Page 15 of Stolen Princess's Secret

So he held his arm out, wrists turned up like a supplicant, as she fastened the half dozen buttons on first one cuff and then the other. He’d never been this up close and personal with her before—not as an adult. Those times when they were kids and had stretched out on the rug in front of his father’s hearth as they pored over picture books of falcons didn’t count. He hadn’t been aware of her back then as anything but a forbidden friend who needed protection.

Her fingers were warm against his skin and her delicate touch set up a chain reaction that fizzed along his veins. She brushed her thumb over his wrist when she was done and he wondered whether it was normal for a man’s pulse rate to triple beneath the act of a woman helping him put his clothes on.

‘Coat next or boots?’ she asked, and the words were plain as could be but the husky intimacy of her voice did nothing to slow his heart rate.

‘Boots.’ He sat on the hard wooden seat of the blanket box at the end of his bed and reached for them. Never had his room felt so small. ‘Why are you here?’

‘To help you prepare for your meeting with my brother. For some strange reason, he suspected an emergency might lead you elsewhere.’

She went to kneel before him and he stood abruptly and stopped her with a hand beneath her elbow. He shouldn’t be touching her uninvited, but he couldn’t be thinking about that now. ‘Don’t ever kneel before me.’ He might never let her up.

‘It’s not weakness to honour a man so.’ She held his gaze with a steady one of her own and he was the first to look away.

‘Within the borders of intimacy, maybe. Not for the likes of you and me.’

‘Why not you and me? You might like it.’

He definitely would like it just a little too much.

‘You’re sister to a king. I am my father’s son. We shouldn’t be doing any of this. Not the fighting. Not the flirting. Not this.’ He let her go and stepped into his boots and lifted his foot up on the chest and started on the laces. ‘I am but your humble servant.’

‘Humble servant?’ He glanced up just in time to see the ghost of a wry smile on her lips. ‘Hardly. A week ago, the falcon you bred and trained for speed won the most prestigious race in four kingdoms and fifty million dollars in prize money.’

So it had.

‘Your brother’s bird, your brother’s money.’

‘And your win. Your face as it happened was as proud and fierce as any king’s.’

‘You should have been watching the falcon.’

‘And miss seeing you in action? I’m not that stupid. As for my royal blood being a barrier to any future association between us, my blood may not be as blue as you think. My so-called father believed my mother slept with his brother and had decided I was no child of his long before I was born. A cuckoo in his nest, so to speak.’

Tomas couldn’t hide his shock. He’d never heard such rumours—and he would have if they’d ever been circulated. ‘Who told you that?’

‘Cas.’

He didn’t want to believe any of it. And yet...

‘Explains a lot, doesn’t it,’ Claudia continued. ‘My mother took her own life—can’t ask her. Cas believes his father murdered my father. Fratricide, they call it. All of them taking their secrets to the grave. Cas doesn’t care who sired me so long as I stand by his side as his sister, serve as a bridge between Byzenmaach and the north, and keep our family secrets secret.’

‘Then why tell me? Why not do as your king commands and hold your tongue?’

‘Because before we reach the palace, I want you to believe beyond doubt that I’m in no way bound by titles and blood status. You could have befriended me at any time these past months. You must know I crave your company.’

‘I know you think you do. I still haven’t figured out why.’

‘Look to your character. I like it. Hell, look in a mirror. Think about what happens whenever we touch.’

‘Nothing happens.’

‘Speak for yourself. I get shivers.’

‘Nothing happens.’

‘Imagine what would happen if we ever had sex. If you say nothing happens I’m going to revert to toddlerhood and pull your hair.’

He smirked. He couldn’t help it.

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