Page 87 of Esperance

Marriset’s mouth curved, revealing her pleasure at his words.

They’d been walking together since dawn, and he’d gained nothing except a headache and a souring guilt in his stomach.

But as they rounded a hedge on their slow walk back toward the temple for breakfast, Marriset tugged him to a stop beside a trickling stone fountain.

“I’ve been thinking a lot about my future,” she said, still holding his arm. “And you strike me as the sort of man who also makes plans.”

He tipped his head.

Encouraged, she spoke in a low rush. “Your friendship with Argent is as valuable as your reputation as the emperor’s favored general. And one day, you will inherit Westmont’s throne from your father. Not to mention, you have a seat on the council. If we were to make an alliance, I would benefit from your position, and you would benefit from mine; I have great influence in Palar, and together we would have two votes on every council matter—four, if we persuade our spouses to our agendas. We could be two of the most powerful people in the empire.”

He leaned toward her, dropping his chin so their eyes were level. “And what exactly would we do with this power?”

“Anything we wanted.” Her palm glided up his arm and she shifted to stand fully in front of him, their chests brushing. “You can’t be happy with her,” she whispered. “I know men like you. You need more than a timid waif.”

Amryn wasn’t timid. She was strong, kind, thoughtful, observant, beautiful—

“I could see to your needs,” Marriset breathed. Her hand crested his shoulder and moved to the nape of his neck. As she pulled his head down, she rose up on her toes.

Everything inside him shriveled as her lips brushed the corner of his mouth. “Make me your mistress, Carver. You won’t regret it.”

Her lips felt wrong against his skin. Her hands on him, her body pressed against his—it was all wrong. And when her mouth skated to his jaw and her tongue flicked across his skin, he stiffened.

She read something else entirely in his reaction. She pulled back with a grin. “Well? What do you think?”

He lifted a hand to her cheek—mostly as a way of holding her back. “I admit, an affair would be diverting,” he murmured.

“More than a simple affair. I’m not one to propose a tryst that ends in a year. You could appoint me as an ambassador in Westmont, and Darrin would have to let me go. That would give us many opportunities to see each other.”

“Hmm.” He leaned down, dropping his lips to her ear. “Yet we still have our spouses to consider.”

“We will need to be discreet, of course. I don’t imagine anyone else would understand, or be supportive of our . . . alliance. But I don’t see our spouses as a problem. Do you?”

“No.” Amryn’s face flashed in his mind, but he shoved her away as he leaned in and laid his mouth on Marriset’s neck, just under her ear.

She relaxed against him, and he forced himself to hold his ground. He needed her to fully believe him. To be comfortable with him. But her skin was oddly cold beneath his lips, despite the morning sunlight.

As intimately as they stood right now, he had felt so much more when Amryn simply looked at him from across a room.

Marriset slid her hands up into his hair, keeping his mouth against her skin. “We would be stronger than any of the other rulers in Craethen, second only to the emperor himself.”

Carver’s nose skimmed her neck as he tried to bury his flash of excitement. Was she really so drunk on her own seduction that she would tip her hand so soon? He curled an arm around her lower back, tugging her more firmly against him. “And then what?”

She chuckled, her exhales teasing his skin. “Isn’t that enough?”

He didn’t have a chance to coax any more out of her.

Footsteps scraped the cobbled path, but it wasn’t enough warning before three people rounded the bend.

His focus snapped to Amryn first.

Her red hair was gathered with a simple ribbon and the curls cascaded over one shoulder. She wore a green dress today, the color of sage. It nearly matched her eyes. Eyes that dug their way over him and Marriset, trying to find where he ended and she began.

It was a difficult task.

Shock bled across her face, making her look more pale than ever. Hurt followed close behind.

Jayveh stood beside Amryn, her eyes round with shock. Tam stood on the princess’s other side, and the disapproval in her expression was scathing.