Page 23 of Forbidden Noble
His kisses sure made her think so.
Chapter 9
Astorre left his suite to see his staff. He'd summoned them for a meeting while his wife slept. He'd covered her with a warm sheet, then stared at her for a few minutes.
She made Montelino Baynice. Just because she was with him.
He'd slept for an hour and hadn’t had the dream where he'd let his mother and sister down.
The normal horrible nightmare where his father found his sister too, and then him.
But as he headed down the hall with a hum on his breath, he knew this was all because of Clara.
The staff handed him an olive green silk dress that one of the castle seamstresses must have altered for the new Duchess.
Everyone was curious about Clara, so he returned to their chamber with shoes, the dress, and promise from his sister of a formal second lunch and tour of their tiny but powerful siege kingdom.
While the House of Modena had been pledged to the Avce royals for thousands of years, they’d always kept their independence. They believed the superstitions that they needed the city royals as divinely decreed to help keep them all safe.
He reached the room with her gifts to find Clara already awake and showered.
He handed her the dress and she decided to wear it right away. “The staff ensured you had the colors of our house to wear tonight.”
“I hope I do this dress justice. It’s totally pretty.” She gave him her back to zip up.
Clara was the only woman in the world who'd ever treated him… well, like a husband, which was good. He’d never zipped up another woman before.
“Shall we go?”
Clara was dressed like a siren. Part of him wanted to keep her all to himself, but he ignored the stirring in his pants and directed them toward the door as he asked, “Where?”
Her gaze held a laugh waiting to explode as she said, “To meet your sister.”
“Let’s find her.” He opened the door.
If they stayed near the rumpled bed, he’d help her out of the dress and not show her to the world tonight.
They headed to the backrooms of the castle and toward the balcony of the ballroom some ancestor in the sixteen hundreds had added to modernize the place.
Clara turned on her olive-colored flats that matched her dress. They were quality and had been crafted by the palace shoemaker.
Once they made it outside he pointed toward the old-fashioned maze that some relative had put up before the internet took over amusing people. “I’m sure we’ll find Olivia around here somewhere.”
She covered her lips like this was all a joke as more clouds descended to thicken the fog they stepped into. “I’m starting to believe you don’t have a sister.”
Olivia must have taken off to think, or hide, when he’d arrived. He understood. He had triggers that made him strange to most people too--they entered the maze. “I promise you, she’s here.”
Clara laughed as they turned the first corner. “Of course there is a maze. This is like every gothic horror movie I've ever seen. Is she at the end?”
His lips quirked upward. Somehow Clara made his life much easier to bear. He bowed like a knight of old to escort his lady. “Only one way to find out.”
She patted his shoulder for him to straighten. “You lead the way.”
She stayed beside him as he winked and said, “Out of the mouths of innocents.”
Her face reddened as they walked through the bushes. Clara kept her voice low, “I’m not innocent, not now.”
Without being here in years, he still remembered the way as he led her through. “You are the purest thing here and the hedges know it.”
