Page 45 of The Time Of Kings

“Probably not.”

This response was one he grinned at, before informing me,

“Then let me offer you a word of warning, my little thief, I may be Lord here, but do not assume that I devote my life by living by the rules of propriety.”

“What?”I hissed with a shake of my head, making him lay it out in even plainer English, thank God!

“You run, I will chase you, is that clear enough for you?”

I gritted my teeth and snapped,

“Crystal.”

He chuckled, running his fingers along my jawline and practically humming,

“Adorable.”Then he gave my chin a little condescending shake before sitting down next to me.

The little growl I couldn’t help but contain only ended up giving him another reason to grin.

Draven jerked two of his fingers to the side, signalling for one of the servants to come over. He took two glasses off the tray and passed one to me, making me bite my tongue from asking if he had any tequila. Not that I think he would but, man, I could have done with some right about now.

Although when the crowd started to part to allow room for a woman to walk down the centre, I quickly downed the drink all in one go. Decorum be damned, as I remembered the last time I had gone back in time and come face to face with her.

And well…

The last timehad nearly killed me.

20

THE COMPANIONS THAT CAN RELATE

“Sophia, what are you doing here? I had believed you were in Italy,” Draven said, making me tense in my seat. Because with this new information, could it be possible that this was ‘my Sophia’? Was she here now pretending to be his sister from the past? I couldn’t yet be sure.

“Word travels fast, brother,” she replied.

“And sisters even faster.”

Sophia grinned at this, one I had seen many times before when verbally sparring with her brother.

“In truth, I was already on my way here, when I happened to hear about this beautiful young lady who you have taken as your betrothed. Is this true?”

I couldn’t help but blush and bite my lip, trying to detect if this was a hidden message or not.

“It is, for her name is Catherine,my golden fleece,”Draven said, reaching across and running a few fingers through my cascade of curls. But then when Sophia looked surprised again, I was torn. As that was the thing with Sophia…she was a bloody good actress!

“Then I really do have to offer you my congratulations, for she is a rare creature indeed,” Sophia replied kindly, and I had to say, if she was from the past, then she was vastly different to the Sophia I had once met in Ancient Persia.

“Catherine, may I introduce, Lady Sophia Draven, my sister.”

I knew the response was to curtsy, so I tried to stand to do just that. However, Draven had other ideas… He quickly placed a hand over mine and squeezed, making me look to him. He shook his head slightly, but it was enough to get the message across. Which meant that his sister was left to curtsy at me, doing so alone. Its significance wasn’t lost on me, as clearly, he had done this to make his point.

To make his claim.

Again, my blush seemed to become a permanent feature as well as biting my bottom lip. My embarrassment to the whole situation almost became too much to bear. And it didn’t go unnoticed as Draven’s hand left mine and instead took a tight grasp on the arm of my chair. Then he tugged hard enough that whatever space there had been between us was quickly eliminated. This put him closer enough to lean down to my ear and whisper,

“Keep biting that lip and I will have to taste it for myself.”

I instantly let it go, quickly transported to the first time Draven had ever warned me about biting my lip in front of him before. It was a startling reminder that we were back to the beginning.

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