Feral King (The Dominant Bastard Duology 1)

He kissed her then, and they somehow ended up kissing like goofy teenagers on the floor in the small foyer of her mother’s house.

She pulled away after a few minutes, needing to catch her breath and come to her senses before she dragged him up to her old bedroom, which would make things pretty awkward for her mother.

He stared at her, like she was magic – the way he always used to. How could she ever have believed her stupid roommate?

“Why did you keep it, though? Honestly. The ring.”

“I couldn’t bear the thought of some other woman wearing it.”

She sobbed once, but then got it under control. “And why was the box sitting there open on your bookcase?”

“It reminds me not to settle for anyone who doesn’t make me feel as good as you do.”

She dragged his face back down to her own and kissed him.

“Three extra goats,” Riley’s mother yelled from the back of the house. “And that’s my final offer!”

***

The sun, hot and newly risen, baked the desert beneath Riley’s feet, sending waves of heat through her sandals and up the skirt of her modest gown despite the early hour.

Hollywood chic and elegant, yet white, virginal.

She had been virginal before he came along. Fitting that he’d been her first and now he’d be her last.

Her best friend, Jack, straightened her veil and grinned at her through the haze of it. “You look perfect. He’s going to cry.”

“I doubt it.”

“You don’t see how he looks at you.”

“Kind of how Adam looks at you?”

“I wish.” But he blushed and fingered the necklace he wore as a public collar. He looped arms with her and they waited for the violinist to begin – Rune, one of the big, badass owners of Fitte was an accomplished violinist, and he and Riley had started regularly playing music together.

The soft strains of music began, and as they took their first steps down the aisle between the small collection of chairs, Riley spotted her mother at the front, waving madly like she’d saved her a seat at the theater. God, she loved that woman.

And then, of course, there was Nathanial standing at the front, staring at her like she was magic. In his white dress shirt with the rolled sleeves and his black tuxedo pants, he looked like total girl porn.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” Jack whispered to her when they’d almost reached the front.

She should be smiling at their guests, but the invisible connection between her and Nate that had been there since they’d met was coaxing her on.

There he was. Gorgeous. Waiting for her like he always did – like he always had. With any luck, how he always would.

More sure of this, of him, than she was of anything else in her life, she drifted over the hard packed sand. Her love – her dominant – took her hand, and promised never to let her go again.