“You’ll marrythe king,” the man rasped. “I refer to yourproxymarriage, Wildfire, which you will complete with me. I suggest you hold back your flames at least until the wedding night.”
“I told you my name isn’t wildfire.”
His smirk deepened.
“Why do you insist on calling me that?”
“Your hair.” He tugged on a long strand that had come out of the careful arrangement I’d made back at the manor house.
“Yeah, red. Fire.” I turned his sarcasm back at him. “How original.”
“And because you’re unrestrained.”
“Only in certain company.”
His bark of a laugh rang out, low and deep. The sound tickled across my skin, and I didn’t like it one bit. “I imagine you’re right.”
“Always,” I said primly. Truly, this man flung my emotions in too many directions, like I’d exploded and shards of me were spearing themselves all the way to the stars.
“I already suspected you were conceited. Thanks for the confirmation.”
“Is that so?” I lifted my chin and fingered the hilt of my blade strapped to my side. I was good with my sword, but I was lethal with knives.
“I suspect you’re a pretty little high lady who’s used to being pampered.”
“You don’t know me at all.” Because he’d stepped closer, I backed toward the railing until I hit it. I wasn’t sure why I didn’t pull the blade, gouge it into his belly, and be done with this conversation for the night.
He finally stopped, the front of his tunic rubbing across mine, his sneer raining down at me. “You may have had some training with that poker you call a sword, but I suspect you’re fluff on the inside where it truly matters. You wouldn’t have a clue how to handle more than a teasing attack from one of your high lord dandies.”
I was so tempted to prove he was wrong, but I hadn’tcompletely lost my wits. “You’re right,” I said in a high-pitched, bubbly voice. “You named me true.”
Something flickered in his dark eyes. Disappointment? No, I was reading him wrong. Satisfaction that he was proven right.
Ha. Just you wait.
I pushed the tip of my—so far—unlit finger against his chest. “Back off, asshole.”
“That mouth of yours should be doing something other than swearing.”
“It will be, but not for you.” Two could play this game. “You’re the proxy?”
“Did you expect anyone else?”
“I guess not.”
“Dress in a lovely gown for the wedding if you wish. Or not.” His gaze raked down my body. “It doesn’t matter to me. Whatever you do, donotwear anything like this,” his fingertip flicked the sleeve of my leather tunic, “in my presence again.”
Pivoting, he strode toward the wooden, cabin-like structure spiking down between the two center masts.
“You don’t have any say in my clothing,” I snarled after him.
With a twitch of his spine, he opened the door and stepped inside, closing it firmly behind him.
“Elemental aegis means he can take anything around us and turn it into something new,” the sailor, Brax, said in a cheery voice from a short distance away.
“Like what?”
“Oh, you know. Sand can be turned to glass. Water, a wave.” He gestured to the sea, and his eyes strayed to the nyxin quivering on the decking beside me. “Is that thing really your pet?”
