Page 3 of Of Bargains & Betrayal

The warmth of his body drew me back in before I yielded to a full-bodied sigh driven more by disappointment than satisfaction.

This was exactly why I’d asked him to leave.

Some distant relative of feelings was floating to the forefront of my mind, like fish with razor-sharp teeth ready to breach the placid surface, and I refused to give it a lick of air. If I gave them breath now, they’d never go back under.

Not on the day I was forced to leave everything I knew behind.

As if his slumbering form knew the silent battle I was waging, strong fingers curled around my side, squeezing softly.

Goddess above, I’d miss this.

And not just Theo—though I sought his company more often than I cared to admit—but what his sporadic presence represented at its most base form: my autonomy.

My freedom to come and go.

To dress for comfort—not expectations.

To volunteer for any cavalry assignment I wanted.

To have my bed warmed at my discretion.

Some of that liberty had fallen away in recent months already, in the special guard detail monitoring my every action, reporting my unfavorable activities to my newly crowned half-brother. In the stationed bodies outside my door and my windows, posted outside of every one of my haunts. Just in case I bolted. Again.

Spending the last thirty-one years of my life as the beloved bastard child—and only daughter—of a benevolent king had accorded me comforts I’d taken for granted, comforts most women of the lower court were rarely granted, let alone one of my unusual position. Still, I spent too many years ignorant of the true value of the freedom constructed for me with care, far more precious than any gem or metal mined from the deepest veins of the sprawling mountains we called home.

Freedom I only had for another day.

“Theo,” I finally groaned, my voice hoarse with sleep and the sixth pitcher of wine we’d shared.

A muffled grunt responded.

He slept like a fucking log too.

“Theo,” I ground out again, working my hand beneath him to pinch the taught planes of his stomach with all the force I could muster.

Faster than an unconscious man should have, my paramour peeled away from me like lightning into the clouds and fired one hell of a sleepy scowl my way.

“What the fuck, Nor?” came his rasp as his russet eyes filled with betrayal.

A quiet chuckle slipped out of me, and I curled up on my side, reaching over to brush an errant ebony lock from his face. “Morning to you too, Theo.”

Everything about him softened, and he settled onto his side with a lazy smile. “Morning, princess.”

“I see you didn’t get dressed or leave.”

“Well, seeing as you gave those instructions while you used me as a pillow and then fell asleep on me…” Theo cocked a dark brow; there were likely a thousand other reasons why that he wanted to add to the list. “No, Nora, I did neither of those things. Hell, I didn’t even hear the tolling of the first bell. I was so fucking spent.”

The smirk that crawled across my lips was one I had little control over.

“You’re welcome.” I rolled onto my back and stretched away the remaining dredges of my sleepiness with a petulant grumble.

Theo’s hand brushed my stomach, no doubt ready to haul me back for an encore of our last performance, but I was an object in unstoppable motion. Pushing upright, I swung my legs over the bed and pulled my burgundy and cream robe from where it lived draped over the edge of my headboard.

“Nora…” came Theo’s whine of protest.

“No time for dallying this morning.” I swept the cool silk across my shoulders and tugged it over my arms before I tiptoed across the frigid stone floors to draw back a few curtains. “Joyce is coming to help me pack, because, apparently, I’ve put it off too long, and she’ll have another one of those combustion episodes if she finds you naked in my bed again.”

Theo chuckled, and then he sighed, and I heard the soft thud of him slumping back onto the mattress. “I think I’m still in disbelief. Never thought you’d be shipped off to get married.”