“Maybe we’ll see it.”
“You think so?”
“Why not?” I said, knowing we wouldn’t. I turned to her in the darkness. We stood close, our bodies inches apart. “It will snow, will it not?” I asked, letting myself…well, pretend. “We’ll sneak off just before dusk and come out here.”
“But will we be here?” she asked, sending a bolt of surprise through me. “The Queen could summon me to the capital before then.”
“Possibly.” I forced my tone to remain light. “If so, then I guess we’ll have to find different adventures, won’t we? Or should I call them misadventures?”
Poppy laughed quietly, and the soft sound did two things simultaneously: It warmed my chest and my blood. The chest part confused me. The blood side of it did not. “I think it will be hard to sneak off anywhere in the capital,” she said. “Not with me…not with me being so close to the Ascension.”
“You need to have more faith in me if you think I can’t manage to find a way for us to sneak off,” I told her instead of saying that wouldn’t happen. “I can assure you that whatever I get us involved in won’t end with you on a ledge.” I brushed a wisp of hair back from her cheek. “We’re out here on the night of the Rite, hidden inside a weeping willow.”
“It didn’t seem all that difficult.”
“That’s only because I was leading the way,” I teased.
That brought another soft laugh from her. “Sure.”
“Your doubt wounds me.” I turned from her. “You said there were benches in here? Wait. I see them.”
“How in the world do you see those benches?”
“You can’t?”
“Uh, no.”
I grinned at the darkness. “Then I must have better eyesight than you.”
“I think you’re just saying you can see them, and we’re probably a second away from tripping—”
“Here they are.” I stopped by one, taking a seat.
Poppy gaped at me.
“Would you like to sit?” I asked.
“I would, but unlike you, I can’t see in the dark—” She gasped as I tugged her down so she was perched on my thigh.
I was glad she couldn’t see, because my smile was so wide, there was no doubt my fangs were visible. “Comfortable?”
There was no answer from Poppy, but her scent was rich and lovely, ever increasing.
“You can’t be comfortable,” I told her, sliding an arm around her and drawing her closer so her entire side was pressed firmly to my chest, and the top of her head was just below my chin. “There. That has to be much better.”
Her breath came out in short, shallow breaths.
“I don’t want you getting too cold,” I tacked on, grinning. “I feel like that’s an important part of my duty as your personal Royal Guard.”
“Is that what you’re doing right now?” Her voice was thicker, smoother. Did she notice? Because I sure as hell did. “Protecting me from the cold by pulling me into your lap?”
I carefully and lightly placed my palm against her waist, thinking of what little experience she had. While I might have been bold with her seating arrangement, I knew this was also a first for her. “Exactly.”
Her breath tickled my throat. “This is incredibly inappropriate.”
“More inappropriate than you reading a dirty journal?”
“Yes,” she insisted.
“No.” I laughed. “I can’t even lie. This is inappropriate.”
“Then why?”
“Why?” That was a good question. My chin grazed the top of her head as I looked at the branches concealing us. There were many reasons, and all of them came before killing time. Her need of me. My want of her.
My gaze tracked over her bow-shaped lips, the proud tip of her nose. “Because I wanted to,” I said, giving her another bit of honesty.
“And what if I didn’t want to?”
I chuckled. “Princess, I’m confident that if you didn’t want me to do something, I’d be lying flat on my back with a dagger at my throat before I even took my next breath. Even if you can’t see an inch in front of you.”
She didn’t deny that.
I glanced down at the curve of her leg. “You have your dagger on you, don’t you?”
She sighed. “I do.”
“Knew it.” Desire surged through me as I let go of her hand. It wasn’t so much the dagger that turned me on. It was what the blade symbolized. Her resilience. Her capability. Her strength. The proof that she had taken the nightmares and the fear and turned them into power. That was what turned me on. “No one can see us. No one is even aware that we’re here. As far as anyone knows, you are in your room.”
“This is still reckless for a multitude of reasons,” she countered. “If someone comes in here—”
“I’d hear them before they did,” I told her. I had my reasons for being under here. Many reasons. One of them was that I wanted her to have at least a handful of minutes where she was just Poppy. Not the Maiden. Minutes where she didn’t have to worry about being caught. I wanted her to be as she was at the Red Pearl, free to experience. To live. “And if someone did, they’d have no idea who we are.”
Poppy leaned back, trying to see my face in the shadows. “Is this why you led me out here to this place?”
“What is this, Princess?”
“To be…inappropriate.”
It hadn’t been at first. Now? Most definitely. I touched her arm. “And why would I do that?”
“Why? I think it’s pretty obvious, Hawke,” she said. “I’m sitting in your lap. I doubt that’s how you normally hold innocent conversations with people.”
“Very rarely is anything I do innocent, Princess.”
“Shocker,” she muttered.
“So, you’re suggesting I led you out here, instead of toward a private room with a bed.” Knowing how touch was so forbidden to her, I exploited that, skimming my fingertips down her right arm. “To engage in a particular type of inappropriate behavior?”
“That’s exactly what I’m saying, though my room would’ve been a better option.”
“What if I said that isn’t true?”
“I…” Her exhale teased my jaw as I moved my hand to her hip. “I wouldn’t believe you.”
“Then what if I said it didn’t start off that way?” I moved just my thumb along the soft, rounded flesh there. I spoke the truth. I hadn’t planned on this. Especially not right before I betrayed her. That would make me the kind of bastard that I…well, that I was. “But then there was the moonlight and you, with your hair down, in this dress, and then the idea occurred to me that this would be the perfect location for some wildly inappropriate behavior.”
“Then I…I would say that’s more likely.”
I glided my hand down. “So, there you have it.”
“At least, you’re honest.” She bit her lip as her eyes drifted halfway closed.
“Tell you what,” I said, watching her closely. “I’ll make you a deal.”