“Farah, the instant your feet crossed the Dellish border, you became the most beautiful woman in this realm. The men will love you and envy me. The women will either love you and emulate you or hate you simply because they wish they were you.”

He sounded certain.

I was not.

“Do you think?”

“I think this is one concern you shouldn’t worry yourself with for I couldn’t care less what they think. You will be my wife. I will be proud to have a wife as beautiful and kind-hearted as you. And that’s all that matters.”

His hand at my jaw slid into my hair so he could press my cheek to his shoulder then glide his fingers through my hair.

He did this and continued speaking.

“But before, we will have time on our own. We’ll leave the others behind. Take my men and a few additional guards, and I’ll show you my home.”

“Your home isn’t Birchlire Castle?”

I felt him nod again. “Of a sort. I have rooms there. But my home is all of Wodell, and when you see it, Farah,” his fingers curled around the back of my neck and gave me a squeeze, “you will understand why I claim it.”

I saw the wisdom in this plan and not only because, how he described it, I wished to see his home.

But because we would be away from the others.

Mars and Silence, the latter of whom was his cousin and he worried about her, and from what I had seen, there was something to worry about.

Cassius and Elena, the latter of whom he was in love with. And although True never showed it to me, I knew it was hard for him to see the two of them together. They were not an easy match, but the sparks that flew between them were easy to interpret.

Also, his parents, both frustrating to him for his father was weak-minded and weak-willed and his mother calculating and remote. The former tried his patience, while the latter tried his temper.

We would be only amongst people who loved and respected him, his men (and, it was coming to be true in all ways it could be, me), traversing a land he adored.

“Shall we leave tomorrow?” I asked his chest and felt him shift before I felt his lips against my hair.

Incidentally, that kind of kiss was very nice.

But it didn’t count.

He settled back and answered, “Yes.”

“As we’ll be traveling your realm, and there are customs here that most adhere to, and many will surely know who you are, perhaps we should find a second tent for me or if we stay at inns, I should have my own room so that—”

“Farah?”

“Yes?”

“Not another word, darling. All right?”

I closed my mouth.

True.

So protective.

So patient.

So generous.

So everything.