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Cyrus and I did see each other that day. And the next. And the next, and though his injury kept us from forming any deep connections, the way he'd felt beneath my hand never left my mind.
I thought about him in the bath; I thought about him in the garden. I thought about him when I spoke to Willoughby, and when Sam asked me if I had submitted the design for my wedding gown.
"What?" I asked.
He crossed his arms, "Are you alright? You seem distracted." We stopped in the yard, and from where I stood, I could see Cyrus try to swing his sword with a flinch.
"I'm sorry," I lied. "Just thinking about the Chapel." At least partly.
Sam shook his head, "You know I told him to take it easy, but he can't help himself. That man is defined by the sword. A perpetual misery of his own making."
"That sword got him here." I remembered what he had told me that; he'd worked to get to me.
"Shall we go scold him?" The prince joked.
Of course I agreed, hanging back though, discreetly.
"Sam," Cyrus breathed. "Svana."
I hid my smile, but my eyes, I knew, gave me away, and Cyrus knew it, too. He and I shared a private dialogue, tempting the strength of our ruse.
"That looks hard, Mr. Evergreen," I commented.
"Does it?" He narrowed his eyes.
"Should you be out here? You're soaked in sweat," I added.
Sam nodded, "He is, isn't he?"
"Oh yes, very wet," I said.
He didn't like my game, and it wasn't long before Cyrus had found me sans the Prince. In fact, I wondered if he had been tracking me the afternoon because as soon as Sam had disappeared, off to whatever 'duty' he'd invented to see Lady Agatha, Cyrus was there. Pulling me into the library, and my skirt up on either side.
Frustrated.
"You temptress," he sang. "I should be cross you would tease me in front of him."
I giggled as he planted me on the desk. "How can I resist?" I asked. "All I can think about is you. Do you think of me?"
He answered by kissing the inside of my thigh, then the other.
"I want you," I begged him. Both hands went into his hair.
"If you were any other woman," he said, standing, "I'd have been inside you the moment we passed through that door."
"Ugh," I muttered. "Just do it, I can't take it anymore."
"Not like this," he said.
The room opened and we leapt apart, but it was only Josie.
