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Her relationship with her parents was no warmer and he was sure she'd rather be here in the palace than in Vale, Colorado celebrating the holidays with her family's wealthy friends. But at least she did not have to have the same argument about her duty to them as their only child over and over again.
And he'd been right that their subterfuge would have the secondary benefit of operating as a buffer between him and women interested in becoming a princess by marriage.
Not that his wife would necessarily be named a princess. That was entirely up to his brother's discretion. Tor's wife would be a duchess by marriage and that was quite enough for some social climbers.
"You hurt your dad's feelings when you left that way." The censure in Blythe's voice was unmistakable.
He'd stayed in the library after the call, not really keen to return to his family's festivities and sentimentalities he did not share.
Tor was so lost in thought that he was startled to realize she'd joined him without him realizing it.
"At the risk of repeating myself. My relationship with my family is not your concern."
"Do we have to be like this?" she asked with a sad frown.
"Like what?" But he knew. He kept his distance.
She kept hers. The easy camaraderie they'd had when they first met was gone.
"You are so combative with me."
He opened his mouth to deny her accusation, but then shut it. She was right. He'd been offended by her rejection and the assumptions she made about him.
A mature man would let that go.
Tor had no desire to act like a child.
"I apologize. I will endeavor for a higher level of civility."
"Thank you. I like you, Tor—Your Highness. I would like to be friends."
She'd said that before, but he had not believed her, and he'd seen no real evidence of that since.
Civility he would and could do. However, friendship was another thing entirely. "I trust my friends."
"And you do not trust me?" she asked, managing to sound both surprised and a little hurt.
Which he thought was odd on both counts. Why should she expect him to trust her when they agreed they were not friends? Whatever she might prefer now. And why should she be hurt when she'd taken the same pains to make sure he knew how unimportant he was to her?
"I am sorry if that offends you," he told her honestly. It was never his intention to hurt others, but he was not a man who lied to protect their feelings either. "But no."
She nodded, seeming to take his words at face value. "Okay. Why did you leave like that? You could have waited to make your phone call, couldn't you?"
She really did not seem to get the concept of the boundary differences between friends and acquaintances. "No."
She stared at him, like she was waiting for him to explain.
Which he had no intention of doing.
She bit her lip in that way he'd found so endearing before. "I'm sorry you feel that you cannot talk to me." Blythe stepped right into his personal space and laid her hand on his arm. "Your feelings matter to me, Tor."
He stared at her. Did she have any idea how mixed her signals were with him?
Right now, the openness of her body language, the way she touched him, it implied an intimacy, a friendship they did not share.
She looked up at him, her blue eyes fastened on his.
That fast, the air around them charged with sexual attraction.
