Page 24 of The Ruthless Fae King
“If you weren’t here I suspect his snowstorm would have ravaged the town. The king is right, you are good for him,” she said.
I blushed, but was also disturbed that she felt Lucien would have lashed out so easily.
Piper sighed. “I’ve watched the king carefully this entire trip, Madelynn. One thing is clear: he feels a deep remorse for the Great Freeze. It seemed to be an accident, one he doesn’t know how to apologize for.”
I nodded. “I agree, but the other courts don’t see that. They only see his actions, and his lack of apology has allowed hatred for him to fester here for years.”
Piper gave me a small smile, waiting for me to come around to what she was getting at. Her advice was always subtle, almost as if she wanted me to get the idea myself.
“You think I should ask Lucien to apologize to Marcelle tonight for the Great Freeze?” I said in shock.
Piper’s grin grew wider. “I do.”
The thought of asking a powerful king for such a humble act made me want to vomit. Lucien was a grown man, I was not yet his wife. Asking him to become vulnerable in front of an adversary like Marcelle was a big request. But Piper was right. It could pave the way to keeping the fae kingdom together.
“What if Marcelle doesn’t take the apology well? What if he ridicules Lucien?”
Piper lifted her chin high. “Then you stand up for your king and your future husband and show him what having a powerful woman by his side will be like.”
“Sounds like something Elowyn would do,” I told her, remarking about one of our favorite romance novels by L. Ashta. She was a Winter fae who wrote under a pen name. Some of her novels were so steamy it wouldn’t be appropriate to divulge her identity, but her heroines always stood up for their men and bedded them after.
“You like him,” I told Piper. She was a very good judge of character, always telling me who to watch out for.
Piper smirked. “I do. I think he’s misunderstood. He treats you well—in his own way—and I can see already that he adores you.”
Adores me. That made my stomach flip over, and Piper pointed to my face. “This is the tenth time you’ve blushed today!” she accused.
I fell backwards on the bed laughing as she fell beside me.
Heaving a large sigh, I looked over at my best friend. “I’ve never had a man… say these things to me. Pursue me so…aggressively.”
Piper popped up on one elbow and looked down at me with a grin. “You like it?”
I tried to hide the smile but it came out anyway, causing us both to fall into fits of laughter.
“Maybe marrying Lucien won’t be the worst thing on the planet,” I told her.
Piper nodded. “Maybe it will be the best thing that ever happened to you. Like Elowyn and Rush.”
Maybe it would. That thought kept the smile on my face for hours.
SIX
“I’m going to vomit,” I told Piper as she pushed me towards the front door of Lucien’s guest cottage. We’d walked here, enjoying the warm weather and sunshine, but the sun was beginning to set and we’d be expected at dinner soon. I needed to ask Lucien to apologize publicly to Marcelle for the Great Freeze and I felt sick about it. He was king, and asking a king to do anything was… bad mannered.
“You’re his betrothed and future queen. You want what is best for him and the realm,” Piper reminded me.
I nodded, letting out a shaky breath, and smoothed my palms over my emerald green dress. The neckline was definitely a little more scandalous than appropriate, but dressing stuffy like my mother never suited me, and Lucien didn’t seem to mind.
Reaching up, I knocked at the door.
A moment ticked by, then another. I looked at Piper, wondering what was taking so long, when the door opened.
An audible gasp left my throat when I gazed upon Lucien’s bare chest. Beads of water ran down his neck, rolling over each defined ab muscle before hitting the band of his trousers.
His hair was wet and he was drying it with a towel as his eyes raked over my dress. It was as if I could physically feel his gaze caressing me and it sent a warm zap of energy down my back. Averting my eyes, I held up a hand. “I’m so sorry,” I said.
Lucien chuckled deeply. “If you’re this shy with me tunicless, how will you feel when we finally make children?”
