Page 59 of House of Ashes
And I’d spoken directly to his face, less than two feet away from him.
With morning breath.
I covered for my sudden panic by taking a too-large bite of my bacon and almost choking to death.
“I know I’m always on you about eating more, but I mean you should eat it, not inhale it,” he said, gently thumping my back.
Instinctively, I wanted to snap at him to mind his own business, but…I didn’t want to ruin whatever good mood this was. If not for Kirana’s sleepy tea, I would have lain awake for hours, thinking about his lips within inches of mine, and the heat of scaled skin under my palms.
But he seemed to have brushed right past it…so maybe I was overthinking. Maybe it was just the primal urge all dragons had, not any urge for me specifically.
That would explain why he didn’t care about my sleep-rumpled hair or morning breath, if he didn’t think of me that way at all.
It had just been…a lapse in judgment. That was all.
“I just get so excited over bacon,” I said when I was done coughing, my cheeks red.
Rhylan leaned back, dropping his arm. I was definitely overthinking things if I was rueing a lingering touch I had no business rueing.
“I’ve got something much better than bacon for you.” He poured me more juice, already done with his own plate.
“Like…?” Somehow I managed to leer at him through a mouthful of eggs.
“You’ll just have to finish up and find out, won’t you?” he asked, a hint of smugness in his tone. He tipped the chair onto its back legs, keeping it balanced as he watched me. “I’m not spoiling the surprise.”
I watched him carefully as I worked my way through the rest of my meal, eating as rapidly as possible without making a fool of myself again. “Not even a hint?”
“No.”
“One little, tiny, insignificant hint?”
“If it’s insignificant, there’s no point in giving you a hint, is there?”
I narrowed my eyes and he grinned at me. “Give it up, Sera. You’ll know when you know.”
“How does anyone live with you when you’re like this?” I groaned, and he popped a grape in my mouth while I was speaking.
“They’re so dazzled by my charm and good nature it doesn’t occur to them to leave.” Rhylan dangled the grapes in front of me, and I swiped them. He leaned in, playfully snatched a grape from my fingers, and tossed it in his mouth.
Before I could bounce one right off his forehead, there was a soft knock at the door, and it swung open.
Acting on instinct, I leaned back in my chair, wiping my smile away like I’d been caught doing something I shouldn’t. A shadow crossed Rhylan’s face, and he straightened up slowly.
“Good morning, Nilsa. See her to the flight terrace as soon as possible, please.”
Nilsa, standing in the doorway with two handmaids, bowed deeply, and there was no missing the fervent longing in her eyes when she looked at him. “Yes, my prince.”
Rhylan stood, but before he left, he tousled a piece of hair that had come loose and stuck sideways from the side of my head. I felt ashamed of how quickly I’d ruined the moment, when we’d been having fun. Getting along like normal dragonbloods.
But it was for the better, probably. We weren’t really courting.
That didn’t change the fact that my appetite was suddenly muted, and I was led to the bathroom by Nilsa and her handmaids, who sped me through the quickest bath I’d had since leaving the island and got to work trussing me in a set of plain leathers.
Before I was freed from their perfectionist clutches, Nilsa brought me a jar of sludge, and by now I was…well, not immune to it, but able to drink it without dry-heaving.
She watched me silently, and once more I had the sensation that I was being judged, and not kindly.
It’s fine, you’ll never see her again when this is over, I reminded myself, allowing the maids to take the jar away and leaving Nilsa to her other duties.