authorbelladonna
- Reads 2,853
- Votes 444
- Parts 9
𝗔𝗰𝘁 𝗼. 𝗨𝗻𝗶𝗼𝗻
⚜
"Zip me."
But she didn't turn around.
I set down my scotch, crossed the study, and pressed my palms to my best friend's bare spine.
The zipper slid up over warm skin I've spent half my life pretending not to crave, while Nia just kept rambling about her criminal pupillage.
"-so I told the senior clerk, respectfully, sir, the precedent is outdated-"
"Nia."
"Mm?" She tilted her head, her throat exposed inches from my mouth.
Marry me.
I have killed a man, and I'd slaughter half the peerage by dawn if it meant you stayed with me.
"Nothing," I murmured, my thumbs lingering on the dip of her waist just a second too long. "You'll ruin them."
⚜
To the British Crown, 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐙𝐞𝐯 𝐃𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐕𝐚𝐧𝐞 of Ardenne is an untamable sociopath draped in Savile Row tailoring.
The palace cleans up his wreckage, and the aristocracy walks on eggshells around his dead-eyed stare.
He feels nothing for this world, except for the Queen's physician's daughter.
𝐍𝐢𝐚 𝐃𝐚𝐧𝐪𝐮𝐚𝐡 has known him since before he became dangerous. To her, he isn't a deadly spare heir; he's just her oldest friend.
She steals food off his plates, rolls her eyes at his royal title, and undresses in his presence without a second thought.
She has no idea that the boy she grew up with is a monster.
Then an archaic 1701 succession clause gives Dorian nine weeks to marry or lose his titles forever.
The proposal is pitched to his best friend as a favor, a platonic arrangement between old friends.
Nia refuses until she negotiates strict terms: 365 days, separate bedrooms, her legal career untouched, and a quiet annulment by spring.
Dorian signs every clause with an aristocratic smile. But he intends to honor none of them.
'Cause what the Crown Prince bleeds for, the Crown Prince keeps.