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“I see you’re still as unobservant as ever, little dove.”
Gilbert’s pleasant voice didn’t trigger fear or anxiety in me, just resignation. I sighed heavily and closed my book. Maybe it was the day. Chevalier and I were each doomed individually to suffer constant interruptions, together or apart. Leon was grating on his nerves in the back room, and now I had Gilbert here to grate on mine.
Of course, it wasn’t much of a surprise for Gilbert to bother me, regardless of day or circumstance.
“That was rude,” he commented, sitting on the sofa across from me.
“Sorry.” There was a coffee table between us, and I appreciated the distance and the obstacle. “I was sighing because I’m frustrated about how the day has gone, not because of you. Actually, I wanted to talk to you.”
“Oh?”
Sometimes, I really hated that charming smile.
Most of the time.
“Thank you - again - for helping to keep me safe. I don’t know what you did in Obsidian, and I don’t want to know, but whatever it was, it put Chevalier’s mind at ease. And I know he agreed with…that meeting.” I took a deep breath, steeling myself for another round of insults. “But I didn’t. And I don’t want to be a part of something like that again.”
He chuckled. “You’re too soft-hearted, little dove.”
“I’ll take that as a compliment,” I said coolly.
“I meant it as one.”
That gave me pause. I studied him, wondering what his angle was this time. The crinkles at the corner of his eye said his smile was genuine, but that didn’t elaborate on its meaning to me. Was this just a game to him? It probably was. And, of course, I didn’t know the rules, which made me intensely uncomfortable.
“Well, thank you,” I said slowly.
He closed his eye and sat back against the cushions, his shoulders shaking with silent laughter, and the unease I always felt around him grew.
“Care to share the joke?”
He shook his head and opened his eye, leveling it on me again. “I was just thinking you’d defend even the woman who tried to poison you, wouldn’t you?”
A cold chill settled in my stomach. “What do you know about her?”
“Quite a bit, since I’ll be handling her punishment.”
There was a challenge in his blood-red eye, as if he was daring me to question him further. That, and my churning stomach, warned me not to continue.
But I was curious.
“Why are you handling her punishment?” I asked, against my better judgment. “She committed a crime in Rhodolite.”
“Under the orders of a high-ranking official in Obsidian,” he replied casually. “That little detail gave Chevalier an excuse to pass her off to me. It seems the Bloody Tiger is more selective about whose blood he’ll spill these days.”
Execution. And not in a quick, painless manner, knowing Gilbert. It was probably just punishment for treason and attempted murder, but I still didn’t like it, and - a high-ranking official in Obsidian? Why would anybody there want to kill me? Gilbert was the only high-ranking Obsidianite official I knew, and he certainly didn’t want me dead.
I didn’t want to think or talk about this anymore. I stood up, grabbing Chevalier’s book from its place beside me on the sofa and stacking it on top of my book as I headed for the door.
“Going somewhere, little dove?” Gilbert asked, amused.
“Tell Chevalier I’ll be waiting for him in the gardens,” I said coolly.
I knew it wasn’t the wisest choice. Chevalier had stopped me from leaving earlier because he hadn’t wanted me going anywhere alone. But I didn’t want to sit there and continue the verbal game with Gilbert, a game I knew I was losing, and besides, every guard in the palace would look out for me. Anybody would have to be insane to make a move against me after the events of the last few days.
That was how I rationalized it, anyway. Really, I just wanted to get away from Gilbert.
The summer sun hit me with its heat the moment I stepped into the gardens. For a moment, I considered going back to my room and changing into that commoner's dress again, but I rejected that idea immediately. I’d need Theresa’s help with that, and if Chevalier came to the gardens and I wasn’t there, he’d start a manhunt for me. It wouldn’t be so bad once I got in the shade, I told myself. I didn’t have gloves or stockings to worry about today. Removing my shoes, feeling cool grass between my toes - and the satiny material of the dress was light. I could handle the discomfort of the layers of undergarments for a few hours, especially if that meant I got to spend time alone with Chevalier.
There weren’t as many people in the gardens as I expected. The guest list was smaller for the engagement ceremony than it had been for the coronation ceremony, though, so that made sense. It also meant Chevalier and I had a higher chance of not being interrupted later.
I left the cobblestone path for the grass next to the pond, shaded by a young oak tree with wide branches and a smooth, ungnarled trunk. It was the same spot he’d brought me to on Rhodolite Foundation Day, when I was still his maid, and I still hadn’t known what to make of him. I remembered my shock that day when I brought him his tea and he told me to sit and read with him. Everything he’d done had been out of character, at least for what I knew of him until that point. Inviting me to the festival, buying me a book and a funnel cake, letting me leave early - it was a strange day for me.
He brought me here again a few days later to help me relax after the horrors of Jack. And the first night of the goodwill gala, when exhaustion and stress broke down my defenses enough that I just wanted him to hold me.
We had our first kiss on the bench right there…
I smiled and sat in the cool grass, pulling my shoes off and setting them aside. He must have liked this spot before I met him to bring me here all the time. It was my favorite spot in the gardens now, too.
I lay on my stomach and opened my book. Time faded away as the words pulled me into the story. I turned page after page, and when I finished one chapter, a shadow fell over me.
“You aren’t concerned about grass stains on that dress?” Chevalier asked.
I marked my place in the book and rolled onto my back to look up at him. The sunlight at his back threw his face into shadows, but I’d heard the amusement in his voice.
“I guess I didn’t think about it.”
He dropped his sword belt on the grass and sat next to me, leaning back on one elbow. I could see his smile and the warmth in his crystal blue eyes clearly now. He traced a finger around my lips, sending the butterflies in my stomach into a flurry.
“You shouldn’t have gone off on your own.”
“Well, Gilbert was bothering me,” I replied. “But as you can see, I’m fine.”
His eyes wandered down me to my toes, and heat flared in my cheeks. I covered my face in my hands and rolled away from him.
“Don’t look at me like that!” I protested.
He rested his hand on my waist and slid it around to my stomach, pushing gently to roll me onto my back again. His other hand took my wrist and pulled my hand away from my face. “Look at me, Ivetta.”
I opened my eyes, peeking around my other hand. He hovered over me, close enough for his breath to ghost across my lips. I couldn’t resist reaching up to brush his bangs back, but I forced a pout onto my face.
“You don’t like this dress.”
“I like it too much,” he said, his hand rubbing across my stomach to my waist. I squirmed a little.
“That tickles!”
He chuckled, and then his fingers stopped at my waist, tightening and digging into the fabric as his lips pressed into mine. I curved my fingers into the short hairs at the base of his head, and the fingers of my other hand clutched at the air reflexively, cushioned by cool grass as he held my wrist against the ground. The first kiss led into the second, drawing a sigh from me as I parted my lips at his gentle prompting. His hand slid around to my back; I slid my hand down to curl my fingers into his cloak; the world was fading away. It was just him and a series of increasingly passionate kisses, one blending into the next. He released my wrist in favor of tangling his fingers in my hair, allowing me to wrap both hands around his neck, pulling him closer whenever he shifted slightly. Panted breaths between kisses echoed with my pulse in my ears. We couldn’t get close enough. I could feel his heart beating against mine, but it wasn’t close enough. His arm around my back pushed me up into him, but there was still too much distance between us.
“Mm, Chevalier…”
His lips wandered, kissing the corner of my mouth, my cheek, my ear, my jaw, down my neck, and it felt so good. Being with him felt so good. Out here, with the grass against my cheek, and the roses adding their fragrance to his cologne, and the rustling of the leaves above us as they shaded the afternoon sun…
My eyes shot wide open.
“Ch-chevalier, what if someone sees us?” I asked, sudden nervousness adding to the pounding of my heart.
He answered with a light nip at my collarbone that sent a shiver through my whole body.
“Oh…”
I bit my lip to stop the sound when he did it again, but I couldn’t help closing my eyes, and my fingers were back in his hair without my permission. He sighed, the heat of his breath moving up as he nuzzled into the crook of my neck.
“Very few windows have a view of this location,” he said, his voice low and husky.
“I know, but maybe…you should stop,” I said reluctantly.
He wrapped both arms around my waist and kissed my neck. “Tomorrow will be busy.”
“I know…”
“The day after, I’m taking you to my family’s estate.”
I wrapped my arms around him, hugging him back. “You are?”
He nodded, his fine hair the whisper of feathers across my skin. “It’s close enough for a day trip, and it’s time for you to see the rest of Rhodolite.”
My heart leaped in my chest. “I thought you wouldn’t allow that for a while, after…”
He laughed, a short, self-deprecating sound, and pulled back enough for me to see his face. “I’d rather keep you here, but a queen should be familiar with her country.”
I smiled shyly. “A queen, huh? It wasn’t too long ago that I was just a maid.”
He nodded. “A maid who drove me to distraction.”
“Well, I didn’t mean to.” I reached up to brush his bangs back again. “What were you thinking on Rhodolite Foundation Day?”
He dropped a peck on the tip of my nose and rolled off of me, sitting up and resting his arms across his knees as he looked out at the pond. “I knew you’d enjoy the festival.”
I sat up next to him, leaning my head against his shoulder. “That was all?”
There was that self-deprecating laugh again. “No. That wasn’t all.” He turned his head to look at me. “I wanted to see you smile.”
“You didn’t have to take me to the festival to see that,” I pointed out.
“I wanted you to smile for me. You hadn’t done that yet.”
A warm fuzziness gripped my chest. “That was sweet of you.”
He removed one arm from his knees and slung it loosely around me. “That was also the first time I wanted to kiss you.”
“That far back?” I asked, surprised. “But you - the way you were acting, I thought you were upset with me.”
“I had to distance myself from you. My attraction to you was becoming problematic. Leon’s flirting was a constant irritation, and then that incident with the little boy…” He smiled and squeezed my shoulder. “I envied him for touching you, and I wondered if your lips tasted as sweet as I imagined.”
“Oh.” I blushed to the tips of my ears and looked away from his eyes to the darker blue of the pond. “But I was a mess. My uniform was all dirty, and-”
“You were the most beautiful mess I’d ever seen.”
I should have let him keep kissing me. That would’ve been less dangerous than this conversation. My heart couldn’t take this much longer.
“I wished I hadn’t told you that you could leave early,” he continued. “I wanted you to stay with me.”
“You can stop now,” I said, embarrassed.
He chuckled and kissed my forehead. “There’s something I need to show you in a book you picked out for me that day.”
“What do you mean?” I asked, surprised into looking at him again.
“Later.” He lay back against the grass, pulling me with him. “Let’s read for a while first.”
I reached over for our books and handed him his, and then I settled into his side, opening my book above me. This wouldn’t be a comfortable position for long, but it suited me just fine for now.34Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡMUFHDmieRM
