Her bedroom. Hers. Kaysar had better not get any ideas about bunking up.
Shaky from battle and emotionally wrung out, she stumbled into the bathroom to strip and shower.
Her first IRL battle in her first IRL castle, and she’d won. Not easily, as evidenced by the blood that splattered her, but the best victories came with the greatest battles.
She was thrilled. Overjoyed.
Raw.
Seeing Kaysar for the first time in days had been a wonderful, terrible shock. He’d blasted emotion left and right, ruining her concentration. When he’d shouted at the goblin leader, he’d looked so...broken. During battle, there’d been no one more ferocious. Or protective. Time and time again, he’d willingly taken a wound to shield her. There at the end, he’d gazed at her with such incredible longing that her defenses had cracked. Then, afterward, seeing his sexy face covered in the blood of their kills... The Uncrumbled...had crumbled.
In that moment, she’d known two things. She was still in the running for top dog, and she would eventually forgive him for abandoning her.
If she gave up after every faulty start, she’d never make it to a finish line. With Cookie and Kaysar, the battle for gold had only just begun. So, despite their current discord, she would march onward with him. After she’d yelled at him. After she’d calmed.
Would he attempt to explain all the reasons she was wrong?
She finished washing and drying, then slathered herself with the most amazing lotion. After donning a buttery soft robe embellished with hand-sewn roses, Cookie padded into the bedroom, ready to find her boyfriend and chat.
She stopped short, her heart pounding. Seek and you shall find.
He stood in the middle of her bedroom, shirtless, a fierce scowl projecting all kinds of fury. He’d showered, the blood washed away. His chin was jutted, his shoulders rolled back, and his arms anchored behind him. A battle stance. A pair of leathers hung low on his waist, a belt partially undone. Bare feet.
Argument commencing in three...two...
“I’m sorry,” he barked, as if he’d held on to the words too long. As if his lucidity clung by a thread. “I shouldn’t have left without kissing you goodbye. Without saying the word at least.”
Well, he’d definitely taken a different approach than her past boyfriends.
The outburst shocked her. But his misery shocked her more. “No, you shouldn’t have,” she said, deflating. So much for yelling at him. She sighed. His entire life revolved around war. Did she really want the same for their relationship? He deserved at least one safe space. Besides, Rome wasn’t conquered in a day. “You hurt me,” she admitted softly. She deserved a safe space, too.
He flinched, true anguish contorting his expression. “I never wished to hurt you. Only to bring you smiles and laughter.” His gaze beseeched her. “Tell me you forgive me.”
She didn’t tell him. “You endangered me, Kaysar.”
He flinched harder. “That is my greatest sin, and I will never forgive myself.” Thrusting both of his arms forward, he presented her with a magnificent tiara made of sharp crystals. “This is for you. Your first crown as Queen of the Dusklands. A mere token of my great affections.”
A bribe? “This changes nothing,” she griped, even as she tripped over to snatch her prize. She petted and admired the dazzling accessory before setting it on the nightstand. “Fine. It doesn’t hurt your cause, either. Consider yourself seventy percent, bordering on seventy-five percent forgiven. And for your information, I expect you to forgive yourself when I do, okay? That is nonnegotiable. No caveats.”
He relaxed some. “How can I get to one hundred?”
Letting all of her heartbreak glimmer in her eyes, she smiled sadly. “You do better next time. One minute, you claimed to want me, the next you cast me aside. You abandoned me, exactly as you abandoned these lands. You were my dream, until you became my nightmare.”
He opened and closed his fists, determination hardening his muscles. “I will do better, I swear it. You are my most precious treasure, and I’ll never abandon you again.”
The headiness of his promise took her breath away. “Fine. You’re at ninety-five percent.” Most precious treasure? How could she deny this man anything? “Do you ever tire of the constant war? Or long to be free of your tie to the king?”
“Never.” His vehemence...hurt.
With their relationship hanging in the balance, she might as well be brutally honest with him. “I won’t ever be satisfied in second place. I’m not wired that way. When I play, I go for gold, always.