Page 67 of The Stallion & The Tigress
“Sahar asked me directly,” Aleksi said aftera long, terse moment.“I told her the truth.”
“Which was?”the king said.
“That we made a bargain, you and I.I wouldwatch over her and make sure she returned home safely, and youwould pay me one hundred gold pieces whether I won the race ornot.”Aleksi turned to Sahar, his expression somber.“I would’vedone it without the promise of your father’s coin.Nothing short ofdeath would’ve stopped me from going after you.”
“I know,” she murmured.And she did.
“I knew this also,” her father said.“That’swhy I asked you, Aleksandr.As king and father, I am neither deafnor blind to what goes on in my household.Ratter was not the onlyperson to notice you two ‘courtin ‘n sparkin’ as he put it.Thepromise of coin was to repay you if you lost the race due tocircumstances exactly like these.”
Sahar and Aleksi both sat silent, neitherlooking at the other.Her father slowly looked from one to theother, his gaze settling on Aleksi.
“My only question now is, could my daughterbe pregnant?”
Sahar’s mouth went dry and her mind wentempty.She’d thought she was prepared for her father asking, butnow that he had, she couldn’t speak or think.
“I have sworn to stay until we know forcertain, one way or another,” Aleksi said, and his voice wasamazingly steady and sure under her father’s heated stare.“I haveoffered marriage if there is a babe.”
Her father looked to Sahar.
“I have accepted, if there is a babe.”
Aleksi rolled his bandaged shoulder anddonned one of the king’s clean tunics.They were of a similar sizeand the tunic fit well, its fine weave a testament to the rank ofits owner who sat nearby watching his daughter as she tucked intothe supper set out for them by the campfire.Aleksi’s empty stomachrumbled and growled, but he didn’t join Sahar.Though her fatherhadn’t said a word otherwise, Aleksi knew that his audience withthe king was not over yet.Not by a long shot.
“How is Munir?”Aleksi asked, eager to getthe coming interrogation done and over with.
“His ribs and his shoulder will heal,” theking answered as he turned around to face him.“He told me youjumped into the river and saved his life.”
“He would’ve done the same for me.”
“Yes,” the king said.“He would have.I sentword to your father, informing him of what I knew of thesituation.”
“What?Why?”
“Because he’s your father.”
“I doubt he will worry himself overmuch aboutit.”About me.
The king studied Aleksi for a long moment,but said nothing further.Aleksi recalled hearing that there hadbeen no love lost between the Black Mane and his father, thePanther, even before the Swan.He recalled too what Sahar had saidabout how his father could’ve been protecting Aleksi fromTheodesia, and the little seed of hope her insight had planted deepin his soul stirred in light of her father’s words.
Because he is your father.
Sahar’s father still watched him with thoseuncanny cat eyes that his daughter had inherited, along with abackbone of forged iron.
“Do you love her?”
Aleksi did not need to ask who the king meantany more than the king needed to name her.
“I admire her, and desire her, both her mindand her body,” he answered honestly.He had seen the way the kinglooked at his wife and queen of twenty plus years, the manunderstood desire.“I believe she feels the same about me, but theword love has never been spoken between us.”
“I see.”
“You do?Because truly, I don’t.”
The king gave him a sympathetic chuckle,which was much better than an irate punch.“You two will have sometime to work it out,” he said, and then he narrowed his gaze onAleksi.“There will be no more chances at making babies.Do weunderstand each other?”
“We do.”Aleksi was alive and in one piece,and he intended to stay that way, which should not prove to be toodifficult.There was little chance of Sahar taking him into her bedas things stood between them now.
Aleksi woke in the dark before dawn, reachinghis arm out for the soft, familiar warmth of Sahar and finding onlyhard ground.He pushed his cold, kinked body up to sitting andgazed over the sleeping figure of the king, whose bedroll wasplanted firmly between Aleksi’s and Sahar’s to see her stillsleeping, peaceful and safe.He ran a hand through his hair,scratching his scalp, and then rubbed his face and arms to bringsome blood and heat into them.He stood and walked over to a copseof bushes to relieve himself, and met Brawn coming back on theway.
