Page 3 of The Dragon King
We were so close outside the forest, but now we felt like strangers once more.
“Why are you angry?”
After a moment, his stare flicked back to mine.
“Talon.”
“Did you fuck him?”
“Who?” I blurted, eyebrows lifted up my face.
His stare hardened.
I quickly realized he was asking about Luxe, the man he’d seen in my tree house, the man he’d despised at first sight. “Talon?—”
He yelled without raising his voice. “Answer the fucking question.”
“No.”
“No, you won’t answer the question, or no, you didn’t?—”
“I didn’t sleep with him.”
He looked away, still angry.
I never asked what he did when we were apart, but I assumed another woman had taken my place the second I left. I wanted to ask, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it, to hear his answer and keep a straight face.
“Did anything else happen?—”
“No.”
“Did he try to make?—”
“I haven’t interrogated you about your affairs, so I’m not sure why you’re interrogating me about mine.”
His eyes hardened on my face. “Ask whatever you wish.”
I looked away and stared at the cabinets.
“Ask.”
“I’d rather not.”
“There was no one else, Calista.”
I kept my eyes on the hand-carved cabinets, looking at the fine craftsmanship of a carpenter. Flowers and trees were carved into the wood. The tree house and everything inside of it had been constructed of various pieces of timber, everything that had died of natural causes, so nothing matched. But that somehow made it more beautiful.
“I wanted there to be.”
I swallowed, picturing the women who serviced him, not just because they were paid to but because they wanted to. Beautiful and enthusiastic, eager to bed the king who’d taken their kingdom in a sweeping victory.
“I was so fucking angry at you, but no amount of anger could make me desire anyone else but you.”
I did my best to hide my relief, but I wasn’t successful. Our separation had been just as hard on him as it was on me. “Luxe is the commander of the army. Queen Eldinar asked him to keep an eye on me, so that was why he was here.”
“A commander doesn’t have dinner with his prisoner unless he wants to fuck them.”
I turned back to Talon. “Nothing happened, so let it go.”