“I—” he tried to think of something gallant to say, but his heart was racing with elation, and he could only manage a single fumbling sentence. “I’d fight even your father to be with you—except that I’d be afraid that would break your heart, seeing the two of us fighting. I’d throw myself off a cliff rather than break your heart.”

“Then it’s a good thing you don’t have to fight him, because he likes you, and said we can consider it settled between us.” She giggled. “And Mother likes you even better. She told Father that if he dared reject you as a suitor, he’d be sleeping on the floor in the kitchen from now on. Orest doesn’t know about it yet, of course,” she added thoughtfully. “Neither Father nor I told him because he’d be an idiot about it. He’d either decide you weren’t worthy or else he’d go completely the other way and want the whole thing settled immediately, and we can’t have that until everything is—well, normal again. Or at least, until you don’t have to be wingleader and fight. Or until he figures it out for himself, which he might, since he isn’t quite as stupid as he used to be.”

“Or—” Kiron said thoughtfully, feeling a slow smile spreading over his face, “until I make him think it is all his idea. If I do that, he won’t rest until he’s got your father’s consent. Besides, it will give him the chance to act important, as if you couldn’t possibly consider me unless he suggested it.”

“That’s brilliant! And that’s why I love you!” Aket-ten exclaimed, and she rolled over on her side just as he did the same. But they both misjudged how close they were to each other and somehow, as they turned toward each other, they managed to find themselves kissing and—

—and it was like falling into a scalding spring, except that it was good, it was wonderful, and he didn’t want it to stop—

—and Aket-ten broke it off first, but not until they were both hot and breathless.

She said she loves me—

We don’t dare complicate things. His thoughts were all tangled up in possible consequences, even while his body wanted him to go right back to what it had been doing, and reminded him of all the times he’d seen lovers entwined by accident, since no one ever paid any attention to serfs. And that ache in his groin demanded that he do something now, and if he didn’t—

He flushed all over and willed himself not to move.

“Not—” he said, feeling as if it took every ounce of willpower he had to say the word. “—now. Aket-ten I want to, more than anything, but not now.”