King of Me by Mimi Jean Pamfiloff Page A

think this through. If I took the thing off, there were two outcomes I feared: getting snapped back to the horrific situation I’d come from, or that removing the cuff would allow King, the future one, to come and find me.
    Mia, if he had the ability to travel back in time, don’t you think he would have done it by now? He would’ve undone his curse and changed his fate on his own.
    All right. So perhaps I only had one thing to fear: going back. But not trying my damnedest wasn’t an option. This could be my only shot to make everything right again.
    “I’ll remove the bracelet on one condition,” I said.
    His mouth formed a snide grin. “You mean to negotiate with me ?”
    “Give me your word you won’t command me to do anything sexual.” King’s one saving grace: he was a man of his word. Except when something goes horribly wrong with the man’s curse and he turns into an evil bastard who should be destroyed.
    But that was not this man. He was the kernel of goodness inside the demon. That said, he was still King.
    He laughed. “What you must think of me.”
    “I know you better than anyone, King.” I stared him down. “You’re fierce, calculating, and determined.”
    His smile melted away. “You forgot impatient.”
    “I was getting to that. Do you agree or not?”
    He stared, not amused by my flippantness, but then gave me a nod.
    “All right. Here goes.” I slipped the bracelet off and held it in my palm, bracing for the worst. The moment I realized that nothing happened, I released a breath. “I’m still here.”
    “Obviously,” King said.
    I slid the cuff onto my right wrist for safekeeping and then held out my left arm. “Okay.”
    He placed his hand over my tattoo. “How will I know you are not simply pretending?”
    “Ask me to do something you know I can’t fake. How about putting me to sleep? You can give me a poke with that pin.” My eyes flashed to a small circular broach stuck to the front of his wrap-skirt thing.
    His lips formed a wolfish smile. “You wish me to poke you? I am more than willing to appease the wish; however, I assure you it is not a pin.”
    I frowned. “You gave me your word.”
    “So I did.” His eyes flickered for a moment over my shoulder toward the ocean. “Jump.”
    “What?”
    “I command you to jump.”
    Holy shit. I’d seen over that balcony, and it was a straight drop down to the rocky cliffs below.
    My feet began to move toward the stone bannister, my eyes tearing. “Don’t make me do this.”
    But King simply stood inches away, a cold, heartless expression on his face as he watched me climb onto the bannister, my back to the ocean.
    “My king! What is happening?” I heard a woman scream.
    I turned my head toward the sound of the voice, my heart and lungs pumping frantically, wanting to override the desire to jump to my death. In that moment, everything seemed to move in slow motion. King’s head swiveled away from me to see who’d called out. As I too looked, I felt my body falling back over the ledge. King’s head whipped towards the sound of my scream, his beautiful face filling with horror, realizing I’d gone over. He lunged his powerful body and caught my ankle. My body slammed hard into the wall below, knocking the wind right out of me.
    “By the gods of insanity, woman!” he roared.
    I was in shock, dangling precariously by one foot, my dress completely covering the upper half of my body while the rest of me, everything normally below the belt, blew in the wind. Tears of pain and horror streamed from my face.
    I heard the voices of several other men and a flurry of gods-related exclamations.
    “Help me get her back up,” King commanded.
    Another set of hands gripped my ankle and heaved my body back over the bannister to the terrace.
    With my dress now falling into place around my nether regions, I leaned forward to catch my breath.
    “What is happening, my king?” I heard Hagne’s voice ask.
    “She slipped,” King said.