Prince of Cats - Tasha Black Page 0,14

she didn’t try to deny it.

“This is why you slept with me after we first met,” he told her, trying to use her language, though it paled in comparison to how he would have described what they had done. “Even if it was against your nature. This is why you kept the boy, in spite of the circumstances of his conception.”

“Of course I kept him,” Piper said, looking like she was about to be angry again.

“That’s not what I meant,” he said quickly. “I mean you never considered giving him up, even before you saw him.”

She nodded and he knew she understood. It would be common for a young single woman to consider her options. But Piper never had. She had instinctively clung to their bond, even when she hadn’t been planning to start a family. Even though it must have derailed many of her life plans.

“I wanted to check in on you,” he told her. “But I couldn’t, not when I felt this way about you. My mission had been to father a child to be a fae heir, not to bind my soul to a mortal.”

“So this was on purpose?” she asked.

He looked down at his hands, preparing himself for her anger.

“I hope you will understand that I am sacrificing my own life and happiness for the same cause,” he told her quietly. “Our sacrifices will save many thousands of lives. But to solidify a treaty, Wynter and I need an heir.”

Her eyes narrowed at the mention of his betrothed. Was that… jealousy he saw there?

“So why didn’t you just make one with her?” Piper asked.

“You don’t understand,” he told her, shaking his head. “There are lots of reasons. First of all, the fae are not as fertile as humans. It could take decades to conceive, or it might never happen. Secondly, Wynter will never take me into her bed.”

“Didn’t you say you were betrothed?” Piper asked.

“She hates me,” he replied. “I wasn’t kidding about that. She has a bevy of pretty serving boys who take care of her needs. My job is to stay out of her way and make peace between our kingdoms. Our heir will be accepted as true, so long as we make any effort to present him as such. It’s actually not all that uncommon among arranged royal marriages.”

Killian glanced over instinctively at Kieran asleep on the golden leaves. His heart throbbed at the beauty of the babe, and the perfect balance he struck between his father’s dark hair and his mother’s soft cheeks.

“He’s incredible, isn’t he?” Piper said.

“He is incredible,” Killian agreed. “I’m sorry I haven’t been there. I will make it up to him. And I will try to find a way to make it up to you.”

She turned back to him, a curious expression in her eyes.

“So you’re not looking to be his dad in the same way you’re expecting to be a husband?” she asked.

He blinked at her in shock. “Of course not,” he breathed.

“I was afraid you wanted him only as an heir,” she said.

So she thought that he would take him merely so he could exist in the Autumn Court, a spoiled little prince raised by nannies, separate from him, a solution to a problem. That could not be further from the truth.

But it made sense. He certainly hadn’t given her any reason to think otherwise.

“I will love him,” Killian said. “I love him already.”

She smiled at him then, and it was the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

“Piper,” he breathed, reaching out to stroke her cheek.

She leaned into his touch.

“I don’t know what’s happening to me,” she said softly. “I want to hate you, I want to go home and forget all this.”

But her lips were brushing his palm and he was biting back a sob of relief that she wanted him.

“We can never truly go back,” he told her. “Our fates are one. You and the boy will be by my side, under my protection. I will bring you happiness.”

She smiled and he wondered if she heard it too, the echo of the first words he had ever said to her.

I’m going to show you pleasure you cannot imagine…

In his ignorance, he hadn’t understood the complexity of what those words truly meant. There was physical pleasure, yes, wild enough he was afraid he would lose his senses to it.

But there was also the pleasure of watching their sleeping child. And the pleasure of the pride he felt when his bold mate slew a wild