Page 57 of The Princess's Chosen

"I suppose I earned that, but she didn't have to enjoy it so much," Aric muttered, squinting at the sky until Griffin was too far off to see. "Come here."

The bid was full of warmth and promise, my skin already prickling to be touched. I didn't know what time we'd made it back to the palace, but even with dozing on the trip back, we'd woken early enough that my eyelids were already drooping with the desire to dip back into bed. Preferably with Aric and Owen and all the others too.

I shook my head, and his head tilted, lips curling up until I spoke. "I want to talk with you."

"That doesn't sound like as much fun as what I had in mind," he growled gently, a second attempt. When it failed too, he sighed and nodded. "At least come inside, your cheeks are pink with cold, and there's a fire and tea waiting."

I followed Aric into the room, checking what had already begun to change. The space suited him, half paneled walls and tall bookshelves, dark stained wood with black and green vine-covered wallpaper. I wasn't sure how much of it my magic was responsible for, but the room was in good shape when we found it in our search.

Aric was kneeling in front of a heavy wood and black marble table, pouring tea for us both. There was a large empty chair available on one side and a low couch on the other, and I settled for the latter. I wanted a conversation, but also the connection of having Aric close. He looked stiff and somber in front of me as I took my seat, more like the Aric I was familiar with than the one I'd spent the night with.

"I'm afraid you're going to change your mind," I said softly, watching every tiny shift in the man in front of me.

It was a quick transformation, a frown of confusion with a sudden open shock, the teacup rattling as he dropped it to its saucer and rose up, sliding close on the couch and hunching to meet my eyes.

"You didn't want to be Chosen, and there were times where I thought…I thought you might wantme, but never…all of this," I said.

Aric's hands were rough against my own, and I pressed my lips together, trying not to remember their possessive grip on my hip that left the faintest marks on my skin this morning.

"You were relieved I was alive last night, and now you remember you're angry," he said.

I looked down to his hands, running the tip of my thumb over a scar that ran across the tops of his fingers. "It's more than that, Aric. You're here now, but you still don't have to be and I…I'm afraid you won't stay. Owen, Thao, and Wendell all…wanted to be here from the start, and with Cosmo I know when and how it changed."

"Look up, please."

I lifted my chin and tried to smooth my face as I met Aric's gaze. He was calm, somehow seeming to frown and smile at the same time, eyes running back and forth across my face, reading me like words on a page.

"I am yours, Bryony," he said softly, lips finally curving up at my small gasp. "Somewhere between you running into the Wing and Rook and blurting out your mad plans, to the night of the festival…dancing with you but also seeing joy on people's faces that I hadn't seen for years. Hope." He swallowed hard and frowned again. "Is that… It might not be romantic enough to fall in love with you for your care of Kimmery."

I grinned at him and shook my head. "No, I think I like it better. I know how much it means to you, I can weigh it."

Aric nodded, one hand pulling free to cup my chin, lifting it for a gentler version of our kisses from the night before. "What keeps me here is wanting you safe, wanting to help you carry burdens," he said, pressing a kiss to each of my cheeks and then another to my jaw. "Wanting to make magic with you. To tease you and see you smile and make sure you get to dance."

I sighed and leaned into him, and Aric wrapped his arms around me, pulling me up to his lap, tucking my head against his shoulder.

"You should be angry," he whispered. "My words to you resulted in…" He stiffened and continued, and I heard the hard swallow in his throat. "You don't have to keep that man here."

"Mm, wait," I said, wiggling and sitting up, bracing my hands on Aric's shoulders. "Yes, I denied my Hunger because of what you said, and yes that created a desire for a man I don't trust when I didn't think that was possible. But it's…not simple enough to place the blame on your shoulders. And it doesn't belong on his either."

Aric's head tilted, and I knew he was reading me again, as easily as Cosmo sometimes did. "You enjoyed it?"

"Physically, yes," I said, blushing, but Aric remained impassive and it made it easier to continue. "Emotionally…I was upset with myself. I think that moment created an opportunity for Daniel and I to…to become lovers the way I am with the others. But it would've meant that he had achieved what the council asked him to, and I would wonder where his loyalty really lay from then on. I pushed that opportunity away."

"Do you want him?" Aric asked.

"I want to understand him. Know for certain that he's against me or with me. I don't thinkheknows," I said. "Is that foolish? To make an opening for someone I can't really trust to not betray me?"

"You want to think of him in terms of strategy?" Aric asked, and I nodded. "Then no, I don't think that's foolish. If you succeed, he's potentially a useful tool in the game. But if you don't know his loyalty, you have to treat him as such."

I frowned, and Aric reached up, pushing strands of hair back behind my ears.

"And if I think of him in terms of…of just as a man?" I asked.

"Be honest with him. Lay out his choices. Make any boundaries of information and trust clear," Aric said. "Sex complicates emotions, Bryony."

"Sex usually only comeswithemotions for me, but yes, I've learned that," I said, playing with Aric's collar and thinking through the discussion. "You'll support me?"

"Always," Aric said immediately, and then he blinked and grinned at me. "Well, within reason. I'll challenge you too, you know that?"

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