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“I work here.” The light in his expression dimmed. “But we’re leaving next week. You won’t have to worry about running into me ever again.”

“Greetings, Your Highness.” One of the masons leaned down from the wall. She was topless, her shirt tied over her headto protect her head and shoulders from the sun. “Is there a problem? Did he do something?”

Gem had caught up with me on foot, holding both our horses’ reins in one hand.

“Ari,” she said in an urgent whisper, “you’re making a scene. And on the verge of your impending marriage, nonetheless.”

If there was anything most scandalous at the royal court, it would be “making a scene.” Goddess forbid the crown princess made a spectacle out of herself in public by getting into a fight with a slave.

I looked up at the mason and forced my lips to curl into a serene smile.

“It’s nothing, good woman. Sorry to disrupt your team’s work. I mistook this slave for someone else.” I glared at Salas and added with emphasis, “I mistook him for afreeman.”

SALAS WASN’T FREE.And he wasn’t gone. He didn’t live a happy life somewhere. He still slaved away in the heat all day.

“He is not your responsibility,” Gem said as we rode away from the wall with me seething inside.

Gem was right, Salas shouldn’t be my problem. But somehow, he had become one. I wished him to be happy. Without even knowing all the wrongs he had endured in his life, I wanted to right them all. If I knew for sure that he was free, well, and happy, then maybe I could stop thinking about him all the fucking time.

“I need to know what happened,” I said to Gem. “Why is he still here when he was free to leave days ago? Did he sign another contract with the slave owner?”

“Most likely he did.”

“Why? I need more than just ‘most likely.’”

I needed to know if Salas had been taken advantage of. Had he been coerced into another contract? Blackmailed maybe? It made no sense to me that a man would give away his freedom that easily, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to rest until I had the answers.

“Find out, Gem. Everything.”

MY THOUGHTS REMAINEDwith Salas through the lunch with my parents, then through the entire afternoon and the early evening when I tried to work on a project for the next council meeting.

After dinner, I dug out from the trunk the shirt I’d bought. Then I sat on the floor in my dressing room with the folded shirt on my lap.

To solve a problem, I had to first identify it correctly. The true reason I worried so much about Salas was because I liked him. I had to be honest, at least with myself, about it. I felt a strong attraction for this man.

Some of it was physical. My body tingled with excitement at the phantom memory of his hands on me. But I also admired him as a person.

Also, after spending almost three nights with him, I was still very much a virgin. We had unfinished business, Salas and me. And maybe that was a part of the problem? I hated leaving things unfinished.

Yet sex wasn’t on my mind when I finally climbed to my feet a while later, still clutching the shirt in my hands. I took off my crown, draped a dark cloak over my shoulders, pulled the hood over my head, then stuffed the shirt into a satchel to take it with me.

Knowing that all this time Salas had been just a short walk away from me messed with my head and my feelings. Now, Idesperately wished to see him again, which presented a huge problem, and like a coward, I hoped that Salas would solve it for me. I hoped he’d use the common sense that I seemed to have lost and send me away when I showed up at the slaves’ barracks.

He had plenty of reasons to resent me. I’d barged into his life without an invitation. He was literally dragged in chains to my bedroom. I’d used him. And after all that, I did more to him than had been agreed between us. I’d unloaded the grimy sludge of my past on him, then kicked him out with his hands filled with diamonds as a payment for his silence.

He would have every right to laugh in my face when I showed up with my gift at his door. Maybe he did have a temper like they said. Maybe he would yell at me or even slap me for everything I’d done to him. I almost wished he’d slap me. It might be the only thing that would force me to write him off completely and never think about him again other than with disdain. That kind of humiliation would surely be enough to finally get that man out of my fucking mind.

That was how crazy my thoughts had become.

That was how I knew I had to do something about this before I went completely insane and did something even more unhinged.

I had to resolve this before the council approved Mother’s plans for the foreign princes’ arrivals. My virginal groom hopefuls would show up in Rorrim soon, with their judgmental handlers in tow. With all of them at the Egami Palace, I needed a clear head and a focused mind. I couldn’t possibly keep obsessing over another man while officially courting my future husband.

I couldn’t risk plunging the Crown of Rorrim into a scandal it had never faced before.

Chapter 14

Ari