Flames of Auriel (A Caeles Adventure Book 1) (9 page)

Zoe came up from rinsing her hair, her brows scrunched up. “What do you mean? Who else is against us?” She lifted herself out of the tub and took the towel from her nurse.

“Your uncle is not as happy as he would have you think in his position below your father. There are rumors that the desert poisoned his mind against us. We will need to be more careful from now on. Extra guards. We don’t want to be caught unaware.” Alice jumped as the bedroom door burst open revealing Asher, his face filled with rage.

“Your highness.” Alice gulped and bowed to him. She had never been good at calming men down as she was with women, but the burning in the prince’s eyes made Alice fear for her charge’s safety.

Asher kept his gaze on his betrothed’s scantily clad body and gestured his head to the nurse. “Get out.”

“But your highness, it’s against propriety for you to be alone with her, especially in her current state.” She wrung her hands together as her eyes moved between the prince and her charge.

“Don’t quote my own laws back to me! Your kind wouldn’t know decorum if it landed in your lap. Sometimes I think you are no better than the cutthroats and gypsies that roam the Dark Forest.”

Alice gasped and cast a worried look upon her princess, whose fists had tightened to white knuckles. At the rate the prince was going the fear she had felt for her princess was migrating to the prince. He should know better than to antagonize her. Asher’s next words forced her to withdrawal her hands from the situation.

“Leave. Now.”

The old woman sniffed and lifted her nose in the air. As she approached the door she shook her head at the two royals. She hoped they would figure it out on their own. She took the last few steps to the door and closed it behind her.

Zoe’s fury from the night before returned in full force at the face of the man who was the cause of all of her turmoil. She had been flirting with her anger ever since Alice had awoken her, and Asher’s words had only resulted in tipping the intensity of her anger into a blinding rage. She let the full extent of the fire in her belly flare to life.

“How dare you speak to Alice that way?” She walked up to him and shoved a finger at his chest. “If you have something rude to say, you say it to me! Alice has never done anything to you!”

The force of her finger in his chest caused him to wince, the pain acting as a balm to his anger. He never could stay mad at her for long, especially when she was like this. The way her face flushed in her ire and how her eyes lit up, sometimes he kept an argument going just to look at her.

His hand swooped down to grab the offending hand poking his chest, bringing it up to his mouth. “I’ll apologize to Alice.”

Zoe’s mouth dropped open, rendered speechless. Asher had never ended a fight so quickly. She felt the flame in her start to flicker and for a moment thought about letting it go out, but his actions toward Alice were not his only offenses.

She tried to jerk her hand from his grasp as her anger flared back to life with one look at his smug face. She tried to think of something that would cut him equally as deep and when she did a belligerent smile crept onto her face.

“Don’t you think you are being a bit of a hypocrite?”

“Hypocrite?”

“You can hardly call me a whore when you’ve been in the skirts of every maid in your household.”

Asher growled as annoyance flashed into his eyes. She did not know her words were not even close to the truth, but the way she passed off his actions in comparison to hers struck a chord in him. He stepped closer to her, causing her to walk backward with every step until her back was against the railing of her bed.

“You do not decide what I can and can’t do.” He clenched teeth as he closed in on her.

“But you can decide what I do? I do not belong to you.”

She shoved against his chest and attempted to get some space between them. He grabbed her waist and pressed her flush against him. His nose bumped against hers at the force of the movement.

“You are
mine
! You promised yourself to me and I will not accept a tainted woman as my wife.” He tightened his grip on her waist as his anger got the better of him. “And that little prick of a bodyguard of yours will hang for taking what is still mine.”

Her eyes burned with all the anger she had built up for him over the years. She drew strength from the heat and used it against him. She grabbed his hand from her waist and took it with her as she shifted her body out and to the side. The sudden loss caused his body to slam into the post, which she used as an opportunity to pin his arm against his back.

“Do not talk down to me about being sullied. If anyone is dirty in this arrangement it is you. I, on the other hand, have more honor than that.”

Asher struggled to release his arm from her grip, causing her towel to become loose around her. Not wanting to be nude in front of him, she took the risk of loosening her grip to grab ahold of the towel. Asher took this opportunity to turn around and grab her about the waist before she could jump away.

The force of his grasp caused her to fall back into him. She ended up holding on to him, with one of his legs keeping her upright. The feel of their bodies pressed together in such an intimate way forced a rush of unwanted need into her eyes. She tried to hide it by burying her face in his chest, but Asher had already seen it. He tilted her face back up to his as his own eyes became filled with a dark haze. He glanced down at her lips and then back to her eyes, and his desire filled his words.

“How did we miss this?”

Zoe’s brows furrowed at him.

He rocked his leg holding her up back and forth. Zoe gasped at the friction and tried to pull away as he pressed down on her hips as his leg pushed up. She gulped and dug her nails into his shirt to suppress the urge to move against him.

“Stop.” Her voice came out strangled and breathless. She did not know why she bothered saying anything. Zoe and Asher both knew if she really wanted him to stop she could make him, but even if she could think straight, she did not want to hurt him.

“Don’t fight it, Zoe.”

She clamped her own legs around his to try and stop his torturous movements against her center. Why could she not control herself around him? She pushed back from him and tried to plead to him with her eyes.

Her look of distress caused Asher to pause in his assault. He leaned his head back against the bed post and sighed. She was going to be the death of him.

“It would never work you know.”

Zoe remained silent. Her lower half still throbbed from the feeling of him against her. What was he going on about now?

“You and the bodyguard.” He explained. “We both need this alliance if either one of our kingdoms hope to survive another Celestial War. We can’t be selfish. You know we both need this to work. We can fight it all we want, but in the end you will be walking down that aisle.”

She frowned at his insightful words. She wondered when he had come to this conclusion. Was he right? Was all the fighting against their marriage the last eleven years in vain? Her brows lifted as she glanced back at her betrothed in a new light.

“Are you getting it, Zoe?” He stroked his thumb across her lower lip as he tried to hide his insecurity with bravado. “No matter how much you fight it, in the end, you will be mine.”

As he lowered his mouth to hers, his need to claim her poured into his kiss. Instead of fighting him like he expected, she kissed him back and pushed all her pent up emotions into him. If she was not willing to hurt him, she had to get her emotions out some way before they consumed her. She slid her hand up his shirt, wrapped them around the back of his neck and pushed harder against him.

Asher grabbed the back of her thighs, lifted her and wrapped her legs around his waist to turn them around to their previous position. He felt her groan into the kiss and he suppressed the urge to take her as she dug her fingers into his hair. He ground his hardness against the warmth of the towel pressed against him. She was already hot and ready for him and he fought with the part of him that knew they needed to stop.

Zoe made the decision for him when she jerked herself out of her lust-filled haze at the feeling of his hands moving to rest beneath the towel on her bare skin. She drew back from him and heaved in a breath before her legs dropped to the floor. She shoved him off of her and hurried to where her bath robe hung to cover herself up.

Her eyes anywhere but on him as she moved behind the changing screen to pull a heavier dressing gown on. “You should probably leave now. Alice is probably trying to start another war with this stunt you pulled. She does not like to be threatened.”

“That’s it? You are just going to pretend this didn’t happen, again?” He grabbed her hand as she walked out from behind the curtain.

She tilted her head at the disbelief on his face, “What? You thought a few kisses would change anything?” She pulled her hand away from his. “I may be stuck in this situation just as much as you are, but that doesn’t change that fact that I can’t stand you and until this very moment I thought the feeling was mutual.”

“I thought so too, but now I’m not so sure.” He ran a hand through his hair, trying to figure out how to explain it to her. He needed her to know his feelings had changed, but with her bodyguard in the way he did not know if she even felt the same way. “I do know one thing for certain. I don’t want you spending time with that bodyguard of yours anymore.”

He held up a hand when she tried to protest. He knew she was not going to like what he had to say, but it had to be done. She was not going to be the one to take the high road and he was tired of the endless game they had been playing.

“Hear me out. If we want this to work, we need to at least make the effort to not kill each other, which means your relationship with Garrett needs to end.” His face filled with determination at the rebellious glare on his betrothed’s face. “Now.”

“What about you? Do I have to stand by while you sleep with all of Aldabel?” Zoe’s lip curled into a snarl.

Asher drew Zoe closer to him and placed a hand on her hip. She was not going to be happy to know he had lied to her. He did find some enjoyment in knowing she was jealous of his affairs.

“I haven’t touched anyone else since the day you saw me with Melody in the stairs.” He watched as Zoe’s eyes filled with hope, but was quick as it came it was covered with suspicion.

“You’re lying.”

He brushed a hair behind her ear and gaze into her eyes. “For once, I’m not.”

“But how do I know you aren’t just saying this to pacify me and won’t run back to their bed after you leave here?”

“You don’t.” Asher smoothed a thumb across her cheek and bumped his nose against hers playfully. “You’ll just have to trust me.”

Zoe snorted and rolled her eyes at him. “Not likely.”

“Well, the same goes for you. How do I know you will stay away from Garrett?” She gave him a leveled look. “Exactly. We are just going to have to trust each other.”

Asher suppressed a chuckle at the pout on her face. He leaned down to nip at the lip she was poking out at him. Her startled look caused him to grin. Things might be easier than he thought.

He leaned down to brush his lips over hers. Now that he knew she wouldn’t turn him down, he couldn’t get enough of her. At least they had that going for them. The rest he hoped would come with time.

“I don’t want to spend the rest of my life fighting.” He quirked a brow at her, “Agreed?”

With a reluctant sigh, she nodded. Part of her knew that he was right, but the other part was screaming for her to run away from him as fast as she could. As she watched him walk out the door, her emotions felt like an open wound. She wasn’t good at being vulnerable and was not a fan of blind faith. Zoe knew she was going to have to be on her guard more now than ever.

***

Asher slammed the door to his bedroom behind him, jerked a hand through his hair and swore. He could not believe how much he wanted her. It was like a flood gate of pent-up desire had been released. He could hardly keep himself from taking her right then and there. Where was the awkward girl that Bryce and he had spent the summers trying to ditch to go practice swords? He had been sorely mistaken when he thought she was only avoiding him after their first few physical encounters. He snorted at how naïve he had been to think that she was just inexperienced. He could not believe he let himself be deceived into thinking nothing was going on between her and Garrett. He knew he would have to change that and soon. The bodyguard was competition he did not need.

When Bryce had told him that his betrothed was not as innocent as she would have him believe, he had become filled with such rage and jealousy he scared himself. Asher had planned on giving her the tongue lashing of a lifetime, but once he saw her standing there dripping wet in that towel all his thoughts of punishment had flown out the window.

He thought he always wanted an obedient, soft-spoken wife who would praise the ground he walked on and instead he got something else entirely. Who would have known he would crave such a loud-mouthed sensual brat. The Dark One’s breath, he had it bad.

A knock on his door pulled him out of his reminisce. It was probably Bryce wanting an update on the Zoe situation. Asher called out for him to enter. He leaned against the window pane that overlooked the courtyard below and watched the ladies of the court gossip over the daily drama happening in the castle. Surely they had not heard about his sudden appearance in his betrothed’s room already?