“Of course I did,” she murmured, and his eyes darted to hers. She didn’t know what he saw he in them, but a moment later, he swayed closer to her, almost like he couldn’t help himself.
Had he always been this tall, she wondered dazedly, staring up at him as he loomed over her. His long blonde hair fell between them, framing his chiseled jaw, which he had clenched hard. The steel grey of his eyes seemed to pierce right through her.
He raised his other hand to her cheek, thumb tracing her cheekbone, and her breath stuttered in her throat.
“Luka,” she said softly, her own hand finding its way to his collar as she took a step closer to him, unable to help herself.
She forgot what she wanted to say, though, now that she was close enough to see that his eyes had dilated, and that his gaze was riveted to her open mouth…
As Luka leaned in closer, Maya's breath caught in her throat. She could feel the heat of his body radiating off of him, and she found herself leaning in too, drawn to him like a magnet. Their faces were so close now that she could feel his breath on her lips.
Maya’s heart was pounding so loudly that she was sure Luka could hear it. Her hands trembled at her sides, and she wondered if he could feel the electricity between them.
Her heart was pounding, her breath coming in harsh pants, and he was staring at her with such heat in his eyes that she couldn't take it anymore; she leaned up, her mouth a whisper away from his, his hot breath ghosting over her lips as she strained upwards to close the small gap between them…
“Your Highness?”
She gasped, blinking furiously as if dazed. Luka hunched over her, as if protecting her from the man’s prying gaze, before seeming to realize that they were still alone.
“It is a spell,” he muttered in her ear, and Maya fought a shiver at the sensation of his breath on her neck.
Maya’s fingers went to the gem at her throat and she took a deep breath, trying to calm her racing heart.
Luka murmured a mage spell under his breath, and then spoke loudly. “Yes, Stoffel?”
“Apologies, Your Highness, but you are needed back at the house.”
“I see.” Luka sighed. “I shall be there shortly.”
“With Lady von Rakhmonov?”
Luka’s gaze met hers, before skittering away from hers as he drew in a harsh inhale.
“Yes. We are done here.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
Luka was avoiding her, and he knew it.
Even worse, he was sure Maya knew he knew it.
But he couldn’t help it. After everything that had happened over the last week, their arguments, the confessions—and now thisthingbetween them—he wasn’t sure he could be trusted to have a civil conversation with Maya, one that didn’t include magic, or raised voices.
Luckily for him, after Stoffel had interrupted…whatever it was that had been about to happen between them on the practice grounds…Luka had a lot of work to keep him busy.
Stoffel had come with news that the Elven delegation would be arriving the next day. The Elves had stopped at the court to have an audience with the Tsar as soon as they’d arrived on Drakazov soil, as was customary. Now, they were making their way west, to Kamenev.
There was much to be done to get everything ready for them. Luka could trust the housekeeper and the butler to have the rooms ready, but the terms of the treaty between them would have to be worked out more carefully.
He and Stoffel needed to go through the document carefully to ensure that they had missed nothing. It meant that they were both ensconced in Luka’s study for most of the day and well into the night. He had missed seeing Maya entirely, since even at mealtimes, he and Stoffel had requested trays of food to be brought to them.
And now the Elves would be with them. And the Sunvaarans.
He’d received a letter from the Crown Princess in the afternoon, sent by a teleportation spell so that it arrived directly in the mage-spelled letterbox that he kept in his study for just such an occasion.
The box had glowed blue, and he and Stoffel had looked up in surprise.
“Are you expecting any correspondence, Your Highness?”
