Page 102 of The Fifth Life of Alicia
“I have no idea. You’d have to ask Hayes. I paid no attention to such trivial things.”
“How can you pay marriage proposals no attention?”
“Because,” he said, meeting my eyes. “If I were interested in any of those women, I’d have pursued them myself.”
“That… makes quite a lot of sense,” I acquiesced. “Should I be honoured you pursued me, Your Highness?”
His eyes darkened. “You should be honoured I don’t chop off one of your fingers every time you call me that.”
“Thank you for your graciousness.”
“Even now, you don’t use my name.”
“Why should I? You’re not going to cut off my fingers either way.” I gently set down the cup and met his gaze. “Contrary to the rumours swirling in society about you, you’re not actually a cruel person.”
“Really,” he replied flatly. “What makes you so sure?”
“Cruel people don’t forgive their fiancée for failing to greet them on their return from a dangerous mission where, by doing so, they reject the customary gift,” I answered, heat flooding my cheeks with the bit of shame I felt over that whole thing. “Nor do they wait for them to wake up to greet them. Cruel people don’t give gifts just because.” I motioned at the boxes on the table in front of me. “Quite honestly, I didn’t want to come here, and I objected heavily to my father accepting your proposal. I’m sure you knew that.”
He nodded sharply.
“But ever since I arrived, the servants, knights, and you have been nothing but considerate to me. You let me barge into your office, order your aide around, steamroll my way into the creation of a governmental policy, choose my own knight, and just generally do as I please. You also accepted my slightly unreasonable request for a longer engagement, even though such a thing could hurt your position. Through it, all you’ve asked of me is that we have dinner together every night and faithfully act the part of your fiancée in public.”
Kalon scratched one finger slowly across his jaw. “When you put it that way, I’ve been far too nice to you.”
I held up my hand. “Don’t forget about offering up the heads of my enemies.”
“That seems to be my greatest selling point in your eyes—the fact that I will dispose of all the people who do you wrong and gift you their heads. I had no idea you were so morbid, darling.”
“Oh, come on. You can’t tell me that you wouldn’t like it if I told you I’d behead all your enemies for you.”
“I don’t need you to behead my enemies. I’m quite capable of doing it myself.”
“You’re entirely missing the point. What if I said I’d silence all the people gossiping about you?”
He shrugged. “I’ve already told you that I don’t pay any attention to such needless things as gossip.”
I sagged back onto the sofa and looked up at the ceiling. “Forget it.”
“Don’t worry.” He got up and walked to me, then leant over, planting his hands either side of my head. “If you ever bring me the head of one of my enemies, I will be sure to mark it as a National Day of Celebration in Stein.”
“Are you sure you should be incentivising murder like that?” I blinked up at him, andholy crap, he was so close to me.
“I’d only do such a thing for you.Darling.” He quickly lowered his head and touched his lips to my forehead.
W—what?
“You should think about sleeping early,” Kalon said, straightening up. “We have a long day tomorrow.”
I touched my fingertips to where he’d just kissed me. “What about you?”
“It’s almost as if you’re concerned about me.”
“Do you think me heartless, Your Highness?”
He leant back over me again, pulling my hand away from my forehead. His face drew dangerously close to mine as he linked our fingers together in a tight grip on my hand, and my heart thumped emphatically at our closeness.
“Yes.” The purple of his eyes seemed to deepen with the word, but the golden part glowed. “You keep calling me Your Highness even though I’ve asked you to use my name.”
