Page 93 of Wolfkissed
His gaze is still on me, but the annoyance seems to have been replaced with mirth in the brief moment I looked away. “Excellent. That was quick.”
“Anything for you, my lord,” she says, and my anger returns.
“She sounds like she knows you,” I say the moment she leaves, presumably to direct the men carrying the tub into our room.
“I’ve stayed here a few times,” he says nonchalantly.
“Like shereallyknows you.”
A pale brow goes up. “Are you asking me if I fucked her?”
“Crude,” I mutter.
“Indeed.” He smirks, still sitting on the bed, looking relaxed. “To answer your question, no, I haven’t.”
“But you come here often. Do you bring your paramours here?”
“Are you asking me if I fuck women in this inn?”
I wince. “There you go again, choosing to be crude.”
“Why are you interested in my sexual activities, Princess?”
“I’m not.”
“You could have fooled me,” he says quietly.
“No, but seriously.” I point a finger at him. “They are treating you like their favorite customer. Like royalty.”
“I’m from the Blue Star House. That’s almost the same thing. My mother was famous for a prophecy she gave as a novice in the Temple, about a human girl who would turn out to be the bridge between dark fae and the rest of the world. Of course, it didn’t come true.” His gaze shutters. “That broke something inside her, I think. Got her involved with people she should have stayed away from.”
“Valen…” Is he thinking of the attack on my home?
The light shifts in his eyes. “But that’s not important. These are nice people. I doubt they’d have treated a prince any better.”
He’s right. He treats them well, and they treat him well right back. Give kindness and respect, and it will be returned to you. At home, the rules were ‘eat or be eaten,’ and ‘show no weakness or be bullied.’ But he isn’t like that.
“You look pensive,” he says, but then the door opens again, and two men enter carrying a large wooden tub, half-filled with water. Two maids follow, carrying pails of hot water which they pour inside, once the men place the tub by the window.
The maid from before follows, carrying a bundle of fabric. “The clothes, my lord. My lady.” She performs a hurried curtsy and places the bundle on the bed. “I have bathing sheets here, too. Let me know if you need anything else.”
“Thank you,” he says.
Polite. Respectful. Nice. This wolf is a nice person.
It shouldn’t hit me as hard as it does. I’ve seen it time and again since I met him. I’ve been trying to ignore it, to forget about it because it doesn’t mesh with my dark image of his kind I’ve kept for most of my life, and because…
Because it would feed my attraction to him.
He’s handsome, sure. Way too handsome. But kind, too? How am I supposed to defend myself against that? Kindness sneaks up on you, catches you unawares, and wraps you up in silken ropes. It ensnares you before you know it… and is that a bad thing?
Will Lord Eorl be as kind?
I chase the thought away because it makes no difference. I’m promised to him. He’s promised to me. He is my future. These doubts can’t govern me. So what if Valen is a sweet thorn in my heart? Soon he’ll leave, and I’ll never see him again.
Remember that,I tell myself sternly.Don’t attach yourself to a man who is bound to leave. A man—a fae—whose company you’re not supposed to like, let alone crave. You know that won’t end well.
It shouldn’t even be a consideration in the first place.
