“I just do not believe this,” Autumn muttered. “For the first time in my life, there’s a man I’m actually interested in. Young, gorgeous, wealthy, a prince, not a conceited ass, and—did I mention?—gorgeous. In short, everything a woman could hope for. And who does he want? You! I could be moldy bread for all the interest he has in me. Isn’t that just a slap in the face?”
“Precisely why I should stay away from him. He had plenty of interest in you before. He will again.”
“Oh, no. Don’t even use me as your excuse. The Princess Autumn of Calberna ship has sailed. It will never be. The same with Spring. He made that crystal clear even before you were attacked—in the kindest possible way, of course.” She shook her head. “Look, Gabriella, I understand that what he did to that awful man who hurt you must have been horrifying to witness, but in my opinion, he deserves a medal for it. That brute deserved to be eviscerated. If I’d been there, I would have burned him alive.”
Gabriella’s lashes came down to cover her eyes. When she’d awakened after her attack, she’d learned that Dilys Merimydion and his men had claimed responsibility for the slaying of Lily’s father. And she’d let him, not wanting her sisters to regard her with the same fear she’d seen in her parents’ eyes the first time she’d murdered someone with her magic.
As to why Dilys Merimydion had proclaimed himself the killer, she didn’t know. At first, she’d thought he’d done it to elevate himself in the eyes of Autumn and Spring—after all, it would only be natural for them to think even more kindly of the man who’d saved their sister from certain death. But then she’d learned he’d already ended his courtship of them and made clear his plan to court her instead.
“Dilys is a good man,” Autumn continued.
“Oh, so it’s Dilys now, is it?”
“Yes, it is. And here’s another first for you. He and I have become good friends—and I’m telling you, my friend deserves a chance.” Autumn didn’t have men friends—especially not young, attractive, in-their-prime men friends. Truth be told, apart from her sisters, she didn’t have many friends period. Men wanted more than she was willing to give, and women didn’t like Autumn constantly drawing all the male attention.
“He saved your life,” Autumn pressed. “Not just by killing that awful man, but later. Even Tildy says you might have died without that Calbernan woo-woo magic he worked on you. The least you can do is see the man and thank him. You owe him that much.”
“Aleta!” Gabriella snapped. “Stop.I’ve already said I’m not going to see him today, and that’s the end of it.”
“Well, that’s too bad. He’s on his way up now.”
“What?” Gabriella sat up straight.
Autumn rose, graceful and serene, and altogether too pleased with herself. “Lily’s young man wasn’t the only one wearing a hole in the stone downstairs. When I offered to deliver Dilys’s flowers and note, I told him to give me five minutes, then come on up.”
“Oh! I don’t believe you! How could you do that to me?” Gabriella threw off the light blanket Tildy had insisted on draping over her and jumped to her feet. She pretty much had been milking her wounded status the last day or so. Coruscates tended to heal quickly with the help of sunlight, and she was no exception. “Well, since you invited him up, you can just stay here and entertain him yourself! Because I’m leaving!”
The threat of running into Dilys Merimydion in the palace halls kept her from fleeing indoors. Instead, she went hurrying through the castle gardens, hoping to sneak out the eastern gate and go hide in her favorite grotto behind Snowbeard Falls.
As Summer’s rose-pink skirts disappeared around a garden hedge, Autumn turned to Spring, who was stepping out onto the garden terrace. Autumn gave her a smug, triumphant smile.
“Told you she’d run.”
“You did.” But Spring didn’t look smug, like Autumn. She looked worried. “I’m still not sure about this. What if we’re wrong?”
“We’re not.”
“But what if we are?”
Autumn put an arm around her oldest sister’s shoulders. It wasn’t like Spring to vacillate after making a decision. She was too much a leader for debilitating self-doubt. They’d been discussing the Summer-Dilys situation since the day Summer was attacked, and they’d agreed that they couldn’t keep enabling Summer’s fear of emotional commitment. Spring was just letting maternal instincts and a lifetime of protecting Sweet Summer get in the way of what was best for her.
“Toughen up, mama bird,” Autumn told her, giving Spring’s shoulders a squeeze. “Time to push your little chick out of the nest.”
Gabriella made it all the way to the far edge of the east garden without running into a single Calbernan. She was just starting to congratulate herself on making a clean escape when the one Calbernan she most wanted to avoid stepped out from behind a hedge, directly into her path.
One moment she was alone, rushing towards the haven of her favorite quiet spot in Konumarr. The next, she was running headfirst into the hardest, hottest, most shockingly silky expanse of naked male chest she’d ever encountered.
He’d appeared so suddenly in her path that she didn’t even have time to put her hands up. Her face mashed into one rock-hard pectoral muscle. His arms came up around her, one hand splayed across her back to steady her, the other gripped the back of her head. He was as warm as a furnace. His skin was incredibly soft and oh so fragrant, filling her nose with scents of coconut, frangipani, and warm, tropical ocean nights. The scent of him seduced her. The feel of him made her yearn for more.
As it had since the first time she’d touched him.
Summer planted her hands against that wall of hard, burning skin, and shoved. Dilys Merimydion released her, and she stumbled back several steps, her heart pounding madly in her chest.
“I beg your pardon, Sealord Merimydion. I didn’t see you there.” She tried to dart around him to his right.
His hand shot out, his massive palm engulfing her right elbow in a light but unyielding grip.
“Don’t go,” he said. “We need to talk.”
