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“I’m sorry,” he breathed.  “Sorry that you were never cherished as you should have been.” 

As Eun Sook should have been too.

Perhaps, had your father treasured you, then you could find it in your heart to trust me.

“Why did you flee from me the other night?” he whispered into her hair a few moments later as he buried his nose in her luxuriant tresses.  “And why did you hide from me for a whole week?”

“Could you really want a cold specimen like me?” she murmured abruptly against his chest.  “Won’t my touch grow frigid and your heart turn to ice?  Then you’ll take another wife and forget about me,” she muttered petulantly.

Sounding like a small child.

But he understood her fear.  It was the very thing that had happened to his own mother.  She had been passed over for the king’s mother.  Though his father had fallen first for Jong Su’s mother, the other woman had caught his eye a few years later – and given him a son first.  And Jong Su’s mother had been forever banished from royal favor.  Pushed to the back of the line.  The last insult had been the rejection of the daughter whom she’d given him with her final breath.

The prince tightened his hold on Sook Myeong.  “You are not a cold specimen, my dear.  You are a raging fire.  I’m more like to be burned by your blaze than ever frozen out.”

She shivered at both his touch and his words.  The man could bend her heart towards him so easily.  With just a few muttered phrases.  And a warm hug.  His power over her terrified her.  How was she to escape his embrace unscathed? 

But she knew that it was too late for that.  He’d already branded himself into her consciousness.

With his tenderness.  And the light in his warm, cinnamon eyes.

So she spent several precious moments arguing with herself internally.  Her softer side won out today, and she finally relaxed against him.  He felt the shift in her and smiled.  But he also knew that it was only a temporary weakening.  He was sure that her colder side would reappear the next time that she felt threatened by him.

“I think that you and I should spend some more time getting to know each other.  Your brother and I accomplished much concerning our peace talks over the past week, and tomorrow he has other business to attend to.  Would you meet me at the stables at eight o’clock tomorrow morning?  I’d like to take a ride with you.”

Surprised, she drew away from him.  To glance up into his face.  “You want to go riding with me?”

“Yes,” he paused for a moment.  “And come hungry.”

Hungry?

She eyed him suspiciously.  “What are you up to?” she muttered darkly.

He smiled, and the light of it bounced off his eyes.  “Wouldn’t you like to know?”  He reached up to tweak her on the tip of her nose, and an expression of shocked outrage flitted across her features for a moment.

“Yes.  I would,” she responded crisply.

He bent towards her as his grin grew.  “Then you will just have to show up at the stables in the morning, now won’t you?”

She blinked.  The man was too gorgeous by half.  How had she ever thought him less than perfect?  When that smile was splitting his face, she found it nearly impossible to resist him.

“Did you write that song for me?” she asked abruptly.

“I wrote that song about you,” he murmured quietly.

“Can the next one be…happier?” she whispered.

“The next one, eh?”  He grinned down at her again.

“This one was good.  I mean,” she tossed a teasing smile his way, “it did rhyme.  And the flow of the rhyme was consistent this time.  So…you’re definitely improving.”

“I’m improving, you little minx?” he uttered cheerfully.

“But it was terribly sorrowful.”

“Of course, it was!  I missed you horribly!” he burst out.

And her heart emitted a pang.

He bent his head and brushed a kiss across her cheek, but she stepped back and glanced around.  “Unless you’re going to marry me tomorrow, you’d best pull back a little.  If one of the servants sees us…”

He grinned wonderfully.  “Then I’ll have every reason to marry you tonight,” he finished with relish.

But her eyes were sober.  “You said we’d take our time getting to know each other.  Over the next few weeks.”

He cleared his throat as he stared down at her.  “I did say that, didn’t I?  Why ever did I utter those words?  Shooting myself in my own foot, as it were,” he muttered ruefully.

She glanced down at his feet.  “I can shoot the other one if you like.”

A bark of laughter left his lips.  “I’m sure you could.  Especially now that you endured my tutorial.  Whatever was I thinking when I taught you how to improve your aim?  Should you ever become truly cross with me, my life would be in severe danger now.”

But his joke didn’t have the intended effect; it fell entirely flat.  She stared up at him with serious eyes.  “I could never shoot you.”

“Not even if I kissed another woman?” he ribbed her.

Indignation flooded her countenance.  “Would you?  I would definitely shoot you then!”

“I know,” he grinned.  “That’s why I would never dare.”

Her face fell.  “Is that the only reason you’d keep your lips to yourself?”

“No,” he responded happily, “I’d be saving them for you.  Who on earth would I want to kiss besides the girl I’ve come to adore?”

The corners of her lips twitched upwards, but that smile didn’t reach her eyes, and he realized that he had a long way to go before she would trust him fully.  Was it even possible to get her there?