“Oh,” I say, cheeks heating.Those were not dragons they were sensing. I’m sure of that.“Right, I felt their… pleasure too.”
Prince Gareth rubs his face, making a small groan. “I hope this isn’t the way it’ll be from now on. I don’t want to spend my nights… like that.”
I’m so embarrassed I don’t even want to look at them. They felt us all night long. Surely the second they talk to their dragons they’ll realize it wasn’t them, and then they’ll put the pieces together. But until then, I’m not going to say a damn thing.
“Unless it wasn’t the dragons,” Prince Gareth says quietly, eyeing me.
I’m sure I turn an even brighter shade of red, but I try to hide it behind my food, stuffing a big bite of eggs into my mouth, then chewing far more than I need to. Today is already stressful enough. I don’t need the other princes to find out what we’d done.
“Where was Arthur last night?” Prince Gareth asks, his voice deadly even.
I stiffen and give him a look. “I’m sure Arthur was in his room.”
“You’re sure of that?”
“I’m sure he wasn’t in my room.”
“He better not have been. I’d hate to have to kill him.”
The air in my lungs leaves in a rush. “Prince Gareth…”
Looking at his face, I know without a doubt that he means what he’s saying. If Arthur was in my room last night, he’d kill him. I just have to wonder what he’ll do if he finds out it was actually his brother in my bed. His brotherstillin my bed.
“We heard there was some kind of commotion with the guards last night,” Prince Alaric tells me, probably trying to distract Prince Gareth from his razor-focus on me.
“Oh, right, I had a bit of an issue with Tesson is all.”
“You were with Tesson?” Prince Gareth’s question is as sharp as glass.
I shake my head. “Not exactly.” Then I hesitate. I know how these guys are. They won’t like the story I need to tell.
“What happened?” Prince Alaric asks, and there’s anger in the question.
“I don’t want to tell the two of you– not because I did anything with him– but because you’re going to get angry.”
Those words in my head made a lot of sense, but seeing them both drop their forks and tense makes me realize I made the absolute wrong choice. I should have simply dodged their questions.
“What happened?” Prince Alaric asks again, this time a little less nicely.
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“Talk,” Prince Gareth barks out.
My palms feel sweaty as I clench my fork. “You’ll freak out.”
“We won’t,” Prince Alaric says. “We can be calm.”
I jerk my head toward Prince Gareth. “Can you promisehe’llbe calm?”
Prince Alaric looks at his brother, brow raised. “We can try.”
I sigh, then decide the hell with it. “Tesson decided that we were going to get married last night, so he was leading me to the chapel… by knife point.”
Prince Gareth stands up in a rush.
I grab his shirt and haul him back down. “It’s already been handled.”
His chest is rising and falling rapidly. “I’m going to kill that guy.”
