Air tickled my unglamoured cheek, rustling the hair escaping her ribbon.
Aveen’s breathing caught, her chest rising and falling in an uneven rhythm. “If you turned me to ash, then the breeze could blow me against your precious, clean shirt.” She twisted and painted my sleeves with muck.
My shirt. My favorite shirt. Ruined because of this feckin’ woman standing in front of me laughing like a maniac. I made a pained noise entirely unbecoming of a terrifying prince, one that would’ve made my brother piss himself with laughter. I shifted a handful of mud, my stomach lurching as it oozed between my fingers, and smeared it across her beautiful face.
“There. Now we’re even.” I flicked my wrist, trading the ruined shirt for one that didn’t feel nearly as comfortable. Although I removed the mud from my hand with magic, I could still feel it coating my skin. The moment I returned to the castle, I’d be shifting another bath.
Aveen ruined my waistcoat with yet more mud. “Nowwe’re even.”
Even?Could the woman not count? She’d gotten me twice, and I’d only retaliated once. Not to worry. My gaze landed on a mound of dirt next to the canvas bag of onions. I kicked it at her. Dirtying my boots was worth the indignant screech tearing from her throat. Then she stomped in a puddle like a feckin’ child, and I could feel the mud all the way through my breeches. I shifted an entirely new outfit, sending the other ruined garments into their designated laundry baskets. Aveen filled her hand with earth and dumped it on my head.
Cursing, I ripped at the buttons, hoping to salvage this one shirt before the dirt crumbling against my scalp ruined it as well. No feckin’ good. Another one for the laundry.
I shifted another.
The madwoman attacked me with foul smelling muck overflowing with bits of rotten fruit and veg.I tried to shift more clothes from my armoire, but nothing came. They couldn’t all be dirty, could they?Dammit.
Enough was enough. I refused to waste any more magic on this shite. “That’s it. You’re finished.” I stalked toward her. Aveen made a pitiful attempt to escape. I loved seeing the fear in her eyes as she fell back toward the high hedges, holding up her hands in defense. I dropped down, wrapped my arms around her legs, and lifted her over my shoulder.
“Put me down this instant!” she shrieked, squirming and wriggling in my grasp.
“If you wanted to get me undressed, all you had to do was say ‘please.’ You didn’t have to ruin my feckin’ clothes.”
Did she give up? No. She wiped her disgusting hands all over my back.
“Shit. Stop that! I don’t have any more clean shirts.” The laundress would undoubtedly have left a few on the drying rack, but they’d be wrinkled as all hell, and I’d rather be covered in dirt than look like a beggar who couldn’t afford a bit of starch.
She bucked again, forcing me to hold her tighter. Feel the backs of her thighs. Imagine parting them.
“The fancy prince doesn’t own more than four shirts?” she taunted with a husky laugh. “Poor fancy prince. You really are cursed. The curse of four shirts. Lucky for you, I know how to break it. See, there’s a place in town where you can buy such things.”
“I have more than four feckin’ shirts, you wretched human. But the others aren’t pressed.” Before my destination registered, I had carried her through the pines edging the coast, the air smelling like salt and seaweed.
She punched me in the feckin’ back. “Heaven forbid someone sees you in a wrinkled shirt.”
“Do it again and see what happens,” I warned.
This time, she had the good sense to keep her fist to herself.
I kept going until I reached a gray pebbled beach stretching toward an angry sea.
“Put me down,” she said, her words laced with panic. “I mean it. This isn’t funny anymore. Put me down. I’ll not go in the sea. I won’t.”
She’d go wherever I wanted her to go. The water seeping into my boots would freeze the bollocks off me, but she’d started this, and I was damn well going to finish it. My body shrank away from the waves, but still I continued. “Next time you’ll think twice about covering me in shite, now, won’t you?”
“If you put me in that water, I’ll—”
I dropped her into the sea, then slipped beneath the surface myself, letting the salty waves beat me clean.I emerged to the sound of her screeching, hair plastered to her head. So beautifully indignant.
“There. Don’t you feel better now that you’re clean?” I splashed her.
Aveen jumped at me. I braced for impact, ready to take the hit but entirely unprepared for her mouth to land on mine. Her arms wrapped around my neck, dragging me closer but not nearly close enough. I caught her glorious ass, lifting her legs around my waist, fighting to keep my feet steady as she began to rock against me.
I didn’t close my eyes. Didn’t want to miss the way drops of water clung to her dark lashes where they met her pink cheeks.
I caught fire, and not even the icy waters of the Airren sea could cool the flames in my blood.
“Why is it like this with you?” she murmured against my lips.