Page 83 of What Fury Brings
Olerra glared at her. “He’s not harmless. You remember how he took out Aevia. And that assassin. And you know that I don’t—” Their conversation may have been private, but even Olerra couldn’t risk saying her deepest secret aloud.
“You need a bout,” Ydra said.
“You’re offering to fight me?” Olerra asked.
“Until you can trust him. Until you get to know him better, you need to work out that energy in other ways. You’ve been following him around and then recovering. You haven’t gotten your usual workouts in. Let’s go a round, and then you can pick on some of the captains.”
“I knew there was a reason I loved you.”
“You love me because I’m right about everything. Now, let’s do this before I change my mind.”
Sanos was back in the gymnasium, only this time it wasn’t a group of eunuchs who followed him around. It was some of Olerra’s troops.
The women didn’t speak to him, much like their general, whom he suspected was hiding from him. The last time she’d done this was after that horrible ride to the pit. Then, she’d been giving him space and distance.
This time? He didn’t know.
Was she embarrassed after what had happened between them?
Because he fucking was. Did anyone know what he’d let her do to him? He tried to guess as he trailed along the large room full of husbands and consorts. But no one gave him any particular attention, just like the last time he entered, save when Athon created his disturbance.
Sanos’s guards followed at a distance, and they didn’t let any men approach him. Clearly Olerra wasn’t taking any chances with him or Glenaerys this time. He was almost grateful for the guard. Much as he might hate her, Glen also made him uneasy. In one simple act, she’d had him on his knees, ready to lose his head.
He suppressed a shiver.
Sanos worked his body again today. He ran laps around the track and lifted weights. When that was done, he sat himself in the solarium to take in all the beautiful flora growing indoors. He managed to find a quiet spot separate from the men working the soil, giving him the illusion of privacy, even though he knew the guards were right behind him.
There was a commotion. A woman was calling a name as she walked into the rooms. Distantly he heard his brother’s name on her lips.
“Andrastus?”
One of his guards located the woman and brought her to his destination.
She carried a giant vase of flowers and set the enormous arrangement on the floor before extending a letter out to him. He took it, glancing around to see if the exchange was catching any sort of attention. If the other husbands and consorts in the solarium thought the display strange, they didn’t show it.
Sanos opened the note.
My Prince,
Here is one petal for every time I’ve thought about you today.
My warmest regards,
Olerra
Sanos swallowed. Then he read the words again just to be certain his mind wasn’t playing tricks on him. She’d… sent him flowers and a… love letter. It was brief and direct, just as she always was, but how could it be called anything else?
Sanos still wasn’t used to how forward Amarran women could be, and he had a feeling his princess was leagues above the rest in that regard. There must have been two dozen flowers in the bundle. Blossoms he didn’t know the names of. Hundreds and hundreds of petals.
He felt his cheeks warm as he looked up, ensuring that still no one watched him.
An attendant stepped forward. “Shall I have these taken to your room, Prince?”
“Yes.” It was odd, giving the order. Sanos had done nothing except receive instructions since arriving. It never occurred to him that he’d have any sort of power as a future husband to the princess.
He kept hold of the note, tracing the curves of her handwriting with his eyes. He already had it memorized, but there was something about looking at it that made his chest warm.
“May I approach?”
