Fortunately, he didn’t loiter on the beach with his men but carried me directly into our tent.

Once inside, he put me instantly to my feet.

I struggled with the toweling until I had my arms free.

I clutched it to my chest, turned angry eyes up to his face…

And clamped my mouth shut tight.

For his enraged face was an inch from mine.

“Have you lost your mind!” he roared at me.

In the face of such fury, to save him from himself (and, frankly, me from whatever might come out of his mouth), I immediately became soothing. “Aramus.”

“By the sirens, Ha-Lah. By the bloody sirens, woman!”

“If you’d—”

He moved back but an inch so he could get his finger in my face.

“I woke, you were gone,” he bit. “I searched, you were nowhere to be found.” He dropped his finger. “I roused the entire fucking camp, and no one could find a hint of you, but your bloody…fucking…clothes.”

I stared at his furious face.

And saw the fear behind his eyes.

And suddenly there was no armor around my heart.

It was gone.

In but an instant…

Vanished.

By Medusa.

My husband had fallen in love with me.

“My king,” I whispered.

“Do you have any sirens-damned clue what ran through my head?” he asked.

I had a feeling I did.

It was exceptionally horrible.

And I was sorry for it.

“Please, allow me—”

“And you were fucking swimming,” he clipped.

I pressed my lips together, hard.

Yes, one thing I knew about my husband, when he was angry, he needed to let it out.

“Did it once occur to you to wake your fucking husband and share you’d like a moonlit dip?” he demanded.

When he paused long enough I thought he might actually wish my answer, I opened my mouth, but he spoke yet again.

“No!” he barked. “It didn’t. But weeks ago, Cat had a sword run from his gut to his gullet. Sofia was magically overcome by sirens-damned snakes. Now you take off on your own with not one single guard in a foreign land and go swimming.”

“I’m sorry,” I said softly.

“You’re sorry?” he asked sarcastically.

“I was in no danger,” I told him.

“You were in no danger,” he repeated after me, again, sarcastically.

“Aramus—”

“You are beautiful.”

I shut my mouth again.

“The most beautiful female of any realm. Do you know what a man would do to possess that beauty?”

I stared up at him.

He thought I was the most beautiful female of any realm?

Before his words could sink in completely, Aramus kept ranting.

“Do you know what an enemy would do to that beauty to bring the man who possesses it to his knees?”

“I—”

“And you are queen. The queen of the mightiest realm in Triton. If someone abducted you, I would give our entire fleet to have you back unscathed.”