Page 110 of Of Curses and Courtship

I must keep her safe.

Ophelia peers up at me with a defiant expression that perfectly matches her playful smile. “You know what I’d like to do, Your Highness?”

“I may have some idea.” I wrap my fingers around her throat, applying no pressure. Her skin is so soft beneath me.

She presses her left hand to my hardening bulge. “I would like to take you in my hand.”

“Would you?”

“Yes. May I?”

The hand she’s touching me with wouldn’t usually register, but it does now. It’s the hand that wears my ring.

The ring is different from the one I gave to Minetta; it’s one I picked on my own, and a color that suits both of us—purple for the color of her palace, but equally for its ties to arcane magic.

Showing her the ring and presenting myself on a knee was one of the most nerve-wracking things I’ve done, but the bliss in her eyes when she accepted the gift more than makes up for it. While I’ve had doubts about love and marriage, those concerns matter as little to me as the curse when she is in my arms and wings.

It’s all in the past.

I let my jacket drop to the ground, paying no mind to the dirt it may collect. It’s already covered in sand and saltwater, anyhow. “Only because you asked so nicely.”

She unfastens my trousers and pushes them down, wrapping her hand around my length. It’s not her dominant hand, and she lacks the expertise she usually has when touching me, but her fingers are still soft, treating me with a gentleness I’ve not always been touched with. I vowed to show Ophelia a good life, but she doesn’t know that she has already shown me what that means.

She moves to her knees and shows me those things onceagain when she presses her plump lips to the head of my cock, kissing it so sweetly. One look from her, and I melt.

“The ring looks perfect on you, if I do say so myself.”

Her eyes crinkle, and she adjusts her position, wriggling ever so slightly. “You’re only saying that because you picked it yourself.”

“That’s not true. I would’ve said it about any ring—anything that shows the realm we belong together.”

“We do.” Ophelia sounds so sure, as certain as I am. She runs her tongue along the base of my length, creating slickness for her hand to stroke slowly. “Everyone will see it now that you’ve given me your ring, Your Highness.”

What a thrill. Pride, excitement, and adoration rush through me. I lean against the door, my wings fluttering. “Then they will know what a lucky man I am.”

“And how blessed I am to have someone who treats me like a queen.”

I tangle my fingers gently in her hair. “You are my queen.”

The touch seems to awaken something, recognition flickering across her face. “You know what I enjoyed?”

“No. Tell me.”

She sucks on my head once before answering. “Feeling you fill me—both of you, together.”

“Ah…” I chuckle. “But of course.”

“But that’s not what I want tonight, Emyr. I want you. Only you, genuinely, with no illusions. I want it to be just the two of us.”

I swallow thickly. She’s not the first person I have used my magic for in that way. Most become obsessed with it, and my duplicates are often treated in ways that I don’t approve of… nor do I prefer to think of them in this moment.

Ophelia only wants me. She doesn’t love me for my magic, crown, or power, and that only makes me want to use my magic with hermore. It’s safe to. I can’t understand whatelse there is to love about me, but she does, and that’s what matters.

I still wish to please her with everything I have, with all of my magic, but she wantsme. Just me, just for the night. She will have me however she wishes. I will be enough for her. She makes me feel as though I already am.

“Come here, wife.” I hold her elbows and guide her onto her feet, connecting our lips firmly

She’s not my wife yet, but she will be. Nothing will come between us. I’m not a soldier, but Ophelia is the one thing I’m willing to fight for.