressed her palm to the front of his pants. “No.”

He took hold of her wrist and moved her away from him. “Do not touch me while there are animals present.”

She laughed, the sound infectious, and he found himself nearly joining her.

“So what will we do about my mother?” She put the animal back in his cage.

“I suppose we invite her to the wedding. She will know better than to make any comments that will upset you.”

“I’m not sure about that.”

“Does it bother you?”

“It doesn’t bother me, really. That’s another thing I realized recently. I spent a lot of time doing things to defy my mother. She had a low opinion of me, and there was a point where for the sake of rebellion, I decided that I wasn’t going to try. Not to live up to her expectations. Not at all. And I think I became less than I could be trying to be the opposite of her, rather than just being myself.”

“If you don’t want her at the wedding,” he said, “you only have to say.”

“She can come.”

Satisfaction burned inside of him. That suddenly Tinley had the power in the situation with her mother. That she was no longer a small child to be made to feel inferior.

It made him... Happy to give her something.

Whether it was holding her pet or giving her the chance to have a victory against the woman who had made her feel less.

Feelings. They had no place in this. Not anything that went deeper than a smile. Longer than a moment.

He pushed them aside. He pushed everything aside. “We will marry as soon as possible.”

As soon as possible still meant that it would take some time. But Tinley was okay with that. The sooner the wedding took place the sooner she would have to deal with her mother, and she wasn’t looking forward to that. The sooner the wedding took place, the sooner they would have to deal with the public aspect of what they were doing. And she was just enjoying Alex.

He was adamant, of course, that there was nothing more to know about him. But being with him taught her things that words he spoke never could.

She slept in his bed at night and fell asleep in his strong arms. He saw her in the morning when she woke up, an absolute mess, but smiling. And he seemed to want her all the same. It didn’t matter if she was dressed for dinner or in her pajamas that had little badgers all over them. Though, he’d made it clear he preferred her out of them, and typically stripped her naked the minute she appeared wearing the cozy garments.

She didn’t mind.

Because she liked being naked with him. Because when she was naked with him, she learned things not just about him, but about herself.

She had always thought that she would end up with someone funny.

Dionysus had been like that. Funny and light and easy to get along with.

Alex was... He was dark.

But there was a gravity to his seriousness that made her feel anchored to the earth.

A loyalty in him that she had never witnessed in anyone else.

It made a deep quiet move in her soul.

A security that surpassed all she had ever known.

For when Alex said he would be true to her, she had no doubt he meant it.

She had no real doubt that Dionysus would have meant it either, it was just that she would’ve doubted his ability to keep