Stealing His Princess (Kings of Conquest #2) - Adelaide Forrest Page 0,42

me, even if it was my first time, you brute. Maybe instead of using your body, use that brain you wish people would see you have."

I felt my blood boil at her words. The woman was exasperating. How perverse was it that it only made me love and want her more? I could already imagine how strong she would be to stand beside me as Queen as we looked over the mountains, knowing we were just small specks in a larger world, but willing to push hard for our people and our country.

But because I loved her, I knew that I had to let her go. "I am, Princess. Perhaps you should, as well. Loving me changes nothing, regardless of what I feel for you. You're betrothed to Holden, and Mitnar and Theodosia are set for an alliance that will benefit both your nations. Lantis can offer you nothing, and being its Queen would offer you no happiness."

She was silent, her breath heaving in and out as the tear dried on her cheek. She looked down at her hands. "And is that how you see me then? Simply a royal, part of potential alliance and nothing more?"

It took all my self-control to remind myself that she was the Princess of Theodosia, set to marry my best friend. Every part of me just saw her as a woman: the woman I wanted to make my own. "Whether or not that is how I see you, that's who you are. Being royal doesn’t make us selfish, Bristol. It makes us see our duty and accept it with dignity. Marry Holden and be happy.”

She poked my chest with a finger as she stepped forward, anger staining her cheeks red. "What gives you the right to judge me, Aric? Gives you the right to make my decisions for me? You don’t have that right. Not you, not my parents. And not even bloody Holden. Why, if I wanted to denounce my royalty and live life as a normal and average person, could I not do it? Who decides what I can and cannot do, if not me? I'm sick and tired of people reminding me that I don't have the right to decide what to do with my own fucking body."

The thought of another man seeing her the way I just did earlier today was enough to redden my vision. In my head I was already tearing apart this unknown and faceless man limb from limb for even deigning to look at my woman. But all I did was clench my fist. "You are a royal. As I am a royal. I don't make the decisions for you in much the same way I don't make the decisions for myself. We are bound by the circumstances of our birth. Duty and responsibility above all else."

She shook her head and through that motion, I could see the tears already falling down her cheeks. "I know that. But are we not also people? With feelings and emotions? who have needs and wants? How are we to live, if we're not allowed to be alive?"

I stepped nearer, held her by shoulders and shook her. Gently, but I could only hope that it would wake her up. Make her come to her senses before she could completely break me. "Wake up and stop being selfish. You are a Princess first and a woman second. As Queen, you have to learn to put the people you serve first. Learn that now, or you'll be a disappointment to the country you'll be sworn to protect."

At first, all I heard was the crack then I felt the sting as her palm hit my cheek. Tears streamed down her cheeks. "Evidently you don’t know me well at all. Don't presume to know what I need."

"Marry Holden, Bristol. He can give you everything you need. Be the Queen of Mitnar; that’s where your place will be." I wanted to run a hand down her cheek and wipe away all her tears. But it wasn't my place.

"I guess now that you’ve had your taste of me, that’s it? Now you're free to go ahead and take the innocence of whatever Princess is stupid enough to spread her legs for you?"

"Don't make it cheap and dirty. What happened between us was anything but. Whether or not I still want you, I can't have you." How was it her eyes were so close I could see the golden tones in her irises? Her breathing uneven, and