Page 22 of The Wicked Prince

Oh, she knew how to wound a man.

“Cute, but you know I’m anything but simple, and I’ve been very pleasant to you.”

This was more fun than silence at least.

“Being pleasant to your prisoner doesn’t make them any less a captive.”

“Most people wouldn’t call being a princess imprisonment.” Otherwise John would be considered just as much a captive as she was. Actually, considering Richard’s threats, John wasn’t exactly a free man either. At least he wasn’t a criminal. “There are things that come with the position.”

“You don’t have three guards who dog your every step while in your own castle.”

“I’m also not capable of slipping out a window and trapezing my way across the roof. But if I wanted to leave the castle, I most certainly would have at least five guards if not more. That standard is the same for you.”

Robin rolled her eyes. “Like the Sheriff is going to give me those guards. I’m not stupid. You’re keeping me inside these walls. Just because you pretend it’s because I’m a princess now doesn’t change anything. A spade is still a spade.”

She was infuriatingly stubborn. He’d known she was going to be a challenge.

But wasn’t the challenge supposed to be over now that he had her?

John tried again the next night.

“How was your day?”

“You don’t care.”

“That’s presumptuous of you.”

And again.

“How was your day?”

“Ask me that again, and I’m throwing this apple at you. You’ll see my aim isn’t constrained to just arrows.”

Her aim wasn’t constrained to just arrows.

Luckily for John, he was good at running away and dodging.

“How was your day?”

“Boring. Will you let me eat in peace now?”

“What did you do?”

“I went to the stables during lunch and fed your horse a bunch of carrots and sugar cubes to make him fat.”

She hadn’t. John had taken his lunch in his room and watched her split three arrows down the middle in the private training grounds.

Did she think he didn’t know?

It seemed to be her fatal flaw. Underestimating how much he knew about her.

He wanted to know more.

She was the only person in the castle who wanted nothing from him. What she specifically wanted was nothing to do with him. To be as far away from him as possible.

She was the most fascinating creature he had ever come across. A noblewoman turned orphan who chose to let the world believe she was dead and joined a bunch of strange men in the woods, and not even that was enough. She chose to disguise herself as a man and become a criminal not for personal gain but to give it away.

She had the prince she had dedicated her life to fight against completely helpless and she hadn’t killed him.

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