Guilt washes over me because I had been madat him for leaving. So very mad when he was trying to be honorable, trying to do the right thing and bring back the woman his cousin loves.
Theo’s jaw tightens.
“By burning the entire kingdom to the ground, if that’s what it takes.” He smirks, but he’s serious. I know he is. I canseeit in his eyes. I canfeelit in my bones. “Anyway.” He shakes his fingers and jerks his head, as if trying to clear his mind from the dark path our conversation just took. “I can see now why my cousin likes you. You’re easy to talk to. This was not a conversation I planned on having today. Or ever, if I’m being truly honest.”
I force an awkward laugh.
“I think you and I have very different definitions of the wordlike. I drive your cousin mad half the time.”
He smiles at that. “And that’s how I know he likes you.”
Chapter 20
Serafina
My body slams against the hard stone floor of the training room.
Again.
A sharp sting radiates through my back, and I grit my teeth. My body slicked with sweat, I push myself up. My muscles protest as I grab my wooden sword, which rests on the ground a few feet away.
It’s thethirdtime Jax has disarmed me. I told him not to go easy on me. I told him that wouldn’t help me learn, not really, and he agreed. But I know he’s still not giving it his all, which I suppose I’m grateful for, considering I can’t seem to land a single strike.
He grins. It’s such a boyish smile, a stark contrast to how he looks dressed in nothing but black fighting leathers.
His sleeves are pushed up, revealing his corded forearms, and his shirt hangs open, just like it had the first time I saw him in this room, revealing far too much of his muscled chest.
But that’s not nearly as distracting as the way his leather pants sit low on his hips.
The deep “V” of his abdomen disappears beneath the waistband, and I hate how my gaze catches on it, how my thoughts momentarily scatter.
It’s infuriating, really—the way he looks so effortlessly devastating, like he just rolled out of bed and decided to ruin me.
Shaking my head, I force myself to focus.
We’ve been at this for nearly thirty minutes, and everything already hurts, but at least I’m fully awake now. When he appeared at my door only two hours after my head hit my pillow, I was barely able to open my eyes.
Groggy and hardly coherent, I didn’t argue, knowing this is how it needs to be.
No one can see us.
Which means we can only do this while the rest of the palace sleeps.
“You sure you want to go again?” he asks, his voice smooth but laced with a challenge. He cocks his head.
“Oh, I’m sure,” I say, trying to remember all I’ve read on swordsmanship, which is quite honestlya lot.
I never imagined myself actually holding the weapon, not even the wooden version of one, but I was always fascinated with the art of it. The grace of it.
Willing the ache in my muscles away, I decide to try a different approach.
Up until now, I’ve been focused on speed and strength, but Jax is faster than me, he’s stronger than me, and my speed might be anadvantage when faced with an average opponent, but not when I’m going up against him.
I need to be strategic.
The books I read said to focus on weak spots. To spend a few rounds observing your partner, seeing how they move, seeing where they leave themselves open and vulnerable.
Observe.
