Unfaded Glory Read Online Free Page B

men.
    The captain’s berth was small, but it had been outfitted with every luxury. Damara knew immediately that the cargoes transported on this ship weren’t always on the manifest. If the Russians knew Miklos well, then he must have been transporting people, as well.
    One of her objections to Grisha was that he’d been linked to sex-trafficking rings and she found that repulsive. How long before the young women of Castallegna began to disappear with him as their crown prince? No one would ever be safe.
    It was times like this she wished she had more power. She wished she was more than a princess.
    â€œPlotting my death?” Grisha asked conversationally.
    She studied him for a moment. “Of course not. It’s no secret I don’t want to marry you, but I don’t wish you dead.”
    â€œWhy
don’t
you want to marry me, Damara? I have money and power. I can trace my lineage back to Catherine the Great.”
    She doubted his royal lineage, but she wasn’t going to say so. “You’re a bad man, Grisha.”
    â€œAll great men are.”
    She shook her head. “I must marry for my people. You know that. What would you bring to Castallegna? Convince me.” If she could keep him talking, maybe she could buy some time.
    He grabbed her and pushed her up against the wall, but she shoved at his shoulders. “I said convince me for Castallegna. My body may come as a gift with the responsibilities of my people, but it has nothing to do with the decision of who will lead them.”
    She prayed he heard her. His hands were just as strong and just as damaged as Byron’s, but they were not noble and they turned her stomach. Damara held her body stiff and immobile. She didn’t close her eyes, and she didn’t look away from him. Not even when he dipped his head to kiss her.
    Grisha paused when they were eye to eye. Damara didn’t flinch, didn’t hide from what was about to happen. Something he saw there caused him to pull back. “Perhaps you are not as useless as your brother says.”
    â€œPerhaps not,” she agreed.
    â€œHow is it that you make even your acquiescence sound like a challenge?”
    â€œI assure you, it’s not. You’re obviously the one with the power. You’ve caught me. I have nowhere to go and no one to turn to for help,” Damara said calmly.
    â€œBut you’re not afraid of me.”
    â€œShould I be? Would you like me to be?”
    â€œYou said I was a bad man.” He studied her.
    â€œJust because you’re bad doesn’t mean I should fear you. Fear is a waste of imagination. You will do what you must and I will do as I must.”
    He eyed her, hard. “I meant what I said about the mercenary. I will kill him.” As if she’d somehow said otherwise.
    â€œI’ve no doubt. Which is another reason I can’t marry you. You kill someone because they disagree with you? My father had a dream for Castallegna.”
    Grisha snorted. “A dream of democracy?”
    â€œYes. Being born into a family doesn’t make a person any more fit to lead than any other.”
    â€œI did not expect to drag you to the captain’s quarters to talk politics.” Grisha scrubbed a hand over his face.
    â€œNo? What did you expect? To haul me down here, make me cower in fear and then force yourself on me so I’d be so humiliated that I would have no choice but to marry you? If my brother told you that would work, you are sadly mistaken.”
    â€œAnd yet if we were on Castallegna, we would be legally married if I did.”
    â€œThat’s another thing that’s gotta go.” Tendrils of fear unfurled in her belly, but she ignored them. It didn’t matter what he did to her. She was still the Jewel of Castallegna. But her brother and men like him were convinced that her only worth lay between her legs. No man would want her if she wasn’t a virgin.
    â€œWhat if I