Cruel King (Royal Elite 0)

“Just sit down,” he pushes me back but I nudge him.

“This is my way of living the moment. Let me.”

It’s an epic failure.

I end up with flour all over my face and arms because Levi’s definition of living the moment is playing around and feeling me up.

At first, I tried to fight it, but there’s no fighting Levi. His intensity runs too deep, it’s like being sucked whole with no way out.

It’s frightening sometimes.

It’s thrilling most of the time.

I’m always buzzing out of my skin, waiting for the next thing he’ll come up with.

He’s a high that I’m not sure I want to come down from.

I know Levi is dangerous. I’ve seen it in that black gaze and his closed off features. I felt it in the way he takes whatever he wishes without looking back. I’ve heard it in his sinister voice and unapologetic words.

All of that was supposed to push me away. Instead, I keep gravitating towards him like a moth to a fire.

He’ll burn me.

He’ll destroy me.

But I’ll keep coming back for more anyway.

After breakfast, we play chess. He has this huge glass board in the middle of the lounge area and we sit across from each other.

He narrows one eye before we start, “I warn you. I crush my enemies.”

“Humph,” I tuck my knees underneath me and puff my chest. “Show me what you got, King.”

As if I lit a fire, his eyes gleam with a challenge. His posture turns uptight, and his entire stance sharpens for the battle.

After fifteen minutes of trying to outsmart him, I lose.

He takes down all my defences and then kills my queen in the most brutal way.

I sulk, staring at his main pieces that remain intact.

He chuckles when I continue sulking. “You’re doing it all wrong.”

“How?”

“You’re protecting your king when you should be protecting something far more important.”

“The queen?”

“Could be.” He tilts his head to the side. “But if you really want to win, then you need all your battalion.”

“How about sacrificing for the greater good?”

“A true warlord sacrifices soldiers, not generals.”

I mimic the tilting of his head. “How did you come to love chess so much?”

He’s silent for a moment. “It runs in the family, I guess.”