Chapter 16 #2
“Are you practicing your arithmetic?” she mocked and pulled down a few dresses to add.
“Four.” His voice deepened with each number.
She added one thing after another, periodically glaring at him.
“Five.”
“Six.”
“Seven.”
She reached for more things, but strong arms encircled her from behind and his warm breath caressed her cheek. “I said you’re not leaving.”
She wiggled in his hold, hating the way her body responded to his commanding tone. “You can’t stop me.”
A smooth chuckle. “Yes, darling, I can.”
“Dean,” the most melodic voice Fawn had ever heard said from the dressing room door.
They both turned, Fawn still trapped in Dean’s arms, and an ancient looking woman with snow white skin and hair to match, stood patiently in the doorway, staring at the king. “I need to speak with you.”
Did women show up everywhere he went? Already in a foul mood after learning of her reputation, Fawn couldn’t help taking a shot at Dean one last time. “Are you his fiancé too?” she asked dryly. “He likes to collect them.”
Dean tightened his arms and murmured, “Eight.”
“No. You will be the one to marry the young king and give him an heir, but first I must speak with him.” Were witches real? If they are, this woman leads the clan.
The woman smiled. It looked like she didn’t know how and was trying it out for the first time. “My name is Lilith, and you will learn more about me after you are queen. Dean, meet me in my chambers.”
Fawn’s brows shot to her hairline. “Are you his mistress then?” she joked.
“Nine,” Dean whispered in her ear, then spoke louder for Lilith. “Whatever you need to say to me, you can say in front of my mate. We have no secrets.”
“Except your fiancé,” Fawn muttered under her breath.
“Ten.”
“I must speak with you alone,” the witch said. Fawn decided she didn’t like Lilith. Or witches.
Lilith disappeared through the door, and Dean released a tired sigh. “I need to meet with her.”
“What you need is to start locking your door,” Fawn quipped. He released her, and she gave him her back to assess the mess she’d made. Tossing clothes into her trunks without folding them had left nothing but chaos. “I need to finish packing anyway.”
Dean left without another word. She hated to admit it disappointed her that he didn’t try harder to make her stay. Not that she would, but it would have been nice if the man who wanted to marry her had fought a little more.
She could hear him shuffling around in the bedroom while she packed. A door opened in one of his rooms, accompanied by the low murmur of voices. Dean appeared in the dressing room doorway with a maid in tow.
He led the older woman in and pointed at Fawn’s trunks. “These need to be unpacked.”
Fawn slid in front of her things and crossed her arms. “No, they do not.”
“Come here, darling,” Dean beckoned with his hand.
Fawn pretended he didn’t exist and went on about refolding the things she’d haphazardly packed.
A firm shoulder bumped against the front of her hips and the world turned upside down. She yelped and grunted as Dean threw her over his shoulder like a sack of grain. “Put me down!”
“I gave you the chance to come on your own accord.” He squeezed the back of her thigh. “You forced my hand.”
“That’s not what forced means,” she shot back. “Forced implies you had no choice. You chose to manhandle me like a brute.”
He tossed her onto his ridiculously comfortable bed. “Agree to disagree.”
Scrambling into a sitting position, she crawled to the other side of the bed. “You’re insane.”
A large hand wrapped around her ankle, stopping her. “I’m going to give you a choice.”
She flipped over to her back and sat up. “I don’t think that word means what you think it does.”
Ignoring her, he looked over his shoulder at the bedroom door. Cassandra slithered inside, stopped next to Dean, and raised the head end of her body into the air.
“You will stay in this bedroom with Cassandra without trying to escape.”
She waited for him to give her the other choice, but he just watched her expectantly. “What’s my other option? You said I had a choice. Maybe you need to pick up a dictionary and brush up on your vocabulary.”
Cassandra turned to Dean, and he glowered back. “If you choose to attempt escape, Cassandra will let me know, and I will tie you to the bed until I finish my meeting.”
“That’s not a choice!” she protested.
“Sure it is,” he returned with a straight face. “You get to choose to be tied up or not.”
Fawn blinked, struggling to understand how anyone thought this man sane enough to rule a kingdom. “Neither.” She leaned toward Cassandra and stage-whispered, “Has he been diagnosed with insanity?”
The serpent moved her head up and down and Dean poked the side of his familiar’s body. She hissed at him and red fangs extended from her large mouth. Fawn tried to jump back but making a fast escape on a bed proved to be difficult.
Dean and Cassandra seemed to share a silent exchange before he bent and pressed a kiss to the top of Fawn’s head.
He straightened before she could shove him away.
“Be good, darling. I’ll be back as soon as I can.
” He turned to leave but stopped in the doorway.
“Oh, and Braddock is in the sitting room. He’ll let the maid out when she’s finished unpacking your things. ”
“This is kidnapping,” Fawn yelled after him.