Page 21 of Ruling the Green

A snort escaped Vishen at that. “Because you’re that good in the sack, huh?” he asked, tossing an almond at me. “When’s the last time you got laid anyway?”

“I have been confined to the castle,” I reminded him. “And nothing about fucking a servant appeals to me.”

“Snob,” Vishen—a man who bedded every attractive woman in a five-mile radius—accused.

“It’s more the issue of them not feeling like they could say no to me.”

“Fair,” he agreed. “So, I’m taking it it’s been a while.”

I exhaled hard.

“That long, huh?” He shot me a smirk.

“Maybe the reins will loosen now that he got what he wanted out of me.”

“Not to piss on your plans, but I wouldn’t hold your breath.”

“Yeah, I know.”

“So, you’re a married man.”

“On paper.”

“Your wife is stunning.”

“Yeah.”

“You could make it a real marriage.”

“She was kidnapped and forced into this.”

“Sure. But who, when given a chance to think it over, wouldn’t want to be a princess? And future queen?”

“It would make life easier if she simply wanted to go along with it. But I don’t think I would blame her if being kidnapped, drugged, and forced into a legally—and soul—binding contract is too much to move past.”

“I guess time will tell. Hopefully, her voice comes back by morning. It will help to know more about her. A name, at least.”

“Yeah.”

“You should get back to her.”

I nodded and got to my feet.

“We’ll meet before breakfast,” I told him.

“I’ll be up.”

“You always are.”

The military barely allowed soldiers a few hours of sleep a day. Despite having a lot more freedom to do as he pleased as my guard, he’d never been able to catch more than three or four hours altogether.

“‘Night,” I called before making my way across the hall and into my room.

My wife hadn’t lit any of the candles, so I moved around in the dark, feeling for the matches in the nightstand.

There was a strange chattering sound in the room as I finally struck a match and lit the first candle, then the next, and the next, until a whole candelabra was lit, casting the bed in orange light.

That was where I saw Knight, his body on top of my wife’s, a little whine escaping him. It only took a second to realize why. And where that chattering sound was coming from.