Over everything the crown had promised him.
Everything he had been, and everything he could have been. He had abandoned it all for her.
She let out a series of soft moans as he lifted her high and bounced her pussy on the head of his cock a few times before once again letting her slide down on it as far as she could take it.
“I love you,” he murmured against her lips. “I love you more than power, more than crowns, more than life itself.”
“I… ungh… love you too…”
She was no longer lost in the universe. She had somewhere to be. She had someone to be with. She had purpose. And she had love. More love than she could ever contain. More love than she could ever describe. Though she’d try her very best, because this was a story that had to be told, all the way to the end.
Chapter 14
Sex could solve so many things. But it couldn’t solve having gone on a crown-induced rampage against his lover. Things with Elizabeth would never be the same. He felt the way she shied away from him. He saw the way her eyes skipped away from his instead of meeting his gaze. She was afraid of him, and she was right to be.
“I have ruled without a crown before, but I have never ruled without cruelty.”
Konan’s return to the palace was welcomed with wailing, crying, and begging for forgiveness from practically everybody, aside from his loyal crew who had spent the day picking out their favorite jewels and clothes from the vacated rooms of those who had once been courtiers and were now conspicuous by their absence.
“I’ve never ruled anything at all,” Elizabeth said conversationally. “It’s probably harder than it looks.”
“It is harder than it looks. As you will discover, now that you have a place by my side.”
She looked surprised, and then maybe not so surprised. “That makes sense. I should have a little power. You tend to solve every problem by killing your citizens.”
“Masih is an ancient kingdom, with blood feuds lasting thousands of years. The killings I perpetrated were relatively minor, all things considered.”
“I’d believe you more if everybody who met you didn’t cry from fear.”
He gave her a look beneath scaled brows. “Human, you are not immune from punishment.”
“Nobody is where you’re concerned.”
“I know you don’t mean to compliment me, but that is a compliment, human.”
“Are you going to keep calling me human?”
“You are human.”
“I am, but I’m more than that, right? I’m not just a human. You love me.”
“Yes, I do love you, human.”
Human. Human. Again with the human!
She looked at Konan and saw an uncharacteristic twinkle of humor in his eye. It had taken her far too long to work out that he was joking. Teasing her. Konan didn’t seem like he was capable of teasing. The Konan she had first met certainly wasn’t.
“If you call me human, I’m going to have to call you something.”
“Sire. Master. King. Pick one,” Konan smiled. “Come with me, Elizabeth. It is time we held our first court of the new regime.”
She followed, nervously. Did Konan know how to rule without chopping his citizens to bits if they stepped out of line? Was she going to find herself in a relationship with an absolute maniac? The crown might have been destroyed, but a talking piece of headgear had never really been the problem.
Konan took a seat on the throne, and pulled her onto his lap. He’d gone out of his way to say that she didn’t have power, but he was placing her right at the locus of power by holding her there before the assembled crowds who had bravely chanced an audience with their king.
“My human mate tells me there are… humane ways to deal with those who oppose one. She has suggested that slaughtering large numbers of what she would call people could be counterproductive long term.”
There was a murmur of general agreement.
“This human will be many things to me, and to us all. She is my lover. She is my mate. She is my little…” he seemed to stop himself from saying something filthy, but only with great effort. “She is the conscience of the empire, and she will change everything.”
Elizabeth looked at him in surprise. He had not told her the nature of the announcement he intended to make. He had spent so much time trying to escape her influence. But the truth was, she had become his conscience.
Before her, he had not cared what he had done, because there was nobody whose expression could wound him the way hers could. He had not enjoyed the look of true terror on her face when the crown told her he would kill her.
She might not understand that. After all, he had always enjoyed punish-fucking her, and he had made intense and frequent use of her body. He had terrorized her as much as his citizenry. But she had not crumbled. She had not even tried to flee. She had pitted her wits, will, and body against him. And she had won the silent, indescribable battle they had been locked in from the first moment of their meeting.