Page 71 of The King's Maiden

But her response wasn’t what I expected. “You’re not like us, Quinn. You’re not from our world. Most of us have grown up knowing about The Quest. I get it can be a little jarring from the outside, but honestly, the whole punishment thing, it rarely comes down to anything serious. You’ve seen the guys. So, your Knight wants some head to start the day? Why fight it when you know he’s going to make you come right after?”

I understood her logic. But she sank her talons in my arm to keep me from leaving the table. “If it’s not that bad, why can’t I go back to the room?”

“Because no one shirks an order from the King. Not evenhisMaiden.”

My eyebrows rose. “Why did you say it like that?”

I still didn’t know what the hell that meant—me beinghere for the King—but she obviously resented the title.

Elaine set her fork and knife on the table and wiped her mouth with her napkin. “Some of these traditions, like the selection process, this luncheon and the party next week, they’ve been a part of The Quest for generations. It’s one thing to be punished for my own actions, but it’s a different story to be punished for yours. You don’t have to agree with the traditions to go along with them for everyone else’s sake.”

Maybe in her world that was how it worked.

But I’d been taught different lessons growing up, and I thanked my lucky stars I had grown up with parents who taught me to keep my head strong and let my inner voice guide me, rather than the expectations of others.

Maybe that made me an outsider to everyone else at Camelot Court. Maybe that meant I was different from Elaine and the other Maidens.

That didn’t bother me one bit.

But why hadn’t Landon hadn’t treated me like the other Knights treated their Maidens?

So far, he’d left the option for more up to me. Without any additional pressure of being pushed before I was ready. Or fear over being punished.

Maybe he was more chivalrous than controlling. Maybe he was different, too.

And if that was the case…

I was in more trouble than I’d originally thought.

Chapter Twenty

QUINN

Imade it through the rest of the week without being propositioned. And honestly, that confused me more than it relieved me, which meant I seriously needed to have my head examined.

No matter how many times I told myself I shouldnotbe attracted to Landon, or I needed to stop fantasizing about Landon, or I couldnotgive in to Landon…

It wouldn’t take.

He’d made it clear that, while he would no doubt be a very skilled lover, he wanted rules and to draw more lines between us than a toddler doing arts and crafts.

To him, this was a job—training me for The Quest.

And I was here to win it. Get the money and get out. That was the plan, and I had to stick to it. While I needed Landon to do that, I didnotneed to catch feelings or get attached. Especially since I’d already kissed Kingston.

But still, I found myself drawn to him.

So, I thought he was hot. That didn’t mean Ilikedhim. It only meant I wasn’t blind. Because with his eyes like warm honey andcloves, a body that seemed to be pure, glorious muscle, and the completely unfair size of his dick, the guywashot.

I wished—I wholeheartedly fucking wished—his personality negated all of it like I had thought it might the first night.

But unfortunately, that wasn’t the case.

The more time I spent around him, even doing normal things like cooking in the main house’s kitchen, reading in his room, or walking the expansive grounds of campus, the more obvious it became.

He was nothing like my ex or guys I’d wanted in the past. Broody and dark—he waswaytoo serious for someone our age. His self-control bordered on slightly obsessive, and he adhered to his routines like he had an internal schedule hardwired into his brain. But eventhatdidn’t diminish how attractive he was.

To me, it only made him hotter.

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