Page 73 of Crimson Kingdom

My eyes narrowed. “Then how exactly would you expect me to pass the ever-important legitimacy examination?”

“Lemmikki.” He took a slow breath, running his hand through his hair. “Is there a reason you’re being inordinately difficult about this?”

I tilted my head, the pieces coming together. There was no part of him that believed I wouldn’t...pass that examination, whether we had a wedding night or not.

Indignation slipped into the cracks in my mask of whiskey-infused calm.

“Is there a reason I shouldn’t be difficult about this?” I hedged. “Do you enjoy random strangers putting their hands in your...orifices?”

Evander choked on the drink he had just taken, and I couldn’t help a small, victorious chuckle.

“To clarify,” he said, gently scratching the stubble on his chin. “Both of those things are singular. Only one stranger...and only one orifice.”

A surprised burst of laughter escaped me. “Well, that’s much better then. Truly, I have nothing to be concerned about.”

“I’ll see what I can do about the examination,” he said, a ghost of a smile gracing his lips.

“No, no.” I shook my head. “As you said, sacrifices must be made. And I...can’t wait.”

I was only half joking.

“We both know we can’t afford for the legitimacy to be questioned,” I added in a more serious tone.

He eyed me over his glass. “Given the...rumors, I may be able to convince them that it doesn’t prove anything.”

I thought about what Avani had said, about acting like adults, about the things we needed to talk about.

Damn her for being right.

I took another swill of my drink, which was, indeed, fortifying, before looking Evander in the eyes.

“Does that bother you?” I didn’t know why the answer mattered to me when the rumors weren’t even true, but I supposed I wanted to know how he viewed women,me.

He didn’t ask what I was referring to. “A certain...lack of propriety has followed you around from the day I met you.”

“That’s not an answer,” I said.

“Does it bother me that you aren’t a paragon of purity?” He scoffed. “Storms, Lemmikki, I’m not that much of a hypocrite. What you’ve done in the past is your business.”

Something inside me eased at the admission, then tightened up again when I realized what he was admitting to. Perhaps it was I who was the hypocrite, because the idea of someone else ever being in Evander’s bed certainly bothered me.

Then, his features darkened. “Or are you asking if it bothers me that you were in Korhonan’s bed after you were in mine?”

I raised my eyebrows, trying to ignore the heat that surged through me at his words. He didn’t usually even acknowledge that I had been in his bed in any capacity, let alone say it so...possessively.

“I wasn’t,” I corrected him.

He sat up straighter, his brow furrowing. “What?”

“Theo hasn’t touched me since that day at the negotiations,” I admitted, taking a deep breath before I forced myself to expound. “And before that, we didn’t--I haven’t--”

I averted my eyes, not quite brave enough to look him full on in the face when I gave him the upper hand in this scenario.

Actual nudity in the sauna would be preferable to this feeling of being exposed any day.

Evander went still. “Did you not tell me in the tent that you and Korhonan werehours away from a natural stopping point?”

“Well, you were being an arseling,” I reminded him.