Chapter 9 - The Sovereign’s Vow
Damian slowly turned around.
Clara stood before him, her chin held high. The timid maid who had ironed shirts in the basement was gone forever. Standing before him was a woman who had faced death three times and stared it down without blinking.
"What do you want, Clara?" he asked, his voice strained, barely above a whisper.
"I want to know why you ran into that hallway looking like your soul was on fire," she challenged, stepping closer. "I want to know why you looked at me just now like sending me away is killing you."
Damian’s breath hitched. In one violent, desperate motion, he closed the distance between them.
His large hands seized her face, tilting her head back. His gray eyes burned with a dark, consuming hunger that took her breath away.
"Because you *are* my soul, Clara," he snarled, raw and completely exposed. "Because from the moment you walked out of the smoke with my sons, I stopped belonging to myself. I am a king of thieves and murderers, but I would get on my knees right now and beg you to stay if I thought it wouldn't ruin you."
"Then beg," Clara whispered, her eyes shining with tears.
Damian froze.
Clara reached up, her gauze-wrapped fingers touching his chest, directly over his racing heart.
"I love those boys, Damian," she whispered, stepping into his embrace. "And whether you are a monster or a king... I love you."
Damian let out a shuddering, broken sigh.
He pulled her against him, crushing her mouth with his in a kiss that was fierce, hungry, and possessive. It was a kiss born of gunpowder, ash, and desperate salvation. Clara wrapped her arms around his neck, sinking into his strength, feeling the wild, untamed beat of his heart against her palm.
When he finally pulled back, resting his forehead against hers, he murmured against her lips, "If you stay... you don't stay as a servant. You don't stay as a mistress."
He reached into his pocket and pulled out an antique ring—a black diamond surrounded by platinum filigree, the ancestral ring of the Costello matriarchs.
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"You will be the Queen of this empire," Damian swore, sliding the ring onto her finger. "And I will spend every second of my life making sure the world bows to you."
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