16. CHAPTER 16
Miya
The Territories
Archai, Caspador
The week passed slowly after the captain interrogated Miya at the bar.
Her memories sank into a black void, giving her mind endless space to imagine the worst scenarios.
If she told him about her father, then she would have woken up in Ciondo.
What a sensational story for an emperor who loved to toy with a narrative—the dead daughter of the king returned to life. A marked woman at that.
So, Miya must have kept her most important secret to herself.
Right?
That logic offered little comfort once her thoughts spiraled beyond control. The captain wasn’t here at Krowe's, but she felt him. Heard his questions storming through her mind, kindling the panic that dragged her into darkness during the interrogation.
What had she said to him?
While she may never find out, she did know that he expected progress on her only objective.
Get close to Lance.
So, she sought out the new member of the house throughout the week, talking with him, smoking and drinking outside by the sheds when night fell and no one would notice. Often, they talked until the cold numbed their hands and forced them back inside.
The lanky northern trees left their view of the sky open and did little to hinder winter breezes.
“The headmistress is on to us, you know,” Miya said, eyes following a thin trunk from the ground to high into the night sky. It was so quiet out here. “She made me wash my clothes twice because of the smoke.”
Lance laughed and blew a puff against her shoulder.
“Ass!” Miya pushed him, making sure to do it with an open palm so her fingers lingered against his firm shoulder. “You'll get me in trouble.”
Waving his hand, he wafted the smoke away from her. “Sorry. Very sorry.”
“Sure you are. What's with you, anyway? Shouldn't you be too important to smoke with house staff?” She grinned. “Mr. Krowe.”
One week in and this mystery addition to Krowe's house seemed like a normal guy without any secrets. Despite his height and size, he didn't intimidate her the way a man of his stature normally would. Lance felt gentle and soft despite that husky exterior.
He shrugged a shoulder, leaning back against the shed wall with his long legs stretched out. “Who else am I supposed to smoke with?”
“A young man in the Krowe family returning from war?” Miya pursed her lips. “You could smoke with whoever you like in this city.”
“You're the only one nearby I see wanting to smoke every day.”
She watched him. “Convenience. That's all I am to you.”
A half smile slid onto his lips. “And what am I to you? You're the one who could smoke with anyone you want.”
Her gaze eased down his face, measuring his words and light tone against the fall in his smirk. “And yet we both smoke with each other.” Miya settled back beside him, her arm grazing his. Time to push more. “I don't suppose you're going to finally kiss me, are you?”
Lance coughed, smoke sputtering from his mouth and nose.
“Seriously?” Miya twisted onto her knees and stole the joint from him. “I set you up so well, and you're falling flat on your face?”
A furtive glance at her. “Maybe I don't want to kiss you.”
Her shoulders shook when she laughed. “I can tell when someone wants to kiss me.”
Even though Miya didn't want to manipulate a nice person, she needed to produce results for the captain. So, she forced her teasing smile to fall. “Oh.”
Worry tensed his voice. “Oh? What does oh mean?”
Now she smiled fully without meeting his eyes, the perfect touch for pretending to mask insecurity. “Nothing. I was teasing.”
Lance pursued, exactly as she hoped. Facing her, he leaned closer. “Miya, I didn't mean that. If you think it has anything to do with—”
“Don't. Seriously.”
Guilt laced his words. “I said maybe I didn't want to because I was being defensive.
And I was defensive because I'll have a heart attack and die right here if I kiss you.” He pointed to the ground.
“Right in this spot. Then you'd have no one to smoke with, and you'd be traumatized. I can't do that to you.”
Miya didn't mean to, but she laughed. Actually laughed. “What the hell are you talking about?” Was he really like this? It didn't seem like an act.
He nodded, his own laugh teasing. “I'm only human. Besides, I have a move, and this is not it.”
Miya crossed one ankle over the other, her heel grazing his calf. “A move? Tell me everything.”
A hint of worry still flickered in his eyes. He didn't want to make her feel ashamed of her mark, did he? But his tone sounded lighter. “It starts by being friends for a long time. Some may say a pathetic amount of time, really.”
“Should I be taking notes?” she asked.
“Then, I work up the courage. This is also a long process.”
Her brows pinched. “I don't think you can call this a move, Lance.”
He shook his head, waving her off. “I hint harder and harder until I'm positive she's interested. You know, so I don't risk an awkward moment… Or pressure her with my months, years, of feelings.”
Miya listened, unable to stop, because she couldn't remember the last time she'd encountered so much innocence in a man. Sure, she knew men like that existed. They weren't her clients, though, nor her targets.
“Eventually, the moment comes when I know for sure she wants me to kiss her.” That easy grin of his brightened his dark eyes. “And then…”
Miya groaned. “I'll be the one to die right in this exact spot if you don't tell me. This is weirdly suspenseful.”
Lance leaned closer, whispering his secret move. “I ask if I can kiss her.”
A howl burst from deep within Miya's gut. “Wait—”
“If she says yes—”
“Stop it, Lance—”
“Then I do it. I kiss her.”
“That's your move?”
“All of those things I spent a while explaining? Yeah.” He nodded. “That's my move.”
A twinge of fear crept into the laughter as she wondered if he accidentally wandered into the middle of the Phaedra's war. Lance, this man who couldn't fake being so sweet and awkward and innocent. Even she didn't act that well.
“It's a good move,” Miya said. “I wish everyone asked first. I just thought you'd say something charming or sexy.”
Lance eyed her with a skeptical quirk of his brows. “It's incredibly charming and sexy when I ask a woman if I can kiss her.”
Miya rolled her eyes. “I'm sure it is.”
“Here's the best part of my move—and I'm not bragging.”
“None of this sounds remotely like bragging.”
He snorted but continued. “She expects me to be nervous, because women I like make me incredibly nervous, and they tend to pick up on this.”
“Shocking.”
“I'm not by then. It's an entirely different experience than anyone might expect. That's what makes the move so good.”
“Different how?”
“I surprise people, Miya.” Lance held her gaze with his kind eyes. “I'm very confident when I kiss a woman.”
The guilt of her objective ate through her charade. “I bet you're one of those men who learns every single thing a woman likes, and you never stop giving it to her.”
The joking vanished from the conversation. She'd taken him off guard. Stripped away the lightheartedness to what lay beneath that veneer.
“Yeah,” Lance said, surprising her, like he claimed he often did. “Every single thing.”
The night fell quiet enough to hear each breath.
They hadn’t moved, but he felt so close now, with his stare melting into her own.
With that quietness blanketing him—the quietness before a kiss or a touch, the kind that silenced all else.
The kind that left her wondering if while he looked at her, he tried to figure out every single thing she liked.
The shifting happened in that instant between heartbeats, not so different from drifting to sleep.
A shifting in how he breathed and looked at her.
He wanted to kiss her. Wrap his arms around her and learn how she felt.
The want emanated from him and warmed that sliver of air between them.
What surprised her most was he made her feel it too, even if only in fleeting curiosity.
Then an irresistibly boyish smile twisted the left corner of his mouth. One that didn't lessen the tension or the look in his eyes. “That's my move.”
He almost impressed her. “You ruined it.”
“No, no. It's all part of it, Miya. If I ever do kiss you, you'll realize how great my move is.”
Kissing him might be nice. Better than kissing countless people who never cared about how she felt. “Fine. I'll take your word for it, if you tell me one thing.”
“Tell you what?”
“How do you ask? I want to see it.”
“No way. I'm too embarrassed.”
Miya fell back against the shed with a sigh. “Please, you owe me this. I sat through three hours of you explaining your big move. Tell me or I'll kiss you and kill you with a heart attack.”
“That's not funny. You think I'm joking.” The way he glanced down her face told her he was more of a flirt than he gave himself credit for. “A few months is all I need for most women. For you? A couple of years.”
“Years?” Covering her face, she chuckled and groaned at the same time. “So cheesy.”
“You make me really damn nervous. Why do you think we always smoke?”
Miya was confident. Lance did not just come home from war.
That changed a person. If the Krowe's used that story as a cover, then why was Lance here?
Why bring a gentle giant into their home at a critical time like this?
Unless Lance was family and the story about war covered up an embarrassing secret.
If the captain wasted her time…
“Why does it feel like there's so much you aren't telling me?” she asked in a quieter voice.
He watched the stars now, not looking away from them when he spoke. “Because there's so much you aren't telling me. We don't trust each other yet.”
A fist closed around her heart. That didn't sound so innocent and sweet.
Why did she keep fumbling with him? He seemed simple and easy. But he wasn't, was he?