AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Is it?” he counters.
“Of course, it is. I’d be honored to dance with you.”
His green eyes sparkle at my answer.
“You want to dance? With me?” he asks suspiciously, his gaze scanning the room for something or someone.
It occurs to me that maybe he’s looking for my usual dancing partners, but tonight I don’t want either one of them—I want Levi.
I jump in front of him and go to the tip of my toes, pulling his chin to me. I try to pretend that I don’t see the flame in his emerald gaze flicker away, since it would only put unrealistic ideas in my head.
“I said it would be my absolute honor, Levi.” I then pull away and curtsey in front of him. “Prince Levi of Thezmaer, will you do your humble servant the honor of a dance?”
I don’t have to wait too long for an answer, since Levi grabs my hand and almost flies me to the middle of the dance floor. I giggle with glee at his eagerness, but the laugh dies a quick death when Levi plants his strong hands on my waist. I swallow hard, doing my best to control my beating heart. But by the way my chest is heaving up and down, even Levi notices it, his gaze falling to the swell of my breasts.
I wish he wouldn’t have done that, though, because now I’m at risk of hyperventilating.
“Kat,” he says, my nickname on his lips always sounding like it’s a prayer. “We have to move our feet if we’re supposed to be dancing.”
Right.
Feet.
Move, feet! Move!I order subconsciously, and thankfully they end up hearing my silent command, to which Levi begins to lead me around the dance floor.
As big and tall as he is, you would think he’d have lead for feet, but Levi is the very definition of graceful. I guess you have to have some kind of agility to be a soldier. My heart sank when my father had informed me a few years back that Levi was now a part of the Aikyam army. I never quite understood why he was subjecting himself to that kind of life. He’s a royal prince. One day he’ll be king of the east. Why risk being slaughtered in the battlefield when he could have stayed safe and sound in his castle back at Arkøya?
I had even asked my father as much, not wishing to insult Levi with my questions. All my father said was that Levi was doing his duty and that was the end of it.
Still, I wish he hadn’t enlisted.
The only comfort I have is that my father insists on having all his vassals present on his birthday month. Which means, near or far, Levi must have departed from whichever foreign land so he could be here.
With me.
“That’s quite a necklace,” he says, his gaze still lingering on my chest.
But that’s when I remember what I have on.
“Oh, this,” I pull my hand away from his forearms to trace the heart-shaped diamond necklace. “It’s my mother’s. She let me wear it tonight.”
“Hmm,” he hums noncommittedly.
“Don’t you like it?” I ask, placing my hand once more on his tree trunk of a forearm.
“Did I infer that I didn’t?”
“No.” I frown. “But you didn’t say that you did either. You think it’s ostentatious, don’t you?”
He opens his mouth but then shuts it.
I knew it.
He does think it’s grandiose and pretentious.
The other kingdoms always do when we flaunt our diamonds. The thing is, our people would be just as proud to wear sandstone or coquina or even the darkest obsidian if it represented the north. Where others see a disparity of wealth, we see it as a symbol of our northern pride. Our diamonds, as well as our blue roses, are as much a part of us as steel and green meadows are to the east.
“I’ll have you know that this necklace was passed down from generations from mother to daughter. It’s as old as Aikyam itself. And one day my mother will pass it on to me. This is not just a diamond, Levi. It’s a token of love. That’s why it’s shaped like a heart. So that even when a daughter marries into another family, she knows she will always be loved by the ones who brought her into this world.”
