I’ll do that. Soon.
“We should get to know each other better, don’t you think?” I blurt. Because talking. Talking is good. “I don’t even know your last name.”
“For our ruse? Or is this just because you find me irresistibly fascinating?”
“No! I mean…yes, I—no, wait. Um, for the ruse.” My inability to form words makes his stupid dimple pop and my cheeks heat. “You’re impossible, you know that?”
“I do try,” he says with a low laugh. “And for the sake of our fake futures together, my last name is Hyveri.”
“Good fellow?” My lips curve at the meaning. “I like it. It suits you.”
“I promise I’m not always good.” He winks.
Heat floods my cheeks, and now I’m remembering how his body felt, so warm and solid at my back as we slept. How good he felt there. How I wished I could press back into him, feel him against me…
“And you, Val. What do we call you?”
“Halla—” I cough at the blast of cold from Lumi. “Um…jaad.”
Lark flusters me so much I almost blurted out the royal name of Hallavarn.
You are flustered, Valkie. Focus,Lumi urges.
Yeah, I noticed.
Lark quirks a brow. “Your name meansfrosted … frost?”
“Yes. Uh huh. Yep. I am very cold, see?” I wiggle my fingers, sending clouds of shining frost billowing through the air.
I totally saved that. Take that, Lumi.
Lark is still smirking, but it turns warmer. “I don’t know. You don’t seem cold to me. You’re actually very warm, Val. And hot. Don’t forget hot.” He says it with a look over my body that leaves me tingling everywhere his gaze traces.
I cough. “What happened to our no-flirting rule?”
He shrugs. “Told you I was bad at following rules. But, if you wish.” Leaving it at that, he bends to pick up his shirt, tugging it over his head as he rises. And no, thank you very much for asking, I wasnotdone looking at his chest, or at the sexy patch of downy white fur. I was not done with the flirting either, no matter what my traitor mouth blurted out in self-preservation.
Valkie, your heart is beating rather quickly. Lumi has mastered the obvious today.
Where did this attraction come from? I’m normally unaffected by looks. I certainly have my pick of suitors at the palace, with plenty of offers to accompany me home after every royal revel. Yet even when I choose a partner (which only happens occasionally when the loneliness of my chambers is too daunting to face), I never feel this level of desire.
I find my partners attractive, sure. I enjoy what we do together, but they don’t send these bolts of electricity through me even at the pinnacle of lust and bodies joining. It’s good, but when it’s over, I don’t feel the pull toward them, the longing for more, the need to keep touching. So why am I feeling those things now, when Lark and I haven’t even…
You know what? I’m just stressed. Pent up. That’s it.
All this closeness is foreign to me, and my head and heart are overcrowded. It’s the only possible reason for me having these thoughts about a Wild One, forDeep’ssake. I need to follow my own rules. Starting now.
“What are you doing today?” I ask, snapping the tension.
Lark isn’t fazed.
Obviously.
Flirting is just his personality. He has no reason to suspect the turmoil that just ran through me, or any reason to be affected by me in the same way. Why would he when he only knows me as Val?
As Talvie, the Princess of the Hinterlands, I offer status and wealth. Prestige. It makes sense for fae to want to get close to me and the power they think I wield.
But as Val, I’m a Wilder girl with nothing to offer Lark except the bargain we’ve already agreed to. Besides, if he knew who I really am, he’d hate me. They would all hate me if they knew the truth, and with good reason. Now that I’ve seen the damage caused by the permafrost, the Point Fae, and my family in particular, I can’t even blame him for hating everything I stand for. Stood for.
