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Then liked it even more when he shifted her around so he could hold her, her back to his front.
And held like that, where no one could see her, the hot water could sink into her bones, and Calista could simply...be.
It felt like a revolution.
She let herself relax, as if nothing outside the confines of this tub could touch her. Or could matter, one way or the other. No schemes, no goals, no worries. Just the warm water, the bubbles, and Orion.
Calista rested against him, and let the quiet soothe her. Or maybe it was him, so solid and strong behind her.
She sighed a little when he picked her hand out of the water and held it between them, once again fiddling with the ring he’d put there. The Ring of Queens. The ring, it was rumored, a besotted ruler of Idylla had created for his beloved, fashioning it from sky and sea, so she could wear it forever on her finger and think of Idylla. Of him.
And for the first time since this farce had started, Calista found herself really imagining what it would be like if this was real. If the only thing she had to do was become Orion’s queen. If all the rest of it was a skin she could shed when they married, and once they did she could simply be the sort of woman who could wear a ring like this all the time, without irony. She could be the kind of woman he could hold in his arms the way he did now, the whole rest of the world at bay.
The kind of woman who could allow herself to be as real as he felt to her.
All she had to do was imagine herself anyone else alive, and this moment would have been romantic. A beautiful new beginning. The start of an unexpected chapter in the kind of arranged marriages families like hers had been mandating forever.
But wishes were never horses, and Calista didn’t get to play Cinderella games. She didn’t have a fairy godmother. Instead, she had a nasty, terrible father... And what was she doing?
The water was still warm, but she felt cold. How could she let herself sit here, surrendering to all these treacherous feelings for this man when nothing could ever come of them?
This could never be real. This was only a game, and if it was a game, that meant she had to win it. She couldn’t let either one of them be lulled into any false senses of security when there was none.
Not when so much was at stake. Not when Melody would be the one to pay the price.
Every wish, every feeling inside her was a betrayal of her sister. Calista should have hated herself.
She squeezed her eyes shut, happy that he couldn’t see her face or the torment there that shouldn’t have been there, and made herself laugh. A sharp dagger of a laugh, precisely calculated to make him stiffen beneath her.
Which he did, and her heart ached. But she kept going.
Because he was her adversary, not her lover, and she really didn’t know how she’d let herself forget that for a moment.
“I really am shocked, Orion,” she said, making her voice arch. Insinuating. A hideous intrusion into the beauty of this moment, and she hated herself for it. But she didn’t stop. “How on earth have you managed to keep your lovers from prattling on to all the tabloids about your prowess in bed? I would have thought they’d be lining up to talk about how good you are. To compare notes, even, the better to brag to each other and all the poor women out there who can only dream of touching you.”
Calista wanted to cry. She couldn’t let herself, however, so instead she laughed again. Another sharp knife.
And she could feel him change beneath her, going stern and harsh.
You did that, she snarled at herself.Good job.
It wasn’t lost on her that she should have been happy that she’d done it.
“I’m not a show pony, Calista.” His voice was disapproving and dark. And she could feel it inside her as if every word was carved into her ribs. Flaying her open, and deservedly. “I do not perform for the crowds—much less the filthy tabloids.”
“You don’t have to perform. You’re you.” That almost veered back into the mess of feelings that made her throat feel tight, so she kept on with that bright, brittle blade of a laugh. “And you must be some kind of magical creature to keep them all so quiet all these years. I’m not sure it’s ever happened before in the history of royalty.”
“I do not care to share my private life,” he said, his voice a rumbling bit of thunder that she could feel against her back like a new, worse storm. “I have been at some pains to tell you this.”
“Not everyone gets to choose what they keep private, Orion. Especially not when they sit on thrones and expect others to bow and scrape before them. I’m amazed you haven’t learned that lesson already.”
“Perhaps you will need to teach it to me,” he said then, a different, silky note in his voice. It made her shudder, and she wasn’t sure if that was pure sensual reaction or some kind of foreboding. “Because there is only one person who can talk to the tabloids or anyone else about my sexual prowess, Calista. I have not had to use magic spells to ensure any particular loyalty from anyone. I’ve maintained a dignified silence about my exploits by simply...not having any.”
She didn’t understand.
She blinked at the tub and the water before her. “Is that a fancy way of saying you made them all sign nondisclosure agreements?”
But he didn’t reply. He simply stayed where he was, lounging there in the hot bath behind her, his back like a wall. And she turned the word she’d said over and over again in her head.
