by Rosko, Mandy
“Don’t touch me! Get out of my way! You’re hurting me!”
Was she crazy?
“What the hell?” Fiona could barely suck back a breath. She jumped when someone tugged at her wrist, pulling her back.
It was Blaze, his eyes intense. “I think we should get you somewhere safe.”
Fiona glanced back, peeking between the guards to see Charrling sink to her knees, as if all the energy in the world had been sapped out of her.
Joseph rushed behind Charrling. He stood over her, his hands reached out, but just barely, as if he wanted to touch her but then didn’t dare break the facade that he was just her personal bodyguard. He pulled his hands back and stood straight. Only then did Fiona notice the red lines down his face. He’d been scratched. Badly. Fiona didn’t have to think hard to know where those had come from.
Inferno, on the other hand, stood next to Joseph with a less than impressed look in his face. He flat out glared down at her, his huge arms crossed over his massive chest. There was a fire in his eyes, as if he wanted to fight someone, but couldn’t because, well, this was his aunt.
“What’s happening?” This time the voice was Tinder’s. She stood next to Flare, dressed in a blue gown almost as bright and flashy as her mother’s, trying to peer around the guards.
Inferno growled. “Tinder, just…stay over there and let us deal with this for now.”
“What are you doing?” Tinder looked at Fiona in much the same way her mother had, but when she stormed forward, it wasn’t in Fiona’s direction.
She went to her mother.
The guards let Tinder through. Probably because she didn’t come out swinging, though they still watched her as she fell to her knees, wrapping her arms around her mother’s shoulders, as though Tinder was comforting a woman on death row.
Tinder glared the nastiest look up at Inferno. “You did this! You ruined everything!”
Inferno’s eyes flashed. He growled again, this time showing off the whites of his fangs. He leaned down, his large body menacing, even to Fiona, who wasn’t the object of his anger.
“I don’t care, Tinder. I don’t care what her problem is, or what your problem is. I am not mating with you. I will never mate with you, and I don’t owe you or your fucking mother shit.”
Fiona shivered.
“Jesus,” Flare whispered softly.
Blaze didn’t say anything for a moment, and Fiona thought he might actually be speechless.
Fiona was. These people were his family. Fiona didn’t have much love lost for Charrling, but seeing him talk like that, even to defend her…
“Are we clear, Tinder?”
Fiona couldn’t see the other woman that well, but she heard the soft, pitiful noise that came from her throat. Then the swing of her hand before the crack of her palm echoed down the hall.
Inferno didn’t move, as if her slap had barely fazed him. As if she meant nothing to him. The aura that surrounded him was the sort of zero fucks given vibe that even had Fiona scared of him.
Inferno already stood tall, but something about him changed in that next instant. It was as if he got two inches taller, his voice changing, becoming more commanding to the people around him. “Take Charrling back to her rooms. Tinder can go with her, or to her own rooms. It’s up to her.”
“Yes, sire.” Joseph stepped forward, as if he was getting ready to carry out the command.
“Not you,” Inferno snapped, glaring at the man and halting him in his tracks.
Joseph didn’t appear afraid. He and Inferno were close to the same size, but his expression was clearly shocked. “Sire?”
“Until I know why she put those on your face, you’re not going near her.” He pointed at the slashes down Joseph’s forehead and cheek, which had now started to bleed. Bright red drops formed, making the red look so much more prominent as it slowly bled open. “Blaze and Ember will meet up with you, and you’re going to write a complete report on just what the fuck was happening just now, aren’t you?”
Joseph’s cheek tightened, but he nodded. “Yes, sire.”
Inferno nodded, though it sounded more like he just let out a huffing sound before he turned to the others. “Go. Now.”
“I am not a prisoner in my own home!” Charrling shrieked, coming back to life in a way that made Fiona want to back up.
“You attacked my mate and your future queen,” Inferno said. “This is no longer your home.”
Even though Fiona couldn’t see Charrling’s face from this angle, Fiona could sense the shock around her. As if a cold chill had suddenly formed an icy bubble all around her.
She sputtered, at first, then exploded. “You can’t do that! I’ve lived here longer than you’ve been alive! I practically raised you!”
“And then you attacked my mate because I won’t marry Tinder.”
“I won’t leave!”
“You will.” Inferno nodded as though the decision had already been made. He looked down at her and spoke to her as if she wasn’t a vital part of his family. “I’ll give you the property along the sea. You’ll be comfortable there. If you fight me on this then you won’t get even that,” he added quickly, as if she had been about to say something.
Inferno turned away from her, addressing the men in suits once more. “Take her away. I need to see to this.”
There was a collective nod amongst the guards, a few “yes sire’s”, and they got to work, like the good little pawns that they were, apparently. Inferno stepped around them, ignoring the hateful glare from his aunt and cousin as he walked to Fiona.
“Quiet now, sweet,” he rumbled into her ear, pulling her along, away from his family.
Fiona had to shake herself out of it. “W-wait, what? Why? What are you—”
“No more words. These walls have ears.”
She blinked, then understood, or she thought she did. It was hard to understand anything around here when there were people who wanted to hurt, and possibly kill, her.
Which gave her the distinct impression that whatever had Inferno acting like this had something to do with Charrling.
Not surprising. That woman clearly wanted to get rid of her, and Fiona was desperate for answers.
“No more words, just come with me.”
Fiona nodded. She stuck to it. She didn’t say a thing. She let Inferno take her by her hand this time, fingers threading together, and she allowed the dragon prince to march her out of there.
20
Fiona entered Inferno’s bedroom, or their bedroom, as he’d wanted to call it. He’d released her hand only after shutting and locking the door, leaving the guards in the hall and him and his mate inside alone.
She didn’t know what was going on, but she was starting to absorb the fact that life as she knew it was completely changed. The fact that he’d called her his future queen solidified it.
Queens did not run bakeries.
Fiona folded her arms, watching as the dragon prince grumbled and began sliding his hands all around the furniture in the room. He crouched down to check beneath the tables and desks. When he grabbed a chair to reach up and check the light fixtures on the ceiling, that was when she’d had enough.
“What are you doing?”
“Looking.”
“Looking for the ears in the walls?”
He smiled at her, as though pleased she’d understood. “Something like that.”
The smile didn’t last long before it melted away. He dropped back to the floor, placing his seat back behind the desk where he’d gotten it. “Charrling attacked Joseph for a reason, and now she’s flipping out like this…there’s got to be more.”
“More to what?” Fiona didn’t understand and she was getting tired of this. “She hates me because now you’re not going to marry your cousin.”
“That’s not all it is. I know she’s hiding something.”
Everything seemed so much simpler when her biggest problem was making sure her boss didn’t steal her secret recipes.
He came back out, barely sparing her a glance as he marched over to the fireplace.
Fiona blinked wide when he got into the fireplace. “What are you doing?”
“Checking.” He pushed something out of the way.
She heard the heavy scrape of stone over stone, and Fiona’s curiosity got the better of her. It consumed her need to understand what was happening, so she wandered up behind him to have a look just as he ducked into the small space he’d created.
He had to crouch down just to get inside. Fiona could almost walk right in there without ducking at all.
She tried it. The roof of the little passageway he’d created touched the very top of her head, so she had to bend her knees a little. “What is…this is the passage he used to get in, right?”
There was no need for Inferno to ask who he was. Definitely the man who’d wandered into the bedroom where she’d slept, alone, and had stared at her in her sleep.
“If we can find anything that indicates it has been used lately, than yeah, most likely this is how he got in.”
Lights flashed on. Fiona blinked. She didn’t know what she’d expected to see. Maybe torches lining the stone walls stretching down the narrow corridor.
No. It was actual LED lights spaced out every thirty feet or so. It was shockingly bright in here. There weren’t any dark patches where anyone could hide. Fiona suddenly imagined some weirdo lurking in the shadows with a knife or something, waiting to spring.
Nope. It was gray and plain, and she could hardly get horrific nightmares over the sight of this place.
“Is there a way to lock the portal?” she asked. “From our side? So he can’t get back in again?”
Inferno made a soft growling noise in the back of his throat, then he answered. “Yeah. We can lock it.”
She glared at the back of his head. “What aren’t you telling me?”
He turned, looked at her, then shook his head, a grin on his face that she definitely knew the meaning of. “I’ll tell you later. Let’s get out of here.”
“Why?” Fiona drew out the length of that word. The feeling of suspense tingled on her senses. A lot.
Inferno stepped forward. Even hunched over, he was intimidating, and his body radiated sexual heat. “Because it’s not very romantic in here.”
Fiona backed up, and it would be a total lie if she told herself this was having no effect. Her body tightened, and her sex throbbed with all the potential in his eyes.
“Romantic, huh? After you kicked your aunt out of the palace and went to investigate the creepy tunnel leading out of your room?”
“It’s hardly creepy in here.”
He was right. It wasn’t even damp, but that wasn’t the point.
A softer light washed over her when she stepped out of the fireplace. Inferno stood tall as he followed her. He reached back, pressing his thumb into a single black stone in the fireplace that was arched so it could almost be in the shape of a claw.
She got it. Blackclaw. Clever.
Except then he pressed down on another stone, a little diamond shaped one immediately beneath it, and Fiona heard the heavy click that followed.
“There. Locked. See?”
“Great,” Fiona said, swallowing hard. “And I can still get out if I need to? Like, I’m not trapped in here if someone tries to bust down the door when you’re not around, right?”
She imagined something like that would be set to his thumb print or something, which would be hugely inconvenient for her.
As though reading her mind, Inferno reached out and took Fiona by her hand. “Here,” he said, putting her finger to the black claw. He pressed her finger to it. There was a shift and another heavy clicking noise, as though the tunnel was trying to open for her but couldn’t. “Still locked. So you press this one first.” He made her touch the diamond-shaped stone, and then another click sounded before he brought her finger back to the claw. The tunnel opened for her again. “That’s how you unlock it and open it. To close it and lock it is the same thing.”
Fiona swallowed. She nodded. She was paying attention. It wasn’t like she wasn’t, but she couldn’t simply ignore the strength and heat of Inferno’s hand around her wrist, holding her tightly.
More than once she’d thought his namesake more than fit everything about him, the heat of his body, his personality, everything.
“Understand?”
“Yeah,” she croaked, quickly clearing her throat as if that would erase the high-pitched sound she’d just made. “I understand.”
Smooth. Real smooth.
She didn’t have to look up at Inferno to know he was smirking at her. His thumb stroked across the top of her hand. Still holding her close, he brought her arms forward. She found herself with her hands pressed against her chest, his arms around her, his body spooning up behind her.
So close. So intimate.
His mouth came down close to her ear. She felt the soft brush of his trimmed beard against her skin. “I never wanted this for you.”
Her heart lurched. “This what? The drama with your family? Someone trying to kill me? Or at the very least mutilate me?”
He kissed the side of her face that had been burned.
“Yeah, those things.”
“Even if I leave, even if I move to a new city and change my name, I’ll never be safe again, will I?”
The guilty look on his face said it all before he could open his mouth, and Fiona shook her head, turning away from him.
“I am so sorry.”
“Right.”
“I’ll make it up to you. I promise.”
Her heart sank. She was homesick. She was tired. She was so many things right now.
Then, all of a sudden, she was cold as Inferno pulled away from her.
She looked up at him; his guilty expression was still there. “I’ll leave you alone for a little while.” He turned and walked away from her. She blinked at the sight of his retreating back. Something about that didn’t sit well with her. A prince should not be retreating. He shouldn’t be the one to leave her alone when he was, at least in part, the reason why she felt this way.
She ran after him, reaching out, snatching his wrist just as he settled his hand on the doorknob.
He looked at her, shocked.
She stared back up at him, no clue what she was supposed to say. Fiona swallowed. God, her fingers didn’t even reach halfway around his entire wrist. Why was that something she had to notice right now? “You should stay.”
He lifted a brow at her. “I should?”
She nodded, feeling a little more bravery rushing up to greet her. “Yeah, you should.”
His eyes flashed. He didn’t exactly smile at her, but it was in his eyes. He pulled his hand away from the doorknob. “If you want me to stay, then I will.” He reached for her.
She didn’t exactly fall into his arms, but it was pretty close to that as she pushed herself up onto her toes and he leaned down, his mouth covering hers in a searing kiss.
Yes, he was going to make this up to her. He could start by making her forget all about how crazy her life had become ever since she’d woken up in his palace.
21
The taste of her mouth was sweet.
Inferno just wished that sweetness wasn’t mixed in with the guilt he felt over what he’d done to her. He was a bastard, and she was right to hate him. Whatever this gift was, he was going to take it and be grateful for it. Even if this turned into the last time he made love to her because she was simply taking what she needed from him before ignoring him forever, like a starved dog, he would snatch at it without reservation.
He held her face to his, probing at the sweetness of her lips before she parted for him, allowing him to sink deeply inside that warm, wet mouth that he wanted to claim.
; His. His and no one else’s.
He backed his mate up to the sofa in front of the fireplace. The bed was too damned far away for him to bother with. He followed her down, cursing his clumsiness as he fumbled in his attempts to get their clothes off. His desire to be with her fueled him along, but a part of him felt a vulnerability he thought he left behind a long time ago.
This woman, this baker, this survivor, was someone he needed as much as he needed air. They could talk about her leaving all they wanted to, but he knew he would never go a day of his life without her as long as they both breathed. He would give up his birthright just to be near her. He tried to tell her that with his mouth, with his kiss, as they pushed themselves to a more comfortable position on the loveseat.
Part of him thought he should turn the fireplace on for the mood, but that would involve taking one of his hands off her breasts, and he didn’t think he was going to be capable of doing that. If he wasn’t touching her, then he wasn’t breathing.
Her body was scorching to the touch. Her fingers danced in his hair, threading through the strands and gripping tightly. As though a small part of her was allowing her own animalistic side to emerge.
No. Not simply that. She was allowing herself to feed off his energy. Just the way an Istavan should when in bed with her mate.
Inferno growled as he kissed her exposed skin. He made an attempt at being suave and purposeful in his kissing and stroking. He wanted to worship every inch of her skin, leaving her searing as he moved down between her pert breasts, the flat of her stomach, feeling the peach fuzz on her skin darken and thicken as he made it down to her pubic region.
He put all of his attention on her sex, bringing his hand up for a firm stroke between the folds of her. Fiona groaned, a powerful shiver passing through her entire body.
He smiled at her, keeping a firm grip on her thighs as he held them apart before leaning in. He barely allowed his lips to touch her, though he flicked his tongue out, barely allowing it to enter her as he watched her expression carefully.