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After the way she’d acted at the ceremony, I wasn’t sure she would. She’d made it seem like the idea of becoming my wife was beneath her. Leave it to Gwen to keep me humble. If not for the attack and mutiny, it would have been all anyone talked about. Who knew I’d be grateful for a rebellion to spin the news cycle? But I couldn’t leave her behavior unaddressed, either. There had to be consequences.
“I would, Your Highness. Thank you.”
Esme’s mouth shifted to the side, tight with disappointment, but Margaux still squished her marshmallows, completely enthralled with the sensation. I started without Gwen, needing a little space to get my head right. I was nearly twenty paces from the fire before she caught up.
“You’re cross with me, aren’t you?”
Away from the others, she dropped the royalty pretenses and fell into old habits. In that way, she reminded me of Michaela. A friend first, willing to play the game when prudent, but not wanting to keep at it if not absolutely necessary.
“Not cross,” I answered, but it certainly came out brisk.
“That’s what you say when you’re miffed.”
“I’m not.” I sighed at the way I snapped. “Frustrated, Gwen.”
She paused and forced me to turn back to face her. “Disappointed your American didn’t win?”
My brow furrowed with questions. I’d hidden it, or at least I assumed I had. How did she know?
Gwen shrugged and started walking. “I saw the look. Aside from me, she’s the only person you can speak to without saying a single word.” She shook her head. “And don’t think for a second that it doesn’t drive me insane with jealousy.”
In my mind, I begged her to watch her words. The way she phrased things, she was making Michaela seem like more of a threat than she was. They were my friends, but to the outside world, it wouldn’t look that way.
I tried to smooth things over. “I don’t know the others on her team as well. I was looking forward to spending time with them.”
She crossed her arms around herself to keep out the chill, but her laugh turned bitter. “We’ve had gobs of time, Leo. That hasn’t changed anything.”
This again. The spurned woman act. It was getting old.
“I told you. I’m different now.”
She stopped again, but this time gripped my arm to force me to face her. “Let’s get one thing straight before we go any further.” The moon rose high enough that the beams accentuated her high cheekbones and the fuzz that caught moisture on her beanie. “I’ve watched too many couples in our social circle struggle through arranged marriages with no spark between them. I refuse to suffer their fate.”
Coming at it head on, she didn’t leave much room for me to justify my plan. But her direct nature had always left me uneasy. “What are you saying?”
“I’m saying, it’s simple.” Little clouds of vapor puffed from her mouth as she spoke. “We either have chemistry or we don’t.”
“I believe we do,” I argued back. We’d practically gotten each other through our years at university. She knew my standing as a royal; she’d put up with bodyguards, strange travel schedules, and listened to me lament the woes of a future that had been decided from birth. She’d basically acted as my wife for years, at least in a supportive sense. What was different about what I was asking of her now?
“I believe,” she offered her counterpoint, “we have friendship. History even, but we have never sparked, Leonidas.”
Wasn’t I supposed to be the one berating her for her behavior last night? Suddenly I was the one in the trial box awaiting my fate. Thoroughly annoyed, I asked, “What do you suggest then, Gwen?”
“An experiment.” Her lips pressed together once, then parted, almost an invitation. “I have known from the first kiss whether a relationship would survive or not.” She straightened and lifted her chin. “I suggest we do the same.”
For a moment, all I could manage were sounds. Garbled consonants unattached to vowels that made no sense at all because her suggestion had scrambled my brain. Absolutely incredulous, I tried to clarify what I thought I’d heard.
“You want me to kiss you?”
“Yes.” She acted like it was the most normal thing in the world. “There will either be a spark, or we will know there is nothing here for us, and you can let me go tonight.”
Michaela
“What do you mean, you’re a threat?”
“So, you agree,” his grin crept slowly into place, “that you are a threat to the crown? Not seeking clarification there at all?” He frowned as if surprised. “Interesting.
“Answer the question.” I wasn’t about to let him distract me.
