The moment the first note leaves my mouth, she covers her mouth to smother a laugh.
Her shoulders shake as I push through a few more excruciatingly off-key notes before stopping abruptly, eyeing her with mock offense. "Are you laughing at me?"
She shakes her head quickly, lips pressed together, eyes dancing with amusement. "No."
I arch a teasing brow. "I think you are."
"I’m not," she protests even as she bites her bottom lip to hold back a grin.
"You are."
"No, I—"
I start to sing again, and a breathless laugh escapes before she can stop it.
I narrow my eyes playfully. "Iknewit."
She laughs harder. "I certainly hope you're a much better soldier than you are a singer, or else we're going to starve, aren't we?"
I bark out a laugh, and she dissolves into giggles.
Gods, she’s radiant when she laughs.
I love seeing her like this… so free and unguarded.
“I love the sound of your laugh.” The words leave my mouth without thinking because it’s true. I’ve already decided I will make it my mission to coax laughter from her lips every day from now on.
Her smile falters and she looks down at her hands, twisting her fingers nervously in the fabric of her tunic.
Something is definitely off. Despite our teasing back and forth just now, she’s been more quiet than usual today. “Something’s troubling you. What is it?”
She keeps her gaze lowered for a moment, as if debating whether to answer me at all. The firelight flickers over her hair, catching the lovely copper strands. When she finally looks up, the laughter that filled her eyes moments ago has faded, replaced by something far more fragile.
“It’s nothing,” she says quickly.
I know a lie when I hear one. I take a small step closer, careful not to crowd her. “Vivienne. Tell me. Please.”
She exhales slowly. “It’s just…” She hesitates, biting her bottom lip. “You’ve been… different.”
“Different?”
She nods faintly, but her eyes dart away from mine, focusing somewhere over my shoulder instead. “Last night,” she says quietly. “You… stopped.” A pink blush spreads across her cheeks and the bridge of her nose, and I know she is speaking of our kiss. “And when we awakened, you didn’t touch me. And we’ve been traveling all day, only stopping briefly… barely talking...”
My chest tightens.
“I thought perhaps—” She swallows. “Perhaps you regretted it. That maybe you’ve decided you don’t want me after all.”
For a moment, I simply stare at her in shock. Then a startled laugh escapes me before I can stop it. “Are you mad?”
Her eyes widen, uncertainty flickering in their depths.
“Vivienne.” I meet her gaze evenly. “I’ve wanted you from the first moment I saw you.”
Color blooms across her cheeks.
“I wanted you when you used that sharp tongue of yours to eviscerate every king, lord, and prince in the realm who had come for your hand,” I continue, unable to stop now that the truth has begun to spill free. “When you glared at me like I was something stuck to the bottom of your shoe.”
Her lips twitch despite herself.
