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I just had to figure out how to do that without getting him beheaded.
Chapter 24
Urban
The next evening, I felt antsy and unfulfilled; I needed something to occupy my mind. Talking to Vienne, learning more about her, and teasing her had given me a high that had surged through my veins like a drug. But the aftereffects were beginning to wear off.
I wanted more.
What was worse, my body craved sex to the extreme. It’d been too long, and I couldn’t stop thinking about her or dreaming about her.
To combat the itchiness, I decided chess was going to be my vice to alleviate the restlessness this evening. But when I strode into the dining hall, my dueling partner was not present where she usually sat.
I slowed to a stop, frowning at her empty seat.
“Where’s Nicolette?”
Yasmin sent me a catty smile. “Oh, I’m so sorry, Prince Urban,” she didn’t seem sorry at all to inform me, “but you won’t be able to have your little chess game tonight. Nicolette sent a message saying she was feeling under the weather, I’m afraid. She shan’t be joining us for dinner.”
Damn. I’d really needed to trounce someone on the chess board, too.
Sending the queen a tight smile, I said, “No worries. I’ll just have Allera play me in her stead.”
Allera lifted her face from where she’d been whispering and giggling with Brentley. “Oh, no…” she said, shaking both her head and her hands. “I’ll never play that dreadful game against you again. You never let me win.”
I snorted as I took my seat next to her. “I’m not supposed to let you win; that’s the point. You’re supposed to beat me on your own. I never let Nicolette win either, but she still adores playing me.”
“Then Nicolette has far more fortitude than I. Because I refuse.”
“Brentley?” I glanced past her to her husband with a pleading expression. “You’ll play me, won’t you?”
“Yes, I think not,” Brentley answered with an easy laugh. “Allera’s told me too many horror stories.”
That earned my sister an exasperated glance. “Stories that I’m sure were embellished,” I bit out. “Now be a good chap and humor your poor brother-in-law for a spot of fun, would you?”
Allera blurted out a harsh laugh. “Fun? More like mental slaughter, you mean. You’re ruthless.”
“And again, I say, Nicolette adores playing against me.”
“Well, sorry, but I have plans for my husband after dinner,” Allera told me with a gloating smirk as she set her hand possessively on Brentley’s arm. In response, he turned a bright, beaming red and couldn’t seem to stop grinning. “So find another target to bully.”
I grimaced, not at all pleased by how suggestive her plans sounded. I honestly didn’t want to know when she and her husband wanted to do that.
Immediately turning toward Caulder, I beseeched, “Your Majesty...”
But he merely lifted a hand and shook his head. “I think not, Prince Urban. A king must feel as if he’s the best at everything he does, and I don’t foresee you allowing me that pleasure if we played.”
“Of course, I wouldn’t,” I said good-naturedly. “Because it’s never wise to think you’re completely invincible. None of us are getting out of this world alive; it would suit us well to fall every now and again. Helps make us heartier and teaches us how to get back up again and dust ourselves off. Keep going. Lives as long as we can.”
“Hmm. And here, I have a feeling some of us will fall sooner than others,” Soren put in with a leer, making Yasmin laugh.
I sent him a glance, not able to glare at him as I usually would because I could see too much of his wife next to him in my peripheral vision.
She looked lovely tonight, wearing a flowing dress that seemed to change from a pale pink to a pale blue, depending how the light hit it. Her hair was down and spilled over bare shoulders, making me want to nuzzle into the warmth I knew I could find at her neck.
So, yes, irritation was impossible to grasp whenever I could see a glimpse of all that.
“Indeed,” was all I said with an acquiescing nod.
