Page 44 of Somber Prince

“You prefer the process of getting to the goal than actually reaching it?”

He stared at the pieces for a moment. “There is a longer-lasting satisfaction in finding that one perfect place for each piece and in figuring out the pattern.”

Nothing changed dramatically in his demeanor. He spoke with his usual calm confidence. But something had shifted in him the moment we had walked into this room. His wide shoulders seemed a little too stiff. His jaw was set hard, and the look in his eyes turned guarded as he watched me. I had a feeling that this room was Prince Rha’s private place where not many people had access to.

Not wishing to prolong his discomfort, I reached for the dress in his hands.

“I’ll be quick?—”

My gaze fell on the cushions. Two round, yellow eyes stared back at me from the shadows inside the seat.

I gasped in surprise and gripped Rha’s arm.

“There is…something in the cushions.”

A black cat moved its head, watching me closely. The nearly perfect spheres of its eyes squinted into almond shapes, then further narrowed into slits, eventually closing as the cat seemed to doze off again. Its black fur blended with the shadows so completely, if the animal hadn’t looked at me, I wouldn’t have noticed it at all.

“That’s Zala.” Rha patted my hand reassuringly. “She won’t hurt you, not unless you’re the size of a rodent.”

“You have a cat?” Somehow, that felt like the most unbelievable thing about the prince of the world of shadows.

“It’s more like she has me,” he corrected, his voice lifting. “Zala showed up here one fine morning and chose to stay.”

“She adopted you.” I smiled. “That’s what cats do.”

He didn’t return my smile. Shadow fae generally seemed to lack that facial expression. But his features relaxed as he gazed into the dark void in the cushions where the shape of the sleeping cat was absorbed by shadows.

“Are there cats in your world?” he asked.

“Yes, of course. I had one when I was little. It was an orange tabby.”

His eyebrows rose in surprise. “An orange cat? What a fantastic creature.”

“There was nothing overly fantastic about our Whiskers.” I laughed. “Maybe just the amount of food that big boy could consume in one sitting. You don’t have orange cats in Alveari Kingdom?”

“No. All cats are black here. Some say the shadows that roamed the desert many millennia ago split. Some became people. Others turned into creatures—black camels, black scorpions, and black cats. I’ve never even heard of cats of any other color before.”

Incredibly, I felt comfortable here with Rha and his cat. But my presence in this room was an invasion of his personal space. This seemed to be his refuge from the spotlight of his position, and I had barged in. I should just get changed and get out.

“Well, let’s do this.” I reached for the dress again, but Rha held it up, ready to put it on me instead.

“Take off the one you’re wearing, and I’ll help you put this one on,” he suggested, clearly oblivious of my true reasons to request privacy.

Suddenly, I wondered what reaction, if any, I would get from him if I changed while he watched.

“All right,” I said, slowly raising my skirt.

If shadow fae didn’t get affected by nudity, then I had nothing to worry about while undressing in front of him.

He watched with his usual serene expression as I lifted the skirt up, then took the dress off over my head.

Dropping the dress to the floor, I was left wearing only the undergarments that Sigid had given me—the short underwear and the tube-type top for a bra with straps crisscrossing on the back to leave the stars of the harness exposed.

Tilting his head to the side, Rha studied my body with the same interest and intensity with which he’d studied my face before.

I was wearing more clothes now than I had in the baths, yet I felt more exposed here than in a room full of people. My skin tingled under his attention. Heat rushed to my cheeks and echoed with a soft throbbing between my thighs.

Lifting my eyelashes, I met Rha’s eyes and…didn’t find even a spark of desire in them. He took me in, in every detail, with intense curiosity, but nothing more.

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