It takes all my willpower not to roll my eyes. “All right. I’ll clean up and head over.”
The grounds,as Ophelia calls them, is a sprawling meadow situated in the back of the castle. If Castleview proper is styled after a charming English village, then these grounds are a botanical garden set deep in the South.
Crepe myrtles heavily pregnant with light pink, magenta and lavender flowers bow deeply toward the ground. Waxy-leafed magnolias with blooms as big as soccer balls line the lawn, and azalea bushes with flowers ranging from white to bloodred sway in the breeze that lifts the hair off the back of my neck.
It might be fall in the village, but it’s most definitely summer here. It’s so beautiful that it fills my heart with happiness. I breathe in deeply, stuffing myself with the sweet fragrance of gardenias that I can’t see but can certainly smell.
Tight muscles in my neck caused from sleeping on the floor relax, and I’m pretty much at peace. All I need is a good book and I’ll be hap?—
“You’re here.”
And just like that, my calm’s shattered.
I turn to see Feylin striding over. He’s wearing pressed jeans and a perfectly ironed white button-down. His shoes are highly polished, and the cuffs of his shirt are pushed up, revealing forearms corded with muscles. Can arms be sexy? Because they are on him.
Not that I care as I’ve given up on love and all that.
His sapphire eyes pin me, and I glance away before I can get sucked into the black hole that is Feylin.
There’s a job to do and it’s always best to do things with a smile, so I plaster on a big one. “I’m here. Ready to find out about the ceremony.”
He scowls. “Why did you sleep on the floor?”
“And good morning to you, too.”
He rips his gaze from me and stares at the crepe myrtles. “Good morning. Why did you sleep on the floor?”
I should tell the truth—thathisarrogant ass is the reason I was forced to sleep on the cold hard stone, but the fact that he’sdemandingan answer is so irksome that I refuse to tell him—at least not right now. Obviously I’ll tell him later, because I can’t sleep on the floor the whole time I’m here.
I run my hand over the soft azalea blooms. “I don’t see why it matters.”
He swallows and his Adam’s apple bobs. “Servants talk, and if Ophelia had found you this morning instead of me, then she could have told the others.”
“And what would they have said? His Majesty offers her a bed, but she sleeps on the floor?”
“Exactly. They would wonder if I was forcing you to do that.”
Worried about his reputation, is he? “Why would they think that unless you’re a brute and a jerk?”
Scowl.“I’m not a brute.”
“But you let your fiancée sleep on the floor.”
“You’re twisting things.”
“I’m not. But anyway, what is it that I’m supposed to do besides bat my eyelashes and blow you kisses from across the lawn?”
He gives me a scorching look. “Don’t overdo it.”
“I’m not. I won’t. Trust me, I don’t want to attend any more balls. Speaking of, I haven’t heard from my family.”
“They’ll be here soon.”
“They will?”
“Yes.”
“They told you?”
