King of Me (16 page)

Moments passed before I even remembered we were lying there in broad daylight, the sun scorching my face, and our bodies covered in slippery, sensual sweat.

“Holy shit, King,” I panted.

“Yes,” his chest heaved with exertion, “I am your king. And don’t you ever forget it, woman.”

I smiled and brushed the sweat-soaked strands of long black hair from his beautifully bronzed face. “Yes. You are.”

Still inside me and still rock hard, he dropped his head to my chest and slowly began moving.

“I need more,” he said.

“Take all you want.” I sighed, gazing up at the beautiful blue sky, three thousand years in the past, knowing that all the pain and suffering had led me to this moment.

And it was…beautiful. Breathtaking. It was everything.

~~~

“Mia, we have to talk.” King hopped from the steaming tub and wrapped his large, lean, and muscled frame in a piece of white cloth.

I sat still, glowing and weak from hours of ravenous lovemaking. The man was insatiable. In fact, at one point, I had begun to wonder if he’d taken some sort of ancient herbal supplement because I’d never heard of a man coming twice in a row, then being ready for another round thirty minutes later. But he did. And he had. And after a sensual swim in the ocean—our bodies and lips glued together the entire time—to rinse the sand from our sticky skin, we’d dressed and returned to his chamber. He ordered a day’s worth of food—wine, fruit, bread, and cheese—my favorite meal of all time—and instructed the guards to ensure we wouldn’t be bothered until further notice.

We ate, we drank, we shared stories. He told me about growing up on the island, and of the pressure knowing he’d someday be responsible for so many. He didn’t talk much about his parents or how they died, but I had the impression they’d been loving people who’d instilled the importance of loyalty and duty in their children. When I told King about my family and snippets of the life I’d had before everything changed, he listened with such intensity that I knew he was visualizing every detail. He asked questions about what that part of the world looked like, how many people lived in my “village,” and why I hadn’t married at the age of sixteen.

Yeah, that was kind of cute. But cuter still was the look on his face when I told him lots of women never married, choosing to focus on their careers instead. The open mouth and blinking blue eyes told me that King didn’t get it.

“You are saying that they refuse the protection of a husband?”

“Yep,” I responded.

“And…they are not whores?”

Like I said, it was cute. But cute quickly turned into wicked and sexy the moment his body was ready for more. This last round, though, when he’d bent me over the edge of the tub, his hand bringing me to orgasm three times in quick succession as he pounded his cock into me, was by far the best. It was as if our bodies were so attuned to one another that every touch, lick, and thrust was perfectly calibrated. I couldn’t imagine ever living without him now—not because the sex was more amazing than anything on earth, but because it was proof we were connected in a way that literally defied…everything. Absolutely everything. Which is also why his desire to talk and the serious tone scared the hell out of me.

“There’s nothing to talk about.” I looked away, knowing that was a huge lie. There were a ton of things to say, like he needed to abandon—forever—any thoughts of sacrificing himself.

“Do not pretend that the situation has changed,” he said.

I looked at the murals of fish and octopi on the wall. “Can’t we just pretend for a few more hours?”

“No.”

I took a hollow breath.

“I have killed Hagne,” he said.

My head whipped toward him. “What?”

He lifted his chin. “I killed her.”

My spit stuck in my throat, but there were no words.

“I went to her home, and she told me that she killed you. Admitted it in front of her entire family. Out of anger, I drew my sword and executed her on the spot.”

“Oh no. No…”

“Even though she defied my orders not to harm you and my actions were justified, her family demands justice or there will be a civil war,” he said.

I cupped my hands over my mouth. I couldn’t believe this.

He continued, “Callias will fight in her honor to settle the dispute.”

“But…but…why?”

“Because I will ask him to,” he replied. “He will understand that if there is no justice, many more lives will be lost.”

“Then kill him with the dagger.” That way he’d be brought back.

“No.” King’s head hung low. “There must be a beheading. The dagger will not work for that.”

I stood, and King’s eyes focused on my naked breasts. I grabbed a cloth and covered myself, not wanting to feel like I did. So…angry. “What the hell are you saying?”

He looked at the floor. “That nothing has changed. I will die.”

I shoved my nails into my palms. “Like fucking hell you will.”

“Silence, Mia.” He held up his palm. “This is the only way. My people, those women and children, are more important than us.”

I knew that. I really did. “I would never ask you to give up. Never. You’re loyal to them, and there is nothing in the world more important than that. I’m asking you to consider other options.” For Christ’s sake, I’d just found him. I couldn’t stand the thought of losing him now. It was just too painful.

“There are none.” He looked away.

“There are always other options, King. We can leave—”

“No. I have reviewed every angle many times over, and this is the only solution that will maintain the peace. There must be blood.
My
blood.”

Fucking Hagne!
Why did it seem like this situation was on a path we couldn’t change?

Then another thought struck me. “But Hagne hasn’t cursed you. You’ll die. Really die.” I’d never see him again.

He nodded, clearly thinking about what that really meant.

Shit. Shit. Shit
. I tightened the piece of cloth around my body and tucked the ends into my cleavage.

“Where, by gods, are you going, woman?”

“I can’t be here right now. I can’t breathe. I can’t think.”
A life without him. Really, truly without him.
After making love, a glimmer of hope in the back of my mind had begun to spark—that we might find a way through all this and come out the other side as two, whole, living people. But it just wasn’t going to happen.

My body halfway out the door, he spoke. “Wait.”

I stopped in my tracks.

“You. Are. A. Seer,” he said.

I looked at him. “I-I don’t understand.” But what I really meant was: “Are you out of your
mind
?”

He stepped forward, his skin and hair still dripping with bathwater. “You will curse me to roam this earth, Mia, for however long it takes. And then you will be the one to free me.”

I walked over to his bed and fell on my ass. Not sat, but fell.

“This is the solution.” King sat beside me and brushed the wet strands from my face, tucking them behind my ear. “Callias will end me.
You
will bring me back.”

I stared into the depths of his luminescent blue eyes. “You are asking me to sentence you to years of horrible pain. I can’t do that.” So many things could go wrong. I had no clue how to do a curse. And even if someone told me how, I could get the curse wrong, and he’d end up dead.
Dead
dead. Or I could be snapped back to my time before freeing him, and he’d be left to suffer for about three thousand years.

“I see no other solution, Mia.”

I hissed out a breath. “I promise that in the future you would rather die than live like you do. The pain is…a living hell.”

He looked at his hands for several moments. “It will be my burden to bear. Not yours.”

“You have no idea what you’re asking—”

“It is my decision and mine alone. You will not deprive me of my last wish.” He sliced through me with those blue eyes. “I want to do this, Mia. For us.”

His words made my stomach do sick little twists—joy mixed with a sense of deep guilt. It meant I’d see him again, but he really, really didn’t understand what he was asking. And to condemn someone to this sort of agony, a torture so cruel and horrid that even in my darkest moment, even when I despised the man, I’d still felt sorry for him…I couldn’t do it. Not if I really loved him.

“No,” I said sharply. “We have to find another way. I don’t know how to curse you. And how will I bring you back? What if you’re wrong and—”

He pressed his lips to mine, silencing me for several long moments. My body immediately reacted to him—calm, hot, crazy.

He pulled away. “Has anyone ever told you that you ask too many questions?”

I nodded. “It’s a sign of intelligence.”

“I thought it meant the opposite.” He grinned.

I smiled. “Funny, King.”

“Yes. I do have my moments; however, today I believe it is because I am in love.”

Once again, I resisted the tears. He’d said a word I couldn’t have ever imagined coming from his lips: love. But there it was, the truth. I loved him, and he loved me. How it had happened, I didn’t know. But it had. Despite the absolute impossibility, we’d found each other. Which is why he needed to fight for us instead of fighting his brother.

“Cursing you,” I said, “means…it could mean…” I couldn’t begin to comprehend. “If, for whatever reason, I can’t bring you back right away and things play out like they did originally, you’re going to do terrible things. Horrid, ugly, heinous things. You are
not
a good man, King.” King had murdered off the bloodline of the Seers, except for me. Then there was his role with the 10 Club, heads in fucking jars, and God only knew what else. The man had been alive—or dead—for three thousand something years.

He squared his broad shoulders and stared with that glare I knew well. The man was about to lose his temper. “I do not wish to discuss this further, Mia. I am telling you—”

“Why can’t we find a way to just…have you travel forward with me now?”

“Do you have one?” he growled.

“I have the bracelet. No, I don’t know how it works, but you could try to use it, and I could—”

He suddenly grabbed me and kissed me deeply, with every ounce of emotion his body dared to expose.

I melted into him, wishing for this to never end, hoping that he’d change his mind and run. Run with me. Maybe we’d have another week together. Maybe we’d have twenty years. I didn’t know or care. I just wanted more time.

“I know you are worried for me,” he said, “however, I am the one volunteering for this fate. There is no other way.”

I winced. He didn’t understand who he would become and the terrible things he would do. Yes, I’d told him he became a monster, but clearly he didn’t get it.

“What if,” I said, “history repeats? Because if it does, you
have
to believe me, you don’t want that future.” I swallowed back the tears.

“What is it that I do? What are you not saying?” he asked coolly.

“You are not good to me. That’s why us leaving is the only option.”

“Mia, we are moving forward with this plan. And everything you hide only lessens our chance of seeing this through successfully. So whatever is it you are concealing—”

I’d already told him he’d hurt me, but I never gave him the explicit details. “I can’t tell you. It’s…”

“You will tell me!” he yelled.

I glared at him. “No.”

“I will place you over my lap and hit your ass until you are black and blue if I must, but you will tell me.”

I was speechless. Completely and utterly speechless with rage. “How dare you threaten me.”

“I do not believe in threats.” He grabbed me and pulled me towards his bed, throwing me over his lap with his hand raised. “Tell me! I am your king, and you
will
tell me!”

“How dare you!”

His hand came down hard with a sting on my ass. “I dare! I am the king. And I love you enough to fear nothing. You, however—”

“You whip me and rape me!” I screamed.

His body fell limp, like he’d been hit with a thousand bricks, and he tossed me off him onto the bed. “This cannot be.” He suddenly looked at his hand in disgust, as if frightened by his roughness with me.

I looked away. “I escaped right before you…”

“I do not know what to say,” he whispered.

The tears flowed down my face. “It wasn’t you. Not really.”

He stared at the floor. “And yet you allowed me to…” he whispered, “be with you. Without grudges.” He was about to say something else, but closed his mouth, stood, and turned for the door.

“
You
are not that same man,” I said. “And you can’t feel guilty for something that hasn’t happened yet.”

“But there is no denying that I have the seeds of evil inside me. It must be there.”

“Where are you going?” I asked.

His chest heaving, he swallowed. “I-I-I will fight Callias at sunrise.”

He was almost out the door when I realized that it wasn’t long before the sun came up.

“King?” I said, my voice trembling, the tone begging him to tell me what was going on inside his head.

He didn’t face me, perhaps because he couldn’t. “I must place the well-being of my people first.” He took a breath. “And if what you say is true, then you are correct. You cannot curse me.”

“What are you saying?”

His large shoulders lifted and fell. “I will die.”

“No. Let’s think this through and find another solution.”

His beautiful eyes were as cold as two blocks of ice. “There are no other options.”

King left, and I broke. Broke.

I’d lived through so much pain, but this…
this
was the wall. “I will break you, Mia,” King had said on that horrible night. And he’d been goddamned right: I was utterly and completely broken.

CHAPTER TWELVE

Just after sunrise, I followed the massive flow of people outside the palace walls to an open-aired auditorium that reminded me of a scene straight from
Gladiator
. Present had to be the entire population of Minoa, their skin colors ranging from deep dark brown to light olive. Some had long straight black hair and others curly. The men, most anyway, wore only simple sarongs made from linen and kept their hair in braids or ponytails, while the women wore tunics or togas made from rough, hand-dyed fabric. Had I been in any other situation, I would have been talking to everyone and asking questions for posterity’s sake. But my heart was too heavy to care that someday this civilization would cease to exist, and likely, I was about to witness the beginning of the end.