I fought the urge to retreat. “No. I don’t keep any, anyway.”
“Oh, I doubtthat. Everyone has secrets.”
My eyes narrowed. “Everyone? Including...you?”
A lazy smile lifted his mouth. “Especially me.”
A shudder danced down my spine. Little did he realize I knew all about his private sins. His secrets had arrived before he had, and now I kept them in my armoire drawer, not five paces from where he’d slept last night.
“But I don’t feel like sharing unless you do,” he said. “So why not tell me what the seneschal’s paying you?”
“I already said,” I hissed. “Nothing. Now why’d you come? You don’t need another title, much less a territory. So what’re you hoping to gain here?”
Kyven glanced to Amryssa again. She’d now extended a finger to serve as a perch for a gargantuan purple butterfly—the wretched thing had three wings that shivered and flexed as she murmured to it.
“You wouldn’t understand,” he said, again with that hint of softness.
Fakesoftness, clearly. “Try me.”
“Try you? I tried with you last night. At which point you made it abundantly clear that you’d rather I hadn’t.”
My pulse kicked. I groped for my dagger, tried my utmost not to stab him, and only barely succeeded.
“And on the subject of motivations,” he continued, “what does it matter whether I marry her? If you can’t keep your new title, money’s the next best thing, and Olivian must’ve offered you plenty. So what do you care what happens after the annulment?”
I mashed my lips together, but he didn’t warrant the effort of lying. “Icarebecause Amryssa can’t stay here. She has to go to Hightower.”
“Ah.” The wrinkle between his eyes smoothed away. “You mean to accompany her, then? Perform a heroic act of self-sacrifice by living in luxury with her in the capital?”
I gritted my teeth so hard my molars creaked. Goddess, this fucker was giving me the mother of all headaches. “You know what? You’re wasting my breath. Just marry her when the time comes, okay?” Because in the end, it didn’t matter what Kyven hoped to find here. He only needed to live long enough to make Amryssa a princess.
“Oh, I don’t know that it’s that simple.” He rubbed at his jaw. “Now that I’ve met her, I don’t exactly trust her ability to refuse.”
I paused, my brows pinching. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Well, last night, I gave you a choice. But look at her. How’s a man supposed to marry a girl like that? Much less bed her? It...wouldn’t be right.”
I chewed on that. Thinking about them...entwinedmade me want to shove him off the roof, but I didn’t plan on letting it go that far. I’d get rid of him right after the vows. “I’m sure you can manage. You married me without any trouble.”
“You asked me to.”
“Okay. But you had no problem trying to”—I swallowed against a dry throat—“bedme.”
His eyelids lowered. “And I would’ve kept you up all night, lioness, if you’d let me. Trust me on that.”
Queasiness rolled through me, lifting my stomach and dropping it again. Shit. Why had I eaten that extra biscuit with breakfast? It wasn’t sitting right.
“But I’ve always preferred my women spirited. The Lady Amryssa doesn’t appear to have heard the word.”
I frowned. “She’s stronger than you think.”
“She looks like a stiff breeze would carry her off.”
“You’re underestimating her.” My tone heated, as if I could pour enough acid into my voice to scald him. “Not that you care, or even deserve to hear it, but any man would be lucky to call her ‘wife.’ Amryssa’s better than anyone I’ve ever met. She’s generous. Self-sacrificing. She’d take an arrow for anyone without even thinking, whether they deserved it or not. And I don’t know about you, but that kind of selflessness isn’t something I come across every day. Maybe not ever again. Which makes her worthy of respect. She’s the most unselfishperson I know, and I wouldn’t have married you for anyone else’s sake.”
He fell silent. Something in his eyes changed—a subtle clearing of space, almost, like clouds parting, or a crowd thinning to reveal someone I hadn’t expected. Someone who now considered me with interest, as if I were a puzzle in need of solving.
“I think you might actually mean that,” he mused.
