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Interest.
Awe.
Genuine curiosity.
A feeling of…contentment.
Contentment? Where in the fuck did that even come from? I had no idea, but at the moment, I didn’t care. I was interested. And, gods, I couldn’t even remember the last time I’d been focused on anything but my brother. The warmth in my chest iced over.
“You really should move,” she said.
Her demand pulled me from the disaster my thoughts were veering toward. “I’m quite comfortable where I am.”
“Well, I’m not.”
I could feel my lips twitch, and I didn’t know if it was the desperation to reclaim those fleeting emotions or something else that propelled me to behave as if I had no idea who she was. “Will you tell me who you are, Princess?”
“Princess?” She blinked.
“You are quite demanding.” I shrugged, thinking it was a far more fitting name than Maiden or Chosen. “I imagine a Princess to be demanding.”
“I am not demanding,” she argued. “Get off me.”
I arched a brow, feeling that warmth again—that…enjoyment. “Really?”
“Telling you to move is not being demanding.”
“We’ll have to disagree on that.” I paused. “Princess.”
Her lips curved and then flattened. “You shouldn’t call me that.”
“Then what should I call you? A name, perhaps?”
“I’m…I’m no one,” she replied.
“No One? What a strange name. Do girls with a name like that often make a habit of wearing other people’s clothing?”
“I’m not a girl,” she snapped.
“I would sure hope not.” Wait. I had no idea what the Maiden’s age was. I’d been teasing when I called her a girl, but… “How old are you?”
“Old enough to be in here, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
The amount of relief I felt was a warning. “In other words, old enough to be masquerading as someone else, allowing others to believe you’re another person and then allowing them to kiss—”
“I get what you’re saying,” she interrupted, surprising me yet again. “Yes, I’m old enough for all those things.”
Did she know what all those things were? Truly? If so, there was a whole hell of a lot I did not know about the Maiden. But I didn’t think that was the case. She didn’t kiss like someone who knew from personal experience what all those things were. “I’ll tell you who I am, although I have a feeling you already know. I’m Hawke Flynn.”
She was quiet for a moment and then squeaked out, “Hi.”
That… That was cute.
I grinned. “This is the part where you tell me your name.” When she said nothing, my interest only grew. It wasn’t like I expected her to admit who she was, but I was dying to discover what she would share. “Then I’ll have to keep calling you Princess. The least you can do is tell me why you didn’t stop me.”
Remaining stubbornly quiet, she drew her plump lower lip between her teeth.
Every part of me focused on that—on her mouth. And hell, that filled my head with all kinds of things my body was shamefully on board with. I shifted slightly, hiding my reaction. “I’m sure it’s more than my disarming good looks.”
Her nose wrinkled. “Of course.”
I laughed, surprised yet again by her—by myself. “I think you just insulted me.”
She winced. “That’s not what I meant—”
“You’ve wounded me, Princess.”
“I highly doubt that. You have to be more than well aware of your appearance.”
“I am.” I grinned at her. “It has led to quite a few people making questionable life choices.”
I hoped it would lead her to make some questionable life choices, which, considering where she was, she wasn’t unfamiliar with.
“Then why did you say you were insulted—?” Her mouth snapped shut, and she pushed against my chest again. “You’re still lying on me.”
“I know.”
“It’s quite rude of you to continue doing so when I’ve made it clear that I would like for you to move.”
“It’s quite rude of you to barge into my room dressed as—”
“Your lover?”
I stared at her for a moment. “I wouldn’t call her that.”
“What would you call her?”
Hell, how was I supposed to answer that? “A…good friend.”
She returned my stare. “I didn’t know friends behaved this way.”
“I’m willing to wager you don’t know much about these sorts of things.”
“And you wager all of this on just one kiss?”
“Just one kiss? Princess, you can learn a wealth of things from just one kiss.”
She quieted, and I…needed to know why she was here, at the Red Pearl, in this room, wearing a maid’s cloak. And where were her guards? I seriously doubted they’d allow her to come here. If so, I needed to know which one did so I could make sure that wasn’t the one who found themselves dead.
But I started with the most pressing question. “Why didn’t you stop me?”
As I waited for an answer, my eyes tracked over her mask and then lower, to where the cloak had parted…
It felt like a punch to the chest when I saw what she wore.
