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Irritated, I dropped her hand and narrowed my eyes. “Likewise, you’re unable to take a compliment.”
“Calling me a thorn in your side was a compliment?”
“I meant it affectionately. Indeed, a careless shag rewarded me with a son, yet I still satisfy my needs like it can’t happen again. You think casual sex makes me a whore.”
“I never said that,” Briar argued.
“You didn’t have to, sweeting. You believe chastity makes you more honorable than any native of Spring. I’ve seen how you judge the courtiers. I saw how you scowled at Cadence. And I’ve seen that look plenty of times when your eyes are on me in a crowded room. You’re so eager to slut-shame people for yearnings you have no experience with, for indulging in the basics of human nature, which you would call voracious and trivial. Except what else did you once tell me? That our kiss was meaningless?”
The princess was off the bed and on her feet before I could prevent it. “I’m not talking about other people,” she protested from the mattress’s edge. “I’m talking about you. I’m saying you should stop doing what you do with people.”
I swung my limbs over the opposite side, then stood and sauntered toward her across the dais. “And what is that exactly, sweeting?” I drew out, murmuring low. “Tell me.”
“I do not mean to imply there’s anything wrong with having relations.”
“Oh? Why the change of heart?”
“I’m merely suggesting discretion and safety.” Briar stood her ground. “You’re a father. And you’re worth more than a series of half-hearted affairs.”
“Very wise, Your Highness. I should be setting my sights higher. Mayhap the King of Summer will drop dead from stupidity, and I’ll have a chance to replace him. His wife is gorgeous and rumored to enjoy certain vagaries.”
Briar strode away whilst tossing over her shoulder, “Fine. That was invasive of me. I-I don’t know why I’m here.”
I faltered. I’d hurt her.
She got halfway across the room, but I was faster. I broke from my stance and slid in front of her to block the exit. Briar’s feet skidded in place, a whittled intake slipping from her mouth as I moved in, breaching every slice of space that remained.
In the shadows, I stared down at her. Shafts of midnight traced her freckles and accentuated the rise and fall of her chest. Despite the darkness, her hair burned through the murk, hot red with filaments of gold.
If I hadn’t been so riled up, I would have seen it. Briar hadn’t been criticizing me for enjoying sex. She’d been worried for me.
“Court is a lonely place, sweeting,” I confided. “I’ve engaged myself with others, mostly men. They’re safer. As for the rest, I’m cautious and creative. Bodies—hands and tongues and props—can work around the obvious, achieving heights whilst still partially dressed. There are plenty of ways to know pleasure without it amounting to fucking. And there’s rapture in restraint.”
“Does that include Cadence?” Briar demanded, the name kindling on her tongue, a flammable thing.
My tone gentled. “It happened, but it didn’t go as far as you expect. My fingers were the culprits, not my cock. We’ve never shared anything more.”
“Not even to use one of the objects in your wardrobe?”
Although I had already drawn the conclusion, until now Briar had never verified what she’d seen whilst sneaking into my chambers. If I were with anyone else, my lips would have uttered a coltish reply. But with her, I had never felt more serious.
“You mean like the ones in the pleasure vault?” I inquired.
Contrite mortification flittered across her features. I knew she had been there with the ladies. Posy tried to conceal this fact, but Cadence’s remark outside my door had been impossible to misinterpret.
“It wasn’t my idea,” she defended, as if her actions even need defending.
“Yet you stayed,” I presumed.
“I didn’t want to offend them.”
“Did you feel compelled to explore, the way you did in my closet?”
She made no reply, and she didn’t need to. More than in the vault, the thought of Briar’s eyes perusing the items in my wardrobe turned my blood into a vortex.
“To answer your original question, nay,” I husked. “I’m less casual about pleasure trinkets.”
“Why do you need to use anything?”
