Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 137958 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 690(@200wpm)___ 552(@250wpm)___ 460(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137958 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 690(@200wpm)___ 552(@250wpm)___ 460(@300wpm)
The corset and long skirt would be hindrances.
But the strength of my determination to make a point would be an advantage.
I was deciding my strategy when his eyes dropped to my chest.
And suddenly, all manner of him changed.
Entirely.
His sky-blue eyes stared at my heaving cleavage and the anger blinked out of his expression as something else overtook it. That something else was so strong, it invaded the room. It felt like it seeped into my very skin. And I found it even more difficult to breathe in a manner that had nothing to do with my corset.
And his face was so very close, I could study his tattoos. The thick arches and curls and slashes and diamonds.
I knew of the Airenzian ink. How it told a story. How they used symbols of ancient runes to share tales of boon and loss, study and achievement, venture and defeat and victory.
It seemed in his life he had much story to tell.
And not even knowing what the symbols meant, I found all of it fascinating.
So fascinating, unconsciously, my hand was drifting up toward his face, and so deep in his study of my breasts was he, I’d almost touched his temple before he caught my movement and jerked his head away like my touch would burn.
My stomach dropped.
As did my hand.
At that moment, the door opened and we both looked that way.
Serena strolled in wearing her long purple tunic (though, unlike Mother’s, the side slashes went up to her hips) that had coral beading across the neckline.
She shut the door behind her.
“Commendable, Cassius,” she purred. “The pin-to-the-wall maneuver. Often quite effective, and apparently that’s proved true for you. You obviously don’t let grass grow.”
“This is a private discussion,” Cassius returned low.
It had been private.
But there had been little discussion.
“Oh, of course,” Serena replied, not leaving but instead coming farther into the room.
It was then Cassius did something curious.
He took his hands from the wall and turned to my sister, but did it close to my person with his back mostly to me like he was…
Protecting me.
A Nadirii.
How strange.
“Though I’m a big sister. It’s hard to get out of the habit,” she went on. “And how you manhandled her out of the room, I hope you forgive me if I felt the need to ascertain if she’s all right.”
First, there were very few situations where I could not make myself all right (though, to the truth, this one seemed to be one of them), and Serena knew this.
Second, my sister never cared if I was all right.
“As you can see, she’s fine,” Cassius returned.
She bent slightly to the side to take me in.
“Very fine,” she murmured. “Quite the becoming blush, sister.”
“Serena—” I moved to round the prince.
But I stopped when his arm came out in front of me, wrapped around my belly, his hand curling around my hip to stay me.
Also protective.
And something that again made my breath uneasy.
Serena’s gaze took in his arm and I saw the hardness form at the backs of her eyes before they went again to Cassius.
“Now how is this going to go, exactly?” she asked. She tipped her head to the side and finished cattily. “The widower and the virgin?”
I caught my breath.
Cassius’s fingers dug deeper into my hip.
Well then, that awkward discussion no longer had to happen.
My future husband now knew I was untried.
Brilliant.
“The mingling of families,” she carried on. “His daughter.” She looked to me. “Your daughter.” Her attention went back to the prince. “Though not her blood daughter, obviously.”
“If you don’t mind, Elena and I have things to say to each other,” Cassius gritted out.
“Do you know of Theodora?” she asked with a faux curious tilt of her head.
“I know I’d like any further knowledge of my future wife to come from my future wife,” Cassius replied tersely.
“Serena, really, it would be most—” I started.
My sister spoke over me.
“Sweet girl. So sad. Her mother falling in battle to Airen.”
I closed my eyes.
Cassius’s arm dropped.
I opened my eyes only to see he’d ceased touching me only to position more fully in front of me.
“You can leave, or we shall,” he told my sister.
“Which one was it?” she asked oddly. “Of course, I know, as all know, how covetous your brother was of, well…” she tossed a hand his way, “just about everything that’s you.”
“Really—” I tried again, moving to get out from behind the prince only to have him shift to keep me blocked.
“Your skill on the field,” she kept talking. “The sweetness and beauty of your dead wife.”
Oh goddess.
She had to stop.
But before I could do aught about it, she carried on relentlessly.
“And the closeness you share with your guard.”
Cassius started to turn to me, murmuring, “This is enough.”
I absolutely agreed.
I shifted to move with him.
“It was Nero, wasn’t it?” she asked, and Cassius’s head whipped her way in a manner that made me freeze solid. “Trajan coveted your guard so deeply, he ordered his father to assign them to him. And he got what he wanted, of a sort. That sort being the charming way your father does things. He gave him just one. To be selected by you.”