And if that doesn't make you wanna read it, here's a tease.
An hour later (of course, I had no way of telling if it was an hour or fifteen minutes. When I asked the time, Arthur looked at me like I was crazy) there was a small fire built, blankets laid out, and food to be eaten. Now, I was holding a small cup, forced to drink an awful substance Arthur called ‘medicine’.
He was staring at me from across the fire, his chainmail removed to reveal pants, shirt, and boots. Of course, it wasn’t anything out of Abercrombie and Finch, but it suited him.
His gaze was intense, his eyes darker in the firelight. “I…I want to apologize for my…lack of propriety.”
I stared at him, completely dumbfounded. “Propriety?”
He bit down on his lip, looking troubled. “Earlier.” When I still didn’t answer, his voice became hushed, his eyes wandered from my face to the ground. “You know… My sincerest apologies. I haven’t forgotten you’re quite angry with me. I was…I was just so relieved you’re alive.” He brought his eyes to my face. “It won’t happen again.”
Still having no clue what was going on, I allowed one eyebrow to rise. “What won’t happen again?”
Maybe it was just the firelight, but his cheeks looked the slightest bit red. Uncharacteristically, it seemed. He was most definitely the kind of boy who was gorgeous, knew it, and flaunted it. Something just told me he was quite the lady killer.
His voice was low, barely above a whisper. “The kiss.”
It took everything I had not to laugh at him. He was worried about a measly kiss?
But it wasn’t just a measly kiss and you know it, my stupid brain chimed in.
Luckily, I managed just a slight grin and was able to hold back my giggles. “Actually…I liked it.”
His head snapped up, as if he had just been told something truly shocking. Yet I knew, somehow, as if I had known him all my life, that he had no problem with other girls.
“Oh.” Was all he managed to say. After thinking for a moment, he mumbled, “then maybe we just won’t tell your uncle.”
Arthur picked up an apple and bit into it, leaning back and smiling. Ah, there was the person he was supposed to be. Worry free, confident and the slightest bit arrogant.
“You know,” he said after taking another bite of the apple. “I did do quite well back there. Especially in the bell tower. They never suspected a thing.” He chuckled. “It was pretty amazing.”
Well, maybe he was more than slightly arrogant.
I rolled my eyes, ready to snap at him with a witty remark. But he began to blur around the edges as I swayed and leaned back against the cave wall. When Arthur saw, he ran over and fell to his knees beside me.
“It’s nothing… Do you hear that?” I asked, listening again for the beeping.
Arthur watched me in the dim light the way someone studies a sick child. “I don’t hear anything…”
“Don’t you hear the beeping?” I gasped for air, the dress and cave suddenly feeling much too hot. “I…I just…”
“Lynette!”
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