Page 113 of The King's Maiden

The plan hadn’t been to care about Landon, and it was the last thing I expected to happen when I came back here after the Maiden Selection. I also hadn’t been expecting to care about theKingsitting in front of me—the one still transfixed by my mouth.

“You know, none of this was supposed to happen, right?”

Busy memorizing the shape of my lips, Kingston raised his eyebrows. “Hm?”

I pushed my finger under his chin to redirect his eyes upward. “I wasn’t supposed to care. About you, about him.” I swept my gaze around the room as if it were all of Camelot Court and The Quest. “About any of this.”

“Yes, you were.” His hands slipped down from cupping my jaw to cradling my neck. “You just forgot how for a little while. You’ve been afraid to feel because you know better than most how love opens your heart up to loss.”

His thumb stroked up the column of my throat. And even though he said Landon hadn’t shared details with him, I sensed that he knew—that his mind was on the pain I still held there in my neck. That somehow he felt it, too.

“You deserve to feel everything good in this world, Quinn Everly. To care and be cared for—to love with your whole heart. Without limits or fear.” His eyes swept over the room like mine had. “You deserve all of it.”

And for the first time in a year, a small part of me thought,maybe.

Maybe I did. Or at the very least, maybe I could learn to believe that again.

When Landon got back that night, it was after midnight. I woke up on the chaise where I’d been reading and waiting up for him. All he said was I should get some rest and that we had a lot of work to do the next day. That was all the explanation I got.

He showered quickly and went to sleep, and he didn’t make me join him in bed.

Naturally, I slept like a champ after that.

The next morning, he left early to take care of some things. Again, without much to say. That made trust harder to hold on to, and I was struggling when he found me later that day, sitting under the lemon tree and staring out at the water.

After my talk with Kingston the day before and Landon’s abrupt withdrawal, I’d needed some time to think about everything. My life choices, my growing attraction to thr—two—equally vague and confusing guys. I figured under a lemon tree was as good a place as any.

I ended up spending the whole day out there, though, oddly calm under its branches.

Even as some of the other Knights and Maidens came out, heading down to the lake to ease their hangovers with a swim, I sat there. Ignoring Vivian’s tired remarks about my whore ways. Refusing to return Max’s searing gaze as she dragged him away. Peeking at his bare back while he scowled on the shoreline and averting my eyes as soon as he looked back at me.

No doubt plotting how to get rid of me or insinuate how he’d fuck me if I asked for it.

I thanked my lucky stars I had been blessed with my dad’s stubbornness and iron will. It was the only thing keeping me from marching down there and telling him he’d been right.

The White Knight had left me high and dry and he could take care of the problem.

Except that created a different set of problems.

One—I still hated him.

Two—I wanted to win The Quest more than anyone oranything.Even the reminder of my biggest regret.

And three—even if he made the sex worth it, I’d have to see his stupid, smug face afterward and that would ruin it for me.

I deserved more than that.

Maybe.

So, I just sat there. Long after they all went inside to start their nightly rounds of training, I sat there until my eyes drifted shut. Until Landon walked up and sat down beside me.

He didn’t say anything.

He just held out his hand and waited for me to take it before leading me to the Round Tableau.

And then, he showed me what it meant to be a Maiden. What it meant to be led by trust.

What it meant to behis.

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