Snippet #1468258

His smile became emphatically devilish as she refused to turn towards him for a few moments. Oh dear. This day wasn’t going well for her, was it? Kierel was still hoping to squirm out of marriage—lord only knew how, but he was sure if anyone could do it, it would be him. Nothing personal, of course, but he simply wasn’t the kind to be tied down, not so young and not so soon. He continued to loll in his seat, watching as she finally turned and began inspecting him as he had done to her.

She was a pretty thing, he had to say—a woman through and through, not a little girl. Her eyes were dizzyingly sweet, all rainbows and roses, jellybeans and unicorns, but of course he was starting to twig that this girl was far more strong-willed than her appearance suggested.

Kierel actually laughed at her suggestion that she was too sharp for him to handle. Just try it, he thought, lazy boredom giving way to amusement as his lip twisted slightly. To Kierel, ‘fun’ and ‘difficult’ meant the exact same thing, though he said nothing on the matter, simply listening to her suggestion for a little get-to-know-each-other game, like children on the first day of school. Bless.

Usually he would have laughed away such a ridiculous suggestion—he did not like people prodding too deeply into his personality and past, asking all those nitpicky questions he felt were best left unsaid—but at her suggestion of calling him ‘chicken’ Kierel instantly bristled. How dare she? This squabbling peasant of a girl, calling him by anything other than ‘Your Highness’? Kierel’s fierce pride won as it always did and his smirk slid from his face.

“I’m honoured,” he said dryly at her offer that he could go first. He thought for a moment, fine brows knotting as he did so. What would be a lovely question to begin with? “Well, my dearest, seeing as we are going to be married… have you had any man of your own before?” His voice became poisonously saccharine sweet as he added—“Don’t be shy, now.”

As if.