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Carlisle, emperor of the Astrux Empire.
Within his own empire, he was a sun so radiant that no one dared tread even on his shadow; yet before Roelia, a traitor from an allied nation, he wore the mask of a mere merchant and asked her:
“Your condition is simply that I take you to the Astrux Empire?”
“Once we get there, I want you to introduce me to someone.”
Ragged and torn as her clothes were, Roelia carried herself with the unshakeable dignity of royalty, unbowed by any breach of etiquette.
“The emperor.”
“……The emperor of the Astrux Empire?”
Her answer, that she wanted to meet him, drew an intrigued expression from Carlisle.
“And what do you plan to do when you meet him?”
“Make a deal.”
“What?”
“I’m going to propose an equal trade. To His Majesty, the Emperor of the Astrux Empire.”
He had expected her to ask for protection, at most. He never anticipated a request this bold.
“Now that is amusing.”
* * *
It took only a moment for the marriage that had been nothing more than a transaction to catch fire.
“When a person offers you their neck, it means the two of you are that close.”
His low, resonant voice poured in along the curve of her ear.
Her fingertips tingled and the fine hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. Roelia curled her fingers inward.
A warm breath grazed her slender white neck, and Roelia flinched with tension.
Carlisle’s fingers, the same fingers that held a sword, slowly wrapped around Roelia’s throat.
Holding her neck in one hand, Carlisle watched her stand perfectly still, and the corner of his mouth curved up.
His thumb traced a slow path down the line of her slender neck, and just as his fingers continued lower,
“So will you let me, now?”
That voice, scraped raw from his throat, seized Roelia completely.
