Page 13 of Vows to a King
Heat poured up her neck and into her cheeks. She fought against the sudden shaking in her knees and forged on. “That heir you talk so casually about producing is first and foremost an innocent child. It’s the most important issue in all this.”
“Explain,” he said, for once very much the arrogant prince and not the scandalous devil.
“There is nothing in the world—no man or crown or kingdom, for which I’ll let my child be used as a political prize or pawn. If you have other ideas about the matter, we can call off this sham now.”
His eyes gleamed with something she thought might be sheer, giddy joy. Or was she imagining what she wanted to see? The man was like a chameleon, shedding and donning new skins too fast for her to track. “We’re in perfect agreement on that, Jemima. And it will be our child, not yours.”
Surprise made her mouth slack. His blue eyes glittered with a conviction she hadn’t expected. Especially of a man like him, who’d made an art out of escaping duty and commitment.
“And it should not be a sham either,” he said with a steely edge to his tone.
“What…do you mean?” she whispered.
He shrugged and even as her stomach twisted, Jemima couldn’t help admiring the sheer beauty of how he moved. “If we’re committed to doing this for Thalassos and we agree on not turning our child into a sacrificial lamb, then it should be as real as we can make it,ne?”
It was as if he’d already read her most secret desire and decided to use it to manipulate her. Just like her father had done for years. “No. It shouldn’t,” she bit out.
He raised a brow and studied her.
She tried her best to not flush under his scrutiny.
“Illuminate me, Princess.”
For once, there was no thread of mockery in his words and that made it so much harder to speak the truth. “Real means respect and understanding and fidelity and…”Love, though she didn’t say it—the mirage of everything that word constituted scared her. For she had never seen it being real.
And suddenly, she could see past the haze of desire and foolish longings clouding her usually clear head.
“You have decided that these are qualities I’m incapable of?” The silky thrust of his question pulsed with anger and…something more.
“No.” She folded her arms at her middle as a defense against her own stupid need to touch him. “What you’re suggesting means committing to each other before anything else. It means…love.”
He scoffed, though there was no mockery in it. His lack of conviction in the concept sounded as oceans deep as her own. “You think I’m that desperate to be loved by you, Princess? Or that I set much store by the concept?”
Jemima knew she was making a mess of things, but faced with her pull toward him, even as he mocked her, she couldn’t stop herself. “I simply think that the palace and the politics surrounding it and Thalassos itself doesn’t allow forrealmarriages. Fairy tales are for tricking the populace into thinking everything is well with their betters. It is better to keep oneself on the ground than to imagine flying and come crashing to earth.”
“With such diplomacy at your fingers, no wonder you’re in quite the demand around this place.” A smile bloomed on his lips, of a different shape than his mocking ones, swirling with a darker emotion. “You sound less eager this morning than you were last night, Princess.”
That he could read her so well was…surprising to say the least. She frowned, trying to corral a thousand thoughts into some semblance of sense. Hard enough to do without the magnetism of the man pulling at her. For a man who was reputed to know nothing but his own pleasure, he was…proving to be far too perceptive.
“Yesterday it seemed impossible that another prince of Thalassos would agree to wed me.”
“And this morning?”
“This morning is for reality,” she said without hesitating. “You’re marrying me under the influence of twisted guilt and a belated sense of duty, Adonis. While I believe that you want to thwart my father and crown council and do the best for Thalassos at a critical time, you and I both know this won’t be any more than a temporary arrangement. I’m more than happy to be your representative here in Thalassos when the choking grip of those emotions fades and you want to return to your…exciting life.”
“Your arrogance, thinking that you know me, is astounding, Princess.” His tone cooled and yet, she could feel the sharp blade of his anger. Feel his retreat in the distance he put between them, as if she was some vile, stinky thing. “Maybe I should shop around a little more for a more suitable bride then. All this cynicism is extremely off-putting.”
The idea of him with some stunning, sophisticated creature made an unnamed ache pulse through her. Which only struck her—with sharp clarity, how tangled her feelings were already about him. Not one day since his return and he affected her more than Adamos had in years. She’d already given up on the why of it.
“I didn’t realize your fragile ego needed a bride that would cling to you with limpid eyes and adoring delusions, even in marriage,” she said, hating the taste of the acerbic words on her lips. “After all, you’re not a stranger to that kind of devotion everywhere else in your life.”
“Ahh…” he said, a plasticky smile rising to his lips. “Using my reputation to attack my character…how original of you, Princess.”
“I’m not…doing that.” But her protest was both weak and false.
“And here I hoped for a peaceful, stable marriage, given I’m told what an amenable, practical creature you are.” The words dug deep under her skin and stung. “There are any number of pretty, willing, desperate daughters among the men of the crown council for me to choose from,ne?”
CHAPTER FOUR
