Nesrina glared.
“Honestly, Nes, do you expect to be arrested? And if so, by who? Theduke?”
Stomping was her direct response to his needling questions. “You think I can take some sort of side position as—as yourmistress,” she hissed, her stomach dropping out as she gave voice to the concept that had been plaguing her for days, “and still remain in the employ of the Crown? Here I thought you had a modicum of intelligence, Lord Kahoth.” Her hand flew to her hip as she popped it out, pushing those pesky nerves away and yanking frustration to the forefront. Nesrina poked again at his chest. “Enough brains, at least, to realize that I can’t lose my post as tutor. Icannot,it’s my sole source of income. You’d have me out on the streets without a reference to—to satisfy yourneeds?”
He blinked at her, and for a second, she hoped she had stunned him into silence.
Of course, she hadn’t.
When he spoke again his voice was low, raspy, full to bursting with uninhibited desire that nearly undid her. “And what ofyourneeds?”
Nesrina stamped her foot again and grunted. “I just told you my needs. Ineedto keep my position. Ineedto save money. Ineedto not keep doing whatever this is. Ineedto go to bed!” With that she spun away, pulling out a move dusted off after a few weeks of disuse.
Nes thought she heard him chuckle as she hurried back to the door.
“It’s locked,” he called, conveniently waiting until she tried and failed to turn the brass knob.
Frustration burst from her nostrils, and he rumbled with laughter.Infuriating man.
Refusing defeat, Nesrina spun back and stomped his way, refusing to make eye contact with the evidence of his desire, proudly tenting his robe. Kas jumped to the side and pressed himself against the wall, playing as if he was terrified of her tiny, angry form.
The move, for some reason, rankled.How can he be silly at a time like this? Thatesheb.That stupid, rude, impossible man!
She glared at him as she passed and found herself in his spacious chamber. A cozy living area lay to her right with a velvet-covered sofa before a welcoming fireplace. Lellin poked her long snout up over the edge of the couch and sniffed the air before lying back down. To her left was his bed. A massive four-postered beast that looked to be about the same size as the one they’d slept on in Rohilavol. Plenty of space for the enormous duke to... sprawl out at night. She swallowed thickly.
“To your right.” Kas had followed her down the hall and hovered at her back. She refused to look over her shoulder, knowing she’d be greeted by the wide planes of his chest and his partially opened robe.
She turned, finding a set of double doors.
“Oh, and Nes,” his voice rumbled, close enough his breath heated thecrown of her head, “I havenever,not once, thought of you as a mistress.”
Without looking back, she frantically twisted a handle. It opened, and she fled.
“I havenever,not once, thought of you as a mistress.”His deep voice tumbled through her mind as she raced up the stairs.
Shoving open her bedroom door, she flew inside and locked it at her back.
What the fates does that mean?Kas hadn’t sounded like he was lying... but his behavior was decidedly un-friend-like.
Leaning against the closed door, Nes let out a shaky breath that spoke of a far greater depth of emotions than she was willing to unpack at the moment.
thirty-one
Kas gets caught.
“Thequeenisarriving,her carriage was seen at the foot of the drive.” Thera found him in the library, where he’d spent his day hoping to cross paths with Nesrina. He hadn’t been successful.
Kas nodded to his housekeeper, grateful to finally speak with his sister and get verified information. Still, he remained half occupied with thoughts of hiskalalitani. Nes had been avoiding him all day since breaking into his apartment. A smile tugged at his lips before growing into a low rumbling laugh.
When he’d gone in to clean his teeth before bed and kicked that candlestick, he knew she was around somewhere. Lighting his own candles, he’d peeked into the toilet room while sending a tendril of wind through the hidden passage to see if that’s where she’d gone off to. Then he’d eyed the empty closet, the one that awaited his future wife. The door had been cracked when he was last in the washroom, he was sure of it, because Lellin was wandering around in there. When a faint shadow passed beneath the door, his suspicions were confirmed.
That’s when he’d decided to take a long, relaxing bath.
“Brother!” Hevva drew him from his reverie. Apparently, she made it all the way to the house while his mind was away.
He stood, throwing his arms wide to greet his smaller but older sibling.
“Is everything all right?” Kas murmured into her ear as they squeezedeach other tightly.
