“Is there anything we can do for you?” the soldier asks, still confused at our arrival.
Keane turns to me in his seat with a questioning look, “the horses?”
“Let them rest at the castle,” I reply with a small smile and lean forward to pat Millie’s neck, “they deserve it.”
Keane nods in agreement and turns back to the soldier as the young man averts his gaze from me and my small direction to the Prince.
“Have someone meet us at the third gate to escort our horses back to Castle Gaumond. Make sure they’re properly fed and watered for the night. They’ll need their rest.”
“Yes, your Highness,” the soldier bows, happy to have something to do, “Lady.”
“Thank you,” I smile and watch as he takes a quick step down the road, meeting with another soldier.
“Can we stop briefly for dinner?” I turn to Keane with a smile, craving the smoked peppered trout that I know will be waiting for us. Keane grins and nods his head, the two of us sitting high in our seats as we ride into Gaumond.
Word traveled fast of our arrival, with many of the patrons of the Black Capitol clamoring around our horses to pay the Prince their respects for his father. Their greeting is expected, as this is the first time Keane is home since Zander’s death, and while the Prince meets everyone with a kind smile and thanks them for their words, this isn’t exactly the arrival or general ambiance I wished to have before the Shadow Oak.
But the moment we pass through the second gate of the city, Keane angles Ash and Millie off the main road and into the smaller alleys of this rise, letting the two of us dip away from the bulk of the crowd. Those fewthat do pass us by give a quick double-take, not expecting to see their Prince roaming the quiet paths but also not having enough time to turn around and approach him.
I watch as Keane’s features revert back into their Discerni coolness, and when he reaches a hand out for the whiskey, I know it’s time to get him and us back to where we were before.
“Thirteen, Highness,” I tease.
Keane turns at the sound of my voice and grins, letting it draw him out of his thoughts.
“You really like hearing this, don’t you, Alexis?” he chuckles slyly, passing the canteen back.
“More than you’ll ever know,” I smirk.
“Oh, I think I know,” he replies roughly, watching my lips as I let the burn of the whiskey run down my throat.
Keane nods in heated approval, continuing with his count, “thirteen is easy, because if our travel permits, I will bend you over that ledge tonight…”
I nearly choke out a cough as my hips shift violently in my seat. Keane continues to watch me with a knowing glance, his brown eyes darting down to my waist to catch the movement.
“The balcony of my room, Alexis...” he replies smugly.
“I have envisioned you in my room more times than I wish to admit, most often naked and standing before me. But when I came back to my room with Golem and saw you standing there, outside in the night and looking at my city below, still in that two piece from court…”
He sighs, “you belonged. It wasn’t the right moment to tell you, toshowyou, but the desire was there. It’s still there. I will bend you over and take you from behind on my balcony, Alexis. The full of Gaumond will hear you scream my name.”
“Keane,” I gasp sharply, my eyes narrowing on his mischievous ones. The Prince smirks at my gaze, watching as my body flushes and my breaths become too quick to handle.
“I’ve told you I’m bad, Alexis,” he smirks, “so don’t doubt for one moment that I won’t be showing you all of the crooked ways I will make you feel belonged.”
“Fuck me,” I mumble, shaking my head.
“Fourteen,” he chuckles, guiding our horses down a quiet path as I take another heavy sip of whiskey, “was the first full night at court in Bardot. Your entry, so sure and poised as you addressed my father, again as an equal. Your sensual confidence with me from afar as you dared me to come to you. I almost did, Alexis. I was ready again to take your hand and walk you out of court. Ready to let the full Kingdom know that you were mine…”
“But I’m glad you didn’t, because I got to see your headstrong approach when you spoke to Isham. You challenged a Prince from another Kingdom, and the whole fucking night I couldn’t take my eyes off you. I gotto watch your realizations as you took in your old Knowledge, got to see your fire pushing forward, hoping it would burn sense into everyone in your path. I’ve never been so turned on just watching someone, though the night in Marybeth’s comes pretty close.”
“You showed me later that night how much you watched me,” I tip my head in salute, remembering all three of our encounters that nightandinto the morning.
“Yes,” Keane murmurs, his eyes alight and remembering the same, “and that next day, when we rode to the Willow…”
“We were there,” I finish softly, nodding at him in reference to fifteen.
“We were finally there, Alexis,” Keane nods, holding my gaze, “everythingwas there. The culmination of our travels, seeing you back in the Court you called home. Our words under the tree. There may be so much left to still navigate, but I take solace in the knowledge that we will do so together.”
