Page 23 of Stranger's Choice
“Well then, now that is all settled, time for the big question of the evening.”
She raised a brow, but didn’t ask.
Sebin ran a hand over his face. Hopefully, after their last exchange, she wouldn’t snap his head off for asking this. Actually, he wouldn’t mind seeing that she felt comfortable enough with him to do that. “If you are supposed to be dancing for me tonight, will you be expected to stay the whole night?”
“You’re willing to help me hide the fact that you aren’t sleeping with me?”
“Haven’t I been doing that for the past week and a half? I assumed that’s what these evening chats of ours were all about.”
“Well, yes, but . . . never mind.” Auraelie bit her lip. She always seemed to have a hard time hiding her expressions when it came to her mouth. She had spent too long trusting in a veil to shield her. “I don’t think staying the entire night is necessary. Maybe an extra hour tonight?”
An image of Auraelie in that dancing costume flashed through Sebin’s mind. “Two would probably be more believable.”
Her eyes narrowed.
Sebin held up his hands again. “I’m being serious.”
“Fine. Two hours.”
Sebin dropped his hands. “Do you want me to do more in public to support the impression that I am sleeping with you?”
She stiffened. Swallowed.
Sebin pinched the bridge of his nose. “I didn’t mean touching you or anything like that. I meant by talking. Saying a few things here and there, just enough to make sure anyone watching carefully doesn’t have doubts.”
Auraelie hesitated.
With every word, every action, Prince Sebin won another sliver of her trust. She could not bring herself fully to believe he meant everything he said, but if this was some elaborate ruse, she didn’t know what he hoped to gain by it. The kernel of doubt she still harbored was tiny.
“Thank you,” she said after a moment. “If you maintain the charade in public, that would be helpful.”
“Of course. Though I still don’t understand why you are even in such a position. Why do the oracles let the Emperor treat you this way?”
There it was, a reason for the prince to win her over. It was almost a relief to know that he wanted information. That he might treat her kindly in hopes of gaining said information.
After being forced into the seven veils, Auraelie was angry enough to explain things. She needed some way to release her frustration. Besides, the treaty between the oracles and the imperial family was not a secret.
Still, Auraelie examined her anger and considered the consequences of explaining everything to the foreigner. She would not make a rash decision.
Prince Sebin cursed in his own language, the words familiar to Auraelie by now. That phrase had been the first thing she asked him to teach her in his tongue.
“Listen,” Sebin said roughly. “I’m not trying to learn oracular secrets from you.”
“Aren’t you, though?”
He had asked her enough questions when they chatted in the evenings. She had thought them idle or at least honest curiosity at the time, but perhaps she had been naïve.
“Well, I’m not saying I don’t want to learn those secrets, but that wasn’t my intention when I asked my question. I don’t want you to think my help hinges on you telling me anything.”
“I know,dyela.” She did. He would take advantage of any goodwill he earned, but it wasn’t a trade, his behavior dependent on her cooperation.
“Any chance I can get you to call me Sebin? All the flowery titles get so wearing that evendyelais starting to sound like too much. Also, it is rather odd to have a woman wearing my own dressing gown addressing me so formally.”
“I have to use those titles in public.”
Sebin waved this away. “I’m not talking about in public.”
“I suppose, when I’m wearing your dressing gown, I can call you Sebin.”
