Page 163 of The Forsaken Heir
She rolled her eyes and heaved a dramatic sigh. “Men. They always know the worst times to interrupt.”
“It wasn’t his fault,” I said. “It looked like he had something important to discuss with him. That’s all.”
“Uh, huh,” Delphine said, eyeing me suspiciously. “He caught you being naughty, didn’t he? I can tell by that blood-red face of yours.”
The blood-red face turned a shade or two darker at her words, and I carefully studied my nails.
“We were…wrestling,” I said judiciously.
“With clothes on?”
“Holy shit! Yes, with clothes on. We were training. It’s not like Aurelius was gonna bang me on the yard out front of his house in broad daylight.”
Even as I said the words, a mental image of exactly that played across my mind. Me face down, fingers digging into the grass as Aurelius slammed into me from behind. I blinked away the thought as fast as I could.
I chewed on my lower lip. “Do you think the king knows? About, uh, us, I mean?”
“Oh, sweetie,” Delphine said in an almost condescending manner. She took a seat beside me and patted my leg. “Everyone in the castle knows.”
“What?” I hissed. “What do you mean,everyone?”
She clicked her tongue. “Dear girl,” she said, giving me an evenmorecondescending look than before. “You two weren’t exactly that quiet the other night in the butler’s pantry, or the other afternoon in the west wing library. I hope you at least locked the doors both of those times.”
I buried my face in my hands. “Oh mygod.”
Aurelius and I had beenmuchmore physical since his return, that was true. I’d been so sure I’d lost him that I wanted to take every opportunity to be intimate with him. I guess we’d gotten a bit too overzealous. Now I was mortified.
“I mean, it wasn’t like you were heard through the whole castle, but it was loud enough that a few heard, and words spread.” she patted my back gently. “It’s not that big a deal.”
“You’ve got to be shitting me. You’re saying everyone in the castle knows I’ve been having sex with Aurelius, and that’s not a big deal?”
She shrugged. “You’re both consenting adults. Who cares? He’s the prince. Some of those Hikshil folks have different ideas about things like that, which means they could probably care less anyway. It’s fine. You shouldn’t worry about it.”
Suddenly, amorehorrifying thought occurred to me, and an icy cold fist squeezed around my heart.
“Do you think that’s why Cassius came down?” I asked. “To talk to him about our relationship?”
“I doubt that,” Delphine said, sitting back and cinching her robe tighter. “He has bigger things to worry about than who his son spends his evening with, right?”
“But his son is the future king. I’m a nobody from a wolf shifter family, who can’t even shift. I’m not exactly the best match for a prince.”
Anger flashed in Delphine’s eyes. “Enough of that.Stop. It always breaks my heart when you talk about yourself like that.”
Chastised, I lowered my eyes. Part of me knew she was right. The negative self-talk was not a great way to spend my time. It was a one-way trip to mental health purgatory. Part of me had always wanted to wallow in self-deprecation and feelings of inferiority. Much as I didn’t want to think about it, that small corner of my mind tended to be pretty willful when it came to pessimism.
“We touched on this earlier,” Delphine said, “but if you care for him, then who cares about anything else?”
I scrubbed my hands over my face and sighed heavily. “I guess so.” Even to my ears, I sounded more defeated than hopeful.
“How does he make you feel? Does he make you happy?”
“He does. Hereallydoes. Do you think there might be a chance? I don’t see how, but do you see a possibility?”
She smiled at me. “There’s always hope, dear.Always.”
“He’s gonna be king, though. How can a man be king if his mate can’t bear him children? Doesn’t that make things sort of pointless? The best I could hope for would be becoming his side piece or something.”
“Don’t say that. I’ll die before I allow you to become some nobleman’s mistress. And you are really hung up on this heir thing. It’s all you seem to be able to talk about.”
