“No. Because Quynh would kill me. And she’d do it slowly and make sure I suffered.”
He laughed and I wanted to sigh. I loved that sound.
“Why would I ever send you away?” he asked. “Who else would I talk to about murdering my beloved brother? And what kind of king would I be if I kicked my pregnant queen out of the palace?”
When he called me his queen ... I had to stop for a moment to absorb that. I was as much his queen as I was pregnant.
But oh, I wanted to believe.
“You could go home if you wanted.” He made his offer carefully, his tone neutral.
“You would let me go?” Why did that feel disappointing?
“If that was your wish. I offered that to you in the beginning.”
He was talking about when I’d first joined the temple. On more than one occasion, he had told me that if I wanted it, he would help me get on a boat back to Locris.
Why would he have done that if he knew who I was?
“And before you start in on me, I didn’t know who you were at the time.” It was uncanny how well he could read me, how he always seemed to know what I was thinking.
Dolion had already told me that wasn’t true, and I had believed him. But with his recent confession to me ... what if Dolion was the one who had been lying? Because of the feelings he had for me? I had so easily accepted his words as truth.
What if I had made a grave mistake?
“If I had known your true identity, I would have marched you off theNikoswhen we landed and made you marry me then. I never would have let you be in that kind of danger.”
“It doesn’t matter,” I said. Because it didn’t. “I would have done the same thing if our positions were reversed.”
“Meaning what?”
“Meaning that if I had to seduce you to secure the throne of my country and save my people, I would have done it.”
“Oh?” He raised a single eyebrow at me. “And how would that have gone?”
“What?”
“You seducing me.”
How was it possible to feel aroused and embarrassed at the same time? “I assume it would be incredibly easy.”
“You do?”
I nodded, hoping my cheeks hadn’t turned pink. “Yes. I think all I’d have to do is remove my clothing and I would get my way.”
His eyes sparkled in the low light. “I think I might be a harder sell than that.”
My pulse pounded at his challenge.
I didn’t understand all the rules of this game, but I knew I wanted to play.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“I’ve never tried to seduce a king before,” I said, hoping he couldn’t hear how my voice wobbled.
“You haven’t tried to seduce anyone before.”
Xander was right. And it was why I felt a bit foolish.
