Reign of a King (Kingdom Duet 1)

It’s like he’s intimidating me with his eyes alone to make me drop my hand and bare myself for him. Like it’s his right and I’ve been depriving him from it all along.

Damn the tyrant and how much he can communicate with a mere glance.

Crouching, I retrieve my dress and turn away from him to slide it back on. Despite my brave façade, my fingers tremble.

Jonathan King is a frightening man. I might not be willing to let him stomp all over me, but he has the ability to make you feel non-existent by a mere look from his piercing metal eyes.

By the time I zip up my dress and turn around, he’s still watching me with that unnerving focus. I could cut through the tension in the air with a knife if I had one.

He tips his stubborn chin at the chair beside him, repeating his order without having to say a word.

I snap my spine into a line as I walk in the most moderate manner I’m capable of before flopping on the seat at his left. There’s a plate of steak and salad and two types of clear soup. The entire setting is straight out of an elegant restaurant.

“Eat.” Jonathan’s voice disturbs the silence of the room. “It’s gotten cold, but since you’re the one who’s ten minutes late, you’ll bear the consequences. You’ll also pay for those ten minutes of tardiness.”

“I don’t want to eat.” I bunch my fists on my lap. “I want to get this over with.”

“You thought this would be a one-time thing?”

“No.”

He wraps his lips around a piece of meat. I gulp at the sensual way his mouth slides over the fork before he chews leisurely, like this is some eating porn show.

I internally shake my head. Did I just see Jonathan in an ero

tic way? What in the ever-loving hell?

“Why don’t you tell me what you think this will be, Aurora?”

“I don’t know.”

“That’s not an answer.”

“All I know is that I want to get on with it instead of wasting time on food and nonsense.”

“If you don’t watch that mouth, I’ll fuck it right here, right now.”

My breathing shortens and I stare at him with wild eyes, my attention involuntarily slipping down…

Down…

I jerk my head back up, refusing to entertain that idea. Problem is, he’s painted that crude image in my head and now I can’t purge it out.

Not that I didn’t suspect Jonathan to be crude. His voice was created to command and say dirty things. However, I hadn’t thought it would be to this extent, and the sudden attack isn’t helping my bemused head.

“Now eat.” He fixes me with a blank stare as if he didn’t just spout those earlier words. “Or would you rather I fill your mouth with something else?”

My unsteady hand reaches for the fork and I inhale deeply to collect my bearings. I take the first bite of salad, trying to forget that a larger-than-life presence is watching my every move. It’s like he’s a scientist and I’m the rat in his lab.

I lift my head. “Now what?”

“Now, you eat.”

“And then what?”

“And then I decide. After all, you’re mine now and I get to do whatever I please.”

I grit my teeth. “I’m not your toy.”