But at least she hadn’t bothered denying having the visions. That was a step in the right direction, he thought. They were actually…talking. Communicating.
He decided to press his luck further. “What do you see in the visions?”
She rose to her feet so abruptly that she nearly toppled her chair. “Why do you care?”
He didn’t know how to answer that question. Whydidhe care? What did it matter to him what sort of visions plagued her?
In his silence, she frowned and turned away. Almost as if to herself, she whispered, “That’s what I thought.” Before he could react, she was already making for the door, declaring as she went, “I think that was long enough.”
That time, he chose to be offended.
But he kept it to himself, smoldering quietly until the moment she hesitated and glanced back his way. Her frown deepened, uncertainty flickering in her pale gaze. “Do you think I should…muss my hair a little before I leave?”
All his mounting anger at his silly kirei popped in that moment, like a soap bubble.
How could such a mature and clever woman be so terribly ridiculous in the same breath?
With a sigh, he slid off his stool. “Come here.”
Surprisingly, she did. Without question. Without balking.
For once.
He waited for her to settle upon the stool before he stepped forward and sank his fingers into her carefully styled hair, huntingfor all the many little pins holding it all together. Bewilderingly, she let him, not blinking, not flinching.
Why was he doing this? Playing along with her absurd need to weave these illusions for the sake of others? What did it matter if their farce of a marriage was consummated or not?
Her hair was just as soft as he had imagined it would be—like silk against his coarse skin.Focus, he chided himself while mussing the chestnut locks beyond repair. It didn’t matter that her hair was soft. Nor that she smelled nice. Nor that she was just…sitting there, letting him touch her without shying away or lashing out.
None of it mattered. It was all for show. For appearances.
Depositing a handful of hairpins on his desk, he stepped back behind her and pulled free the dagger from his wrist sheath. “Do you trust me?” he pointlessly asked, already knowing the answer.
Without a single moment’s hesitation, his kirei bit out an immediate, “No.”
He snorted. Of course she didn’t. But that wasn’t going to stop him now.
Carefully slipping his blade beneath the laces of her wedding gown, he jerked his hand upward—slicing the laces clean through from the small of her back all the way to the nape of her neck.
Sera’s gasp hitched in his ears, distracting him in a way he didn’t like. “Aldric!” she breathlessly scolded, her voice rising a full octave higher than normal. “What in theworldare you doing?”
He sheathed the dagger again. “Giving your maids something to gossip about,” he muttered while inspecting the damage. It lookedlike he hadn’t ripped her chemise at all. Nor nicked her flawless skin.
Good.
She shot him a look over her shoulder, her expression a storm of emotions he had no hope of deciphering. “How is that helpful?” she hissed, her arms crossed over her chest again, holding her gown in place.
He met her look unflinchingly and calmly explained, “You want this to look real? This is how we make this look real. You didn’t exactly schedule much time for this interlude, kirei.”
Color flared across her cheeks as his words sank in. “Oh,” she breathed, turning back around to face forward again. And that was that.
He worked quickly, taking pieces of the sliced laces and tying the top of her gown back together so it didn’t slip right off her shoulders while she made her way back to her own quarters to change. As the mental picture of her gown doing just that infectedhis mind, the dark, jealous beast inside him snarled back to life.
He double-knotted the laces to ensure that didn’t happen. “There. That should do the trick.” Finally stepping back, he nodded, satisfied with his work.
“And what about you?” she asked, her voice little more than a thread of sound.
He was just about to reassure her that he had no intention of interacting with anyone beyond his men for several hours yet and none of them cared about his personal affairs when she swiveled about upon the stool and slipped both of her hands into his hair.
