Alina smiled. “Males have a tendency to do that.”
“Are you going to tell us what happened, or should I go drag him from his bed as well?”
“If you recall,” Cyn began. “You too were a bit shocked that the elvish prince responded to Alston’s call. We both expected an ambassador.”
“Well, if I’d known at the time that you were going to pull a blade on the prince of the elves, I probably wouldn’t have sent you a second time.”
“You pulled a blade on Thalion?” Alina said with wide eyes.
Peri waved her off. “We don’t have time to repeat ourselves. You’ll just have to catch up on that part later. Continue,” she said, looking at Cyn as she sat down across from her and leaned back on her arms.
“I showed up at the appointed timeas ordered.When I saw Thalion, I confronted him about the fact that he hadn’t bothered to tell me he was the prince of his people.” Cyn felt herself drifting back to her second meeting with Thalion. Seeing him again after three months had been like finally taking a breath after having held it for too long. Her lungs ached and felt stretched as she breathed deeply. There was a part way down inside of her that wanted to close the distance between them and throw her arms around him, but she didn’t understand why she felt that way and she tended to ignore what she didn’t understand. So instead of flinging herself into his arms, she confronted him over his important omission.
“Didn’t you think it was appropriate upon our initial meeting to mention that you were the elvish prince?” Cyn practically spat at him.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” he said through a grin. “Did I forget to mention that?”
“Why didn’t you send an ambassador?” Cyn was flummoxed over Thalion’s appearance at their first meeting. A fae would never send a member of the high council for such a task. It would be well below their station. Surely the elves had similar decorum. No king,or prince, should be the diplomat for his own people.
“You don’t think the subject of our meeting was important?”
He answered her question with a question. Cyn hated when people did that. He took a step toward her.
“Surely an alliance between two races as powerful as ours is a subject of the utmost importance, requiring the attention of someone with decision-making authority. Are you upset with me because I didn’t tell you I was the prince?”
Cyn considered his question and then answered him honestly. “No, I’m not upset with you. You have every right to keep your identity to yourself. I’m irritated with myself for letting my emotions control my actions.”
Thalion’s eyes narrowed, and she felt the weight of his attention. Cyn forced herself to keep from squirming under his intense scrutiny.
“What emotions? What do you mean?”
His voice wrapped around her causing a shiver to run down her spine.
Cyn cleared her throat as she took a side step, keeping a healthy distance between them. “I won’t waste your time, Prince,” she responded, ignoring the question. “Have you an answer for the council?”
“Thalion,” he said as he took another step closer.
“What?” she replied, her eyes mesmerized by the way his body moved.
“I don’t want you to call meprince.I want you to call me Thalion,” he said smoothly, taking yet another step toward her. “For future reference, nothing you could ever say would be a waste of my time. I can think of nothing I would rather do than listen to your sweet voice.”
Cyn felt the air rush from her lungs as his fingers touched her under her chin. She hadn’t even realized she’d dropped her head until he was slowly raising it. His touch was warm, and she could feel it all the way to her toes. Warmth spread throughout her body, and she was sure he would be able to see the flush in her skin.Damn these emotions. She finally let her eyes meet his own. He was well over a foot taller than her five-foot-nothing height, and his shoulders were twice as broad as her own. Standing this close to her, Thalion effectively blocked out everything around them and all she could see was him. She was pretty sure that had been his intention when he moved into her space.
“It would be inappropriate for me to address you by anything other than your formal title, Prince,” she said, forcing calmness into her voice so that it did not come out in a breathy mess. “And my emotions are not what are important. The high fae council would like your answer.”There,that didn’t sound like a female about to faint from the sheer lust rolling off of the male in front of her.
Something inside of her was screaming at her to run—to run far and fast from the man in front of her. The man made her feel something she’d never felt before, and he seemed to somehow know the effect he was having on her. But instead, she stood her ground and waited for his answer. She wasn’t about to admit to him that he made her feel cold and hot at the same time, that he made her needy and breathless. He made her feel safe, yet completely vulnerable.
“Cyn,” he said softly, her name practically a prayer on his full lips.
She didn’t know how she responded. Cyn couldn’t hear anything but the blood rushing through her ears as the prince of the elves took yet another step closer. She barely noticed her feet backing away until she felt the hard bark of a tree. There was nowhere left for her to retreat. In battle that meant two things: surrender or die. Neither of those things seemed like very good options.
“No.”
Her brow furrowed as she stared up at him. “What?”
“My answer is no,” he said, his voice only barely above a whisper. “I cannot commit my people to fight battles that are not their own.”
She wanted to be upset by his answer, but she was too focused on his firm body, which was now pressing into hers.How had he gotten that close?But those thoughts were fleeting because not only was his body pressed to hers, his hand was now on her waist. She felt his fingers flex against her. She fought the urge to close her eyes and savor the closeness, knowing it was completely inappropriate. But it was a battle she was going to lose quickly if she didn’t get away from his touch.
