"I like your mouth," he said. "I like the way you say no like you're daring me to deserve a yes. You make me want to deserve it. You make me want to be a better man."
She exhaled, her eyelashes fluttering. This was madness - pure and exquisite.
Don't make me forget. Don't make me want you. Don't make me choose.
This amused him. Mischief twinkled in his eyes and in his voice.
"Don't like it? Sorry, Princess, but it's too late for that."
"Don't say it," she said, and it took far too much effort to pry herself away.
"Soraya." Bae's voice was fragile and fraught with confusion.
He extended a hand toward her, but seeing as much - hearing him call her a name that wasn't her own - struck her deeply.
How could she do this? He had shown her his mother's letter because he must have thought the key to finding her was somewhere in Soraya's palace.
If he knew the truth - that Cali could never give him what he was really after because she was a lie - that all of this budding between them was a glorious ploy, an illusion meant to deceive him and buy time for the king to destroy everything Bae strove for - would he still gaze at her as though she were the only thing he would ever care about?
Cali hid her face in her hands. Separated from him as she was, she drew in a long, gasping gulp of air, trying to keep herself together.
"I know," he said behind her, a sad smile in his tone. "I need to earn it. But I don't know how to stop wanting it."
Continue reading THE PIRATE'S BRIDE, a dark and intense, no-spice fantasy romance featuring enemies-to-lovers tension, a marriage of convenience, and a cursed hero who would burn the world for her.
This is book one in The Cursed Tides series.
