The King of Hearts (The Dark Kings Book 9)

by Jovee Winters

  I nodded.

  And then I yipped when I felt his strong arm wrap around my waist and pull me into the cage of his body. The brush of large wings caressed my bare flesh and I shivered deliciously.

  “I am so unbelievably in love with you,” he whispered heatedly and I blinked, forgetting all about wanting to prove to my family that I’d done even better than they could have imagined and I’d done it without sacrificing myself or my values. I’d found true love.

  I nodded. “As I am with you, Phineas.”

  We kissed. And then we kissed some more. And though I was sure we couldn’t have sex one more time, we did.

  Oh boy, did we.

  And it was even better than the last.

  It’d been several months of wedded bliss. And I was happy. So happy I could burst. Save for one problem. One thing that I knew would not make Phineas happy if I brought it up again.

  I loved the palace. I loved the gardens. But I felt like an animal trapped in a cage. A gilded one to be sure, but trapped all the same. It wasn’t like he’d taken what he’d wanted from me and now ignored me. Oh no, if anything he was more attentive to my needs than he’d ever been in the beginning. And though we’d both been virgins when we’d married, I could not fathom there being a better lover in all the worlds than he. The things that man did to me ought to be criminal. I smirked. Not that I cared.

  I felt his strong hand lazily caressing the soft swell of my belly and I smiled softly. I’d never been happier, so why was I so sad?

  “Your thoughts are so loud I cannot sleep, my love. What is it?” he asked, gravel still in his voice.

  I rolled over, almost able to sense where his eyes should be, we’d been together six months now. I felt like he was a part of me. Part of my soul.

  The sheets stirred and his warm hand was gone from my stomach. He’d sat up on the pillows. “Psyche, tell me.”

  Using the sheet to cover my breasts, I too sat up. Staring at the dip in the pillow beside me.

  “Phineas, I…” I swallowed. We’d had this conversation so many times. And always he told me the same thing.

  “It is not safe for you to leave this place. And I must keep you safe, my Psyche, I must always keep you safe.”

  The quiet between us was thick, stifling.

  Finally, he sighed. “I know what this is.”

  I cringed. “I…I love you, Phineas. With all my soul, I love you. Please do not think me displeased by our union.”

  “Psyche,” his voice cracked when he said my name. “I’ve never wanted to make you unhappy. Your happiness is paramount to me. It always has been, but—”

  I squeezed my eyes shut, feeling heat gathering behind them. “I know. I know. I just don’t know what enemy I could have made. My father held such a tight grip on me growing up, I didn’t get out much. I have no friends to speak of really, I don’t know why I want to leave.”

  “Is this palace not beautiful enough for you?” He asked, and I heard his strangled plea that I help him to understand.

  Releasing the blanket, it immediately puddled around my waist, freeing my breasts. I shook my head. “I’m so happy I could burst. But Phineas, all my life I was told what I could and could not do. All my life I was given constraints. And as much as I love you—”

  “I’m doing it to you too,” he said softly.

  I nodded. Feeling as though I might cry, because I didn’t want to hurt him. Phineas had such a good soul. A good heart. And I knew he loved me. No woman could be loved more.

  “I’ve trapped my butterfly in a cocoon, haven’t I?” he asked, and I was pleasantly startled to feel the heat of his breath roll over my mouth. My stomach churned, and need rose in me. My nipples sharpened to points.

  “Phineas, I don’t want to hurt you. Please understand me.”

  “What do you need, Psyche? What would bring you joy?”

  I gasped, realizing what his words meant. And while I wanted to tell him that I wanted to be out in the world again, exploring all that it had to offer, I also knew it would make him panic. For whatever reason my mate truly did believe me in danger if I stepped foot outside these gates.

  And I trusted that he must have a valid reason for feeling so. My need to feel like my own woman was also tempered by my desire to do right by him too. I wanted him to know that he could trust me. That I held him in the same esteem that he held me. That his feelings were valid too.

  “My sisters,” I said excitedly.

  “Your sisters,” he sounded dubious. “What of them?”

  It was no secret he thought my sisters silly and vainglorious, but they were my blood. I loved them and I knew they loved me, even if they were sometimes very silly sisters.

  “Let them come here. To the palace. Let us have a visit? Tea. Cakes. Just a small gathering. If I should get that I know that I would feel more settled here. I wish to show you off.”

  “Well they can’t see me.” He chuckled deeply and I felt the bed dip just a second before his hot hand landed on the inside of my thigh.

  I sighed, feeling the delicious curl of golden heat wind through me as it always did when Phineas touched me so.

  “No, no I suppose they can’t,” I squeezed out when suddenly my legs were gently shoved open, exposing the center, the very wet center, of me.

  I gasped as the cool air caressed my sensitive bud. Phineas had shown me pleasures with his hands, his body, and his mouth that I’d never known could be possible before. He was an inventive and skilled lover and I found out rather quickly into our arrangement that I had a wanton side to me I’d never known existed before.

  “If I said yes to this would my queen be happy with me?”

  My heart stuttered and I bit my bottom lip when his hot hands landed on my knees and spread me even further open to him. “Phi…Phineas,” I gasped, “I would be so…so—”

  His mouth was on me. Licking. Suckling. Gently biting me. He slid two fingers deep inside of me. My head thrashed on the pillow, and my eyes squeezed shut. I felt as though I might explode from the pleasure. I was spiraling higher and higher, floating into the clouds as he would sometimes take me to.

  My breathing became erratic and then I groaned when he sucked that nerve rich part of me deep into his mouth. My hands flew immediately to the back of his head and I rode him hard, demanding more and he gave me more. So much more. Darkness spiraled into my vision, obliterating any spec of light.

  But it was okay, because I wanted this sweet death. I wanted to be joined in it with him.

  I slapped at the back of his head and he nodded. We’d made love so many times in so many ways, and he knew me. Even before I seemed to know myself. Instantly I felt him shift and then I felt a blanket of heat above me.

  The tip of his thick, heavy cock slicked against the corner of my mouth and my response was automatic. I opened for him. And he slid right in. Deep. I loved the taste of his flesh. Salty. Sweet. I laved my tongue up and down and he hissed but then I shoved my hips upward, the movement completely involuntary, but he understood it. Soon we were both pleasuring one another.

  I gasped, this position (while scandalous) was also one of my absolute favorites. We both got to taste each other at the same time. That feeling of giving and taking, it was explosive. Incredible. I felt like I was flying when we did it.

  I was so inexperienced and it had been obvious to me from the beginning with Phineas that he’d known far more of carnal delights than I ever had.

  If I thought of all we’d done and experimented at I would sometimes blush. I’d been raised to be a good girl who understood her needs were never as valuable as her husband’s needs. And yet…I gasped, rolling my hips in a circle as I felt the grip of orgasm begin to ride me.

  “Come with me,” he squeezed out, “I’m so close, my love.”

  I nodded, working my throat, stretching it out as wide as I could so I could take him up to the hilt. He groaned, the sound one of pain. And I smirked, slamming my hands on his perfectly rounded buttocks and
digging my nails into his flesh as I forced him in even deeper.

  “Fuck me,” he growled and then he was an animal, rutting on me even as he buried his tongue even deeper into my previously unplumbed depths.

  The spiral of lust rode higher and higher and then…I keened, arching upwards as the most powerful orgasm I’d ever known ripped through me. He joined me just half a second later.

  I felt his cock thicken and then…he came. In me.

  I’d never thought I would like the taste of a man. But Phineas tasted like rain. Like clouds. Like the air. He tasted of life.

  He stirred first. “My gods, I should say yes to you more often.”

  I snorted. And then I laughed. And then he laughed. And it was so good. So…so good.

  Psyche

  I’d been so excited and happy to see my sisters this morning. But they’d been acting strangely from the first moment they’d stepped foot into the palace grounds. And even now, sitting in my glorious garden, they were acting strangely. Looking over their shoulders every couple of minutes, wringing their hands.

  I’d just finished pouring our mint tea when I’d finally had enough of Rose looking over her shoulder for the fourth time in less than a minute.

  I slammed the teapot down. I’d been so excited to see them and now I remembered why I’d been happy to leave them behind in the beginning. “Rose, what is it? You’ve been fidgeting like a dancing baboon all morning, what is it?”

  “I do not fidget,” she hissed, twisting back in her seat and gently smoothing down her dark hair.

  I lifted a brow. “And yet I’ve been your sister all my life, so tell me what’s the matter. Because I know something is.”

  Rose and Adelia shared a long meaningful look and I did not like it. Suddenly the delicacies that my sweet Phineas had set out for us no longer felt so sweet in my stomach. I felt like I’d eaten a stone. One covered in horse manure.

  I rubbed at my stomach. “What? What is it!” I snapped with more force than I’d intended.

  Adelia sighed, she’d always been the most forthright of us. “Michaelle, one of the fishmonger’s sons, you know him, muscles for days not much brains. But a pocket deeper than father’s.” She smirked and I nodded.

  “What of him? I thought you did not care for the Konstantopoulos’s?”

  “Oh, I don’t. But father does of a sudden.”

  “They discovered sunken treasure, rumor has it,” Rose hissed, “they’re richer than Midas now.”

  I lifted my brows. I was growing bored with this conversation already. My face must have shown that, because Adelia rolled her eyes and flicked her wrist.

  “Not really the point, Rose. Anyway, Michaelle told me something very disturbing indeed. And as a sister, I thought I should warn you. Though father despises you and does not care if the rumors are true or not.”

  I blinked, growing irritable and wishing I’d never invited my tiresome sisters over. What had I been thinking? Having them here was curing me of any need for outside company. My days were never brighter than when I shared them with my Phin.

  “What rumor?” I groused, pinching the bridge of my nose between my fingers. I was getting head pains.

  Rose sounded almost delighted as she said, “Oh, that he’s a terrible sorcerer. A vile and monstrous beast with scales for hide and no eyes whatever. That the only reason he’s kept you away from the world is because he’s fattening you up so that he can bleed you for one of his darkest and cruelest spells.”

  I frowned. “What nonsense!”

  I had half a mind to stand, to demand they leave my palace at once. But royal breeding was a bitch to break.

  Phin had been teaching me very naughty words lately, words he’d said he’d learned in a distant and far off land called the Americas. I’d never heard of such a place, but it sounded wonderful. Women were free in that world. They could tell a man no. In fact, some women even decided no man was better and bedded one another. The land was wildly fascinating to me and I wanted to see it with him one day.

  Rage bubbled in my belly. But I kept my voice tightly controlled. “You come to our home and insult my husb—”

  Rose reached for a fig and took a large bite before laughing, “You’re not married, if that’s what you’re thinking. That was a farce too. That priest was not real. He’s made you a fallen woman, Psyche, but I suppose that makes no difference considering your prospects are pitifully low. Since you’re now ugly and all.”

  “Rose, hush!” Adelia hissed and then Rose yipped and I knew Adelia must have kicked at her shins. They’d always gotten into shin fights growing up.

  But I could not laugh at the silly memory because Rose’s words had deeply wounded me. “What do you mean we’re not married? Of course, we are. I heard him whisper the vows in my ears.”

  Rose rolled her eyes. But Adelia grimaced and it was that look that convinced me, in this at least, they were not lying.

  “I’m sorry, KeeKee, but you’re not,” she said, using my nickname she’d had for me when I’d been a young girl. “He’s been lying to you. About many things I would suspect. Don’t you find it odd that he refuses to let you leave this palace? Ever?”

  I tried not to show how devasting her words were, considering that I’d been harboring those same questions myself for months now.

  But then I thought of his touch. Of his tender caresses. He loved me. I knew it. No man could fake that for so long. He’d never said one cross word to me. He was always gentle. Always kind. And I’d worshipped his body, he had no scales. Just smooth, beautiful skin like mine.

  I shook my head. “You’re lying.”

  Rose snorted, even as she shoved a Turkish delight into her mouth. “I told you she was already far too brainwashed to ever—”

  Adelia held up her hand, cutting off Rose. Adelia had been cruel to me after the curse too. Everyone had, but in our private moments she’d also been the kindest to me. I knew she loved me, she simply feared father and mother’s censure more. I could never blame her for that, I’d feared them too.

  Her dark brown eyes searched mine. She had a smudge of kohl lined around them, making them look large and sensual. I wondered if she was already feeling the pressure of father’s heavy hand? She must be getting married soon. He was now her greatest prize. My heart ached. I knew the pressures she must be facing. We shared a moment of pure sisterly love before she quietly said, “I’m not lying. And father did not wish for me to tell you what I learned, but I…” she paused swallowing hard, “I care for you.”

  Rose snorted, continuing to enjoy all the treats Phineas had lain with his own hands out for them.

  So much kindness he showed me. Even in this. In setting up this ridiculous party for me and my sisters so that I could be happy. I wished I’d never pushed for this. Wished I’d never asked for them to come by.

  This morning I’d felt cherished in my Phin’s love. But right now, the demon of doubt was beginning to tear me up inside. What if I was wrong?

  Why had he never shown himself to me?

  Why had he never given me his true name?

  I was in love with him. So deeply, so powerfully that even if he did look like a lizard beast, I did not think I would care. Not any longer. There should be no more secrets. And yet he’d kept a huge one from me.

  “We’re not married? Are you sure?”

  Rose laughed. Adelia thinned her lips.

  And I knew. I bloody well knew they were telling the truth. That entire ceremony had been a sham. A farce meant to make sport of me. But why? I’d never done anything to the gods. I’d never spoken a cross word against Aphrodite. Why would she have done this to me?

  A heart that’d felt so full, so overflowing with love just this morning was now beginning to feel shrouded in ice. In doubt. I rubbed at my breast.

  Adelia reached into a slit in her tunic and then she looked about. “Is he here? Can you tell?”

  In the beginning Phineas had often surprised me, but now I recognized the smell of
him. It was wild and it was intoxicating freedom. He was not here. He had promised to give me a day of fun to myself and he’d left.

  I shook my head. “He is gone for the day.”

  Adelia suddenly pulled out what she’d had hidden beneath the table. A long handled silver bladed dagger. I gasped, covering my mouth with my hands and instantly shaking my head.

  “Look, KeeKee, he is a monster. Michaelle had no reason to lie. This male of yours is a very powerful sorcerer, and you are his next victim. Don’t be one. When he sleeps, slit his throat, and then run. And never come back. And you will be free of all this madness.”

  Heat settled in the back of my throat and gathered in the corners of my eyes. “He is not a bad man. He…he loves me.”

  “No, my dear. I fear he has lied to you from the very beginning. You’re not even married. He’s ruined your reputation forever. If he lied to you about that, isn’t it possible he’s lied about all the rest?”

  I silently shook my head even as fat tears rolled down my cheeks. I couldn’t believe that. I just couldn’t. But was I a fool not to?

  Phineas was my first relationship. Ever. What did I know of truth and honesty between mates?

  Nothing. What if I was just a young, naïve stupid girl who’d fallen into a trap she’d never seen coming? It could happen. I wasn’t so proud I couldn’t admit that I may have been duped.

  And it was true that he wouldn’t let me leave the palace grounds. Ever. And that he’d gotten upset about my calling him Aris. That there were times when I pressed him for his history, who he’d been before meeting me, that he would instantly clam up and refuse to speak of it.

  I felt like he knew everything about me, but I knew nothing of the real man or beast I’d been wed to.

  My heart sank.

  But we weren’t even that, were we?

  The scrap of the knife sliding across the table made me look up.

  Adelia’s eyes were sorrowful and it was in her eyes that I began to keenly feel my vulnerability. While I’d been falling in love with the imagined male I’d propped up in my head and heart, could it be truly possible that it had been nothing but a scheme to him? That I was merely a pawn, even in this?