“And was not the council to alert me to their meetings here? Was that not the deal we made?”
Roa’s fingers unclenched in his shirt.Interesting,she thought.What kind of deal did he make?
“Yes, my king, but...”
Roa felt the speaker’s gaze dart over Dax’s shoulder, searching for her.
“Don’t you and the queen have...”
He was clearly struggling to put a voice to his thoughts.
“Don’t we have... what?” The king sounded amused. “Private quarters?” He pulled Roa out from behind him then. Looping his arms around her waist, he rested his chin on top of her head. “Today we wanted something a little more... illicit.”
Roa flushed with heat.
Since when is he so good at lying?
The seven council members before her fell silent.
This was their chance.
Looking up at him, Roa put all of her focus into playing the part of a flirtatious wife. “Should we finish this elsewhere?”
His smile widened, and Roa realized with some annoyance that it was the smile she hated most. The one he used to charm and seduce.
Leaning in, Dax kissed her neck, just behind the ear. “Would that please you, my star?”
That name again. Roa wanted to roll her eyes, but quenched the urge. She nodded instead.
Taking her hand in his, Dax marched her straight through the council, who parted like butter at the mercy of a knife.
Twenty-Three
Dax stormed through the corridor, dropping her hand like it burned him. That smile was gone. The charming husband vanished like the act it was.
He’d convinced the seven council members. And—if she were honest with herself—he’d convinced her, too.
But now as she watched him, his footsteps thunderous, his face masked, she wondered:What was he really doing in that library?
And from the way he looked at Roa, he was thinking the same about her.
She cleared her throat.
“If you weren’t invited to that meeting, how did you know it was happening?”
He studied her, as if trying to decide how much to tell her.
“The girl you were so jealous of last night?”
Roa bristled at the accusation, even as she knew exactly who he was talking about: the draksor in the yellow kaftan who’d been hanging off his arm all evening.
“She’s the daughter of Councillor Barek. She alerted me to the meeting.”
Roa went quiet, considering this.
“I told you,” he said. “It was just business.”
Dax turned a corner. Roa followed, trying to keep up with his long strides.
