Ehmet plunged into the deceptively deep puddle that hindered their path to the finish line. Luckily, at over six feet, he was able to bound through the thing in a few seconds flat. But he felt for Saka, who was likely submerged the entire time.
As he climbed up and out of the impromptu pond, he smacked her on the bottom. “All right back there?”
She smacked his rear in response.
Lumbering onward without a glance over his shoulder, shouts from the spectators keyed him into the fact that the couple who’d been in first place went down and had been disqualified. They were going to win.
And they did.
Berim set Saka down on the other side of the finish line to roaring cheers from adoring fans. It almost felt like standing on a balcony at Kirce, speaking to his people. But it was only the exuberance and chest-filling pride that he felt, no crushing press of duty laid atop it all.
“We did it!” Lady Hevva grasped his hand, bouncing up and down at his side as they were crowned with laurels of lavender and daisies. Someone also shoved full pints into each of their hands, which they clinked in celebration before swigging them down—Berim and Saka, that is. Lady Hevva and King Hethtar would never be caught dead with glasses of ale. In fact, they hadn’t truly been around for most of the night.
“Kiss! Kiss! Kiss! Kiss!” The crowd’s rising chant pulsed through him, and he felt like,really, they owed it to their fans. Berim squeezed her hand, and Miss Saka raised her brow at him with a smirk.
So, he kissed her. And maybe it was the countless pints he’d already had to drink on top of the whiskey from home, maybe it was the cheering spectators, maybe it was what Berim would have done, or maybe it’s just what Ehmet wanted to do. But he kissed her long and deep, right there in the middle of the road.
Someone removed the tankard from his hand, and he silently thanked them as his now free fingers trailed down her back, coming to rest in that dip above her bottom. Pulling her in closer, Ehmet angled his mouth against hers, applying a gentle, needy sort of pressure. The crowd hooted and whistled sounding distant and hazy. His tongue darted out against her soft lips, seeking entry.
She let him in.
Her slender arms wrapped around his neck. One hand tangled in his hair and the other gripped his shoulder as she kissed him back, fervently.
Saka was a wild woman, he’d learned that night. Lady Hevva on the other hand...he wasn’t so sure about her.
The crowd’s cheers crescendoed when they finally pulled away, and Berim, or Ehmet, grew self-conscious at the very public display of affection. So, he did what he did best and scooped her up into his arms, earning another rise in volume from the crowd as he lumbered off down the nearest alleyway.
ten
Hevva ducks out early.
Lady Hevva sat dutifullywhile Aylin tended to her hair and makeup. It was the final night of Kas’s beloved symposium, and while she’d been hesitant to attend, she couldn’t quite say she regretted it by the end of the third day. Something purred deep within her chest, a creature there lay curled up and sated...for the time being.
That creature, she knew, was Saka. While the name of her aliases shifted regularly, her desire to explore, to be one with the people? That never wavered. Her lips twitched at the memory of Miss Saka’s night in Rohilavol and the way Berim—for it hadn’t been the king, not really—had kissed her senseless in front of one hundred sets of eyes. She squirmed on her stool.
“Lady, sit still,” Aylin scolded her gently as she pinned up another heat-curled strand of Hevva’s hair. “Tell me everything. What did you get up to last night? I know you’ve been thinking about it all day.”
The maid’s sparkling eyes met her own in the mirror, and Aylin gave her a “don’t even think about holding back because I know you didn’t go out dressed in finery last night” sort of look. Hevva knew it well.
So, Lady Hevva introduced Aylin to her friends Saka and Berim and filled her maid in ontheirwild night in Rohilavol.
“To what you said earlier, itwasterrible, being dragged through the water like that. But I— Saka knew Berim would get her safely to the other side.”
Aylin chortled and pinned the final curl into place. “Finish telling me while we get you dressed.”
Hevva stood as Aylin helped her out of her banyan. “I can do this myself, you know.”
“Psh.” Her maid waved off her comment. “Let me be useful.”
She smiled.
“Makeyourself useful and finish your story.”
“All right, so, Berim planted that kiss on Saka after the race. Then, he scooped her off her feet and—”
“Again?”
“Yes,again.Berim, apparently, has a thing for that. Now let me finish.” She smirked at Aylin, who rolled her eyes with love. “Berim walked— You know what, I can’t do this.” She shook her head free of alternate names and went on with her tale. “The king walked us through the alley and after he finally set me down, we decided we were too soaked from the dip in the pond to continue gallivanting in town.”
