Cocky Virgin Prince by Wendy Rathbone

Author:Wendy Rathbone [Rathbone, Wendy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Eye Scry Publications
Published: 2018-05-22T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

“You always laughed a little too fast and long. You always ran faster than me, and didn’t look back to see if I was keeping up. And you were always very quick to push me if I got in your way.”

“Now you’re going to list all of my childhood faults?”

He made a glowering face. “Maybe.”

Society dictated the behaviors of its citizens. They had choices they could make, of course. We lived in a Golden Age. Who could complain? But we still were human, mostly. Even those of us with cyborg parts. We still listened to our egos, and needed to feel important. We too often sought that outside ourselves, beyond our hearts, seeking approval from our self-made gods and icons, those we admired or drew praise from or wanted to be like, young or old, royalty or the son of a guard.

I got up from the couch, came around Night’s out-stretched legs and knelt. Slowly. So I did not startle that untamed energy that seethed inside him. I admired him for it. I always had.

I put my hand on the edge of the couch by his thigh, not touching. “I did not want to leave you.”

“But you wanting something else more,” he replied.

Fair enough. I nodded. “Let me put it this way, then,” I said. “I should not have left you.”

He glanced at me through half-shut eyes, dark and anything but serene. “No,” he said quietly. “You shouldn’t have.”

“I mean it.”

He laughed, high and ridiculing. “I think you think you mean it.”

That stung. I took a deep breath. My chest swelled. I held my breath, and then let it out with my next words. “I’ll quit the Academy and come back to you.”

That statement was unplanned. And yet my heart would argue it was not. My heart had known. It always had. I’d missed him, wondered about him, dreamed of him. I simply never allowed myself to project my fantasies any further onto my longings.

Now Night sat upright, his hands falling to his lap. “What?”

“You heard me.”

“But—you’re ridiculous. Look at you! Listen to yourself! You can’t just—“

“I can. I can change my mind, right? There’s no law that says I can’t. This calling was chosen for me when I was twelve. What did I know at that age? I’m allowed to say no now. I’m allowed to rescind consent.”

He gave me a look as if I were speaking a language he had never heard. “You’re being stupid. You’re someone great now. Looked up to. Admired. Famous, even. You have the support, the approval, even the admiration of the entire city. ‘Star is a rare gem,’ they say. ‘The rarest, the best. The one so many virgins hope to have in their beds on their night of the Rite of Ecstasy.’”

Now I laughed. “People don’t say that!”

“They do. You’ve never heard?” A slight smile crept at the edges of his mouth.

“No. And I’m not stupid.”

He frowned. “You are.”

“When is love stupid?”

He shook his head and backed away from me, sliding across the couch until he could stand without touching me.

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