Page 95 of The Fifth Life of Alicia
I had no business finding him hot when he was threatening to behead someone.
“Understood. I’ll just… dispose of these.” Sir Hayes walked over to the fireplace and tossed them onto the flames enthusiastically. “There. Just the noblewomen, yes? I’ll get right on that. Does anyone know where Ark is?” His words were nothing but rambles as he headed for the door. “Ark! Bella—have you seen Ark?”
“I haven’t, Sir Hayes. Why?”
“I don’t want my head to be used as a football.”
“I can’t imagine that’s something anyone aspires to, Sir.”
I pressed my lips together and dropped my chin, desperately trying to hold in my laugh.Oh, Bella.
“Hayes,” Kalon called coldly. “Stop dillydallying. While you’re out there, do that other thing we spoke about earlier as well.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Shut the door.”
“Yes, sir!”
The door slammed shut, and I finally let my small laugh escape. “Was it really necessary to threaten him with that?”
He turned his blazing purple gaze to me, and a chill ran down my spine. It was clear that this was the version of him everyone feared, and for a second, I really thought he might slice offmyhead and let the children use it as a football.
I didn’t know they had footballs here.
“Do not provoke me in such a manner again,” he warned me, his tone only a little less icy than it’d been with Sir Hayes. “Especially not when your point is already well made.”
I held up my hands and took a step back from his desk. “I’ll keep it in mind.”
“I would hate to scare you with the true extent of my possessiveness when we’re only just starting to get along.”
“That’s very considerate of you, Kalon,” I said, walking towards the door. “But I don’t think such a thing is possible. I’ll let you get on with your—”
The screeching of a chair against the floor reverberated through the room, followed by fast, thunderous footsteps as Kalon got closer to me.
He closed his hand over mine on the door handle, stopping me from opening it, and pressed his hand against the door just above my head, boxing me in between his body and the door. “Oh? You don’t think so, darling?”
His mouth was right by my ear, and the cool use of the word ‘darling’ trickled over my skin like the seductive threat it was.
Well, I was here now, and I knew from the book that Kalon was a jealous, possessive man.
Then again, maybe riling him up wasn’t the best idea.
But still, something inside me demanded I ask the question: just how dangerous could this man get?
“Why don’t you try me?” I whispered, clenching my hand into a fist and pressing it against my stomach.
“You say it like I can’t feel you tremble.” His lips brushed my earlobe as he spoke. “I’m the kind of man who gets jealous enough that I wouldn’t hesitate to lock you up if it meant no other man could lay eyes on you. I would tie you to me if it meant keeping you safe, and I wouldn’t think twice about taking the heads of anyone who dared to even think about hurting you. I’d line them up outside the castle gates as a warning.”
My heart pounded with every word he spoke. There was no denying that he was dangerous and that the twisted devotion he was capable of could hurt, but he didn’t scare me.
His words were cold, but his touch was warm. There was nothing terrifying about the tender way he trailed his fingers up my arm and across my shoulder, as if he were committing the shape of those curves to memory. I couldn’t bring myself to be scared as his large hand cradled the side of my neck and he pressed his thumb against my jaw, turning my face towards his.
Maybe a part of me was just as twisted as he was.
“I would raise an army and go to war, maybe even burn down the entire empire if I had to.” He brushed his thumb across the curve of my jaw in a gentle way that was so contradictory to his words. “There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to keep you by my side. That’s the kind of man I am. That’s how deep my desire to possess runs.”
“So?” My voice was barely a whisper. “Is that supposed to scare me?”
