Stealing His Princess (Kings of Conquest #2) - Adelaide Forrest Page 0,39

think?” Mallory shot me a guileless smile even as my heart rate sped up from remembering just how easily Aric had picked me up to bring me to bed.

“So… I presume he wasn’t looking for a book to read?” I tried to be casual, a part of me wishing and hoping he’d been looking for me. Dreading that he had been.

Mallory tapped a finger to her lips like she was thinking. “No, he wasn’t. I think he was looking for Alina and I almost shouted that I was certain she was with my cousin but that would have given me away. He spent more time here looking than Holden did but I’ve a pretty good hiding place. You barely missed him. It was maybe five or ten minutes he’s been gone. When he left, I did contemplate locking the door but that would have been selfish of me. I can’t keep all these books to myself. Thank me for that,” she teased, “since it’s given you a place to hide as well.”

I shot her a wry smile. "I thank you for your admirable restraint. What are you hiding from anyway?" I leaned back against the tall back of the big, comfortable armchair, a bittersweet feeling enveloping me that he hadn’t been looking for me after all.

“Everything," she sighed. "All the dramatics of the events. Are they actually meant to be enjoyable? I had to leave the girls not too long after you left. They were driving me insane. Do you think any of them find this entire thing anything other than tedious? I have so much more important things to be doing than batting my eyelashes at men, when I couldn't give a damn what they think of me. We all know what they want from me." I nodded along, not even bothering to deny the truth to her words.

Mallory was in a unique position. She was an only child, so her father had no male heir.

It meant that whoever Mallory chose to marry would become King of Arristoel. A marriage to her could take a younger Prince who had no hopes of ruling his own country and give him the keys to her Kingdom. Something Mallory detested with every bone in her body.

Nobody could rule Arristoel with more passion than the Princess who had been raised there. Who had grown up loving her people as only a native could. She fought for the right to be the Queen in more than just name, to govern over the country, no matter what the status of her marriage. But the laws in her land, as they were in mine, were traditional, and tradition dictated the need for a King.

If anyone could challenge the status quo, it would be Mallory.

"Perhaps you could find a man who would be willing to rule in tandem with you? Allow you to have a voice where others might not?" I asked, moving to take a seat on the sofa. I patted the space next to me and she sat across from me, against the opposite arm, with a dramatic drop.

"Most of them promise such things, but I suspect it is a lie. Over time, the willingness to allow me to have a say in my own damn country would fade, after they have what they need from me. I've resolved myself to be an unmarried spinster. At least, until I can prove myself capable, but..." She trailed off.

"But what?"

"But the rumors that Reece, of all people, has found love make me question everything. Alina of Lantis is not the match that any would have expected him to make. Sure, he is in the unique position of being able to do whatever he pleases, but it still would have been smart for him to marry someone from a less impoverished nation. Everyone has been talking of Corbin's daughter. She is of age in a few years, and I fully expected my cousin to be the sort to think logically on matters like marriage."

"But nobody condemns him for his interest in Alina, or the fact that she is not who he should have chosen," I observed with a nod. "Unfair, isn't it? They have all the power to make the choices, and yet nobody blames them when they make the 'wrong' one."

She made a disgusted sound, kicking out a little, enough for one of her shoes to fly off. She snorted a little but made no move to retrieve it. "Can it ever be wrong to follow your