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I knew I shouldn’t have told Theresa.
“No, I will not sleep with Chevalier tonight,” I said emphatically, glaring at her reflection in my vanity mirror.
She rolled her eyes at me. “Oh, come on. It’s his birthday, and you said yourself—”
“Maybe I was too worn out to panic. Or maybe it was just because he didn’t try anything new. I don’t know, and—why are you smiling like that?”
An impish smirk had spread across her lips, one that made me blush even more. Her fingers paused their work on my hair as she leaned forward and suggested, “Are you ready to experiment, then?”
I could have died. My already flushed face turned twenty shades of red that spread rapidly to my ears and the rest of my body. Theresa laughed and resumed styling my hair as if nothing was wrong while I sat there, mortified, scrambling for a rebuttal.
“You’re awful,” I finally muttered.
She laughed again. “I know, I know. You’re waiting until you get married. I can’t say I understand that, especially since you’re as good as married already, but if that’s what you want to do, that’s your choice. It’s just fun to mess with you sometimes.”
“I’ve had enough of people ‘messing with me’ lately, thank you.”
“True,” she said, her smile falling. “You should have let me deck Clavis.”
I sighed. The events of five days ago were still fresh enough in my mind to be a sore subject. “After getting chewed out by me, beaten up by Chevalier, threatened to within an inch of his life by Gilbert, and then whatever everybody else did to him when we got back, I think he had sufficient punishment.”
“Hmph. Maybe,” Theresa grumbled. “But why did you let Gilbert off the hook? He told you he was only there to take you back to Obsidian with him if something happened to Chevalier. How could you let him get away with that?”
“I didn’t ‘let him get away’ with anything,” I replied. “He wasn’t expecting me to panic like that, and it really bothered him. And then he tried to calm me down by telling me Chevalier would be okay. Do you know how hard that must have been for him?”
“Yeah, still not feeling sympathy for someone who threatened to kidnap you and force you to marry him,” Theresa said dryly.
I knew she wouldn’t understand. It was something I had trouble putting into words, but I knew Gilbert better than she did, and I had a feeling the events of that night were punishment enough for him. And the way he had stepped aside as soon as Chevalier entered the room felt like he had finally conceded defeat, which was a huge relief for me.
“Can we please drop it?” I asked wearily.
She shrugged. “Sure. I’m done, anyway. Tell Chevalier if he pulls this hairpin, it’ll all come down.”
Her smirk was back, as was my blush.
“Just make sure dinner is ready on time,” I said, standing and smoothing my skirts to avoid looking at her. I was wearing the green dress Chevalier designed for his coronation ceremony, which unfortunately meant I had to wear the matching long gloves to hide my scars. My engagement ring was snug on my finger. “And don’t forget—”
“‘To put his present under your chair,’” she finished for me. “You’ve told me at least a dozen times since breakfast, Ivetta, and you’ve been running around the palace all day triple-checking everything. Just go to your party and have fun already.”
She gave me a playful shove toward the door, but I had trouble catching her enthusiasm. My stomach was a bundle of nerves. This was Chevalier’s birthday and the first official party I’d ever planned, after all. It wasn’t just about his enjoyment, although that was my primary goal. My efforts were on display to the nation. Everything had to be perfect.
I took a deep breath, set my hand on the doorknob, and nearly jumped out of my skin when someone knocked at the door. The muffled sounds behind me sounded suspiciously like Theresa stifling her laughter. I shot her a glare before I opened the door.
“Chevalier!” I exclaimed, surprised. “I was supposed to—I mean, I thought I’d…pick you up from your room…this time…”
My voice faltered as his crystal blue eyes slid from my head to my toes and back again in a blatant show of appreciation that made my cheeks burn. He never looked at me like that—at least, not when I could see him doing it. My heart was already pounding before he locked his smirk on me.
“If you want, I can step into the bathroom for a minute to give you some privacy,” Theresa teased.
“Theresa—”
“Go,” Chevalier ordered.
I stared up at him, wide-eyed. She’d meant that as a joke, not an actual offer; I was sure of it. But he didn’t look like he was joking.
“O-okay,” Theresa stammered, as surprised as I was.
I heard her hurried footsteps behind me, followed by the bathroom door closing, and I swallowed nervously, taking a step back when Chevalier took a step forward. His eyes held mischief, and that smirk meant trouble.
“Um…Ch-chevalier, we really need to—”
He snaked an arm around my waist and caught my chin in his hand, giving me a kiss that was far too intense for our first kiss of the day. It made my knees weak and my head swim. I clutched at his jacket as his tongue twined with mine, his fingers digging into my waist, his other hand moving to rest his palm against my jaw and his fingers over the racing pulse in my neck. I could only hold on for dear life until he needed to breathe. Then I stared up at him in shock while we both panted for air, trying to remember what precipitated that.
“I’d rather not go to the party,” he said, echoing the sentiment in his smoldering eyes.
I swallowed again, unsure of how to handle his unusually straightforward behavior. His thumb brushing back and forth across my cheek wasn’t helping things, either. “W-well, we have to go for a little while, a-and I think you’ll actually like it.”
“How long do we have to stay?”
Maybe I shouldn’t have dismissed my guards for the evening. I almost felt like I needed an escort. Or a bucket of ice water.
“I need an hour,” Theresa called from the bathroom. “And you might want to check your lipstick before you go.”
That was it, then. I would die of embarrassment before we even made it to the party. Between Theresa listening at the door and Chevalier smirking at me with my lipstick on his lips, I was doomed. I wasn’t sure I’d even make it out of the room.
Fortunately, Chevalier was still capable of independent movement, and he maneuvered me to the vanity so I could touch up my lipstick while he removed it from his face. Theresa exited the bathroom, giving me a huge grin on her way out of the room.
“You won’t do that at the party, will you?” I asked, replacing the cap on the lipstick tube and carefully avoiding Chevalier’s eyes in the mirror.
He chuckled. “No, I won’t. Let’s go.”
I moved to take his arm, but he slid it around my waist instead, starting with his hand above my left hip and moving it purposefully across the small of my back to my right hip. Somewhere between the feel of his palm’s movement and the sound of rustling silk, my temperature shot up enough to fry the butterflies swirling around the nerves in my stomach.
“Um, Ch-chevalier…”
“I’ll stop,” he promised, dropping a kiss on my forehead. “For now.”
That little addition inspired no confidence in me. I was fairly certain the walk from my room to the ballroom was not long enough for me to lose my blush, but at least he behaved himself on that walk, although his hand did not leave my hip. I kept my eyes straight ahead to avoid eye contact with anybody we passed, and when I finally saw the double doors ahead with their elaborate gold floral decorations, twin waves of cooling relief and rushing anxiety washed over me. This was the moment of truth. I took a deep breath to ground myself and smiled up at Chevalier.
“You’ll like this,” I reassured him—and myself.
The guards threw open the doors and announced us, but I kept my eyes on Chevalier for a moment, hoping to catch the slightest sign of surprise. He was much more guarded with his expressions around others than he was around me.
Did his eyes widen just the tiniest bit?
“Happy birthday!”
I turned my smile to the roaring crowd, and the anxiety evaporated. Everything looked fine. The gold and white decorations hung from the chandeliers, draped above the windows and doors, and adorned the walls; white roses spilled out of vases and enhanced ribbons, bows, and wreaths, with a rare red rose here and there for a pop of color; strains of beautiful music filled the room from the orchestra; and the crowning achievement, the distinguishing mark of this party, was the books. In and among the refreshment tables were book tables, covered with stacks and piles of assorted volumes that hadn’t been there when last I checked.
“That’s what the servants were sneaking in here,” Chevalier said, a hint of a smile on his lips.
Of course, he noticed.
“I asked every guest to bring their favorite book. Everybody had to give their books to the servants when they arrived, before they even came inside the palace,” I explained. “So, the books came in through the servant’s entrance, and then, yes, the servants snuck them in during their preparations. They’re your gifts.”
“Hey, it’s the birthday boy!” Leon called, drink already in hand. His amber eyes shifted to me, and then down to Chevalier’s hand on my hip, and his grin widened. “And it looks like you started the celebrations early.”
That answered that question. My blush was still obvious. And even more so now, thanks to Leon’s comment.
“Take care you don’t fall asleep while you’re here,” Chevalier said coolly, ignoring Leon’s comment as he accepted drinks for both of us.
I looked up at Chevalier curiously. “What does that mean?”
“I fall asleep whenever I read,” Leon replied with a self-deprecating shrug. “You wouldn’t believe how long it takes me to finish a book.”
“Aw, look at my baby brother enjoying his birthday party for the first time since infancy,” Jin said, sauntering up to us. “I didn’t think you could pull it off, Ivetta.”
“You didn’t know me in infancy,” Chevalier corrected him.
“Thirty-one years old,” Nokto chimed in. “And look at the pretty young thing on his arm.” He smirked and brought his glass to his lips. “You cradle robber.”
“You know, I hate to agree with Nokto about anything,” Yves agreed, “but he’s right. Are you sure you want to be stuck with this old man?”
“He isn’t old,” I replied.
“Be honest now,” Nokto said slyly. “What did you really think about the age difference when you first found out?”
“Um…I didn’t really think about it,” I admitted. “And why is it only bothering all of you now?”
Leon shrugged. “I’m pretty sure we all assumed you were older than you looked because of how mature you were,” he said, glancing around at his brothers. Clavis was present, although unusually quiet, and he joined in the generalized nodded confirmation. “You really didn’t think about it?”
“No,” I said, looking up at Chevalier. Was it that strange? But his slight smirk told me nothing except he was enjoying this, and since that was the goal, I decided to shrug it off.
“Oh, Ivetta, I couldn’t help but overhear,” a woman’s voice interjected, “and now I’m curious—how old are you, exactly?”
Duchess Adèle Latoure, the older woman who single-handedly governed a very successful duchy on the southern border, inserted herself into the group of princes, an empty glass in her hand and a smile on her face. Her gray hair sat in an elegant bun atop her head, and her loose midnight-blue gown complimented her figure quite nicely.
“Now, Duchess Latoure, surely you know better than to ask a lady her age,” Nokto teased.
“Please, Adèle,” she corrected him. “Especially to you. And besides, that rule only applies to women over the age of thirty. By the way, I’m forty.”
She winked roguishly at him, and his crimson eyes widened in surprise. I suppressed a laugh at his expense. Judging by the blush on her cheeks, she’d already drunk far too much champagne.
“If that’s so, he’s still too young for you,” I teased her back. “And I’m eighteen.”
Now it was her turn for her brown eyes to widen. She looked from me to Chevalier, and then the corner of her lip turned up into a smirk. “Oh? You dirty old man.”
I stared at her in shock, unsure how to respond to that, and everybody else seemed as stunned as me—except Chevalier, of course. He remained a mildly amused and detached observer. But she wasn’t done.
“It’s no wonder you didn’t want the gift I gave you for your engagement,” she said, addressing me this time. “You may want him to hold off reading his birthday present until you’re ready..”
My temperature was rising again. She had been the one who gave me an aphrodisiac perfume for our engagement, which I immediately gave away to Theresa. I didn’t even want to know what she was talking about now, but she sidled up to me and whispered it in my ear, anyway.
“Erotica, dear. He learns whatever he reads, doesn’t he?”
I thought I'd burst into flames right then and there.
“Okay, I think it’s time to cool off,” Jin intervened, smoothly taking Adèle’s arm and leading her away. “Yves, could you bring us some coffee? We'll be on the balcony?”
“And bring some of those adorable scones. You know, the ones that are almost as cute as you are,” she added. “Ooh, nice muscles,” she commented, pinching Jin’s arm.
I stood rooted to the floor. Nokto cleared his throat. The one to break the awkward silence was Clavis.
“Anybody else get the feeling she hasn’t exactly been celibate since her husband died?"8Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡFdH1P9c2qd
