King for a Day (The King Trilogy #2)(34)
Author: Mimi Jean Pamfiloff

So, you want me to talk to you like this?

“Yes. Very good.”

I can’t wait to hear what you have to say, evil bastard.

“Miss Turner—”

Oops. Sorry. Your Royal Evil Bastard?

“Mia. Enough.”

Or what? You’ll kill me?

King made a loud sigh. “I’m coming inside.”

“No!” I pressed my back firmly to the door. “Don’t come near me.”

“Mia.” King appeared right in front of me, his hands extended.

I yelped and then reached to open the door, realizing how futile that move might be; there was nowhere to run.

King slammed the door before I had a chance to crack it open. “Stop!” He grabbed me by the shoulders and pressed me to the door.

My eyes stared at his hands. “How do you do that?”

“Touch you?”

I nodded. “And the door.”

“I am very old and have learned how to manifest myself in brief intervals if I focus. As for you…” He grabbed my wrist and placed his palm over his mark. My skin tingled, and a pleasant wave of peacefulness washed over me. “The tattoo connects us. It allows you to see and feel me even during the dark hours.”

Dark hours?

“My sundial gives—or gave—me two hours each day to walk in the world of the living with little effort.”

How is that possible? Oh, wait. I held out my hand. Don’t tell me. You don’t ask how.

“As you’re aware, I’ve dedicated my existence to finding…” he hesitated, “particular people and things. The sundial was an acquisition from a Tungstic shaman. His gift was temporarily resurrecting the dead.”

Amazing. I wondered how he found the man or how it worked. Why only two hours?

“Even with the sundial, I expend an enormous amount of energy being sentient. I have to use it sparingly.”

“Wait. Was that why you always called me on the phone?”

He nodded. “Yes, I use the phone quite often, especially toward the end of the day when I am running out of steam. My,” he paused as if choosing his words carefully, “interests keep me very busy during business hours.”

I mulled over this shocking information briefly, specifically about a ghost using the phone. Fuck, and driving a car. And walking around talking to people. It was frigging creepier than hell, but explained so much, including his obsession with punctuality. It also explained why the time we were in Edinburgh, he had me do all the talking. The people around us couldn’t see him. How f**king weird.

“Yes. Quite.”

And the collar tattoo? What did that do?

King didn’t reply right away. “It was nothing. Nothing worth sharing.”

I wasn’t sure I believed that. Then why did Vaughn remove it? And your sundial?

“I am not sure. Probably because the man is paranoid and thinks I’ll use them to escape again.”

Are you sure you still can’t leave?

King shook his head no and then sat on the bed as if trying to solve a very complex puzzle in his mind. “When he first took me, I woke up down here and learned he’d bound me to this place somehow. However, I still had enough strength to leave for short periods of time.”

Is that when you came to see me?

“Yes, as well as a few other people. I’d hoped to find a counter to whatever he’s using to hold me here. However, I believe Vaughn found out I wasn’t completely contained. He pulled me back here by whatever force he’s bound me with. Then he…knocked me out. He’s got some sort of…I do not know what it is, but I lose consciousness.”

I thought about how they’d knocked me out, too. Maybe knocking people out was Vaughn’s special ability along with being a depraved, smarmy degenerate.

“When I woke this last time,” King pushed up his sleeve and rubbed his hand over the spot on his wrist where his sundial once was, “my tattoos were gone, and I no longer had the strength to leave.”

It sounded like Vaughn had been doing some serious preparation for this “special” day. And here we are.

“So we are.” He stared for several long moments, and I felt the air in the room thicken with tension and the temperature spike ten degrees. The look in King’s eyes transformed from calm and pensive to fierce and foreboding.

Wanting to move away but having nowhere to really go, I pressed my back firmly to the door. I didn’t know what was coming, exactly, but with King I never knew what to expect. Except that he had the ability to take complete control over me. Why did being near him always trigger a potent physical reaction? It was as if his smell did something to me. It flowed into my lungs and entered my bloodstream. It triggered my heart to beat faster and my skin to tingle. It instantly sparked a carnal tension between my legs and deep within my core that caused my knees to shake.

He slowly rose from the bed and placed both arms on either side of my face. “What I would like to know, Miss Turner,” he leaned in to whisper, “is why you disobeyed me, yet again.” He then stared at my lips with those hungry, beautiful eyes surrounded by thick silky lashes, waiting for an answer.

W-w-which time?

“When I told you to run.”

I shrugged. It’s hard to explain.

“Why don’t you try?” He brushed his warm knuckles across my cheek.

What could I say? I didn’t fully understand my feelings for him. All I knew was an inexplicable, irrational, and overwhelming sensation of desire continued to hammer its way through my body. I wanted to kiss him. I wanted to feel him, to touch him, to taste him. Even now, after everything. Don’t be stupid. Fight it.

“It isn’t stupid, Mia. You are the reason I am changing.”

Changing? From what to what? I glared up at him. You just confessed you want to kill me. So please stop whatever game this is, whatever it is that you do to cause this—this thing between us. Because I’m not stupid, King. I know it isn’t real.

“You know nothing.” He scowled.

I read that story, King. And I’ve felt your pain, which is the only thing I need to know. You are dangerous and angry. You’d do anything to end your suffering and get revenge on Hagne.

He brushed my cheek, leaving a trail of prickles. I closed my eyes and tried to ignore how damned good it felt when he touched me.

“This is why I would never hurt you simply to save myself, Mia. You…” His voice trailed off.

“Yes?” I folded my arms across my chest and stared defiantly.