Evil Twin

Her heart shattered. Leaving. She hadn’t expected that. Of all things, she hadn’t thought she would lose him now. Before he’d even cleaned the blood of battle from his hands.

But she had lost him. She’d just lost…everything.

In silent agony, she watched him stalk.

Back. Forth.

“Do you have nothing to say?” He shot her a feral glance. “What will you do when I go?”

She forced the answer out through a throat thickened with tears. “I’ll remain here in Crolum.”

“Crolum?” Abruptly he stopped, looked at her more closely. “Are you crying?”

She shook her head.

“Why is your face wet?”

“Because”—her chest hitched and the rest emerged on broken breaths—“I said you wouldn’t win. But you did.”

“I won?” A harsh laugh ripped from him and he stalked away from her again. “I can’t imagine what the fuck I’ve won when I’m leaving you. What exactly did I win?”

“You made me love you.”

“WHAT?” Expression thunderous, Bane spun to face her. “WHAT DID YOU SAY?”

She knew he’d heard her. But she could do better.

“I love you,” she whispered.

She hoped he might rush toward her. Lift her up.

Instead he stared at her in disbelief. “I have ripped out my own heart while preparing myself to fight to the end—and you have suddenly overcome your fears and the war is over?”

Well…if he wanted to put it that way. “Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because I’m more afraid of losing you than I am afraid of loving you.” Her courage was rising again. “And because I need you.”

“And you tell me now?” He raked his hands through his hair, leaving it in savage disarray. “Now, after the message from Tamas and fighting the sorcerer and slaughtering the beasts have already shredded my heart with terror of losing you—and after I was done with all that, as I was returning to you here, I had to rip out my own soul when I decided to go. It nearly destroyed me.”

“Good!” she cried. “Because after all that, you still meant to leave?”

“I had to leave!” he roared. “You wanted time! And in that time, I intended to conquer Phaira and Gocea, so that if you chose to return to either one, there would be no Tamas to marry and no family to hurt you. There would only be me, waiting for you. So you would need me if you wanted any of the kingdoms!”

Her heart was so full. “You would have conquered both kingdoms to have me?”

“I’d conquer the world for you!”

“Just two kingdoms will do.”

“Thank the gods for that.” Scowling, he stalked toward her. “Conquering only two will take much less time.”

“Oh, but now you have no reason to conquer any.” She clicked her tongue in dismay. “I should have waited until you were done conquering to confess how much I love you.”

Laughing, shaking his head, Bane caught her face in his hands. Gently, he asked, “Do you truly love me?”

“I do.” She gave a happy little sigh. “So very much.”

“As I love you.” He hefted her up and growled when she wrapped her legs around his waist. “Though maybe I’ll wait a year before I begin conquering. We have so much work to do here. But when your belly’s big with my baby it’ll be harder to carry you around, so I’ll need something else to do.”

She giggled against his lips. “Is that so?”

“It is. And we’ll give a kingdom to each child when it’s born.” His big hands kneaded her ass, rubbing her against him in the most delicious way. “When you’re heavy with our first child, I’ll ride to Gocea and toss Tamas out of the palace, then return in time for the birth. When you’re pregnant with our second child, I’ll ride out and take Phaira.”

She frowned. This plan sounded less appealing as he went on. “Alone? I want to go with you and help—if only to see Sapphira’s face when I take her crown.”

“You can hardly ride to Gocea or Phaira when you’re big with child.”

“So we’ll conquer them when I’m not pregnant.”

He scoffed. “And what story will we tell that child? ‘Here is a kingdom for you and there was nothing special about when we conquered it?’ Or should we be able to tell them, ‘Here is the kingdom we conquered whilst you grew within your mother’s nurturing womb, so that it could be bestowed especially on you.’”

“Oh yes, that clearly makes all the difference.” She smiled slyly. “If I can’t ride, we could take a carriage.”

“You have the best schemes, my clever queen.” And he had the cleverest of fingers, slipping between her folds, teasing her clit until she squirmed against him. “We ought to get to work filling that belly so we can begin our plan to conquer my brother’s kingdom.”

Such a good plan. Yet her reply was lost on a moan when his cock replaced his fingers and slowly pushed into her.