His Majesty's Forbidden Temptat - Maisey Yates Page 0,60

like a choice.

Lazarus was alive.

He was alive.

And if he was alive... If there was more to all of this than Alex had ever known...

But perhaps he didn’t know everything.

Perhaps it didn’t have to be the end of him and Tinley. Because they had something that had stopped Lazarus from taking revenge.

Something powerful.

And he... He was choosing fear instead.

He had hidden behind the title, because it meant he didn’t have to feel. Not the grief over losing either of his brothers, or the pain of his mother’s rejection.

But Tinley had asked for the man.

And suddenly, he realized, there wasn’t only death in the wood, there was life too. And life was much the same. There wasn’t only death. He wasn’t only the King. There were miracles, and there were tragedies. There was pain and there was joy. There was hate, but there was love.

And as with Lazarus, love had won over hate.

Love had won.

He wished...very much that his mother had lived to see this. She had been hopeless, that was the problem. She had been hopeless and had seen no other way. And he... It had pushed him into that place too.

But there was hope.

There was life.

He no longer needed to carry the hurt his mother had put there. The sad thing was her life had ended before she could put it aside. But he could choose to. Now. He could choose hope.

He could choose love.

He needed Tinley.

Immediately.

Tinley was working on a sweater for her cat.

She felt that she had descended to some new low, but at the same time, it was so cute it felt like it could be a high. Life was funny.

She brought her needle around to the front of the yarn for a purl, when there was a knock on her cottage door. She shoved the work back onto the needles and set it down. “Yes?”

She wasn’t expecting anyone, and it wasn’t like her cottage was in the sort of place that got a lot of foot traffic. She stood up and peered out one lace curtain, and then her heart scurried up into her throat.

“Alex?” she called.

“Let me in,” he said.

“I’ll... All right.”

She went and jerked the door open, and there he was, tall and broad as ever. But disheveled. He looked tired, as if he hadn’t been sleeping.

Join the club.

“What are you doing here?”

“I have so much to tell you,” he said. “The first of which is that Lazarus is alive.”

“What?”

“He’s alive. And... There is more to that story, which I will explain, but first... I was afraid. Because I thought there was no way you could possibly love me. Not when my mother seemed to see how unworthy I was.”

“Alex, it’s never been about worthiness...”

“I know. I do now. It was easier, though, to accept that. Because it required nothing of me. And I’ve experienced my share of loss. So it was easier to hide behind the title of King. To hide behind duty. When Dionysus died, when I made the decision to seduce you while he was away for the evening... I was acting with my heart. And over the years, I’ve dismissed it. As lust. Because it was easier than admitting that those feelings I had for you were complicated. But the timing of everything was complicated, and it wasn’t evil of me to want you. Things happened the way they did. I will never be glad that he’s gone. Ever. But I do wonder if I would have ever had the courage then to override what everyone wanted because love is stronger. I wonder if I would have been able to admit that I loved you.” He moved closer to her, cupped her chin. “It doesn’t matter now. What I would have done. What matters is that I’m here now. We cannot change the past. But we have a choice now. I have a choice now. And I choose to make the future the best it can be. I love you, Tinley. I want you to be mine. My wife. My Queen. Marry the man and the King.”

“Of course I will,” she said, love bursting through her chest like a flame. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.

“You’re my lioness,” he said, touching her hair. “How did I not see it before? The signs were everywhere.”

“Alex. It’s so easy to get caught up in the stories everyone else tells about you. But at some point we have to start telling our own.”

“Yes. We must.”

“Well, I suppose marriage is