The Executed Empress Proposed to His Scarred Brother novel · Chapter 18 of 24
Chapter 18: The Ribbon
The green ribbon lay across her palm, and her hand would not stop shaking.
The fire was low, and the trunk was open at the foot of the bed.
Ilarion sat in the chair with his sleeves rolled and his boots off, watching her as he always did, without hurry.
She had been quiet all through supper.
Her father's whisper sat in her chest.
"Tell me to stop thinking," she said.
"Stop thinking."
"I can't. I need you to take it."
"Take what?"
"All of it. I've decided everything for eight days, and for six years before that I decided nothing."
She crossed the room and stood in front of his chair.
"I want to be yours tonight in the way I've been afraid to say," said Iseult.
"I want to kneel. I want you to tell me what to do, and I want to do it."
"I don't want to be brave."
He did not move.
His grey eyes were very dark.
"And the ribbon?"
"Tie it on me."
She held it out.
Slowly, he took it from her hand.
"Undress first," he said.
Her fingers fumbled at the laces, and he let them.
When the gown fell, and her shift after it, she stood naked in the firelight with her copper hair loose to her hips.
He looked at her for a long time.
"Kneel."
She went down on the wolfskin rug in front of his chair.
The fur was thick and cool against her knees.
He rose, and walked behind her, and she felt the velvet slide around her neck.
It was heavy and soft, a hand wide, and the nap of it brushed her skin.
He tied it at the nape in a loose bow and let two long tails fall down her back.
Not tight.
It sat just snug enough that she felt it every time she swallowed.
"Say it," said Ilarion behind her. "If you want me to take it off, say it. I will."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of The Executed Empress Proposed to His Scarred Brother are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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