His body slackens, and he slips his hand free from the pouch.
"Your Highness," he gurgles.
"You like to hurt women?" Deimos snarls like a lion. He releases the mage and spins him around by the shoulder.
Then his fist flies at Jasion's face. Over and over. He knocks him off his feet. Deimos is wild and never stops. He drops to one knee and pounds like a machine.
Blood and groans.
I don't look away, not for a second. I’d like to say it's too gruesome and violent, but Jasion deserves that and so much worse. My chest blooms at seeing my prince fight for me. There's no hesitation, and I adore him in that moment more than I thought possible.
Michae stumbles toward them, shaking his head as if his vision is blurry.
The mage cries out, his hands pushing against the prince, but he never strikes back, never uses magic. Guess he knows that's instant death.
Michae firmly sets a hand on the prince's shoulder.
Deimos finally stops his assault, his fist bloody. Jasion draws in raspy breaths, his eyes puffy, lips torn open. There’s so much blood. I should feel pity, but I am cheering on the inside.
Deimos gets to his feet and looks over to Jasion. "Get the fuck out of my face before I rip your spine out. You touch her again, and I’ll keep my word." He swings his attention over to a bewildered Michae. “Get him out of here, now!” Then my prince takes long strides toward me, his eyes flooded with worry.
He cups my face with a clean hand, studying me. "Did he hurt you? I'm going to murder him if he did."
I shake my head but his gaze falls to my neck where it burns from Jasion’s fingers. "I’m fine. You arrived before he could do worse."
He draws me into his arms, holding me so tight I can't inhale, but I don't want to push him away. Not when I'm shaking all over from the attack.
Deimos breaks from me and watches as Michae drags the mage out of the room. "Why did he attack you?"
"He came here to tell me I wasn't worthy of royalty. He pissed me off, so I provoked him by saying Ahren is into girls and he doesn't stand a chance."
Deimos bursts out laughing. "That's my girl. There's no doubt now Jasion is so head over heels infatuated with my brother that he'd do anything to get rid of the competition. So, he's staying locked up until all this shit is over."
I blink at him. "The funeral?" My mind echoes with Jasion’s words about not being worthy, about royal blood. But I won’t let him get to me, I just won’t.
Deimos looks at me for a long pause before he nods. "Come, I want to get cleaned up and take you away from everything for a while."
“I'd love that." He collects my hand and we slip out into the hallway and make our way to his room. "Thank you for helping back there.”
His lips pinch to one side, and his hold just squeezes slightly. "No one is going to hurt you again."
I smile to myself because I never expected to have men in my life who cared and protected me so much.
Once in his chamber, he heads into his bathroom where I hear the splashing of water.
Unlike my room, Deimos has a huge bed, a couch, fireplace, even a table, all in the main area. It's twice as big as mine.
Deimos emerges, wiping his hand on a towel while wearing nothing but dark pants that sit low on his hips. Muscles ripple across his chest and arms, his abs rock-hard with a thin line of hair trailing down into his pants. With everything happening so quickly since I arrived in this realm, with Deimos falling sick, we never got a chance to be together. The way he looks at me now is temptation on steroids, and my nipples pebble at the way his stare devours me.
"Come over here, kitten."
I involuntarily move toward him, my body now listening to him, apparently. I slide right into his arms, and he embraces me, nestling his face into the curve of my neck. Each breath I take fills me with the masculine scent that is all Deimos and has me melting against him. Looping my arms around his chest, I know my heart is in a good place with him. It sounds corny, but after he collected me from Earth and all the things we went through, the cure and magic I used to heal him, there's a bond between us.
"You always smell like delicious berries," he whispers in my ear, then draws my earlobe into his mouth with his tongue.
My toes curl in my boots, and every inch of me shivers with anticipation. This whole time, I've only kissed Deimos and done some heavy petting, but nothing more. Now, I can't get the image of us naked and together out of my mind. I crave it, long for it...
He lifts his head to look at me, and my attention goes to the cut under his eye. It’s healed, even if blushing pink.
"How did you get that wound?" I ask, knowing he went out hunting yesterday. I skim my fingers underneath the wound lightly, then kiss his cheek.
"I want to say it was from a fight with a bear in the woods within the kingdom grounds, but the truth is we don't have anything wild in here. Only pheasants and deer. I tripped over a tree root and a low hanging branch whipped me in the face."
A laugh erupts past my lips and I regret it at once, but I can't stop myself. "I'm sorry, but that's hilarious."
He raises a brow, then his fingers find the bottom of my top and slide under to tickle my ribs.
I flinch and cry out as he tickles me like a mad man playing the piano. Slapping his hand, I shove him
