Total pages in book: 54
Estimated words: 51855 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51855 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
“Oh—ah—” I peer behind me, looking at the worn, dark hall and the pokey little kitchen beyond. I’ve been hiding the fact that we’ve been here so long that it takes a moment for me to remember that I don’t need to anymore.
I stand back and hold out my arm. He passes by me, his back regally straight and his slightly tousled silver hair, gleaming under the naked bulb. I catch a whiff of his cologne, and when he glances back at me, wondering why I’m frozen to the spot, I remember all those times he had me beneath him, his hard body against my own and his name on my panting lips.
Seeing the expression on my face, his gaze sharpens, and he steps toward me.
“Mama! Mama, we have a visitor.” I plunge past him down the hall and turn into the sitting room.
Mama looks up from her packing, and her mouth falls open when she sees who enters the room behind me. She dusts her hands clean and steps forward, sinking into a curtsy.
“Thank you for what you did for us, Your Grace. I believe you must has spoken to the King, on our behalf.”
He looks at her like she’s an insect that has dared to dirty the bottom of his perfectly shined shoe. “Thank your daughter. She was the one who came to my home and explained how things were.”
Seeing the flinty, unrelenting disdain in his eyes, I’m scared and horny.
Mama turns red. “It’s only what we deserve. We are Rugovas, and our family is older than many in Paravel, and…”
Devrim turns away from her before she’s finished speaking and crosses the room to my side. “Is there somewhere we can talk?”
“Not really. This is it, pretty much. We could go into the kitchen?”
He follows me back across the hall and into the pokey little room. I busy myself making tea, which I’ll have to serve to him in a mug, because that’s all we have. There are no silver teapots and cups and saucers here.
I feel him come up behind me as I stand at the kitchen counter. His warm breath fans the back of my neck, making my fingers shake on the box of tea bags.
Devrim clasps my shoulders and turns me toward him. “I came to talk to you.”
As he gazes down at me, his expression is so gentle that it makes my heart turn over. “What is there left to say to each other?”
His eyes trace lovingly over my face. “Everything.”
Chapter Nineteen
Devrim
I reach for her hand. My fingers draw along her pinky finger and brush her knuckles.
“You asked the King to restore our home, didn’t you?” Wraye whispers, her eyes searching mine. “Why did you do this for us?”
“For you.” I breathe in her familiar flowery scent. Her eyes are filled with longing, but she’s holding herself back from me. “Only for you.”
Not her mother. Not for the sake of the Court. Her, so she can hold her head up and be the person she was born to be. Now I know why she could be so tormented and evasive when we were together. She was keeping her mother’s secret, and hating herself for it.
“We don’t deserve it, but I suppose Archduke Levanter is granted anything he petitions the King for.”
The King owed me no favors. I expected him to tell me that if the Rugovas had mismanaged their estate, that was the end of it. It’s what his father would have done. “King Anson only asked me one question. If you were the young lady I was dancing with at the ball.”
“What did you tell him?”
I reach up and cup her jaw. “I said she is. She’s important to me. She’s precious, in fact.”
“Devrim, you can’t go around saying things like that, especially not to the King. There’ll be another scandal, if it gets out.”
I lean down until my mouth is close to hers. “There won’t be a scandal because I’m going marry you.”
Her eyes close briefly as she angles her cheek into my palm. “Have you given up asking? Are you just going to tell me what to do?”
“I never get the answer I want. It’s frustrating the hell out of me, because I love you.”
Wraye sucks in a breath, despair filling her eyes. “You can’t say things like that.”
“Why not?”
“Because it can’t ever happen. You’re dealing with a scandal that’s my family’s fault, and we can’t do that to Aubrey.”
I gather her to me and press my nose into the curve of her neck. “Aubrey will understand that we’re in love. You nearly told me how you felt the last time we were alone together.”
She curls her fingers into my hair. “The King has given me a job. I want to focus on that and try to understand the world I’m living in. You’ve had months to get used to who you are, but I’ve been an imposter the entire time. How can I go from that to marrying a man like you?”