Grimacing, she squared her shoulders and shoved her back to him in an attempt to make it obvious she was too tired. Too tired to discuss matters further, and much too tired do anything else that required energy.
The blanket moved when Sinclair laid down behind her, and for a second, Lilac thought he might actually let her sleep. Then, he nestled against her, pressing the length of his body against hers.
Lilac let out another purposefully loud yawn, no longer caring about tact. There were more pressing, distracting matters tugging at her attention, which she adamantly refused to relinquish.
“Oh goodness, I am spent. All that walking, and then encountering those terrible korrigans. Then, that vampire brute that you so bravely trapped…” She shifted, tucking her abdomen so her arse wasn’t so near to his groin.
But Sinclair was still the same self-righteous, arrogant boy she knew as a child. Even in the years she’d spent skirting him, she knew exactly what kind of man he’d probably grown to be. The kind who never took no as the first or second answer; a monster disguised in a second skin. Sinclair pressed his lips against the nape of her neck, chuckling against it.
She quickly shrugged him off.
“You don’t seem all that tired, my beloved,” he murmured, his breath against her skin.
“I’m knackered,” Lilac said, working hard not to flinch and to keep her tone sweet.
His nose traced her ear. “That’s funny. I thought I heard you say that you wanted to show me how grateful you were? I did save you, after all. Remember?”
With disgust, she realized he was working just as hard to mask the impatient annoyance in his own voice.
“Maybe I can show you back at the castle?” Lilac lied, inching away again. She’d sooner or later run out of excuses.
“But I haven’t seen you in years. We are to be wed in a week. Wouldn’t it be fun to… you know, test things? How does a man know a mare is any good without first taking her for a ride?”
Fuming, Lilac sat up. “What bit of that is even supposed to sound enticing? I said no, Sinclair,” she snapped, looking down at him.
In an instant, all traces of kindness were gone from his face and replaced by the quick rage she witnessed earlier. She had always thought him reasonably attractive on the surface, with his light hair, lake-blue eyes, and chiseled chin. But from the moment he had appeared on his white steed, every line in his stupid face instantly repelled Lilac. She knew his behavior shouldn’t have come as such a shock. Since their childhood, she knew he was arrogant, self-righteous, and that he would not stop until he got what he wanted. And right now, none of his concern was about returning her to the castle. All he wanted was her.
Ignoring her refusal, he coiled an arm around her waist and pulled her on top of him with one jerk. She immediately protested and tried to push up, to get off of him—but he rolled, flipping her into the dirt, one of her arms stuck under her body and the other free, pushing at his chest.
“Get off—” Lilac choked under his crushing weight.
He sat up on his knees, straddling her, and used his one hand to hold down the arm scrabbling at his chest. His other hand stroked her jaw, then her collarbone, before trailing lower still. He leaned in, his rancid breath overwhelming her. “It’s time you respect your future husband,” he growled into her left ear, tongue tracing her earlobe. “You’ll give yourself to me. Even if I have to take you myself.”
A sick feeling of trepidation settled into her stomach. The weight of his body bore down onto her legs, and he had her arms pinned. She writhed the best she could but was still unable to free herself. Panting, she stopped to catch her breath as he bent over her, planting a kiss at the corner of her mouth. With a final snarl, she sucked his lip onto her mouth and bit down hard. He pulled away, cursing wildly.
Reeling, Sinclair got up on his elbows and swiped his shirt sleeve across his mouth. At the sight of his own blood staining the fabric, his face twisted with a lethal, feral rage that struck a deeper chord of fear in her. He closed his fist and raised it high above Lilac’s head. Before he could strike, the princess lurched forward as far as she could go