“I sleep in the nude,” he announced.

Oh, by the mercy of the goddess.

“Cassius, you need to leave,” I told the wall.

I watched the lamplight dim as he blew one out somewhere in the room.

He was walking naked around my bedchamber!

“Cassius—”

“Elena, you can stand there all night for all I care. But I’m going to bed.”

He spoke truth for I heard bedclothes rustle.

Damn the man.

I could not bodily remove him.

Well, maybe I could.

I’d attacked in anger that morning (Melisse would be very cross with me if she knew), and thus had been bested humiliatingly quickly. If I gave it a moment’s thought, considered my strategy, I might prevail.

However, I was not keen to physically struggle with a naked man.

A large naked man.

A large naked man with fascinating tattoos.

A large naked man with fascinating tattoos who was Prince Regent of Airen, my betrothed.

Bloody hell.

I stomped to two lit lamps and blew them out before, not looking at the man in my bed, I tramped there.

I pulled back the silks, slid in, stretched to blow out the lamp beside the bed, casting the room dark, and then wiggled, at length and hopefully irritatingly, into the mattress and pillows to find the best comfort.

Cassius’s deep voice sounded into the dark.

“Your movements, along with the smell of you, the vision of you in your brief nightgown and your proximity, are making me hard.”

I ceased moving immediately.

“Just so you will not be surprised in future,” he went on, “we shall be sleeping together from now on.”

That made me turn his way.

“What?” I cried. “For the goddess’s sake, why?”

“Peace of mind.”

“It won’t give me peace of mind.”

“You’ll get used to it,” he muttered.

I clenched my teeth.

“Go to sleep, Elena,” he ordered.

“The only reason I’m not throwing you out bodily right now is because I, too, am fatigued. But after tonight, I won’t be sleeping with you, Cassius.”

“We’ll discuss this in the morning.”

“We won’t.”

“We will. Now sleep.”

“You cannot order me to sleep. And we won’t!”

Suddenly his hand was wrapped around the back of my neck, I was across the silks and pressed to the length of his frame, his hand still at my neck, his other arm wrapped tight around me.

“I would have you safe,” he gritted.

Oh heavens.

We were here again.

I’d brought him here again.

Regrettably.

I held my breath as he carried on.

“And I will keep you safe how I see fit, woman, no matter how you argue, if you fight. I will not lose you. Dora will not lose you. When she meets you and becomes attached to you, Aelia will not lose you. I’ll see to it. Is this understood?”

“Cassius,” I started cautiously, “I think we need to talk.”