Page 60 of Between Two Kings

I beg to differ. You, of all people, are up to the task.

Don’t flatter me.

It is not flattery. Merely fact.

The way he said it made her blush. The conversation was becoming too real—too intimate. Tem had to create some distance. So she said out loud, “I don’t want to hurt Caspen.”

Apollo let out a soft chuckle, speaking out loud to match her. “My brother and I have done this dance for centuries, Temperance. It would be a mistake for you to think you are the first person to find yourself in this position.”

And what a position it was. Tem understood what Apollo was implying: that he and Caspen had done this before—that she was not the first to come between them. But Tem had no desire to repeat history.

“I’m loyal to him,” she insisted.

“No one said you were not. Do you consider this conversation disloyal?”

“I consider it a nuisance.”

“Is that so? Your heart says otherwise.”

“My heart?”

“I can hear it beating, Temperance. It speeds up whenever you look at me.”

Tem looked pointedly at the ground. Caspen had told her the same thing the first time they’d eaten a meal together. Your heartbeat, he’d said. It is irregular.

“My heartbeat is none of your business.”

“And yet, it beats so loudly, I can hear nothing else.”

“Well, stop listening.”

“You are rather difficult to tune out, Temperance.”

Tem didn’t know whether that was a compliment, and quite frankly she no longer cared. The evening had not gone at all as planned. She hadn’t expected to talk to Evelyn, hadn’t expected to witness a protest in the village, hadn’t expected to run into Apollo. It was late and she was alone with her husband’s brother, and nothing that was happening right now felt even remotely within her control.

She shook her head, trying to clear it. “How can you speak to me like that?”

To her surprise, Apollo laughed. “I like the way you blush when I do it.”

Tem resisted touching her fingers to her cheeks. She didn’t need to touch them to know that they were warm. Apollo just made her so…flustered.

“I’m blushing because I’m angry. Not because you’re flirting.”

“Are you, now? Fascinating. I have never heard of an angry blush. You must be the first to experience it.”

“Then I guess I’m the first.”

“How thrilling,” he said, tilting his head. “To be such a trailblazer.”

Tem rolled her eyes. There was absolutely nothing to be done with him. He was unreasonable. She couldn’t believe he would act this way, especially when he knew she was married to his brother. It didn’t matter that basilisks did things differently. This wasn’t the way to do things. She should leave. She should tell him good night and walk away. So why didn’t she?

The truth was that she didn’t want to. Tem wanted Apollo to listen to her heartbeat—to continue standing far too close to her. It felt right to be in his vicinity. Here, in the quiet of the passageway, Tem knew temptation. She understood what it meant to look at Apollo and want to touch him—to want him to touch her. She remembered the first night of mating season, how the couple had fucked on the mattress before her—how she hadn’t come until her eyes had met Apollo’s.

But it didn’t matter. He wasn’t Caspen.

“This belongs to your brother,” Tem said firmly.

“This? Are you an object?”