Page 140 of Settle Down, Princess

“You’re mad,” I snapped. “Completely bloody mad. Why would you stir a man’s demonic passions? Why would you subject yourself to this treatment? Why would you want another woman to experience what you endured? You could help me and then I’d—”

“No.” She shook her head. “I couldn’t. There is only one of two choices to be made and that’s either you or me. I choose me.” All pretence at smiles was abandoned. “I choose me every time a princess walks in the door. Enjoy your last days on earth, praying and being pious. It’s not the way I’d spend them, but perhaps that’s the real difference between you and me. You’re a little sheep.” Her nail stabbed into my chest, feeling like it cut through my corset and dress. “And I’m a wolf.”

My hand slapped down over hers, my thumb finding the space between her knuckles and pressing down until she was forced to jerk her hand away.

“And a wolf without a pack doesn’t survive winter.” I stared into her eyes. “Whereas I belong to one that’s strong and stable.”

After Giselle was gone I would stare at my hand and wonder how I dared do such a thing, but right now my fingers shot up and did their best to press into the bruises on her throat.

“If you gain such pleasure from being choked, then you should hope to die this way,” I growled. “Gasping on the king’s cock, because if it is just you and I in a room? I will not make your end so pleasant. I wouldn’t take the time to give you such a fatal pleasure, rather I’ll shove you out the window, making sure your broken body ends up on that dung heap.”

Giselle was taller than me, had more weight, more knowledge than I did of fighting. Stormarian women were schooled to be genteel, not brawlers, but right as I questioned my own sanity, a woman cleared her throat conspicuously.

She looked like what I needed to, standing tall in well maintained black leather armour, her long brown hair pulled back in a loose plait. Her hand went to her sword hilt, caressed the grip idly.

“Apologies for the intrusion, Your Highness,” the woman said. “I am Rose. Sister Selene sent me to fetch you.”

The conversation with Giselle was well and truly over as far as I was concerned, so I grabbed my skirts, ready to whirl forward, when Giselle gripped my arm. Her fingers found the bruises the king had left with unerring accuracy, her lips twisting as she heard my hiss of pain.

“Don’t go betting on that, Princess. The ones that came before you? Some were smart, tough and fast. One was even trained by a race of women warriors who cut one of their breasts off so that they might use a bow with more accuracy. Each one of them died as the king rutted her and…” Her smile widened. “And I watched. I’ll enjoy seeing the light go out of your eyes.”

“Giselle…” Rose’s low growl spurred me to jerk my arm free. I wasn’t afraid to admit an ally sporting a sword made me feel secure enough to do so and my feet crossed the flagstones quickly, not stopping until I reached the other women. “Fairly sure the king will be missing your presence right now. The chambermaids will be waiting for you to step in and redirect his loathsome attentions back where they need to go.”

“You dare call the king loathsome?” Giselle asked, spinning around.

“I dare a whole lot, as you well know.” As I gazed up at Rose I watched the woman warrior smile, challenge evidently in every line of her body. “Now, off you go.”

The fact my mother had left out something crucial in my education, became apparent, because rather than argue, Giselle swept past, nose stuck in the air as if she was a fine lady.

“You said Selene sent word for me?” I asked Rose.

“She will.” The woman shrugged, her smile now impish. “Especially when she hears I’m here.”

“Rose…” Selene swept into the gardens, her resolute composure fractured for the first time since we’d met. She blinked when she saw the two of us standing together. “Someone said that Giselle was here?”

“I rid your temple of its vermin.” Rose pulled away from me, moving to stand before Selene and drop down to one knee, as a knight might. Just like a knight, I realised, as she took the sister’s hand in hers and brushed a kiss across her knuckles. “I get rid of all of your problems.” Then she let out a sigh. “And add to them.” She pulled a message scroll from her jerkin and handed it to Selene. “I bring word from your father.”

“In my office,” Selene said, then looked past Rose. “We’re about to embark on the next step of the mission, I’m sure of it.”

Chapter 81

Arik

I couldn’t think of a single thing worse than riding down the road to the duchy of Fallspire. One, we were riding away from the city, rather than towards it. That meant trusting Selene to keep Magnus away from Jessalyn and the princess from getting into trouble. My hands gripped the reins tighter and tighter until my horse’s head jerked up in question. His hooves clattering nervously across the stone road was a familiar one, triggering the second thing that concerned me. Not the lack of sleep from the long ride or the naps we’d caught in ditches, just our cloaks pulled around us, nor the fact we were too far away to do anything if Magnus moved against Jessalyn, but this. The past was the thing I feared the most, because all the best moments in my life happened in Fallspire.

Along with the worst.

Ariel came to me each time I was forced to ride down this track, and she did again now.

“My prince…”

She was straddling my lap, and I was trying too damn hard not to grip her tightly. That or spill in my pants. My cock was straining to get to her, like a hound on a leash, but it wasn’t a tumble in the hay I wanted from Lady Ariel of Fallspire. My eyes followed her hand as it danced through the air, sure no woman’s hands had ever been so elegant. She let out a soft laugh, almost a sigh, as her fingers landed on my cheek. Just a brief brush of a caress, there and gone again as it trailed down to my lips.

That look of fascination. All of her courtly graces deserted her as she frowned slightly. I needed to know what was going on inside her head, needed to pierce her skull to chase down every thought, to understand what was going on. Did she feel like she teetered on a cliff’s edge, just like I did? Did her lungs fight to fill? It was like every automatic process in my body stopped right then, unable to continue without knowing.

“My Arik—”

“Arik!”

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