Page 3 of Reluctantly Rogue

“We need to find her a new fiancé.”

This time my fist lands against his jaw solidly.

I wouldn't admit that it was intentional. I'm not sure that it was. But I didn't pull it back, I didn't swing to miss, and I knew that he wasn't going to duck.

Okay, maybe it was a little intentional.

He takes a step back, rubbing his jaw. “Knock it off.”

“We're not having a meeting here. We’re training.”

“We'reworking out.I need to talk this out.”

“No, you don’t.”

That plan is a terrible idea. He’s just being pissy because it’s starting to sink in that he’s not going to get his way. The king is not stepping down until Torin marries Linnea. Period.

My fist flexes inside my glove. Fuck, I want to swing.

The sooner he marries her, though, the sooner the dirty fucking dreams will stop.

Surely.

Becausethenmy brain will finally accept the truth that she’s his, that she cannotbe mine, and it will stop torturing me every damned night.

Telling myself that now isn’t working. Every time I think it, there’s that niggling voice that says,but it’s not official. He hasn’t proposed. He doesn’t want her. She doesn’t want him either. Kissing her was not cheating.

Okay, so it wasn’t cheating. It was still a bad idea. Because eventually she’ll marry him and I cannot spend the rest of my life reliving that kiss, the taste of her, the feel of her, thesoundof her…

“Dammit, fight me,” I tell him, harshly. Ineedto work out. I need to hit things. If he’s not going to let me hit him—probably a good call really, considering he’s the guy who’s going to be calling Linnea ‘my wife’, whether he wants to or not—then I need to go find another of the bodyguards to work out with. Or a punching bag that I truly can just pummel.

“No.” He drops his hands. “I need to talk to you about this and this is the only place no one bothers us.”

It's true. The rest of the staff doesn't come down here. They're probably afraid that I'm going to make them work out. Or that I’ll hit one of them. No one else is allowed to spar with Torin, so they’d have to work out with me.

And the room is relatively soundproof.

“The only solution is to find her someone else,” he says. Repeating the ridiculous idea.

“I assume you’re talking about Linnea,” I say. I wonder if he ever notices the hitch in my voice when I say her name.

Probably not. I'm sure that my best friend has no idea that I'm in love with his fiancée.

I've never been in love before so Torin would have no idea what that looks like on me for one thing. For another, he would never expect something like that to happen. Linnea and I are a very unlikely match. And nothing can ever come of it. I’m sure it hasn’t even occurred to him.

“Of course I’m talking about Linnea. Who else would I be trying to set up?”

His sister is married, his niece is too young, and I can't think of any other women in his life that would be important enough to him to be looking for a boyfriend.

“Put your damned hands up,” I say in a clipped tone no one but his grandfather gets away using with him.

He puts his gloves up in front of his face, but he frowns. “I'll keep going. If you talk to me about this.”

“I'll talk to you about this if I can be swinging at your face while I do it.”

“Why are you acting pissed?”

“Because this is a terrible idea, but I know you’re going to insist on pulling me into it somehow.”

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