Page 48 of The Forgotten Queen
Marx smiled. “That was a little bit of a rough transition, but okay. Here we go. We are hitting this topic head-on.” He turned to her more fully. “I’d like to apologize for last night. I want you to know I didnotspend the night with Cheney.”
“This is a fake marriage, so the rules are different. It’s none of my business if you did or you didn’t.” Sydria feigned disinterest as she slathered a fresh layer of strawberry jelly on her toast.
“Fake marriage or not, I wouldn’t let her stay. And I didn’t invite her to my room in the first place. In fact, no woman has ever been in my room before.”
“I didn’t ask if they had.”
He lifted his brow, somehow pulling off a relaxed charm. “You wanted to ask,” he said.
“No, I didn’t.”
“It seemed to me like you did.”
She turned to him, raising her eyebrow. “No, I didn’t.”
“Maybe just a little bit.” His thumb and his index finger squished the air between them together until there was only a small space.
Sydria shook her head.
Marx pointed to himself. “To me, it seemed that you wanted to ask, but okay. Anyway, I’m sorry. I hated thinking that I might have hurt your feelings.”
He hated thinking that he’d hurt her feelings?
King Marx was good at apologies.
Sydria kept her focus on her toast, not wanting to give him any reason to think that she was interested in his love life, but inside she was smiling. Could insides smile? If they could, hers were beaming.
“Why did you knock on my door last night, anyway?” he asked.
“No reason.”
“There had to be some reason for you to unlock your door, open it, and then knock on mine.”
Yes, it did seem like a lot of effort to take those steps. She was going to have to ask him her question.
She sat back in her chair and folded her arms across her chest. “There were a few terms of our agreement that we didn’t discuss. Like, for starters, my maid set out a very elegant but skimpy nightgown for me to wear on my wedding night.”
“Do you want me to fire her for that?” he asked, trying to pull off a serious expression.
Sydria shook her head. “Why would she do that?”
“She probably did that because she thought you and I were going to spend the night together.” He rested his chin on his hand, completely calm. Did anything ever ruffle this man?
“Why would shethinkthat?” She looked at him accusingly.
“Because that’s normally what married couples do.”
“These are the terms I’m talking about.” She pointed back and forth between the two of them. “Weare not a normal married couple, andwewill not be doing anything like that.”
“I never said we would.”
She lifted her chin, feeling a bit of relief. “I didn’t know that. We hadn’t talked about it yet.”
“We do need to havesomephysical contact, though.” A slight smile crept up his mouth. “Or else no one will believe that we’re falling in love.”
“What do you suggest? Hand-holding?”
“Yes.”
