Chapter 118
Reeve started to pull away, but Kit wasn’t ready to let the queen ruin this moment just yet. She held him close, sliding her tongue against his and then catching his bottom lip with her teeth. He smiled at her and whispered, “I think you need to get up, Princess.”
“Unless my thigh deceives me, you already are,” she teased, narrowing her blue eyes.
Reeve chuckled. “True. But I’m afraid that will have to wait. I would hate to be the cause of any strife between you and Queen Rona.”
Kit blew out a long sigh, knowing he was right. She tilted her head forward one more time, finding his lips for only a moment before Avinia was shouting again. “Princess? Can you hear me?”
“Yes, yes!” Kit shouted back. “Hold your hat, Avinia!”
She could hear her cousin muttering to herself on the other side of the thick door, something about, “If you get in trouble, don’t blame me,” and then Reeve was slipping out of her grasp, clutching his breeches in one hand as he searched for his tunic on the floor with the other.
Kit lay still on the bed and watched him. He truly was a fine specimen of a man, and the scar she’d once thought unsightly didn’t bother her in the least. In fact, she’d grown to love it. Funny how one person’s scars defined them as a survivor while others made them ghastly and terrifying, she thought to herself as she watched him finish dressing, trying to keep the disfigured face of that member of the Queen’s Guard out of her head and failing. The man terrified her, if she was honest with herself.
“Are you planning to get up, or are you hoping the queen will make her way to your chambers?” Reeve teased, smiling at her.
“We both know she wouldn’t bother to come herself, only send her minions.”
“Well, since I doubt you’d like them barging in on you in your present state of undress, perhaps we should change that.”
“Perhaps,” Kit sighed, only pulling herself to sitting once Reeve had retrieved her nightgown and prepared to slip it over her head, she raised up her arms and poked them through the sleeves, letting it fall down around her as he located her thick red robe. Her slippers were poking out from beneath the bed. She slid over to the edge and rammed her feet into them, pushing into her robe reluctantly.
“I hope you have time to tame that hair before you must be in the throne room. I love the way it falls about your shoulders when it’s unpinned, but your mother prefers it up, doesn’t she?”
How he knew so much she wasn’t sure. A hand went up to feel just how badly it was sticking out of place, and she decided to avoid mirrors until her ladies had a chance to correct it. “I believe my mother likes it piled right atop my head like some unsightly bird’s nest,” she replied, tying her robe and standing.
Reeve’s laughter lightened the room. “May I escort you to your other chambers?”
“Thank you for offering, but I’m certain Avinia and my guards will do nicely, and your room is the other direction. I’m sure you’ll want to get settled in.” Once a Representative was officially Roomed, he was given an even more luxurious chamber close to the princess than the other Representatives. Reeve only confirmed he’d been granted such a status an hour or so before he’d been meant to come to her room, so she was doubtful he’d had much time to move his belongs from the smaller Representative room far down the hall.
“All right then, if you’re certain.”
“I am.” She was actually reluctant to see him go, but she needed a few moments to regain her composure before facing her mother. The more of those she could collect the better.
Reeve kissed her sweetly one last time and the opened the door for her. Avinia was standing across the antechamber, her arms folded, her eyes narrow. Kit gave an obnoxious little curtsey which set her cousin off and then, giggling, followed her out into the hallway, waving goodbye to Reeve as she headed the opposite direction down the marble hall.
