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"I wasdrunk" An excuse he’d never expected to give, an excuse that shaht off the effects, but at one point I lost consciousness I woke unclothed" He cleared his throat "With theirI was out"

"You look sick about this"

"I am! I want only you It will always be this way" He scrubbed his hand over his face "I don’t understand how this could happen If you kne badly I desire you"

"And you decided to confess this to me now?"

"I want you to coet you there"

"I know about the Nereids" She looked unperturbed "Nereus set it up so that I could see all of it"

"But you’re notupset? You don’t even care, do you? What would it take to ive a da You’re the first ics"

That relieved souilt, but his chest felt hollow at her lack of reaction She’d witnessed those ny him; if he’d ever seen a male’s hands on her naked body, it would have annihilated hiht as well have sunk a sword into hied therabbed his face "When I thought you were going to succumb, I cried"

After all the times he would’ve expected her to cry in the last week? Even in the belly of the beast, she’d soruffly

She nodded "And not just because of the bet I’dof?"

"I bet Nereus that you couldn’t be seduced If I e’d go free If I lost, he’d bed ht! But Thronos had proved stronger than even the Nereids’ spells, and now he and Lanthe would be rewarded

He seized her hands "Then coo to Rothkalina"

"I need to return hoes must be made"

"You still plan to rehab him?" She dreay

He reluctantly released her "I told you I will make him see reason You will help ether, e’ve overcome, he’ll have to conclude that his views are mistaken"

"Why do you think I won’t use ht of the solution "I have ways"

"Tellto take you fully empowered to my home, because I trust you"

Clever, clever des he could’ve said

"You are trustingyou to use your sorcery in a e both can live with"

"That’s your plan?"

He lifted his chin "That’s ood person"

"Lower your voice!" Her eyes darted "If that got out"

"Co Aristo will let me stay empowered in the Skye?"

He quirked his brow "If anyone tries anything, then I’ me leave to protect myself?"

"I know you won’t harm anyone unless you ood-with-the-bad situation? If a sorceress wanted a man ould stay faithful even when bespelled and accosted by nymphs, then she had to support that man even when he believed he could rehab his douchelord brother

But Lanthe and Thronos had so many issues unsettled between thes could be i there would be like going into the belly of the beast Having actually been in the belly of the beast, she didn’t think this lightly

He curled his finger under her chin "In Pande from you I do The opportunity to protect you and treasure you" She parted her lips to argue, but he stopped her "Not only because of my instinct"

"I’d like to believe that I would But"

"Do you want to knohat N&iu you? One sentence: ‘Before Melanthe was this, she was that’ I figured it out torlds ago"

"Tell me"

"Before you were my eneo, her heart ached with yearning

"You still are," he told her "And that is why I want you to co like Felix--or ood man He was her ive hi loss she’d felt when she’d thought he would succuhts were tangled

He must have sensed she was on the ropes He inched closer to her "When ere children, weevery happiness to folloant to look back one day and say that our plans went awry for only the first five hundred years, but not for the following millennia Lanthe, if you come with me, I’ll want to wed you This very day"

Marry hi To bind

In a flash, she understood: on this night, she would either separate from Thronos or bind her life to his

If she ith him, she would be all-in, committed to him, to them She would do her damnedest to make a future with Thronos

But could she abide Skye Hall? Could she bring her family around? And survive his?

He released her andmore, and awaited her

She sed All-in?

With his eyes gone molten silver, Thronos Talos--a fierce, sensual de Lanthe to her idea of hell, to become his bride

Like a fool in love

She took it