Page 43 of Kingdom of Betrayal and Unknown

I glare at him and let go of his shirt as he stops running his hands through my hair.

“I have a confession to make,” he mumbles.

I raise my eyebrow. “Confession?”

What could he possibly want to say to me?

“I don’t like it when the prince is near you. I don’t like him trying to pursue you when you are mine. Mine and only mine,” he growls. “I want to go up to him and rip his head off, showing everyone that you belong to me.”

I place my hand on his chest. “But you can’t. Not unless you want to die.”

He sighs and closes his eyes for a couple of seconds. “I know, but it doesn’t mean I don’t think about it often. Who does he think he is trying to pursue you when you are clearly mine.”

Tingles run through my body as it slowly starts to warm up from his words. I can’t help but bite my lower lip and look at Kieran with half hooded eyes.

Hot.

Sexy.

Handsome.

Possessive.

Everything I thought I didn’t want in someone and yet Kieran is changing my mind bit by bit. Never has someone said they wanted to kill someone for trying to pursue me.

Time passes by as we just lay there in each other’s embraces, enjoying the quiet surrounding us. The birds aren’t chirping around us, like they know we are here and giving us privacy.

“Tell me something about your childhood.” My words are filled with hope.

I want to learn about what Kieran was like all those years ago. I want to know what it was like before the Fae became slaves.

“I used to run circles around my mother while Father was gone.” Kieran laughs. “She would try her hardest to get me to sit down and do something productive at the table, but I didn’t want to. I always wanted to explore Bellhollow. Sometimes, she would let me go alone. I knew there were at least two Fae guards following me from a distance to make sure no one hurt me, but it was the freedom I always wanted. Every once in a while, she would come out with me, trying to keep up, telling me not to fly when she was around so I didn’t get lost, all while meeting with the townspeople and making sure they were listened to if anything was going on. But I always caused trouble and never listened to the no-flying rule.”

I giggle.

“And then my father would come home during the middle of the day to check in on us or at night, and he had his ways of getting me to concentrate. Mother always wondered how he could manage to do it. My father blamed it on me already being tired,” Kieran gently says.

“Was that the real reason?” I ask.

He looks down at me, a small smile on his face. “I don’t know. That could be part of it. I didn’t mean to make her so exhausted every night, but I wanted to explore. I wanted to meet the people who were soon going to be my people. I wanted to get to know them and be like my father.”

I gently cup his cheek, running my thumb across his skin. “Did you ever spend time with your father to learn or watch what he did?”

“A couple of times,” Kieran replies, placing his hand over mine, keeping it against his cheek. “When I got older and could understand things better, he started to take me along so I could learn how to listen to people.”

“That’s a good father.”

“He was.”

Kieran and I sit in silence for several minutes, just looking at each other. My body is fully relaxed as we lie here, heartbeat slow and steady. But I’m not panicking this time.

“Tell me something about your childhood,” Kieran prompts me.

I think about that for long seconds. What do I want him to know?

“I don’t know,” I whisper, feeling bad all over again for not having an answer.

“There have to be some happy times that you can remember.”