Page 14 of The Prince's Wife

Aradishir set aside the contracts he'd been reading through as a favor to his sister and scrubbed at his face, willing away the exhaustion that washed over him. "Would you call for some tea, Heydar?"

"Of course, my prince." Heydar kissed him softly, then rose gracefully and went to see to it.

Flopping backward to sprawl on the floor, completely uncaring how childish the move was, especially given he was in his office, Aradishir stared at the ceiling and sighed. What was wrong with him? His entire life had been handed to him, and all he could do was mope about the one woman he couldn't have.

Still, the thought that she would always beright therebut forever out of reach…

It had only been a little over a week since her arrival. To be this smitten was stupid. It was a silly infatuation. He'd get over it soon and be embarrassed with himself, and she'd be a wonderful sister. She would be an amazing queen, was already an amazing mother…

His stomach knotted at the thought of Relanya having children with Bakhtiar. They'd be beautiful children, and hopefully take more after their mother than their father…

Aradishir sat up sharply, palms pressed to the sides of his head as he stared unseeing at the contracts he needed to finish reviewing.

Hopelessly smitten with a so-called commoner? No problem. A royal guard? Fine. A thief? Had definitely gotten him yet another stern lecture, but overall, acceptable. His brother's betrothed?

He jerked upright as the door slid open, and mustered a smile for Heydar, who held the requested tray of tea. "Thank you."

Setting the tray down, Heydar poured for him and offered the cup for Aradishir to sip, gently stroking his cheek as he withdrew it. "Will you tell me what has been troubling you so much this past week, my prince? We can all see it, the three of us."

"Nothing. It's stupid. The less I talk about it—think about—the better off we'll all be."

"We are here to share those burdens with you, Ari." Heydar placed two fingers under his chin and gently tilted his head up. "Princess Relanya?"

Aradishir turned away, humiliation tearing through him. "My feelings are inappropriate—and fleeting, no doubt. I just want to be left alone until this childish infatuation passes."

Heydar sighed softly, but only murmured, "As you wish, my prince," before coaxing Aradishir into finishing the tea and snacks. Once the meal was done and the dishes taken away, he went back to work on the contracts, marking the sections he had problems with and making notes for his sister to read over whenever she had the chance. "All right, let's stretch our legs before the meeting with the silk merchants." He was exhausted just thinking about it, but these meetings with the various merchant guilds were vital to all the changes he wanted to make to counter the trafficking.

Outside, the day was as sweltering as ever, but in the ornate, carefully arranged and maintained royal gardens, water and shade kept everything cool. Aradishir settled on a low, angled chair by the largest part of the artificial stream that wended through the garden, in the shade of a lush olive tree that had been planted when he was born. Fish darted about in the water, and birds sang all over the garden, though they would fall silent the moment they realized his sister's cat had gotten loose again.

"Have a guard capture that cat before my mother sees him and kills my sister," Aradishir said with a huff of laughter.

Heydar snorted. "I'll get it. The poor guards just wind up running laps until the cat gets bored. He headed in the direction of the bush Aradishir had indicated, and when he was just a few paces from it, a sleek, gold cat with black ears and paws bolted from cover and across the garden. "Damn it, cat!"

Laughing, but feeling bad, Aradishir got up to help, and the two of them chased the cat around the garden, darting around trees and leaping over bushes and across the stream. "Cat!" Aradishir said and made a lunge for it—only to slip on the moss by the stream and tumble right into the water.

He sat up just in time to watch the damned cat clear the east wall to go investigate a different garden. "I'm going to skin that thing alive one of these days."

Heydar started to reply, sweaty and dirty and equally annoyed, when a beautiful, painfully familiar laugh rolled across the garden.

Groaning, face hot with exertion and mortification, Aradishir hauled himself to his feet and waded out of the water as Relanya drew closer, flanked by her handmaidens.

"Are you all right, Your Highness?" Relanya asked. "That was quite the tumble."

Aradishir climbed up the bank and onto the path, where a servant was already rushing up with a drying cloth. "I'm fine. As usual with my escapades, nothing is damaged except my dignity. Last time, I tried to stop a disagreement in the main pavilion and wound up doused in sugar syrup. I don't recall what happened beforethat."

"Puppies," Heydar said drolly. "My prince was attacked by a pack of puppies and toppled into a fountain."

Relanya and her handmaidens giggled—and it only worsened as Aradishir shot Heydar a glare.

Unrepentant, Heydar replied, "Shall I list the incidents before that? Like the time you were caught sneaking around the night market?"

"You were there too," Aradishir muttered.

"What is the night market?" one of the handmaidens asked.

Aradishir's face went hot, and even Heydar looked chagrined at having mentioned something so crass in front of a princess and her retinue. Setting his shoulders, he nevertheless said, "When the official market closes, after the sun sets, people arrive to sell various items that are not appropriate for daylight hours."

"Or entirely legal," Aradishir added.

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