Chapter 5

I stopped going to Lucien's room.

I stopped finding reasons to touch him, stopped leaning too close just to watch his patience disappear, and stopped throwing suggestive comments at him whenever we were alone. If Lucien wanted me to behave like a prince, then fine. I would behave like one.

Unfortunately, he seemed perfectly happy about it.

During one of the morning inspections, I watched him talking with two guards near the courtyard.

“You've been awfully quiet lately,” one of them told me when I joined them.

“I have been informed that my mouth is one of the kingdom's greatest security threats, so I am trying to be responsible.”

The guard laughed.

Lucien didn't even look at me.

Later that afternoon, I passed the west corridor and saw Lucien speaking with one of the palace ladies. She said something that made him laugh quietly, and when she touched his arm, he didn't move away.

I kept walking.

Apparently, he could survive without me quite comfortably.

A few days later, one of the prospective brides joined me for tea.

“I was expecting the prince to be much more difficult than this,” she said, smiling over her cup.

“You should not become too comfortable. I have a reputation to maintain, and you are ruining it by making me seem pleasant.”

“I think you are enjoying yourself.”

“I am trying to decide whether marrying a stranger is worse than allowing the council to continue introducing me to women who ask whether I enjoy hunting.”

She laughed.

“You could simply choose someone you like.”

“That would be convenient, wouldn't it?”

Her smile softened. “Is there someone you already like?”

I looked down at my tea.

“There was.”

The answer came out before I could stop it.

She didn't push. Perhaps she was kinder than I gave her credit for.

After that, I stopped looking for Lucien.

At dinners, I spoke to the women seated beside me instead of turning around to see where he stood. After meetings, I left without waiting for him. When he followed me through the palace, I didn't deliberately slow down so he would have to catch up.

I didn't even call his name just to irritate him.

Well, that was the one thing he noticed.

One evening, as we walked back from the council chamber, he said, “You have been unusually cooperative lately. I expected you to make this marriage process considerably more difficult than it has been.”

I kept walking.

“You told me to behave like the future King, Lucien, so I have finally decided to give you exactly what you wanted.”

“You have never been particularly interested in giving me what I wanted.”

“That was before you explained how exhausting I apparently am.”

His expression tightened.

“I never called you exhausting.”

“You didn't need to. You have spent weeks avoiding me like I am some terrible habit you were trying to break.”

“That isn't what I have been doing.”

I glanced at him, then looked ahead again.

“Then what exactly have you been doing?”

He didn't answer immediately.

When he finally spoke, his voice was quieter.

“Trying to keep you from making a mistake you will regret.”

I smiled without looking at him.

“You should be relieved, then. I seem to have stopped making mistakes.”

He said nothing. And somehow, that silence hurt more than anything else.

By the end of the week, I had agreed to another dinner with a prospective bride.

The King looked pleased.

“You seem considerably more open to the arrangement now.”

“I have decided that fighting every decision you make is bad for my blood pressure.”

The King laughed.

Across the table, the woman beside me smiled.

“You have become very easy to talk to.”

“I am trying a new personality. I don't recommend becoming attached to it.”

She laughed and reached across the table, resting her fingers lightly over my hand.

I bother looking at Lucien standing behind me, I simply finished dinner.

Later, I was halfway down the corridor when Lucien caught up with me.

“You should be more careful about encouraging that kind of familiarity.”

I turned around.

“With whom?”

“With the women being considered for your marriage.”

I stared at him.

“You have spent weeks telling me that I need to accept this marriage and start behaving like a man who understands his position. Now that I am actually doing it, you have decided I am suddenly behaving incorrectly?”

“I am telling you that there are boundaries you should maintain.”

“You didn't seem concerned about boundaries when you were telling me to find a wife.”

His eyes hardened.

“That is different.”

“Then explain the difference, because I am genuinely trying to understand you.”

“There are things you don't need to encourage simply because you are expected to marry eventually.”

I shook my head.

“You're making no sense.”

“It doesn't matter.”

I almost laughed.

“You keep saying that whenever you don't want to answer me, and it is becoming painfully obvious that it matters to you.”

I turned to leave.

Then his voice came from behind me.

“I simply don't understand why you have to let her touch you like that.”

I stopped. Slowly, I turned back.

Lucien was already looking at me.

“Why do you care?”

He said nothing. I walked toward him.

“You told me to stop coming to your room. You told me to accept my duty. You told me to let another woman into my life.”

I took another step.

“So why are you angry when she actually does?”

His jaw tightened.

Then, after all that control, all those weeks of telling me what I could not have, Lucien finally said the one thing he had no business saying.

“Because I don't want another woman touching what has always been mine to protect.”