Yes, yes. “No!” Stay quiet and keep him a little longer. Obey, and lose him sooner than later.
“I accept not your answer, katya. You belong to me, and soon I will make you realize just how much.”
The words were a promise.
The words were a challenge.
What scared her most? He was a man of his word.
* * *
JORLAN STOOD UNDER the darkening sky in the Victorian’s backyard. A storm brewed in the distance, the scent of coming rain saturating the air. The garden where he’d spent so many spans loomed up ahead, but he did not enter. ’Twas a place he would just as soon forget existed.
A phantom breeze swirled around him, there one second, gone the next. He should be inside with Katie, who’d fallen asleep shortly after reaching her peak, but an odd sensation had driven him here. For the first time in his life, he felt at one with the magic inside him, as if he’d at last unlocked the door to his true abilities.
Already he’d opened and closed three vortexes to Imperia. The first time he’d been shocked. The second, he’d been afraid to hope. The third, he’d accepted the truth. He was stronger than ever. At last, he could go home. And yet…
He would not leave Katie, even though she had, in fact, rejected him again.
At the reminder, he balled his hands into fists.
Part of her still believed he only wished to use her as a ticket to freedom. A woman who believed the worst of him was not in love with him, and would not be falling any time soon.
He should go home to Imperia and spend his last hours with his loved ones. But…
He wouldn’t.
He should pick her up and carry her to his world, no matter her protests. Again, he wouldn’t.
He’d told her he would convince her to wed him, and he’d meant it. A warrior to his core, he did not give up just because things had gotten tough. If he had minutes left on the clock, he had hope.
While part of Katie believed the worst of him, the other part believed the worst of herself. That good, lasting things did not happen to her. Which was understandable. She’d lost her mother at a young age and had never felt worthy in her father’s eyes.
How did you help someone else see past the darkness of their own fears, and into the light of love? You didn’t. You couldn’t. You could only ever control your own actions.
No matter what, whether he won her heart or not, whether the curse took effect or not, he wanted to wed Katie James. If ever she needed protection, she would be entitled to the use of his army. She would have access to his riches. And, if he were to get her pregnant, the baby would have a place to learn how to wield magic.
Longing consumed him. Katie, pregnant…
Perhaps he needed to trick her into wedding him? She would never have to know. She could merely enjoy the benefits of their joining.
Aye. The perfect plan.
Determined, he strode inside the house and stopped beside her pallet. Murky light bathed her sleeping form, like fairy dust illuminating a magic circle.
Gently, he shook her awake. “This is very important, Katie. Awaken.”
Her eyelids fluttered open, her irises unfocused. “What is it? Did something happen?”
“I need you to repeat after me,” he told her.
“Not now,” she yawned, and closed her eyes again. “I’m too sleepy.”
“Katie.” He shook her a little harder. “This is very important.”
“Why?”
“Please, Katie.”
She uttered a sigh and faced him. “Okay. I’m awake.”
“Repeat after me.” He uttered a string of words in Imperian, a language she didn’t understand. The English equivalent: I pledge my life to you, now and forever. I am blood of your blood, bone of your bone, heart of your heart.
She repeated them exactly. “Why—”
He pressed a finger to her lips. Part one was done. That simple, and that complex. Guilt and shame surged, but he ignored them.
Before she woke up enough to get serious about questioning him, he removed his clothing and slid under the covers. “Now I will make love to you.” Thereby completing the process.
She might notice her deepening feelings for him as she dreamed his memories, but she would not know why.
All would be well.
* * *
ALL WOULD NOT BE WELL.
The evening came upon them with a vengeance. Katie napped as rain clinked against the windows. Wind whistled, bringing to mind banshees and demons coming to take their chosen to Hell.
The curse would take effect at any moment. Jorlan knew it, felt it. Cold crept through his veins. He needed to speak with Katie a final time, and tell her what he’d done, how he’d tricked her into wedding him. Leaving her in the dark would do no good. To make use of his title and riches for any reason, she needed to know she had one, as well.
Finally, Katie stirred beside him and yawned. Oh, how he’d both anticipated and dreaded this moment.
“Good morning. I mean, good evening.” Her eyes were heavy-lidded, slumberous. She gave him a sweet smile, the yawn clinging to the edges. “I had the most amazingly vivid dreams about you. You were a little boy and you wanted so badly to give your mother a present, so you picked her a bouquet of flowers, but they were poisonous, and you broke out in a horrible rash.”
Aye. He remembered the day well, not to mention the weeks of itching. “We must talk.” His expression grave, almost desperate, he helped her to a sitting position.
She frowned and furrowed her brows. “Okay. What’s going on?”
“Hours ago—” his heart drummed erratically “—I made you my life mate.”
She froze, all traces of sleep abandoning her features. “You did what now?”
“I spoke the words of binding, and you repeated them. We had sex, and I came inside you, completing the ceremony.”
“No, no, no. I did not get married without knowing it.”
* * *
DID I? KATIE FLOUNDERED. Jorlan’s eyes were a dark slate, no longer light and twinkling. Her stomach twisted and churned, dread clamping around her like a shackle. “I told you no.”
“I told you aye, and I meant it.”
“No, you told me you’d convince me.” She popped her jaw. “Did you think I’d vow to love you forever after being tricked?”
“Nay, I did not. I have accepted that you do not love me, and that we will part.”
The color in her cheeks disappeared in an instant.
“I am prepared for the fate that will soon befall me. What I did, I did for you. It doesn’t excuse my actions, but I am okay with that. You are a princess now, and the title will protect you when I return to stone.”
Fury seethed inside her. “I’ve heard a similar rationale my entire life. I know what’s best for you, Kit Kat. You’re a girl. Weak. I’m a man. Strong. I expected better from you. This changes nothing.”
“Nevertheless. ’Tis done.”
“Well, undo it! I won’t stay married to a man who doesn’t really love me.”
“How can you say such a thing? I love you with all of my heart.”
“Oh, really? How can I believe that now? You enforced your will over mine.” The last word escaped on a wispy catch of breath as hurt joined her fury.
“What you believe doesn’t matter, katya. You will not have to deal with me much longer.”