“We’re surrounded by virile youth. The easiest part of this entire plan would be suffering through pretending to be… better acquainted. Anyway, people already saw us arrive back from Carnevale together, and I’m sure they noticed you spent the night.” He smirks, but it’s really more of a sneer, and I can tell he dislikes this idea as much as I do. “Not to mention, the fact that you’ve come back to my room twice since then, after spending an entire day wearing my jacket.”

I blush and start to remove the offending garment.

“No,” Rafe says. “You’d better keep it for now.”

I pull it back over my shoulder. “Well, if we do this, is there anyone who would be upset? Maybe Mbali?”

“What does Mbali have to do with anything?”

“Are you guys, like…?”

“Oh, no. Absolutely not.” His face scrunches up. “I’ve been engaged to her sister three times since we were children. That would be extremely awkward.”

“You’re engaged?” I yelp.

“Not currently, no. But the Blood Crown and the Matriarchy of the Isles have been trying to form an alliance for years, and the coupling of their children has always been their favorite strategy.” He states this as if he couldn’t care less about such an irrelevant matter.

“But for the sake of our current discussion, I can assure you that, though I’m certain many hearts will be broken, there is no one who will be wronged by my involvement in a fake relationship with you.”

“But everyone knows that you hate me for being a weed—”

“Gravdammit, don’t call yourself that,” he snaps.

“Why not? You call me that all the time.”

“Yes, because I’m insulting you, but don’t demean yourself.”

“So, only you can demean me?”

“The point is that my idea is a good one, and you should agree with it. Not only will it help us get off this island, but you’ll be treated better if you’re associated with me. Don’t you want that?”

“In case you haven’t noticed, almost everyone besides you and your cronies treats me just fine. Besides, you don’t care how people act toward me. What is it that you’re really trying to get out of this?”

I’m right. He has an ulterior motive. But it’s Rafe, so he has no problem clearly explaining the way he would like to use me to his advantage.

“Rescuing my cousin is my top priority, but I won’t deny that this plan has an additional benefit for me.” Now I’m certainly curious. “Some moral crusaders have petitioned to have me removed from the hoverjoust league for bigoted behavior. I’m about to be promoted to captain of the team, and an alliance with you would demonstrate that—”

“Are you kidding me? Wouldn’t it just be easier to stop acting like a superior pig?”