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“I know you know that wasn’t a compliment.”
His grin widened.
“You’re incorrigible.” I shook my head and couldn’t help a smile of my own.
“Is that all I am?”
“Why do you care what I think of you?”
“I don’t.” He leaned in close, and my heart pattered, not in fear but excitement.
Most times I shut down encounters by this stage. But with him… I wanted to take it a little further. The authentic flirting proved enjoyable.
He leaned closer.
He was going to kiss me. Usually, this would be an excellent chance to dose him and ask my questions, but did I dare? What of those probably watching?
His lips pressed against mine. I tingled. Head to toe. He slid his lips sideways, and I trembled. He nipped my bottom lip, and I uttered a noise.
Then he whispered, “Who are you?”
“Yours,” seemed the natural reply.
His fingers, which cradled my head and threaded through my hair, tightened painfully as he harshly queried again against my lips, “I saidwhoare you, because you’re not Weztrogian.”
“Don’t be foolish.” I laughed and chided myself for having slipped somehow. I must have done something to reveal myself. I’d have to be careful to extricate myself.
“Your disguise is clever, but not perfect. You’ve done something to yourself. This”—his grip tightened—“isn’t the real you.”
“Do you even hear yourself? You’re talking crazy. Touch me. You’ll see I’m not wearing any paints to disguise myself. Everything about me is real.”
“I can hear the lie.”
Could he? “Are you always this paranoid? Explains why you’re having a hard time finding a wife.”
He dragged me higher—my toes barely scraped the ground—to grumble, “I know you’re not Jrijori’s niece. The only family that assassin has is his daughter, the new queen, who you are not.”
I thought fast. “I’m his newly found bastard daughter.”
“Another lie.”
I changed tack and tried to slap him while slipping the catch on my ring. “How dare you. I demand an apology.”
“What is that?” he asked, jerking his head away from the gas.
I waved my hand again, spreading more of it as I soothed, “Calm down.”
He stilled.
I sighed as the tension in him eased. For a moment, I’d panicked. In a battle of strength, he’d have overpowered me. Thankfully I’d recovered, and now he was under my control for as long as the drug lasted. Or his guards interfered. So far, no one had appeared. But I’d best not waste time or give them cause. I remained close to the King, as if we were being intimate, my lips whispering over his as I spoke.
“I want you to be nice and calm. You don’t want to hurt me at all.”
“No hurt.” He said it in a monotone.
“You’re going to answer a few questions for me and then forget we ever had this conversation. Actually, once we leave this room, you’re going to avoid me because you’re not interested at all in me. Okay?”
“Okay,” he dully repeated.
