And to understand how the matchmaker’s glamour could have said Raewyn wasmyperfect match.
None of it made sense, and I intended to get to the bottom of it.
“I’m sorry you’re stuck with me,” she said, shaking me from my troubled thoughts.
I couldn’t help but smile. “Apology accepted.”
“Though, really you should be mad at Stellon, not me.”
“Oh believe me, I am,” I assured her, though of course, I’d volunteered for this journey.
Stellon had seemed truly shocked when I’d made the offer. Honestly, I’d shocked myself.
And now, here we were, meandering through a beautiful forest, inches apart on my horse, her fragrant hair brushing my nose.
Other parts of her brushing other parts of me, depending on her position.
Yep—hell.
“I’m serious,” Raewyn said. “I can tell you’re annoyed at having to take care of me, but you’re doing it anyway. And I want you to know I admire what you’re doing for your brother’s sake. I respect that.”
“Imagine my delight at hearing that,” I said, “as Ilivefor your respect.”
She gave a little shrug. “Be sarcastic all you like. You’re not as bad as everyone says.”
“You don’t know me very well,” I told her.
I was every bit as bad as people said, but not in the way she meant.
“And that’s the way you like it, isn’t it?” she said. “Keeping everyone at a distance. Why are you like that?”
This was not something I was going to get into with a human commoner I barely knew. Especially not one my brother and lifelong best friend had laid claim to.
There would be no soul-baring conversation on this ride.
“Rotten to the core, I suppose. You know how those ‘wicked Randalins’ are.”
“Stellon isn’t wicked,” she argued. “And he doesn’t think you are either. He insists there’s a good heart beneath your glib facade and overactive libido.”
At this, a laugh escaped me. “My libido is the best part of me, my lady.”
“And yet, you haven’t found a permanent bond-mate to spend your life with.”
Her tone was so prim, reminding me of the strict governess our mother employed to educate my siblings and me. It had been one of the joys of my childhood to find new ways to rattle the woman’s composure.
I found myself wanting to rattle Raewyn as well, to say something shocking, muss her hair and loosen the buttons of her high collared dress—
Stop.Nothelping the shared saddle situation.
Unaware of the detour my unruly thoughts had taken, Raewyn went on with her lecture.
“No one should walk through the world alone, not even you,” she said. “If you’d be real and open up to it, you might even find someone who actually loves you.”
Making my tone as forbidding as possible, I said, “I feel sorry for any woman whothinksshe’s in love with me. She wouldn’t fare any better than the wife of that man we encountered on his way back from the pleasure house.”
“You’re saying you couldn’t be faithful?” Raewyn asked. “That you’d fill your own retinue with brainwashed humanattendants—or that you’ll continue to dally with ‘commoners’ who ‘wash up well’ even after you’re married?”
“I’m saying this conversation is over. You’re boring me. Go back to sleep. Even your hard little head knocking against my sternum is preferable to listening to you prattle on.”
