Page 10

ALISTAIR

“I can see the stars from anywhere.” Elsie laughs, but the tense wariness in her eyes is back. I scared her when that idiot scribe nearly revealed my true identity. “All I have to do is go outside and look up.”

“Not like this.”

Hidden passageways riddle this castle. I duck into one, where I’m forced to release her so she can hold up her frothy blue skirts to climb a short stairway. I can’t stop touching her. I can’t stop thinking about that kiss.

By the fae gods, I have never met such a conundrum of a woman.

She can recite erotic poetry from memory, yet she’s never been kissed.

She carries bruises and a guarded vigilance that belies her story about where they came from, yet ventures into the castle with a man she’s barely met.

She has a girlish innocence about her, yet she displays no shyness when I touch her, only eagerness for more.

Like she has been starved for touch for so long that she’s drunk on it.

My cock strains against my trousers. At the top of the stairs, I take two deep breaths, willing it to subside so I can walk comfortably.

“This way.”

Elsie settles her skirts and pats her autumn-hued hair into place. A blush still clings to the apples of her cheeks and the tops of her breasts. I want to see those tits. I want to feast on them. I want her moaning and writhing beneath me. I want it now. Tonight.

Yet I don’t want her to think I’m a cad who only wants her for one night.

Every second I spend in her presence only further solidifies my decision that this is the woman who should sit beside me as my queen.

She is artless, effortlessly winning, and kindhearted to a fault, if she’s letting her stepsister get away with hurting her.

My brow furrows. Her story doesn’t add up.

This is a potentially serious problem. I once attempted to claim a legend for my wife. There was considerable resistance from my father about my choice. Any social capital I had to spend is gone. Wasted on faithless Briar and my even more faithless knight.

I suppress a pang of loss.

One way or another, I must make her mine tonight, under my father’s rules. I won’t get another chance. The fact that I cannot take her into the ballroom without risking discovery is a problem.

In the empty trophy room, Elsie’s steps falter. Alarm flares across her features.

“I’m not going to hurt you.”

“I didn’t think you were,” she says, too quickly for it to be true. She’s trying to appease me. “I thought you were going to show me the stars.”

“I am. First, I need you to make me a promise.”

“What kind of promise?”

Marry me rushes to the tip of my tongue, trying to escape. I swallow it back. For all I know, she could be a spy. An assassin.

That would be intriguing. I almost hope she is. Going to bed each night wondering whether my wife might try to murder me in my sleep could lead to all kinds of games.

“You must never tell anyone about what I am about to show you.”

She hesitates. Determination firms in her aquamarine eyes. “I promise.”

I pinch her chin and drop a kiss on her forehead. “Good girl.” Without shifting position, I smack the hidden lever. The invisible door scrapes open. “After you, darling.”

Elsie stares at the narrow passageway.

“Which way?”

“Up.”

“What’s down?”

“Nothing you need to worry about.”

She gives me a skeptical look, but she gathers her skirt and begins to climb. I follow behind her, impressed at how quickly she mounts the steep, narrow stairs. Behind us, the door scrapes closed. Elsie pauses, listening.

“You’re safe with me.”

“I’m not supposed to be alone with men.”

“You’re remembering this now?”

She huffs and continues to climb. I shouldn’t have said that. I’ve never had to put an effort into winning a woman’s favor before. The title of prince was enough.

I like knowing that she’s responsive to me , Alex, not Prince Alistair.

“I told you I didn’t come here to meet the prince,” she says tartly as we go around the unending curve.

“You said you came looking for me. Yet I am no one, Elsie. Tell me the truth.”

The temperature drops precipitously as we near the top of the tower.

“I wanted to feel like a lady for one night.” She mounts the final few steps and spins around to watch me emerge from the well.

“Are you bastard-born?”

She said she had a stepsister, but that could have been a fabrication to cover up her illegitimacy. Being born on the wrong side of the blanket would also explain why she wants to feel like a lady, whatever that means, yet didn’t want to dance with the prince.

“No.”

So much for that theory.

“What is this place?”

“Prince Alistair’s private observatory.” I go to the telescope and begin unfastening its coverings. “No one knows about it but me.”

Technically true. I am the one who brought the tripod and telescope up. The one other person who knew about the secret passageway was Killian, and he’s been gone for months.

“Are you his astronomer?” Elsie asks. She’s clearly trying to figure out who I am, just as I have been trying to suss out the truth of her identity. What an interesting game.

“Kind of.” I make an adjustment. The sky is clear tonight. A few wispy clouds trail across the night sky. “Self-taught.”

“Is that why the library scribe knew you?”

“You ask a lot of questions, Elsie.” I adjust the angle of the telescope, searching for the sparkling fae cloud formation. She offered me a plausible explanation. Why am I not leaping for it?

For the first time in my life, I feel hemmed in by my own untruths. I want to be honest with her, and yet, I have the distinct impression that my mystery girl would run the instant she found out I am the prince. Tonight is about seducing Elsie into the idea of becoming the next queen of Belterre.

“I spend almost as much time in the library as they do.” This is true, if I confine my statement to the months since Killian betrayed me. The Caldrithonians’ gift gave me a distraction from my bruised pride. “Come, take a look.”

Elsie clutches her bare upper arms, shivering. I welcomed the chill after being in the stuffy ballroom, but her skin is exposed and prickling with gooseflesh. I shrug out of my borrowed jacket and drape it around her shoulders.

“Better?”

She smiles up at me. My heart twists. Interesting. A few days ago, I’d have said I didn’t have one.

“It smells like you,” she says. Envy bursts through me like a cannonball. That’s not my jacket, and it’s not me she’s sniffing. I can’t rip it off her shoulders without inviting unwanted questions, though. I am forced to swallow my ire.

I place one hand on the small of her back and gently guide her to the telescope.

“How does it work?”

“You squint through it with one eye.”

She has to bend slightly to get to the eyepiece. I’m instantly assaulted with a depraved fantasy of throwing her skirt up and fucking her like this. The cockstand I’d quelled earlier returns with raging force. I squeeze my eyes shut against the wave of need.

I want her in my bed, yes. But that’s not all I want from her. I want to peel back her secrets, layer by layer. I doubt I would have become so obsessed with her had we been formally introduced at a dance. Her contradictions are as compelling as her beauty and warmth.

“What am I looking at?” Her bewilderment is plain.

“There should be a cloud formation. If you watch it long enough, you’ll see lightning pop within it and the outline of a castle. I believe I have found the fae gods’ retreat.”

Elsie’s soft gasp tells me she found it.

“Incredible,” she breathes. “How did you find it?”

“By poring over old texts until I nearly went blind and spending sleepless nights searching the night sky.”

“That must have taken you years.”

A little less than one, if I were being honest with her. Truth isn’t the point tonight. Elsie stands up and rests one gloved hand on the telescope.

“It was worth the effort.” I hold her eye until a blush steals across her cheeks and she glances away. I gently cup her face and bring her gaze back to mine. “Chasing down the brightest star in the sky. Knowing its importance to the realm.”

“You shouldn’t keep that knowledge to yourself.” She peers up at me. “Magic is fading from the land.”

“We once hunted the fae for their magic. Why would they want to return?” I used to travel with Killian to the outer reaches of the realm in search of the last monsters in Belterre. To kill them.

“Belterre was their land first. The Blessed Realm. Don’t you think it’s wrong that we drove them out of it?” says Elsie.

I sidestep her question. My forebears were the ones who drove the fae away, and Isanthian prophecy says they will one day return to reclaim what was theirs. Their return could mean the end of my family’s rule. Isanthia would fall.

Wrong or not, I won’t be revealing that I have found the fae’s retreat. They can stay there forever, as far as I am concerned.

“Your glamour is unusually potent, Elsie. Where did you get it?”

She blanches. “I’ve never used magic before. Only this once.”

“Half the women here are drunk on the stuff.” The cheaper the glamour, the more intoxicating the effect.

“You won’t have me arrested for partaking?” Elsie asks worriedly.

“It’s only one evening.” She doesn’t seem intoxicated at all. The magic floats on her, a shimmery gloss on an already beautiful woman. “Don’t make a habit of it. That’s all.”

“I won’t. I’ll never use it again.”

Her sweet laughter floats to my ears. She presses her gloved palms against the stone wall and looks out at the sweeping vista.

I can’t help but think how perfect she’ll appear when standing beside me on the balcony to announce our wedding.

Her hair will be up like it is now, her dress fluttering in a light breeze, the sun shining on her smiling face.

I’ll be the one to place a crown on her fiery tresses.

At night, her hair will fall down around her shoulders like living fire. Only I will ever have the right to see her undone, and I intend to guard it jealously.

I move to stand beside her. To my immense gratification, Elsie doesn’t shift away when I place my arm around her waist. We stare out at the kingdom we shall rule together in comfortable silence.

A woman who doesn’t need to fill the silence with idle chatter is a rarity, in my experience. I like that she doesn’t fawn over me. Then I remember that she doesn’t know I’m the prince.

Why would she fawn over me?

A gust of wind snatches at the jacket draped around her shoulders. Elsie clutches the lapels as it flutters around her body.

“Shall we go back down?”

“Please.” She gathers her skirt to descend the steep stairway. Moonlight glints off shimmering silver shoes. I want her to lift it higher. Expose her legs all the way up to her thighs.

The image of her legs wrapped around my waist and my fist tangled in her hair burns through my brain like wildfire.

“You won’t tell anyone what I showed you tonight?” I ask roughly.

“I promise.” Hesitating, she pauses to peer back at me. “You won’t tell anyone I went off alone with a man, will you?”

“Never.” Not unless I need to force her hand into marriage, but she’s been willing enough tonight.

“Why is it so important to keep the fae castle a secret?”

“Because it’s mine. I don’t want to share.”

Again, I hold her gaze until she looks away. I pin her to the wall and kiss her. Elsie meets me more than halfway, twining her arms around my neck. She tastes like honey and wanton desire. I take my fill before easing back with a groan.

“There is one last place I want to show you,” I say as we descend single-file.