“Then why are you upset? Did something happen after the races? You didn’t come to my room last night. I waited for you.”
I cursed beneath my breath as I watched my dress, crumpled on the dirty floor—I needed to wear it again the following day, because yes, I did have a usual dress pattern. I seized the dress and draped it once more over the top edge of the door, perhaps a bit too aggressively. I moved on to wearing my shirt. Oh, Icouldn’t waitfor self-defence. I planned on beating the shit out of him. Not that that was an actual possibility.
My voice turned into something seething and vicious. “Oh, I did come by yesterday, but you know, seeing that you and your mouth were already occupied with another visitor, I didn’t want to impose.”
He said nothing.
I threw open the stable stall only to find myself stuck in place.Shit. I watched him as he inspected something that he was gently cupping in his palms. He looked as if he was cradling a fallen hatchling, unable to return to its nest.
“Hey, give that back! You know it’s rude to rummage through people’s belongings.”
“I didn’t rummage through anything. It fell out of your dress. You made this?”
“It’s nothing. It’s stupid. Now give it back, please.” I outstretched my arm at the same time he tucked in his.
“But it’s mine.”
“No it’s not.”
“Then whose is it?”
“I—I made it. For…Ismail.”
“Ismail? You mean the stableboy?” His breath was not misty.
“Stableman,” I corrected, still showing him my palm.
He lifted a brow. “You made an ice-white wolf for the stableboy?”
“Stableman.”
“Hmm. Not a horse?”
“He doesn’t just like horses, you know, he’s into wolves, too.”
His mouth turned up into something I’d never seen before. A smug smile that for some reason had me releasing a subtle shiver along my spine. His voice dropped an octave. “I know what you’re doing.”
“I’m not doing anything—now for the last time,give it back.” My hand sprang from my chest to stretch towards him; the other I left wrapped around my belly. My foot tapped.
“You wanted to give me this yesterday but left when you saw Princess Yasmina, who came knocking on my door—uninvited, by the way. You wereupsetandjealousand now you’re trying to makemejealous.”
Upset and jealous was an understatement. I was enraged like a boiling kettle forgotten on high fires. “Well, you’re wrong. I couldn’t care any less, and as I said, that’s not for you.”
“The howling white wolf that specifically has one brown eye and one blue eye, just like Galen is not for me?”
“I ran out of blue buttons.” My arms went to my hips.
“Just drop the act, Lady Stonehead, I see right through you.” I was fully clothed, yet I’d never felt so naked. He had me swallowing. “I know it’s mine and don’t ever call it stupid. I love it. And just so you know, if you had stayed for at least one minute, you would have known that I broke off the kiss, talked some sense into her, and sent her away. I waited for you.”
I scoffed, my brows nearing my forehead. “You saidno thanksto Princess Yasmina?ThePrincess Yasmina.”
“Why do you find that so hard to believe?”
“Because she’sherand you’re here for an alliance. Wouldn’t your brother, King Ryvar, be disappointed in your choice?”
I caught a momentary expression of surprise at the mention of his brother’s name, at how I assumed that King Ryvar was plotting this whole alliance thing. I remembered a moment too late that I was not supposed to discuss anything about it, not with anyone, not even with him.
“Our plan for an alliance has nothing to do with her. And even if it did, I don’t think that King Belzari would appreciate visitors touching his daughter.”
