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“I take care of Goldhaven, don’t I? I am the Alpha King of one of the four kingdoms of Mystara. And Goldhaven is at peace. We don’t see the same catastrophes arising here as they do in other kingdoms.”
She rolled her eyes but didn’t respond.
“What’s the problem, Elix?” I asked, steeling my patience with her.
“The problem is, I have no idea how to do any of this, and I’m not really going to be the queen! I’m not putting in all of this effort for show.”
I gritted my teeth. “That’s what we agreed to.”
“I didn’t agree to tend to dukes and ambassadors,” she countered. “I half-tipsily agreed to a fake engagement.”
“And this is all that goes along with it. It’s what you decided.”
“No, that’s a decisionyoumade for me,” she insisted. “I’ve never made a single decision for myself in my whole life.”
We glared at one another as the water began to boil on the stove. Drawing in a deep breath, I pulled out of the stare first, checking my temper and moving to make the coffee.
“If you want this to be believable, you’ll have to convince everyone,” I said quietly. “If you don’t do what a queen-to-be is supposed to do, no one will buy into it, and then what’s the point of doing this?”
Through my peripheral vision, I saw Elix’s lips part as if she was about to call the whole thing off, but changed her mind.
I exhaled with relief.
“I’m not asking you to do everything in the book,” I added tersely. “Why don’t you pick the easiest things? You’re not going to be my fiancée long enough to even entertain half that stuff, anyway.”
She hissed lightly. “It’s not that I can’t learn how to do this stuff,” she fired out angrily. “It’s that I don’t want to!”
I shrugged, pressing the lever down on the contraption as the coffee brewed. “Then I guess we’re not doing this. I’ll cancel the suite change and the seamstress.”
She scowled at me. “That’s not what I mean, and you know it, Jace,” she growled. “Don’t threaten me.”
I shrugged. “You can’t pick and choose,” I insisted. “You have to do it all.”
Visibly grinding her teeth, she accepted the coffee mug from me before I could ask if she wanted cream or sugar, downing the bitter black liquid without flinching. A spark of admiration for her pierced through me. Under different circumstances, I could see myself incredibly attracted to her.
But as much as my cock reacted to her, I had to keep my wits about me.
“Anything else I need to know?” she demanded, her tone clipped and even.
“I’m sure there is,” I replied. “But I can’t think of it right now. Leave your phone number, and I’ll text you with the changes as they come.”
Rolling her eyes, Elix scrawled her number on a post-it notepad before snatching up the book of queenly duties and stalking toward the door. I found my eyes trailing toward her undulating hips, entranced temporarily by the sway beneath her loose-fitting track pants. Even in a messy bun, with last night’s makeup smeared on her face, she was breathtaking.
As if she could feel my eyes on her, her head abruptly whipped around as she hit the doorframe. “Let me know what to expect with Saint,” she told me. “He texted me this morning, by the way. He’s on his way back to Geldon.”
She had a way of knocking me down a notch without even trying.
“I told you I’d deal with Saint,” I muttered.
“Then get on with it,” she retorted sharply, throwing open the door. She faltered in the hallway, her eyes widening as a line of servants marched up the stairway with her belongings in hand, headed toward the far wing.
“They don’t waste any time, do they?” she sighed, more to herself than me, but I answered, anyway.
“Not under my command, they don’t. Wait in your suite, and I’ll let you know our next moves.”
“Stay in my suite?” she echoed, but her voice was low, to keep from attracting the attention of the staff.
“Just for a couple of hours,” I added quickly and just as quietly. Her eyes met mine, and she tossed me a borderline contemptuous look, but nodded curtly before heading over to her new chambers. Her mixed feelings about the matter were palpable—and shared by me.
