I couldn’t deny this was actually…fun. Dancing with him to the wild beat of the music allowed me to let go of all my reservations for a moment and just enjoy getting to dance with this charming, powerful, handsome-as-sin man.
As the next song began, with a slower, sultrier beat, Azurill pulled me into his body, enclosing me in his arms. His hard body was an illicit thrill against my softer one, and I suddenly ached to press more of me against him to see what reaction I could get. As I looked up into his eyes, I was surprised to find them lit up with an emotion I’d had yet to see from him.
He looked genuinelyhappy.
It was shocking enough that I was forced to realize I was feeling something similar. Which wasnotgood.And even worse, as our eyes remained connected, he leaned in…
My heart beat like it was about to skip out of my chest entirely, and my soul felt torn in two, half of me desperate to experience what was coming, and the other disgusted with myself for it.
Teal consumed my vision entirely until my eyes fluttered shut and then…his lips sent sparks flying through my body, and I found my own responding without thought as I gave in to his kiss. My hands snaked up his tattoo-covered neck, over the shaved sides of his head, to grasp at the hair on top andtug, making him groan into my mouth.
He pressed me closer to him as his hand wound into my hair and returned the favor, making me moan and nip his lip in retaliation. His tongue danced with mine as his body did, and I eagerly met each motion with every part of me. His hand gripping my hair came to rest on my neck instead, curling around it, and his fingers trailed across my skin, leaving fire in his wake as he touched me. I could only think of ice and fire meeting, and the immediate spark precluding the melting of the ice.
For I was assuredly melting into him, and I didn’t know where my head had gone, but it was a losing game trying to figure that out.
It was only when another patron bumped into us and we were jostled apart that I blinked dumbly up at him, satisfied to see he at least looked as wrecked as I was by the experience. I’d set out to seduce Azurill for my own ends but had somehow tripped myself up into forgetting the reason I was here, what I had to do, and mostly…that this had an expiration date.
Chapter Twenty-three
Azurill
We’d decided on this particular trial so I could see how being in a relationship with each lady could potentially go. A date was theoretically a good way to see if romance could spark between us.
I certainly never expected a spark the size of a forest fire.
Starting the night out, I had already been enraptured. I could never explain to Jacinth how grateful, and flat-out amazed, I was at what she’d accomplished.
My mother had been listless and distraught since my brother’s death, hiding from the court in a way she hadneverdone.
Seeing her start to wake up at Jacinth’s words made me incredibly thankful I’d insisted on her coming to my wing before our date. I’d merely intended on letting Neasa meet her, since my dog could usually take the measure of people quickly, and her instincts were never wrong.
Watching as she rushed up to Jacinth joyfully, demanding that she pet her, I was relieved. It told me that, whatever Carnelian’s plans, whatever Jacinth’s place in them, she was a good Elf at heart. That didn’t mean she wasn’t aware of or involved in any schemes, however.
She could be participating under protest. She could have been threatened. Or Carnelian could have fed her lies half her life for all I knew.
But that test told me that I may be able to trust herjustenough.
Once we’d left the palace, I’d been honestly delighted to find out we were going to a tavern. I’d never had much chance to mingle among the common people as if I were one. Having a night where I could just beme, where Icould drink, laugh, and not worry about my behavior, was a weight off my shoulders that I didn’t even realize I was carrying.
Finding out that Jacinth had expected the worst of me coming into the competition left me even more conflicted, and a large part of me was unable to help feeling strangely hurt. She hadn’t known me; it wasn’t as if she could have guessed what type of person I was, especially when Carnelian was her example of a ruler. Still, I was relieved when she explained she’d been wrong.
But when she began talking of her parents…my alarm bells began ringing, because her parentsshouldbe alive and well if she was truly who Carnelian said she was, this mysterious cousin we’d never seen before. Yet she spoke of them as if they were dead. It was all incredibly suspicious, even if I found that I didn’twantto doubt her. And that became even more true as the night progressed.
It was impossible to deny to myself that Jacinth was my favorite of the competitors. I would surely get to know the rest better, but she was far and away the most desirable, the easiest to talk to and laugh with. But that ringing alarm told me something was very wrong, and I’d learned to trust that instinct.
I’d wondered if perhaps Sania should be given more attention, as we’d been able to easily flirt and talk as well, but the spark between Jacinth and me was on another level. I couldn’t even pretend that I didn’t want to dive in and explore our connection, no matter if it blew up in my face.
Which it very well might.
Kissing her had been impulsive and stupid, but I couldn’t seem to stop myself from doing it anyway. I’d never experienced a kiss like that in my entire life, and I’d kisseda lotof women. I’d done a lot more than that, too, and yet this single kiss had left me more affected than anything I had ever done before.
I licked my bottom lip, tasting the ghost of her own left behind. I was waiting for my brother and Balthazar to arrive, replaying the kiss on a loop in my head like the damned fool the woman seemed to make of me. I let my head fall forward into my hands, trying to think of explanations.
But the only one that made sense was that she was lying to me.
My heart ached at the thought, and I glared at the floor. I was not some schoolboy with a crush; I was the damned High King of Gemaria. One kiss was not going to be enough to make the rest of the world go away, no matter how much I might have wished it to.
So when my brother and best friend walked in and sat down, I explained exactly what happened.
