Chapter 10 #3
“It hasn’t escaped my notice that we purchased nothing for you,” he said some moments later. “Would you like to remedy that this evening?”
I waited until I’d finished chewing, then said, “Not particularly.”
Smirking, he seemed to intentionally slurp his tea.
I bristled.
As he set it down, the breeze delivered me a whiff of peppermint, and I decided to pour a cup.
Only for Brey to beat me to it.
“Allow me.” He looped his long fingers through the floral teapot’s handle. Without removing his eyes from me, he poured the perfect amount of tea into my cup.
“Thank you,” I said curtly.
Easing back in his chair, he stated, “You regret humoring me.”
“I won’t when I’m free of this marriage.”
“Impending,” he drawled. “Marriage.”
I glared.
He grinned.
Annoyance pushed at my skin like fingers. I picked up my tea, sipping it as I looked out at the ocean. The calm darkness reflected the stars and the crescent moon hiding behind a row of clouds.
“Ever been?” Brey asked.
Looking back at him, I asked, “To the beach?” When he hummed, I shook my head. “Not much. The one near our estate is riddled with rocks and giant crustaceans. Dreadfully unenjoyable.”
“Well, this beach is private, and it doesn’t have too many rocks.” Again, he smirked. “Though I’m sure giant crustaceans are lurking about, they’ve never bothered me.” He appeared to wait, perhaps for me to ask, then asked instead, “Would you do me the honor of visiting it with me?”
It took effort to keep my eagerness from showing. “I suppose I have nothing better to do.”
He gave me another deadly grin.
Groth arrived with the latest Nightly Newsprint. After presenting it to his king with a bow, he gave me a quick incline of his head and vanished.
It would seem I’d struck a nerve.
The newsprint was opened to the second page, where the gossip column resided. I would know. I read it religiously. Even after discovering that half of the column was fabricated to ensure people purchased every issue.
Brey cleared his throat dramatically, then read aloud, “His Majesty and his betrothed were seen making a mess in some of the city’s finest boutiques before escaping with a carriage full of luxurious yet rather peculiar garments.”
Offended, I came close to hissing, “They didn’t even mention my name?”
“Rude,” Brey said.
“At least that’s somewhat factual,” I grumbled. “Some of those juicy morsels are lies.”
Brey lowered the newsprint to reveal his wide eyes. “No.”
“Yes. A few years ago, we attended the opening of their new warehouse. One of the editors told me herself.” I sipped some tea. “Right before decorating a new printing press with the impressive amount of blood and wine she’d consumed.”
“But…” Brey blinked at me, then at the parchment in his hands, as though one of us had slapped him. “It’s my favorite part.”
It was mine too. “Some of it is real. They’re sent a whole heap of titillating letters to sift through.” I set my tea down and held out my hand. “Give it to me. I like trying to discern which ones have been fabricated.”
A smirk was given to my wriggling fingers. “How about I read them to you while you finish maiming your breakfast?” He lifted the newsprint. “And you can provide your expert opinion as you eat.”
That was actually sort of perfect.
I didn’t dare say so. I merely started eating while he started reading.
As we wandered through the cave beneath the palace to the private beach, I found myself less confidently contemptuous and significantly more impressed by this palace.
Curling my bare toes into the snowy sand, I suppressed a delighted laugh before running down to where it became golden along the shoreline.
I was also infinitely more intrigued.
I wanted to know about the shadows that sometimes darkened the king’s gaze, and why he’d seldom left the palace until his parents were dead. I wanted to see that real smile again—the only flaw in his perfection.
Worst and most of all, I wanted to see him without any clothing on.
But I started with, “Tell me your secret.”
Brey strode barefoot over the wet sand, his pants rolled. “Tell me yours.”
I walked backward so that my hair would cease trying to cover my face. Not so I could better see him. “I don’t have secrets.” I crouched to retrieve a pink shell and brushed sand from it with my thumb. “Now, other people’s secrets?” Sending him a smirk, I said, “I have plenty of those.”
The breeze caught his dark hair and threw strands across his cheeks, rendering his watchful gaze impossibly brighter. “Are you admitting that you keep them, lethal?”
“I think I would probably keep your secret.”
“Probably?” A taunt.
“Probably certainly.”
“Because we’re getting married?”
“Because I desperately want to know what it is.”
His eyes narrowed playfully. “And just how desperate are you, exactly?”
“I was exaggerating,” I said. “I’m never desperate, Majesty.”
That playfulness vanished. “Never?”
“Never.”
His eyes left mine to roam my body.
Brey had disappeared after breakfast. When he’d returned with some of my trunks, I’d donned a lemon-colored sundress. A light layer of organza covered the swinging skirt. It fell to my knees, but I still gripped it, not wanting the froth splashing ashore to reach it.
And perhaps because I wanted this king to look.
Yet as soon as his eyes met my bare legs, he threw them out to sea. A slight tinge colored his jawline and cheeks.
“Can I truly not tempt you to share?”
A rasped chuckle had him clearing his throat. “I’m willing to admit that you could tempt me to walk straight off one of those cliffs.” Before that confession could be wholly absorbed, he said, “However, a little anticipation never hurts.”
I couldn’t argue with that.
“Fine.” Disappointed, I exhaled dramatically. “Then tell me about Groth. They say he cannot leave the palace, yet he can touch things.” The ghosts I’d seen weren’t able to do more than spook me. “And how is it that he looks so real?”
“No one knows why he can touch things, nor why he’s quite so vivid.” Brey continued to gaze at the starlit sea. “He can leave the palace, but where he goes…” Somewhat cautiously, he said, “Well, he does not wish to.”
“What do you mean?”
“When someone touches him, he returns to where he died.” He looked at me. “He experiences it again, too. His death. Then he comes back.”
Though it was a balmy evening, I shivered. “How did he die?”
“He’s never told me, and he’s been the closest thing I’ve had to a friend since I could talk.” Shrugging, Brey tucked his hands into his trouser pockets. “My mother suspected he was strangled or poisoned, being that he appears to be in perfect health.” He huffed. “For a dead man, that is.”
Unable to trap it, I laughed. “Perhaps he only half died, then.”
I’d said it in jest, as of course that was impossible. But a twinkle entered Brey’s gaze as he regarded me. “An intriguing answer to such a riddle.”
For some reason, I lost the courage to look at him. I peered down at the shell in my palm. “I wasn’t being serious.”
“Oh?” He almost purred, “Well, not being serious suits you.”
I gave him a bland look. “I’ll have you know that I’m a very unserious woman.”
That earned me a stomach-prodding grin. “Are you now?”
“I am. In fact”—I dropped my shell—“I’ll show you just how unserious I can be.”
Then I pulled my dress over my head.
The wind stole and twirled it across the sand as Brey’s eyes widened comically. Wearing nothing but my lacy undergarments, I ran into the sea. It splashed my hair, the cold forcing a shocked laugh from me.
Once I was chest-deep, I turned to face the shore. “Are you not unserious too, Majesty?”
He tore off his shirt. As it flew over the sand toward a smattering of rocks, he reached for his pants. “Too unserious for my own good, apparently.”
My teeth pinched my lip.
Without any hesitation, he pushed his pants down and pulled them off his legs. In his haste to be free of them, he nearly tripped, and I laughed again.
It died abruptly when he strolled into the water and I caught sight of his erection. The sea rose up his muscular thighs, and he pushed escaped strands of hair back. He appeared to tuck them into his braid, which caused his abdominals and biceps to bunch.
My mouth slackened, and my toes dug into the rocky sand.
He truly was a work of art.
And I was beginning to think that ignoring my growing desire to properly appreciate him might have been the most foolish thing I’d ever done.
Even so, as he neared, I bent my knees so that he wouldn’t see my breasts through my lace slip. Water lapped at my chin. “You win.”
“What do I win?”
“I’ll keep my claws sheathed.” I pursed my lips. “At least for this evening.”
He lowered into the water too, and studied me with that feline tilt of his head.
I studied him back. My eyes followed a drop of water down his cheek to his hewn jaw. Mercifully, the gulls crying in the distance and the calm waves sloshing against the shore muted my giddy heartbeat.
Quietly, Brey asked, “Have you thought about it?”
“Thought about what?” I asked a tad sharply. But I didn’t want to ruin this opportunity to have more fun with talk of the wedding.
“Our kiss.”
Oh.
“There was more than one.”
“So you have then.” He smiled. “Thought about it.”
More often than I should, I didn’t say. Instead, I asked, “Have you?”
“I’ve scarcely been able to think of anything else.”
Flutters tickled my chest. “I’ve thought about lots of things.” I grinned. “So many things that I’ve struggled to remember kissing you at all.”
“Maybe another will better stain your mind.”
“Maybe.” I splashed him, then darted away as I yelled, “But you’ll need to earn it by catching me first.”
Before I could kick my feet, he caught my ankle and pulled me through the water until he could seize my waist. Laughing, I made to shove him, but it was just an excuse to place my hands on his chest.
My fingers curled over it. My heart pounded as if I were still being chased.
At my hairline, he murmured, “Caught.”