Page 67 of The Princess's Chosen

My heart stuttered in my chest and my chin lifted, lips parted. He looked as though I'd wrenched the words from them, torn them from his lips, and he took a great gasp of breath. Wendell and Thao bickered companionably, and Cosmo's pencil scratched quickly, our conversation for our ears only, the rest of the room carrying on without us.

"I'd rather it didn't come to that," I said, blinking foolishly back at him.

The left side of his mouth hitched, but the rest of him looked sorrowful. "You don't have enough people you can trust, not really."

"I trust you," I said.

He nodded. "As you should. I am your guard, body and soul. I will never let any harm come to youprovided you don't run out of the palace without warning," he added, cocking an eyebrow.

My fingers were fiddling absently with his as I thought over his words, scanning his face. "You don't want to be Chosen," I whispered.

I held my breath as his head dipped, resisted the urge to close my eyes as his forehead pressed to mine.

"More than almost anything," he said, breath brushing my cheeks, my lips, a kiss but not quite. He leaned back and blinked heavily. "But not as much as I want to keep you safe. And I'm not sure I can do that properly from…"

"My bed," I said slowly, feeling a pressure behind my eyes and a delicate but persistent shredding in my chest.

He swallowed hard, his entire body flinching and his hands gripping onto mine as he nodded. "I need my focus to be outside of you, to be sure nothing ever touches you, and I…I know my place, Bryony. This isn't it."

This wasn't the same pain as when Aric had refused me over and over, even when we'd fought in the greenhouse. Aric's cuts were quick and sharp. This was an endless weight pressing down on my heart. Cresswell knew me, cared for me,wantedme. He wasn't denying his feelings for me, he was denying us the use of them.

Before I could think of the right words to persuade Cresswell to change his mind, he leaned forward, kissing my brow with a faint pass of his lips, and then rising. My hands clutched his, trying to hang on as demands and pleas ran through my thoughts.

"Cress—"

"I'll be outside with Stanley," he rumbled. His hands flexed and shook mine loose as he pulled away, moving quickly for the door.

I watched his back, the noble strength, shoulders squared and head held high, until he disappeared through the door. There were no words between Thao and Wendell, no scratch of Cosmo's pencil over paper, no sweet racket of Owen sleeping. Just the sound of my uneven breaths.

"Fool," Thao hissed.

My shoulders slumped.

"Bryony," Cosmo started gently, but I shook my head.

"Don't," I whispered, words choked without any air in my lungs.

My empty hands fell to my skirt, fisting in the fabric. I stood and headed for the bedroom, wishing Owen might pretend to remain asleep as I hid under the covers. But he rolled over as I approached, eyeing the empty area behind me and then spreading his arms. I puffed a wet sigh and swallowed down the burning lump in my throat as I crawled onto the bed, sliding into his embrace.

I squeezed my eyes shut, face pressed to Owen's shoulder as footsteps approached. The bed dipped at my back and it could only be Wendell—he was the only one tall enough to tuck his chin over the top of my head and his feet beneath mine.

"That was just one conversation," he murmured. "Think of how long it took for you to tame Thao." Someone, Thao probably, snorted from off the side of the bed.

"And you only just got Aric to cooperate," Cosmo said from the foot of the bed, trying for teasing.

I just grimaced. "Are you telling me to bully Cresswell for wanting to do his job more than…"

More than he wanted to bed me?Except that wasn't what these men were to me. I sighed and rolled, turning my face into Wendell's throat next, he and Owen making steady work of soothing me with their hands, Owen's fingers going to the buttons down the back of my dress. The Hunger barely raised its head.

"I think what we're saying is that this isn't a decision Cresswell will make once," Wendell said gently, leaning back to find my eyes with his sky blue ones. "Over and over, every day, at every moment, he will have to decide to resist his own feelings for you."

I whimpered, and Owen kissed the back of my neck.

"Mistress, no man could do that. There will come a time where he will realize it only hurts you both," Owen said.

I fiddled with Wendell's collar. "What if he's right? What if we're safer with him on the outside?"

"He's a very good guard, and very loyal, but I don't care if we have to search the whole world, surelysomeoneelse could manage the job? And it's not as though you are without protection within your own Chosen," Thao said, leaning against the headboard and reaching over to comb stray tendrils of hair away from my face, and then away from Wendell's. "I would rip anyone's throat out who dared to try and harm you."

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