Page 12 of The Autumn Prince

“Uh-huh.”

I went back to watching the rain fall, glad my distractions were working. If I couldn’t flirt because of my self-imposed rule not to seduce the virgin prince, I could still annoy, anger, and tie three different kinds of knots.

Chapter 5

Zalman, I truly believe this is rather wrong thinking on your part.”

I clicked my tongue at Incendis and turned the page on the book I was reading to him. I swear I felt a little like Belle in the opening of Disney’s Beauty and The Beast because we’d gone to a little bookstore, I’d climbed the ladder, and he’d bought me a romance novel called Love in the Loaves. It was about a baker. She was wooing her man with fresh bake goods every day. He, of course, had no idea what was happening to him.

“I think this is going swimmingly,” I said, using a new vocabulary word from the adorable book in my lap. “You’ve stopped pacing and trying to go back to work—” I didn’t use air quotes but they were implied “—and we’re having a very nice time here in this garden with our book.”

“I’m tied to a bench.”

Yes, fine, he was. I’d borrowed a length of rope from a cart we’d passed and I’d tied him from the waist down to a stone bench. He couldn’t reach the knots because they were underneath the bench, and it was entirely too heavy for him to carry away because he couldn’t stand up or fly. He’d tried both.

How had I managed to tie him up without him resisting and getting away? I’d flirted. I knew I shouldn’t have, but I did it anyway. I was weak! Anyone would be if they stood close to him and watched his IQ drop into single digits as he forgot how to speak and kept licking his lips. I’d shoved a leg between his, too, and his breath had caught in a way that had distracted me for a moment. But by the time I’d gone around behind him to secure the ropes crisscrossed over his lap and under the bench, he hadn’t even noticed what I’d actually been doing for at least five minutes.

And here we were.

“You’re tied to this bench for your own good.” I patted his thigh and gave him a smile. “Besides you asked me to do it.”

He squinted whiskey-colored eyes at me. “I did not.”

“You said I need to help you break the curse.”

“How does tying me down do that?”

I smiled at him. “You’re relaxing.”

He frowned harder. “You think forcing me to relax will help break the curse?”

I sighed, honestly surprised that we had to discuss it like this. “I think making you change your ways, possibly even stop bad habits, will help break the curse.”

He drew back, now looking shocked. “How is working with my people a bad habit?”

“Were you working with them, though?”

I didn’t like having to be the one to point out what had really been happening in that room and it did break my heart a little to see his face fall before he looked away. He was fully aware of the fact that he wasn’t needed in there.

“I can’t sit idle,” he said quietly. “There’s so much wrong. So many hurting. I must do something.”

I rubbed up and down his back in sympathy. Some time ago, he’d made his wings disappear, saying they often got in the way. Without them and with his ears hidden by his hair, he looked almost human. Something about that felt off to me. Like he should never be so plain as just being a red-headed white guy with a rocking body. Incendis was meant to be more.

“I’m sorry,” I said. “I really am. But I just don’t think you’re going about things the right way. Maybe,” I said when he opened his mouth to interrupt, “you can be useful in some other way. You might think of something people could work on, sure, but then you should let them do it.”

He sighed and clasped his hands on his lap.

“I’ve always liked letting the experts be the ones to run things. Obviously, you should be involved when something needs your approval or more money or whatever like that. But to take an idea and make it a reality really should have the experts,” I emphasized again, “doing the work.”

I watched him mull that over, his gaze flicking all over his hands before he closed them and sighed again. This time, he sounded resigned. “I need to trust them,” he said quietly.

Oh, look at him learn! And so quickly, too.

“Exactly.” I leaned in and kissed his cheek.

I’d meant it as a reward and kissing someone’s cheek had never really meant I wanted anything more from them. But Incendis stared at me, and I watched his pupils dilate. He wasn’t just someone, and we’d both been clear about what we’d wanted.

Why was I resisting him so much?