I know neither of us thought this would be more than a marriage of convenience. A way to settle the debt my family owes yours. I think, perhaps, it could end up being quite a bit more. I just... need a little time to wrap my head around it. To come to you able to offer complete submission.
Seeing you with him woke something inside me, something that gathered strength in the library. A creature of darkness hungry for pain at only your hand. But I can’t give in to those desires until I understand them. Until I’ve had space from the wild storm you stir in my blood.
When I return, it will be to give myself to you.
Yours, Petal
I nearly crumpledthe letter as I let her words sink in. She needed space.
Space.
From.
Me.
She was topping me from the bottom already. I should go after her, bring her back and make her obey. Show her the room and all its toys. Give her something more she could remember whenever she caught a glance of her bare skin in the mirror and saw my lash marks on her back.
But then I read her missive again, tracing my fingers over the delicate script of her carefully written note. She intentionally used the nickname I’d given her. Called me her lord. Told me she wanted to be mine in the ways that I most desired.
She would come back.
I had to trust her to return. I had to relinquish control over this until she gave it all to me.
I was not a patient man, but I would give her this.
Because when my wife returned, I was going to ensure she never forgot who she belonged to.
* * *
Ten nights later
My mother’sscream tore through the house.
“No! That little bitch ruined everything!”
Alarm bells clanged in my head, apprehension on their heels. I ran through the castle, desperate to see what had happened, because the sinking feeling in my bones said my petal was the cause.
What had she done now?
Any number of things could have happened, chief among them something that would ruin her blood and taint her usefulness to us. Tearing down the stairs, I found Mother and my father in the foyer, a missive in her hand.
“Mother? What is it? What’s wrong?”
She spun around, her entire body trembling with rage.
“Your wife managed to cheat us after all.”
“What do you mean?”
She laughed, but there was no humor in it, only hysteria. “She went and got herself killed. And we are left with nothing. No alliance. No heir. No blood of the sun. Nothing but another slight against us by those slippery snakes, the Blackthornes. And now you have to pretend to mourn her. My son, the widower.”
I sat down hard on the stairs, my blood roaring in my ears. My mother continued to rant, but I was still caught on the first part.
Killed.
My wife... my petal... was dead.
She’d been promised to me in the night. But now she was lost.