“We can help each other.”
“Can we? Tell me how we can. And tell me why sex would get in the way.”
“It’s because of me. I need control. Especially on a day like today. I am helping you. Protecting you. Keeping you safe. I can’t afford to be distracted.”
“And why? I feel I have a right to know. What is this distraction you feel you might face? For I have never seen you distracted.”
“In the garden last night, an assassin could’ve come upon us and I would never have known.” He touched her chin then, his hands rough. “Until an assassin’s bullet pierced your skin.”
She shivered. But not with fear.
It was desire, but then... It was a deep, searing pain as she looked into his eyes and saw the echo of old demons there.
This was not a fear rooted in the abstract.
He was afraid. He was angry, at himself.
“But he did not,” she said, her tone gentle.
“It could’ve happened. I let my guard down once, and the consequences were severe.”
“Tell me.” This was the loss he’d suffered. She knew well that he had.
“This is not a topic of discussion open between us,” he said.
“Why?”
“Don’t test me.”
And like that it was over.
He resisted this honesty between them and she could not help it.
He extended his arm, and she took it and he led her out of the chamber.
“Why? I’m not a prisoner anymore. This is not a dungeon, and you are not a dictator. You don’t get to tell me what I’m curious about.”
“And it is my life. I don’t have to share it with you if I don’t want to. You are the reason I’m here. You brought us together. You presented a case that was so compelling I couldn’t turn away from you. And I have found ways that you could be of use to me. That this arrangement could be of use to me. I’m tired,” he said, his eyes nearly black now, “of going on missions, of trying to rid the world of evil, one man at a time. It is... It is a dark pursuit. On that you can trust me. If I had a soul, it was shed somewhere along that road in the past fifteen years. And I have not seen it since.”
“Then why bother to help me at all? Why bother to try and rid the world of terrible men? If you do not care, if you have no soul inside of your chest, then why are you here at all?”
“Because there was a woman,” he said, the words immediately sending a chill through her body. “And she did have a soul. A lovely one. More beautiful than you could imagine. And when she died, I vowed that I would do something about the injustice in the world. Because if I did, then...more people like her would not die.”
“Who was she?”
“It doesn’t matter. Now you know. Now you understand.”
That was not understanding, and his skeleton of a story was not telling. She was reeling, trying to piece the details together, but too soon they arrived at the small chapel where her coronation would be held.
And she had to push aside all thoughts that were not about this moment.
It was a smaller gathering than at the ball last night. Nobility and dignitaries from the country, who had been driven underground during the previous regime, were all there and resplendent in their finery. There were leaders from around the world and a select group of citizens who had been chosen to attend.
It was wonderful. A look at her country in the best light possible. Free and happy and ready to move into the future.
She suddenly felt small and unequal to the task. And as much as it angered her, she was glad that Maximus was there beside her. She was glad that she wasn’t doing this alone. Glad that he had offered to marry her, even if she should be appalled to have considered such a thing. Even if she should be angry that she felt she needed a man to assist with her ascension to the throne.
It’s nothing to do with being a woman. Or him being a man. And everything to do with spending so much of your life locked in a dungeon...