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When I first saw her, I’d recognized her beauty, but it didn’t affect me, not the way it affected the other men in her life. She didn’t see the eyes that followed her everywhere she went, the way they would drop to her ass the second she turned around. With her perfectly styled hair and expertly applied makeup, she looked like she belonged on a throne with a crown of diamonds. But in the elements, when all those luxuries were stripped away, was when her beauty really started to shine.
That was when I noticed it.
Her makeup had been washed away, her gown had been exchanged for breeches and a tunic, and her jewelry had been replaced by a bow and a sword. That was the moment she became the most beautiful woman I’d ever seen.
“About before—”
“No.”
She raised herself slightly to look at me.
I turned back to the fire. “We don’t talk about that.”
Her stare was focused on the side of my face.
“Don’t bring it up again.” Whatever this was, it had an expiration date, a date that could come as soon as tomorrow or the following day. It didn’t matter who was right. Wouldn’t change anything. Nothing was going to stop me from avenging my father’s death and my mother’s violation…and my own trauma. I would murder her father right in front of her if it came down to it.
Without remorse.
We were just a moment in time.
Her head returned to my shoulder.
In silence, we listened to the wind and the fire, and we waited for the storm to pass.
“What was your father like?” She propped herself up on her elbow as she looked down at me, her fingers trailing over my chest in gentle caresses.
“Strong. Silent. Focused.”
“I meant with you.”
“He taught me the sword. Taught me strategy. Prepared me to replace him, even when I was just a boy. My childhood was spent in his shadow. I was never treated as a child, but as a man. Everything I am today…is because of him.”
“I can see that.”
“But I could tell he didn’t do it just out of obligation—but pleasure. He enjoyed spending time with me. My brother too.”
“It sounds like you were his favorite.”
“I was just the eldest. Ian understands.”
“You and your brother are close.”
I gave a nod.
“My brother and I are close too…” Her features dropped momentarily, the stress tightening her lips and dimming the light in her eyes. “We weren’t when we were younger, but after Mom got sick…we were.”
Now that Ivory was gone, I was certain Faron would use his son as a pawn instead to gain entry to the Capital. That was all his kids were to him—tools. Ivory didn’t see it, but I saw it as clear as crystal. “I’ve seen him with a lot of different women.”
She rolled her eyes and gave a chuckle at the same time. “Yep. But who am I to judge…?”
“Why didn’t you hold on to your virginity?”
She turned back to me, giving me an incredulous look.
“If your father wanted to marry you off to one of the princes at the Capital, that was going to be a problem, wasn’t it?”
“My would-have-been husband wouldn’t have cared.”
I stared because I knew that wasn’t how things worked.
“Trust me, when he realized his wife could fuck as good as a whore, he wouldn’t have cared.”
The smile that invaded my face was involuntary, and there was a lightness to my chest I hadn’t felt since I was a boy.
“Will you get married someday?”
My smile faded, and I gave her a hard look. “Why would I?”
“When your mom dies, you’ll be king, right? Don’t you need a wife and some heirs?”
“That’s not how it works. Your credibility as a ruler isn’t in your blood but in your heart.” But if we successfully took back the Kingdoms, that would be a whole other affair.
“I like that…”
I looked at the fire.
“Do you want to have children?”
“No.”
“Really? You’re so close to your family.”
“I’m not interested in bringing someone into this fucked-up world. There are many days when I question the point of being alive at all…” The conversation had taken a drastic turn, starting with a smile and then crashing into a scowl.
She watched me, her eyes shifting back and forth.
“Everyone is out for themselves, and they’ll do whatever is necessary to get it.”
She continued to watch me.
“I know you disagree, but trust me, you’ll feel differently soon enough.”
“I don’t disagree.”
My eyes flicked back to hers.
“But I think there’s a lot of good moments in between that you’re forgetting. Moments like this…”
I stared.
“We’re enemies, right? But here we are…wrapped in each other’s arms as lovers. I think that’s beautiful. Don’t you?”
“We’re just fucking.”
Her gaze didn’t flinch as I tore her down. “If that were true, you would have left me in that cabin.”
I held my silence, my jaw tight, incapable of a response.
