Page 131 of The Shadows Between Us
“If I were a better man, I would send you away,” he says. “My life is dangerous. There’s always someone trying to kill me. Even if this threat has been dealt with, there will be others. You could get hurt by being close to me.”
“Good thing you’re not a better man.” I take off his cravat, start on the buttons of his shirt. “Why?” I ask. “Why didn’t you take me last night?”
“I wasn’t sure if you wanted to. Or if you wanted to wait until after the wedding. You didn’t—”
“I want to.” I rip off the last button after it slips through my fingers for the second time.
And then he carries me to the bed.
The Shadow King, it turns out, was well worth the wait.
THE FORMER QUEEN’S SITTINGroom is nowmysitting room. I still have a mind to redecorate it, but for now it’s the perfect place for Rhoda, Hestia, and I to spend some time alone.
Especially when I have so much to tell them.
“What was it like?” Hestia wants to know. “Being with a king?”
“It was… better than anything I could have imagined,” I say. “But I don’t think it had anything to do with the fact that Kallias is a king.”
It is his patience, his ability to hold himself back until the right moment that makes him such a good lover.
“What of you and Lord Paulos?” I ask. “Have you two…?”
“No,” she says simply. “I asked him if we could wait until after the wedding.”
“Has he pressured you?” I ask, suddenly growing protective of my friend.
“Oh, no. He’s been wonderful about it. You might think I’m silly, but I just want to wait until I’m his wife.”
I take her hand in mine. “There is nothing silly about waiting until you want to. Don’t let anyone ever tell you otherwise. It is your body to do with as you will.”
She smiles at me then, and I worry that I might be the first person to tell her that.
Waiting. Not waiting. One lover. A hundred lovers. There should be no judgment either way. A woman is not defined by what she does or doesn’t do in the bedroom.
“What of you, Rhoda?” Hestia asks. “What’s the latest with you and Galen?”
“If it were up to me, I would have bedded him after the ball,” Rhoda says. “Galen wants to wait. He muttered some nonsense about preserving my virtue. But if you ask me? He wants to wait until we’re married so I can’t change my mind. As if he has anything to worry about!”
“Perhaps you need to be a bit more persuasive,” I suggest.
“I’m open to ideas.”
“Have you tried waiting for him in his bed at night?”
“Yes!”
“Already naked?”
She opens her mouth. Pauses. “No.”
“He won’t resist that.” In a more practical voice, I add, “You’d think he’d be a little more grateful after being made a lord. He should be worshipping you.”
“So true,” Rhoda says. She sighs.
And I look at my two friends. My first real friends. I thought women were always my competitors, people to be jealous of. How wrong I was.
We’re all just so happy. I hope it lasts forever.
