Page 47 of Fate's Sweetest Curse
“Wonderful!” Raina exclaimed, clapping her hands.
While I found bowls, Noble got to work slicing the peaches and sprinkling them with sugar, cinnamon, and clove. When our treats were prepared, I hopped onto the table, sitting with my feet dangling. Raina did the same, though she required some assistance from Noble, her legs kicking out as he helped her up. He’d always been that way with my cousin—brotherly—and it warmed my heart the way he looked after her.
He looked after me, too, sometimes—holding my hand when we traversed the fallen log on the way to our secluded picnic spot by the river or giving me a leg up when we rode horses with Raina—but the way he treated me was different somehow. A little less doting and a little more…something else.
He fancies you.
I might not have had an arranged marriage to an heir of a territory, but I knew there was anexpectationabout the sort of man I’d marry one day. Noble and I were of different social classes, and whileIdidn’t care, Loreena had scolded me a time or two:Don’t give him the wrong impression.A dalliance with the wrong boy could ruin your prospects. I wasn’t concerned about my prospects, but Loreena’s wrath was enough to make me think twice—not to mention the threat of negatively impacting my family’s reputation with a scandal.
With Raina and I situated, we dug into our treats. Noble stayed standing, facing us, his green eyes occasionally darting to mine.
“Couldn’t sleep?” he asked after a while.
“I can never sleep when it’s stormy,” Raina complained.
I maneuvered a peach slice onto my spoon and bit it in half. The fruit was perfectly ripe, tasting of sunshine and sweet nectar, its flesh soft on my tongue. Juice dribbled down my chin as the other half fell back into my bowl.
Noble’s keen eyes tracked every clumsy movement. “What about you, Peach?”
My stomach flipped. He’d never called me Peach before, and it sounded…I didn’t know how it sounded.
Raina poked me in the ribs. “Yeah,Peach, what about you?”
Oh,she was going to bring this up later.Relentlessly.
I swallowed hard. “What about me?”
“Can you sleep in this weather?” Noble asked.
“Icould, if Raina didn’t keep me up,” I said, feigning annoyance. Then I met his eyes. “What about you?”
“I’m a sound sleeper.”
AndnowI was picturing him in his bed. Hair rumpled. Face open, lips parted in slumber—
“Cute nightdress, by the way,” he said. “Did Loreena pick it out for you?”
Raina barked a laugh, then clapped a hand over her mouth, shoulders shaking.
I flushed—furiously. “Ugh, you’re insufferable,” I said to him.
He smirked. “You like it.”
“She does, she definitely does,” Raina said.
I elbowed her in the side, and she descended into a fit of laughter.
“Shhh,” I urged. “Someone will hear us!”
No sooner than I’d said it did we hear footsteps approaching from down the hall. When the butler arrived, he didn’t look surprised, but hedidbreak up our midnight soiree and send us all back to our respective rooms. The moment he was gone, Raina snuck back into my bed, nestling close.
“Hedefinitelyfancies you,” she said on a yawn.
“Even if he did, it wouldn’t be allowed,” I whispered. “Your aunt will insist I marry someone of status.”
“Maybe you can come to Lothgaim with me,” Raina said. “Meet asouthern man.”
“Maybe,” I mumbled, but as I dozed off it was Noble’s face I saw, his lips curving over the nickname,Peach.
