Excerpt 1
“I have nothing else to offer,” I told him.

“That’s not true. In fact, I know what I want and only you have it.”

Nox shifted closer, his arm behind me now. Not touching, but close.

I didn’t move. Could hardly breathe.

“If you don’t want my mouth on her body, then I’ll have it on yours instead.”

Muscles I didn’t know I had clenched between my legs. Butterflies flew around in my belly. My body was betraying me in the worst of ways.

“Just your mouth?” I checked.

Shit. Was I actually entertaining his smarmy request?

“Unless you ask for more.”

“And just kissing? On my mouth?”

The tilt of his lips was a wicked, wicked thing. “Again, unless you ask for more.”

“Fine,” I agreed, closing my eyes. “Get it over with.”

“I have to say, this is a first for me,” Nox mused.

“Same.”

“You’ve not bargained for mouth-only kisses?” he jested.

My eyes popped open. “No. I’ve never had to bargain with my body to get something I want.”

Nox stilled, something feral stared out at me from deep within his eyes, a beast coming to life in his psyche. It called to the wildness inside me, the untamed voice I’d always kept buried deep.

Uh oh.

“Spread your legs, Aeryn.” His pitch fell so low I felt it vibrate across my skin.

Alarm bells went off in my mind. “But—”

“I agreed not to go beyond a kiss. Now spread your fucking legs.”

Tentatively I pulled my knees wider. The skirt of the dress shifted, fabric dropping between my legs like it was making room for the king.

Nox lowered to the floor, kneeling between my legs. Bending his face to just inches above the juncture of my thighs, he inhaled deeply.

Goosebumps broke out across my skin.

A low rumble echoed from his chest as his spine straightened, his face closing in on mine. The king’s hands landed on the back of the couch, on either side of my head.

Unable to look away, I watched his mouth descend. Soft and oh so gentle, his lips brushed mine. Electricity sparked between our flesh. I gasped and his tongue probed carefully. My abdominals tightened, breasts turned heavy.

Then he was gone. Confused, I looked up and found him twenty feet across the room.

Nox waved a dismissive hand. “Go,” he ordered, “and pray I’m in a forgiving mood when next we meet.”

I sat there in stunned silence, face burning.

“Sofiya is safe from me. Now get out.”

I stared at him for a long moment before standing and stalking from the room.

 

Excerpt 2
He stood motionless, not so much as blinking. Red crept under his olive skin. A muscle in his jaw ticked.

“Listen very carefully to your king,” he growled, pressing into me.

I gasped as the solid weight of his body pinned me in place. My heart pounded wildly as we glared at one another.

“My father found my mother through these trials and he was a very, very content male. It was his desire for me to have the same experience.”

I swallowed. I’d forgotten Nox had only recently lost his father. His mother had died shortly after the last war, assassinated on a trip around the kingdom. Though I had empathy for his losses, I had none for his decision to continue the trials.

A calloused hand cupped my jaw. I knocked it away, ignoring the bolt of electricity at the brief contact.

Nox laughed, a low rumble that did nothing to ease the riot of butterflies in my stomach. “You have fire, I’ll give you that.”

His hand closed around my chin, grip deceptively gentle. “Here, I am the one in charge. I make the rules. And you, my dear Aeryn, obey them. Is that clear?”

I jerked my chin from his grasp, anger simmering in my veins. “I am not one of your servants.”

“Perhaps you require a reminder of who is in control here.”

His mouth descended, claiming mine in a kiss that was all teeth and tongue and hunger. A groan rumbled in his chest, vibrating against my breasts.

I sank my nails into his shoulders, torn between pushing him away and pulling him closer. Nox tasted of power and danger, as addictive as any drug. My worries slid away to the back of my mind.

He pulled back slightly, lips brushing mine as he spoke. “Do you understand now?”

His hands slid down to cup my backside, pressing me more firmly against him. I felt his desire like a living thing, hard against my stomach. Heat pooled low in my belly.

Anger warred with desire, leaving me trembling. I wanted to rage at his arrogance, but my traitorous body only wanted to feel his hands on my skin.

Swallowing hard, I met his gaze. “I understand you’re a pompous ass.”

His eyes flashed, but his chest shook with his deep, masculine laugh. The sound was so beguiling I worried it might enslave me.

“And you are a maddening wench. It seems we suit well.”

Nox claimed my mouth again, gentler this time but no less demanding. And despite my anger, despite everything, I couldn’t help but respond.

Curse him. And curse me for how easily I fell under his spell.

Once my lips were good and swollen, Nox pulled back again. A smug smile curled his lips.

“Now, about these trials,” he began, putting space between us.

The pleasant haze of desire began to cool and I wrapped my arms around my ribs. “What about them?”

“Every name drawn was magically bound the moment their name was read,” Nox explained. “They cannot back out. Not unless the contestant wants to forfeit their life.”

My eyes widened. “What?” Panic clawed at my chest, and I took an involuntary step closer as though proximity might change what I’d heard.

Nox’s expression was unreadable now. “The trials are a long-standing tradition. They have endured for millennia, and are how I am supposed to choose my queen.”

“B-but the names were drawn at random!” I accused. “How can you bind us to some barbaric contest we never agreed to?”

“The names were drawn by magic,” Nox corrected. “And all who come to my court agree to abide by its rules and traditions, especially those that are magically enforced.”

“No one agreed to that!” I shouted. “And if that were true, Dori wouldn’t have been able to attack Mirrelle. She’d still be alive!”

“The rules given to you in writing were my expectations. The tie to the trials is the only compulsion.”

“My name wasn’t drawn, so that means I’m not bound, correct?”

His nostrils flared. With a roll of his wrist, Nox produced a small ivory card and held it up between his fingertips.

“Aeryn Faulkner,” he read aloud.

A delicate charge of magic wrapped around my heart. Realization slapped me in the face. It took all my self-control not to lunge for one of the daggers at his waist.

“How dare you?” I seethed. “I would never abandon Sofiya who never wanted any part of your ridiculous trials or your throne. You didn’t have to bind me to keep me here, you bastard!”

Nox’s eyes flashed dangerously. “Guard your tongue.”

“Or what?” I shouted, simmering with fury. “You’ll force me to participate? Oh, wait, you already did that. Maybe you’ll just have to trick me into backing out so I’ll forfeit my life since it obviously means so little. Is that what you want? Half of me thinks you do.”

Nox clenched his jaw. His muscles rippled and for a moment I wondered if he was the kind of male who would strike a magicless female.

But then he exhaled slowly and pinched the bridge of his nose. “You push too far, Aeryn.”

“As do you,” I countered. “Now release me from the binding.”

“I can’t do that.”

“Can’t or won’t?” It was my understanding that the one casting the spell could end it.

Nox dropped his hands to his side, regarding me with a strange mix of irritation and regret. “Can’t. The magic binding you to the trials can only be broken by death or completion of the trials.”

I stared at him, stunned into silence. Death was the only way out of this madness? Bile rose in my throat at the thought.

Nox took a step toward me, his eyes searching my face. “Aeryn, I–”

I didn’t hear anything that came out of his mouth. I only heard the swooshing of my erratic pulse, felt the lava inside destroy my control. With a cry of rage, I hurled myself at him with all my might.