Page 106 of A Vow of Embers

“For . . . for being belligerent.”

“I’m not sure that’s something you can apologize for. Or else you’d owe me an apology every hour of every day.” There was definitely a teasing tone this time.

Quynh came to us, carrying a basket filled with treats. She told us that there were food tables set up that we could help ourselves to. The prince thanked her and I could only sit there with a tight smile. I hated this. Every part of it. It was almost worse seeing her in these small glimpses than not seeing her at all.

She left and Alexandros sat up to look through the basket. He handed me a pot of honey and fruit to dip into it.

As if he knew that it would have been the first thing that I would have selected. And he would have been right.

“Who is the other council member?” I asked, trying to play my part. I struggled with the lid on the pot and couldn’t break the seal.

He took it from me and easily popped off the lid and then handed it back. “Stolos. He comes from a very old and very prominent family. He’s a man who cares a great deal about honor and his family. He can also be unpredictable in his choices when it comes to the council.”

Alexandros had certainly done his research.

“Now you just need to find a way to win him over.”

“Thank you,” he said, the sarcasm only slight this time. “It never would have occurred to me to try and sway the members of the council to my side.”

I let out a noise of annoyance. “Neither one of us are great planners. This isn’t a situation we can make up as we go along. We should putmore thought and care into it. Especially because charming people isn’t really one of my strengths.”

“I hadn’t noticed.” There was no mistaking that—it had been a joke. The kind he used to make with me when he was pretending to be someone else.

I dipped the fruit wedge into the honey and lifted it up. He chose that moment to shift closer to me and scrambled my senses so that I dropped the fruit against my lips instead of eating it.

“You’re making a mess,” he said.

“I’m aware.” I felt so foolish. Now my fingers were sticky, as was my mouth, and I had nothing to clean up with.

“It’s on your lips.” He ducked his head down and, without warning, licked the honey from my mouth like it was something he’d done with me a thousand times before.

As if we were Jason and Lia again.

I froze as his tongue glided across my lips, so many different sensations exploding inside me all at once. I was trembling and unsure of what to do or how to respond.

“So sweet,” he said with a sigh against my mouth. “Just like I remember.”

I wanted to throw my sticky hands around his neck and pull him down to the ground and kiss him for real.

Then he touched his lips to mine, soft as a butterfly’s wing. He quickly pulled back, and given the look he wore, it seemed like he hadn’t intended to say those words to me. Or to remove the honey from me in that particular way.

Or to kiss me.

His chest was moving quickly as he turned his gaze away from me. He looked unbothered, bored, but he was not as indifferent as he was pretending to be.

“You must not care too much about that man in Locris,” he said, in an almost accusatory tone. “Since you never kissed him.”

I was so tired of his hot and cold feelings that I wanted to lash out at him. I knew my supposed former love annoyed him for some reason, that he saw me as some inconsistent and fickle woman, and I was willing to play along just to spite him. “No, he treated me with respect. Like a princess.”

“Shame for him. He doesn’t know what he’s missing out on.”

Was that meant to hurt me? Praise me? Throw me off balance? I never could tell with the prince and it drove me mad. “Why do you care?”

“Is it really that strange for me to be curious about the man that my wife is in love with?”

A servant approached with another basket and I asked if she could get me a wet cloth.

We sat in silence until the servant returned and handed the cloth to me. I thanked her and set about cleaning the honey off my fingers and mouth.