She frowned and glanced at her wine. “You did what you were told to do. Like you are now? You were told to marry me. So, you are trying to make it work with me?”
“Yes and no.”
Her brows came together as her head came up. “No, to which part?”
“Yes, I was told to marry you. But I’m trying to make it work because, well, I am a sucker for a beautiful face. And yours in the most beautiful I’ve ever seen.”
“Oy.” She hung her head. “You are drowning me in these lines.”
“Good!” I shot back. “But honestly, you have the most power between us two.”
“How so?”
“Our parents and families can push us. I will listen. However, you can refuse and marry someone else and still get your inheritance. There is nothing my family or I can do about it. I need you more than you need me. If I did not like you at all, then I would push to end this.”
“Are you confessing that you like me?” Her eyebrow rose, and a grin spread over her lips.
I was not sure if she was excited at knowing that or just teasing me. “And if I were?”
“Already?”
“I’ve always been good at knowing what I want. Whether or not I get it is not always so certain.”
“So, you know you want me?”
“Yes, and if I told you exactly the ways in which I did, you would throw your wine at me,” I replied, fighting to keep the lust that made me want to stare at the curve of her breast inside me. I needed to calm down.
She did not need to see that side of me—not yet, at least.
“Throw my wine?” she whispered back. “Nothing you could say would make me do such a thing.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “Do not tempt me.”
Her brown eyes were dead set on me, and I could only stare back at her. “I kind of want to, though.”
God, help me.
“Your dinner.” The server appeared like a bloody ghost.
I stared at him, annoyed.
When I said God help me, I did not need it urgently.
It was hot.
It was freezing outside. But here at this table, I was heating up from the inside out. And it was all his damn fault.
No. No, Odette. So, what if his eyes are like kryptonite and he has a seductive accent. You are still flirting back! What is wrong with you? I shouldn’t have asked myself that because I knew the answer. It had been a very long while since anyone had made me hot. So apparently, all a man had to do was fan a little subtle desire my way, and I just went along.
“This is good,” he whispered, eating from the plate in front of him.
I wasn’t sure if he really meant that or if he was trying to change the subject.
“Y-yeah.” Ugh, my voice! Get it together, Odette! I sat up a little in my seat as I twirled the pasta with my fork. “Do you have a favorite food?” Let’s get back to basic questions.
“Cherumoran Kosowens,” was what it sounded like he said. However, I had no idea if that was right.
“And in English, that is?”
He chuckled. “I am not sure if there is an English name for it. But it would be like chicken and quail in a smoky tomato and rice stew.”
“How do you say it? Cherj-u-ogan?” I tried, and he just laughed at me. “Stop. I’m trying.”
“That is why I am laughing. Your face is hilarious. You look like you’re trying to cast a spell.”
“Whatever.” I pouted before sticking more pasta in my mouth.
“Okay, I’ll help you pronounce it.”
“Nope. I’m on to my next question.”
“Am I on a job interview?” he asked.
“Husband interview.”
“Well, that is serious.” He smirked, looking me over. “Please, ask away.”
I didn’t have a question off the top of my head, and him just watching me with his stupid, handsome face was making it harder to think of one, so I glanced to the side, staring at the lights of Seattle.
“Do you like it here?”
“I have not gotten to see it here,” he said, also looking out as well. “I will not get the chance to see it, either.”
“Why?”
“The press,” he reminded me.
For some reason, that really bothered me. “You can’t just stay huddled up at my place or secret dinners like this. You need to get around.”
“That is a freedom I cannot have—at least, not if I want to see it with you,” he said, capturing my attention with a single glance. “I came here not to see the city but to see you. Now that I’ve seen you, I have no desire to see the city alone.” There he went with those lines again.
I picked at my meatball for a bit. “Maybe I will show you around then.”
“I would enjoy that, but we cannot do that, either. At least, not until you commit to marrying me. And I do not want to pressure you.”
I felt the heat in my neck again. “Are you always this sweet, or is it just me?”
“I want to say it is just you, but that would be saying I was rude to other women before, and I do not think that does me any favors.” He snickered.
“How many other women have you used these lines on?” I asked with narrowed eyes.
“How many other men have you tempted like this?” he shot back. And now we had come full circle to the conversation we had both tried to avoid.
Stop. My mind screamed at me, but again, it had been so long.
“A few here and there,” I said, shrugging like I actually had such a good track record. I quickly reached for the wine.
“Ouch, and here, I have not used any of the same lines,” he replied, reaching for his own.
I rolled my eyes. “Sure, you haven’t.”
“It’s true,” he said, and once again, I saw his eyes drop to my chest. “How could I use the same lines if I am trying to get to two different places with a woman.”
“And where were you trying to get with those women?”
“In their bed.”
I coughed into my wine glass, not expecting him to be so blunt about it.
“Forgive me, too much honesty?” The look on his face was a clear mixture of amusement, teasing, and lust.
“No such thing,” I whispered back. If Gale could tease me, I could tease him back. “Though you do know, you just admitted you do not want to end up in my bed.”
“No. I don’t.” He sat back. “I want you to end up in mine.”
“What’s the difference?”
“There is no leaving my bed.”
Holy shit.
I am not in the kiddie pool, anymore.
Chapter 13
We were somehow able to pull ourselves back from any hotter conversations to more safe things, like his favorite color, which was red, and his favorite season, which was autumn. And also, his birthday, which was the day before Valentine’s Day, making me the older one of the two of us. He also talked a lot about Ersovia, sometimes without meaning to. The more he spoke, the more I could see how much he loved it, and the more I kind of wanted to see this beautiful country of grass-covered rolling mountains, flower fields, blue glacial lakes, and hybrid cities. I didn’t know what that meant until he explained. Ersovia was a country where the ancient met the modern. The Royal family, his family, had always tried to balance the future with honoring the past. He spoke, and I listened or laughed. I spoke, he listened and teased me.