Page 61 of The Stolen Princess
“I’m not doing anything.” A smile toyed at her lips.
She moved again, her legs landing on top of his chest as if she were a toddler sleeping in her parent’s bed.
“Myka!” he groaned, grabbing her calf and throwing it off of him...again.
“What? I’m just trying to get comfortable,” she said innocently.
He turned his back to her. “If you still want to have feet in the morning, I suggest you keep them on your own side.”
Making Drake Vestry miserable was her new favorite game. It was better than the games she had played during Ms. Happ’s boring lectures. The stakes were much higher in this game, though. She could get herself into a lot of trouble. But if Drake was really going to hurt her, wouldn’t he have done something by now? She’d done plenty of things to warrant his anger. She’d been sassy and difficult, spat on him, tried to escape, and yet, he hadn’t laid a hand on her. Half the time, he looked more frustrated than angry. And he had told Winslow that he needed to protect her from Dawsick. That didn’t sound like a man who was going to hurt her. So she decided to be bold, to dish out a little payback. She wondered how deep of a sleeper Drake was. Could he sleep through her endless chatter? Because if there was one thing Myka knew how to do, it was talk. And she planned to talk about every subject a typical man would hate.
Drake
Mykaleen Adler wasnothinglike what Drake had expected. Princess Seran was the only other princess Drake had met, and she was much more poised and controlled than Myka. It was like night and day.
The girl would not shut up.
She had been talking for an hour straight.
Nonstop.
About girl stuff.
Myka had already covered, in great detail, her hobbies, moisturizing creams, pets, and her favorite hairstyles. Now, she was fixated on colored clothing. Drake had spent enough time with women to know what they liked to talk about, but this was different. This was one long, never-ending conversation.
“Not all colors look good on all people,” Myka prattled on. “For example, when I wear pink, I feel like it makes my skin look pale. But blue, blue is an excellent color for me—especially light blue. There is something about that color that really brings out the glowing pigment in my skin tone. I practically sparkle when I wear light blue.”
Drake ground his teeth together. He wasn’t going to react. That’s exactly what she wanted him to do, and he wouldn’t give her the satisfaction. He was going to lay here and pretend like he was asleep. No, he was going toactuallyfall asleep—mind over matter.
MIND OVER MATTER
He would block her out.
“One time,” she continued. “I had the royal seamstress make me the prettiest blue dress. I was so excited to wear it. My father was hosting some political dinner, and the staff at Tolsten House had been preparing for weeks. I had just turned fourteen and assumed that I would be attending the political dinner as well. I got all ready, sat for an hour while my maid did my hair, but when my father saw me, he told me to go change, that I wasn’t invited to the party.” Her voice dropped as her story went from superficial fluff to something real. Drake held still, hoping she thought he was asleep.
“I was so mad at my dad,” she said. “I remember yelling at him that I’m not Cinderella, and he yelled back that he didn’t know who Cinderella was.” Myka laughed to herself, but the laughter was full of sadness. “I shouted at him to go read a book sometime, and then I slammed his bedroom door in his face.” She sucked in a deep breath like the pain of the memory had caught her off guard. “I just wanted to feel like a princess one time. I can’t even tell you how many pretty dresses I have that I’ve never even worn. You don’t need fancy dresses when you’re not allowed to go anywhere.”
Drake peered through the dark, waiting for her to say more, but instead, silence took over the space.
“Why doesn’t your father let you go anywhere?” he asked against his better judgment. She was silent for a long moment, and he instantly regretted asking her. He had lasted an entire hour without saying anything. All of that restraint wasted on a single question.
“I guess he wanted to keep me safe.” Her words were small. “Safe from people like you.” She let out another sad laugh. “But then I went and got myself kidnapped.”
Drake had the urge to touch her, to tell her he was sorry that they had dragged her into this mess, but he immediately pushed it away. There was something really wrong with him. She was a part of the mission. Although, part of his goal now was to get the princess to trust him. That’s where the urge to touch her had come from.
“When did your mother leave?” he asked, thinking this might be a good conversation to build trust.
“When I was eight.”
More silence.
“What was the queen like?” he asked. He didn’t expect her to answer any personal questions this early on. So, he filled the silence with memories of his own mother.
“My mother was made of fire,” he began. “At least that’s what my father always said. She had this energy about her that made her fun to be around, a spunkiness that kept everyone on their toes, like at any moment she would say something or do something completely ridiculous. I loved that about her, and it’s what I miss the most.”
Myka turned her head to him, though he couldn’t see her face from where his head was. “What happened to her?”
“Nothing. She’s still alive.”
