Page 99 of Reign

“Noted.”

Her eyes narrow. “No. Don’t noted me like there’s a but attached.”

“There’s a conversation attached.”

“I don’t want to have a conversation.”

“I know.”

“And yet?”

“And yet we’re going to.”

Color rises under her skin. It starts low, near the base of her throat, then climbs, soft pink warming the tone of her skin. She looks away like that might hide it.

It doesn’t.

“Fine,” she says, reaching for her water. “What are these very important things we have to get through?”

“For starters, we didn’t use protection.”

Her eyes sharpen. “Are you asking if I’m on birth control?”

“Yes.”

“Of course I am.” She leans back. “What a stupid question. Next.”

“It’s not a stupid question.”

“It is if you think I’m reckless enough to have sex at my brother’s wedding, in a bathroom, with no birth control.”

I hold her gaze.

Her face heats further.

“Don’t look at me like that,” she snaps.

“Like what?”

“Like you’re remembering.”

“I am.”

She inhales sharply, then reaches for her water again. “Next question.”

“Do your brothers know?”

A laugh escapes her, sharp and humorless.

“If my brothers knew, you wouldn’t be sitting here calmly asking me questions over dinner.”

“No?”

“No. You’d be dead, and I’d be getting yelled at beside your body. Next.”

That image should bother me more than it does.

It doesn’t.