“Is this how you flirt with Esme?” I ask, knowing I shouldn’t engage him, but it’s not like that stops me. “If so, I can’t imagine why she’d reject you in favor of your brother. Tell me, Rhys, has she seen this oh-so-charming side of you?”

I wait for his reply, expecting him to get mad, to say something cruel about my looks, my family’s low status and lack of finances, but instead he just laughs, his smile growing wider when he says, “Nah, with Esme, it’s all pomp and show, and nothing but the deepest courtesy and respect. You have to know how to play a girl like her. She’s greedy, superficial, and vain. The only thing she sees in my brother is what’s soon to be mine—the power of his position, and, more importantly, the crown. We’re a lot alike, Esme and I. We were made for each other. We belong together. She and I are twin souls, and someday she’ll realize it too.”

I continue to gaze at him, fishing around for some kind of sarcastic reply, but the ones I come up with die right on my lips. What he said is remarkably true. They are shallow, and vain, and extremely narcissistic—and his ability to realize that truth reveals an amazing amount of self-awareness and insight I never would’ve expected.

“So how long are you planning to stand there like that?” he asks, voice bored, thumbs tapping against the horn of the saddle.

“Why didn’t you bring a carriage?” I ask, still not willing to ride tandem with him, though clearly my options are limited.

Watching as he heaves a deep sigh and springs from his mount until he’s standing before me, a smattering of inches the only thing that separates us.

“Because a carriage attracts far too much notice at this hour,” he says. “Remember, this is supposed to be a secret. Which means I didn’t think you’d want to let your parents in on the fact that you’re eloping—even if it is with the local royalty. But I’m afraid if you insist on continuing to dicker like this, well, there will be no need for secrecy as the whole damn village will soon be in on your tryst. So come on, Adelina, what do you say? You still planning to push against me, or are you ready to submit to the path of least resistance? Be a good girl and hop up—Alrik is waiting.”

I swallow hard, swallow my pride, and nod my consent. Bracing against the feel of his hands at my waist as he lifts me up high and gets me all settled, before he hops up himself and warns me to hold on tight or risk tumbling off. Something which he seems to enjoy a little too much—something I do my best not to think about.

We ride for miles. Ride for so long that at one point I allow sleep to claim me. Awakened by the sound of Rhys’s voice at my ear, soft and surprisingly tender when he says, “Hey, Adelina. You can wake up now. We’re here.”

I rouse myself from his shoulder, brush my hand over my eyes, my hair, and take in my surroundings, try to get a feel for our location, but it’s not one I recognize.

“It’s a hunting lodge,” he says, lips tickling at the very edge of my ear. “It’s our hunting lodge, Alrik’s and mine. And while it’s nowhere near as grand as the palace, I will say it’s not bad either. I think you’ll find it surprisingly comfortable. I know that many, many, many of my conquests have greatly enjoyed themselves here.”

Yep, he’s back to being Rhys again.

“Where is Alrik?” I ask, yanking free of him.

But I’ve barely gotten the words out before a whispered voice says, “I am here.”

He reaches toward me, carefully catching me as I slide from the horse and into his outstretched arms. His body so warm, so comforting, that for a moment his awful brother is all but forgotten, until Alrik breaks away and says, “Brother, thank you. I owe you for this one.”

But Rhys just laughs, turns his horse around, and glances over his shoulder. “Forget it. Your bride for the kingdom—” He shakes his head. “Hate to say it, brother, but I’m afraid it is I who will owe you once your little honeymoon is over and you realize your folly. I just hope you’re not foolish enough to try to collect once you’ve sullied your bed. And while I wish you much happiness and joy and all that, I’m afraid I must return. My sweet little Sophie surely has my bed nicely heated by now.”

“Still bedding the chambermaids?” Alrik calls.

Only to have Rhys reply, “Dairymaid, brother, dairymaid. Try to keep up!”

His horse gallops off, taking Rhys along with him, as Alrik pulls me toward the lodge, lips brushing my cheek as he says, “I apologize for him. I was hoping he’d spare you from that brand of crudeness, but perhaps that was just foolish on my part. Still, all that really matters is that he brought you to me. He did as I asked, and you’ve arrived safely.” He gazes down at me with a face filled with so much love and devotion, I swallow everything I was about to tell him about just how crude his brother really is, not wanting my words to mar his expression.

“Actually, I slept through most of the journey, if for no other reason than to tune him out,” I say, finding a compromise that succeeds in making him laugh.

“Then you are not tired? You are not longing for bed?” His eyes glint on mine.

I gaze from him to the still-darkened night sky, to the door he’s propped open that leads to a rustic yet sumptuous room just beyond.

“Oh, I’m feeling quite rested.” I smile. “But I have no objection to bed.”

Chapter seventeen

After an hour or two of giggling, cuddling, and whispering to each other—making grand plans for our new life together, a life that begins tomorrow afternoon, Alrik and I fall to sleep. He still fully clothed (minus his boots of course), me stripped of the dress I arrived in, stripped down to the same dressing gown his brother found me in.