Curses, she remembered. She had two now.
“What are you so upset about?” he asked, evidently bored enough to continue speaking with her. “You get to travel with a handsome prince. Who knows, we might fall in love, share a kiss beneath the moonlight—”
“Listen,” Risa interrupted, refusing to entertain any more attemptsat flirtation. “I’m here for one thing and one thing only: to get you married.”
Prince Javi pulled his horse to a stop. The Bosque grew silent. The animals held their breath and waited. The prince stared down at her, shadows dancing in those gold eyes.
“I am not here by choice,” she continued, forcing herself not to look away, “so let’s keep the chatting to a minimum.”
He waggled his eyebrows. “I can think of some ways to occupy our time.”
Peoplelikedthat?
Risa supposed, in ordinary circumstances, she might have found his incessant flirting exciting. If she were an ordinary girl who listened to gossip and wondered what it might be like to have the prince turn his attention on her, to bask in his warmth, she might have even entertained it. But she was not an ordinary girl, and it only made her more furious that her entire future hinged on a man who had love thrown at his feet while she had none.
“You’re not thinking of jilting your betrothed before even meeting her, are you?”
He blinked at her, surprised, though there was a prickle of something else in the way his eyebrow twitched. “I’m a prince. Technically, I can do whatever I want.”
“Is that your excuse for being all of”—she gestured wildly at him—“this?”
He blinked again, as if he couldn’t grasp what all her yammering was about. “Yes?”
Risa shook her head and started walking again. Maybe she should save her curse the trouble and kill the prince herself.
“Did I lose your interest?” He urged his horse forward, until its pace matched her own. “Let’s start over. Hi, my name is Prince Javi. What’s yours?”
“None of your business.”
“That’s a mouthful. I don’t remember birth certificate forms having that much room. How old are you?”
“A hundred and three.”
“You look great for being a century old. Where are you from? The same black hole Brunhilda crawled out of, fully formed and incredibly mean?”
She spared him a glance. This was, admittedly, one of the longest conversations she’d had with someone who was not her mother or father. And it was leaving her flustered. No one had ever asked her about herself. Everyone back home already knew her. They knew she was Bad, and that was all there was to know.
Distrust was easy to harvest when she grew it in such abundance. She could not help being suspicious of the prince and his interests, which surely did not align with her own. He was trying to get out of his marriage; she was trying to get him to the reception. He was an unrelenting flirt; she was averse to people in general. They were at odds, and the only way she knew how to fight back was by being incorrigible.
“Let’s avoid backstory.”
He didn’t seem perturbed by that. “Fine, I’ll start. I was born to the king and queen of Kheadon eighteen years ago, on a bright and beautiful day.” Or he didn’t understand what avoiding backstory meant. “Obviously, I’m a summer baby.”
She had no idea what being a summer baby had to do with anything. “Obviously.”
“I came into the world with a smile on my face and a head full of hair. Suffice to say, I was a perfect baby. I even had dimples. Still do.”
His smile demonstrated that he did, indeed, have dimples. They were, in fact, perfect.
Risa’s scowl deepened. “You are the most humble man I have ever encountered.”
“And the most handsome?” he asked, flashing her an almost-endearing smile.
“No. Please continue; it’s clear you love the sound of your own voice.”
“Thank you; I do.” Prince Javi sighed, waving his hand with a flourish. She noticed he wore several rings, all solid bands of gold, though the one on his pinky also had a ruby. “As the seventh and youngest child, I didn’t have much to do growing up. My brothers are much older and wanted nothing to do with me. Luckily, as I’m sure you’ve noticed, I turned out quite well considering the circumstances.”
She stared at him from the corner of her eye. “Your circumstances… as one of the richest and most spoiled brats in Kheadon?”
