Page 49 of Untouched Queen by Royal Command

‘And what does he drum up for you?’

Stories from his childhood and an insatiable sexual hunger that had left her wrung out and panting. Challenge and temper and unexpected moments of understanding. ‘More. But Lianthe, I’m not cut out for love. Courtesans don’t love. They serve, willingly, and I have. We were doing well. No one ever said anything about love.’

‘You have something against it?’

Yes.‘I don’t believe it brings happiness.’

‘Your mother was an extreme case. She had a soft heart and the man she fell for, he wasn’t soft at all.’

‘Neither’s this one. He’s difficult and demanding.’ And passionate and protective and a demon in bed. ‘And petty and powerful and…’ Gorgeous and supportive of her charity schemes and… ‘He’s a king in need of a queen. There’d be oaths to Crown and country. I’d be accountable for every minute of every day. Who would want that?’

‘Who indeed?’

‘It’s a lifetime sentence of duty and reckoning and being judged. And usually being judged wanting.’

‘Indeed.’

‘Who’d want that?’ she repeated.

‘Not you, clearly. You probably wouldn’t rise to the occasion at all, even if you loved him. Which you don’t.’

‘I don’t.’

‘Well, then.’ Lianthe sounded disturbingly cheerful. ‘When are you coming home?’

* * *

‘Want to talk about it?’

Augustus scowled at his sister and wondered, not for the first time, why he’d allowed her to invite herself to dinner. She said she’d missed him—which he very much doubted, given how busy she was. She’d wanted a catch-up—which usually meant pumping him for information or delicately revealing information that might be of interest to him. The fact that he’d banished the only other woman who’d ever come close to providing him with this type of relaxed political conversation was not lost on him. ‘Talk about what?’

‘The rumour that you’ve proposed, or are about to propose, to Katerina DeLitt. The abrupt midnight departure of your courtesan.’ Moriana waved an airy hand towards him from across the dining room table. ‘You choose.’

Sera had left four nights ago. The people of the High Reaches would be coming to collect everything that belonged to them, Lianthe had said, but she hadn’t mentioned when. Stepping into the round room only to find Sera not there was driving him insane. The soft hoot of owls mocked him. The tapestry wheel of pleasure haunted him. So many things they hadn’t done yet. Perhaps he should be thankful.

‘I choose silence.’

Moriana allowed him that silence for all of thirty seconds, and that was only because she had a mouthful of food.

‘You want to talk to Theo about it?’ she asked when her mouth was empty again. ‘Or Benedict? Benedict’s surprisingly insightful when it comes to matters of the heart.’

It stood to reason he would be, what with all that practice. ‘Thank God he’s not here,’ Augustus offered drily. ‘Sera Boreas has gone, the accord has been honoured to everyone’s satisfaction, and I’ll be married by the end of the year.’

‘So you say. But to whom? And please don’t tell me you’re madly in love with Katerina. I know you. And you’re not.’

‘Since when has love ever been a prerequisite for marriage?’

‘Since when has love ever not been a prerequisite for you?’

‘Not everyone is cut out for the kind of love you and Theo share.’

‘You’re not so different from me.’ Moriana raised her chin and regarded him haughtily. ‘You want that kind of love—you always have.’

He offered up a careless shrug and cut into his meal, ignoring his sister’s scowl. She hated it when he refused to engage. Said it was a stalling tactic that had no place in open conversation.

‘Augustus, I love you. You know this.’

Uh-oh.

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