Page 124 of Crown of the Courtesan

What’s wrong with me?

My stomach lurches with a strange emptiness. Then a warmth blooms over my belly, and I wonder if something I ate isn’t sitting well. I swallow the lump forming in my throat.

“You okay? You’re just staring at that fire,” Rett asks. He empties the water pouch over himself, a long stream rolling down his neck and over his chiseled muscles.

“Oh, I’m fine,” I say, snapping out of it, blinking a few times. “Just hot again, now that I’ve dried.”

Rett grins as he cocks his head toward the pool that is sparkling like topazes and rubies now that the sunset is battering us through the foliage above. “I can help you with that—if you need.”

“I refuse to sleep in a wet shift.” I give him a pointed look.

“Swim without one.”

I scoff.

He stands and stretches his arms. “It’s okay. I get it,” he teases. “You don’t want to fight the temptation, because if you undress, you know I’ll join you.” His thighs squeeze, defining the outline of his muscular legs. “It wouldn’t be chivalrous of me to stay clothed, now would it?”

“Prince Everett Delamere.” I list his full name in warning.

“Is it working?”

“I’m not going swimming. One dip is plenty for today, and I don’t like that it’s about to be dark.” I stand up—but a bit too fast. Stumbling for a moment, I shake my head to regain my bearings.

“The only way you’ll get used to the heat is if you do things to cool off. Acclimation takes time and patience,” he says as he sweeps my hair off my shoulder and skims the bare skin down the curve of my arm.

Rett stares for a second longer than appropriate. It makes my heart take off as my chest heaves under the constraint of my stays. Suddenly, I’m very interested in soft touches.

Rett bends over, whispering in my ear. “Get undressed…” He leans back. “Or you’ll be sleeping in wet everything because I’m not carrying you out of the forest half-dead with heat fever.”

I gaze into his eyes, my neck tilting at the height difference. My head buzzes as though I’ve drunk too much ale.

“I am not ashamed of what I want,” he says, lowering his face, burgundy curls falling forward. “Are you?”

Need growls in my belly, hungry for something more⁠—

—flirting, touching, sex.

Right now, I’m simply Tabitha, alone in the woods with Rett, who listens to me. Understands me. Wants me.

He lavishes a smoldering stare on me, melting whatever excuse I still cling to. If I’m being honest, I want nothing more than to be in this hazy place, between our different worlds, enjoying this moment we’ve stolen together. Warmth spreads through my body, tingling through my fingers and toes, making the trees blurry and my mind dizzy.

“Are you going to make me undress you?”

“You wouldn’t dare,” I whisper.

He plucks at the string connecting the two sides of my front-lacing stays. “Would you rather have heat fever instead?”

I might already have it.

He pulls until it loosens.

Rett hesitates. “Would you like me to stop?”

The air grows utterly still, even the chirping bugs and birds becoming quiet.

Something propels me to shake my head—a force of need greater than myself. Rett yanks the final strings in my stays. It hangs limply on my shoulders until he peels it off and throws it onto the closest bedroll. Dressed in only my thin, cotton shift, I feel a shiver run up my spine despite the temperature not changing.

“Are we going to jump in now?” I ask, swallowing nervously.