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Ronan had been scheduled to be there for a week on and off, acting as a messenger for his king. At the end of that week, he’d shocked them all by applying to stay in the Rose Tower. The Shadow King was incensed. The Summer Queen allowed it because taking one of the Unseelie was a way to embarrass the Black Tower’s Royal, and besides, Ronan was physically attractive and had captured the imagination of most of the women at court. It also didn’t hurt that he was a powerful mage. The queen quickly employed him as one of her personal assistants.
Due to the uniqueness of the circumstances—an Unseelie coming to their side of the square, even if said individual had some Seelie blood, was highly unusual—everyone assumed he was sleeping with the queen. That he was her pet, so to speak. Even Bella had believed that to be the case at first.
But of all the women at court, Ronan seemed to have his eye set on Bella. Every time they passed each other in the corridor, his dark gaze would hold hers with such a carnal intensity that her cheeks would heat and her heart would thump. At banquets and balls he always managed to sit near her or brush against her. Bella wasn’t the only one who noticed it. Aislinn had commented on Ronan’s fascination with her often.
Secretly, it had thrilled her.
It had also worried her, because if the queen had taken Ronan as her lover, Her Majesty would not be pleased if he was attracted to another woman. Bella rather enjoyed her head on her shoulders.
So one evening Bella took matters into her own hands. She cornered Ronan and asked him point-blank what sort of game he was playing with her life. That was when Ronan told her he wasn’t sleeping with the queen . . . and then he’d kissed her.
Ronan’s hadn’t been the first kiss of her life, but it had been the first kiss that made her knees go weak and her toes curl. It had been the first kiss that had ever blanked her mind clean of rational thought, made her bones turn soft as warm butter. It hadn’t been her last kiss from Ronan, nor had it been her last kiss, period.
Still, brushing her fingers across her mouth even now, she could recall the first touch of his lips.
They’d shared a strong romance from that day forward, though they’d never slept together. The court had buzzed about their affair and even the queen took notice. The Seelie Royal finally asked Ronan what his intentions toward Bella were and gave him her blessing if he chose to ask Bella to marry him. That’s when Ronan, in front of the entire court, had declared he was finished with her.
Just like that.
In love one minute and publicly dumped the next.
Bella’s heart had shattered. His rejection of her had been humiliating, but it had been her broken heart that had made her literally sick.
Even worse had been the years of having to live at court with him. She became a master at avoiding him, until she’d decided her pride couldn’t allow that kind of behavior. They said hello once in a while in a corridor, made small talk when forced. She’d tried to build a wall of non-emotion between him and herself. She’d never managed it. Not quite.
Ronan emerged from the bathroom wearing only a towel around his middle. Water droplets still clung to his chest, and his dark hair was slicked back, throwing his handsome face into sharp relief.
Bella sat up against the pillows and cleared her throat. There was not even close to enough fabric covering that man. His smooth golden chest, back, and arms rippled and flexed with every movement he made. She knew it was only some primitive female mating directive that made her react to all that muscle and strength. That’s what made her want to lick him all over. It had nothing whatsoever to do with the fact it was Ronan. Nothing. She fussed with the coverlet as Ronan moved around the edge of the bed, closer to her.
“I won’t drop my towel, I swear.”
Anger flared in a hot rush through her veins. She glanced at him. “It doesn’t matter to me. Drop it. See if I care.”
“Okay.” He removed the towel and she turned her head away, but not before she got an eyeful of his narrow hips and long, wide cock.
“You’re blushing, Bella. I thought you didn’t care.”
“Danu, Ronan.” She cleared her throat again and concentrated hard on the opposite wall. It was better to change the subject and fast. Something. Anything. “Tell me what it’s like in the Unseelie Court.”
“The Unseelie Court?” He pulled on his pants and zipped them up, then worked the towel through his damp hair. “I told you my impression of the Black Tower long ago.”
“Tell me again.”
He shrugged. “It’s dangerous, but not as bad as you’ve been led to believe. The Summer Queen likes to demonize the Unseelie. Although it’s true it’s where the dark fae live. It can be brutal and violent, but it’s not the absolute evil that most of the Seelie Court believes it to be. The Seelie Royal herself is darker than many of the fae who live in the Black Tower.”
Bella disagreed. The Seelie Queen’s magick was dark in nature, and she had the will to spill blood—which she’d demonstrated amply over her long lifetime—but her magick could not be used directly to cause harm. She could only take life if it was in defense of herself or her court, and the darker portion of her power was never passed on to her progeny. That was the law of the Seelie and the confines of the royal station.
“But to be Unseelie one must love to spill blood, that’s the saying. One must be able to kill with one’s magick. You don’t enjoy spilling blood and that’s why you came to Seelie.”
“No, you’re wrong.” He shook his head. “I came to the Rose Tower for you and no other reason, Bella. If I had never met you I would still reside in the Black.”
She looked away from him, her jaw locking. Right. Then why had he dumped her and broken her heart?
He dropped the towel on the bed. “My magick is dark and I can cast spells that will take someone’s life. It’s that capacity that makes me welcome in the Unseelie Court. I have the ability to kill with my magick; I just don’t have the will.” He paused and then said gently, “There are many more Seelie than you can imagine in the Summer Queen’s court who have Unseelie blood.”
Her gaze jerked upward and locked with his. She had the capacity to spill blood with her magick. Did he know that somehow? Did Ronan know she was Unseelie?
“Many Seelie carrying the DNA of the Unseelie? That’s impossible. A couple, I could imagine.” Herself and Aislinn, namely.
