“All right,” he said, knowing Rocurt would accede easily to this request from him.
“Impressive,” she said, moving around him.
He could tell by her tone and the way she moved that she was baiting him. What she didn’t seem to understand was that a part of him very much enjoyed it. This was foreplay.
“What’s impressive?”
“Your immunity to jealousy.”
“You expect me to be jealous of Rocurt where you’re concerned?”
“I would think it would needle a little,” she said with a casual shrug. “The fact that I trust him, when I don’t trust you.”
He was not sure what Rocurt had done to inspire Brande’s trust, but it was misguided. Rocurt didn’t tolerate defiance in a pet any more than he did. And he certainly wouldn’t interfere with anything Evston chose to do to a pet.
“I don’t resent your mistrust. I’ve earned it,” he acknowledged calmly.
She laughed softly, which both surprised and warmed him. “At least you’re not a hypocrite, Ev.”
The brightness of her mind rivaled her beauty, and in moments like this it affected him more deeply than he cared to acknowledge.
* * *
“No,” Rocurt said asthey stood outside the cabin, massive trees shading them from the falling sun.
Evston’s head snapped to look at his brother whom he’d just asked to stay on for the party. “You won’t stay? Why not?”
“Because I would never put us in the position of being pitted against each other,” Rocurt said.
Ev’s brows rose. “And you intend to stand with her against me?” he asked, unable to keep the shock from his voice.
“It would depend on the situation. And I wouldn’t do it for her sake. I would do it for yours. I know she likes letting you play games with her, but this night is beyond that, and she might object to what she sees. The people’s love for her is rabid. I see it every day in the way Melsint idolizes her and talks about how the people in her village lined up at dawn to wait for Brandese’s afternoon visit when she toured the countryside. They didn’t even stand all day along the road for the king. Like it or not, Brandese is a princess, and you will be stuck with her as a wife. She’s estranged from her family right now and out of the king’s favor, but that may not always be the case. It’s dangerous to underestimate what could happen if she ever turned against you. She is not a pet that you purchased to serve us. It’s the entire reason you didn’t offer to marry her by choice.”
“She is wild and curious. She has appetites like ours,” Evston said stubbornly, though he knew that everything Rocurt had said was absolutely correct.
“I know you have difficulty resisting the temptation of gaining the upper hand over a girl who challenges your control of her, but this is reckless. Transported in a cage with dozens of bound and naked pets, Ev? Without supervision? What if someone had broken the lock—”
“She wasn’t unsupervised. I monitored a com video. She was never in danger of anything. If she’d woken and had seemed in distress, I would have gone and gotten her. I wouldn’t let her be hurt.”
“Still, if you were acting in an advisory capacity, what would you advise a client who wanted to train and use a princess as a pet?”
Evston was silent. There was no reason to treat the conversation as hypothetical. They’d had actual conversations about it because Princess Lanamoar had wanted Rocurt for a husband.
“You know my thoughts on the subject.”
“Then let me take her back to the hotel where Ducks will be her companion until the wedding. You can still treat her as a pet when you’re alone, if she’s agreeable to it.”
“She went to the Submissive Assessment Center of her own free will. She opened the door to everything that’s happened.”
“I know. She’s wild.”
Evston glanced at the door and shook his head. “You can’t take her back. And you can’t leave.”
“Why not?”
“Because if you do, a teenage girl will have outmaneuvered us. This is her play. Is she the stronger force in this battle? Or are we?”
Rocurt scowled. “I thought you didn’t want to be her enemy?”
