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She approached the garden with unease the next evening.  Certain he would be waiting for her. 

She wasn’t even sure why she had come, knowing she’d have to face him again.  She sighed in relief – and disappointment – when she noted her empty bench.  She glanced around.  Oddly saddened that he was not here.  But as she stepped up to her bench, she was surprised to discover a scroll lying on it.  She bent over to retrieve that slip of parchment before sitting down.

Curiously, she unrolled it, and her eyes began to peruse its contents.

“Lovely maiden

In the moonlight,

Beautiful girl

In the sunlight,

“I prefer you

At the sunset.

A picture I

Couldn’t forget.

“Its dying rays

Display your face,

Your allure,

Beauty, and grace.

“Drawing me in,

Ever forward.

Incline my ear

Toward your word.

“Pulling me near

To you, my dear.

Give me a chance.

At sweet romance.

“Bend your smile

Upon this man.

Flash your fair eyes

With no disguise

“My humble way.

Don’t lead astray.

Reach for my hand.

Welcome this man.”

She kept her lips stiff while she read his message.  But her heart couldn’t help but bend at the thought that he had taken the time to write her a poem. 

Or…had he? 

Had he commanded a servant to pen this?  Or to copy it from a book?

She frowned.

“If you’re wondering whether or not the words are mine, I can assure you that they are,” a soft voice spoke from across the stream.

She glanced up as her heart suddenly shot forward like a blast from a cannon.  But she resisted the urge to throw a hand up over that racing organ.  She glared at him instead.

“Prove it,” she tossed the challenge at him in a haughty tone.

He quirked one elegant, midnight eyebrow as his eyes assessed her.  She was acting cool, but her cheeks belied that ice.  They had blushed a becoming rose as she’d read his words.  And that flame had only grown when she’d discovered his presence in her garden with her.

“Certainly,” he stepped over the stream and approached her slowly.  “How so?”

“Compose me another.  Right now.”  Apparently, she thought this would constitute a challenge for him. 

He chuckled at her naiveté.  And bowed to her.  “Good evening, princess.  May I sit next to you?”

“No,” she responded rudely.  “I wish for you to kneel before me.  While you recite me a poem of your own making.”

“Ah,” one graceful eyebrow danced above his eye.  “You think I compose better on my knees, do you?”  He studied her thoughtfully for a moment.  “Are you hoping for a marriage proposal then?”

Now her face did crack.  In alarm.  Then annoyance.  “You are most absurd!  You know that I do not wish a marriage proposal from such as you!”

He cocked his head to the right.  “Interesting.  From whom do you wish a marriage proposal?  Tell me, and I shall become as he.”

She grunted as she gritted her teeth.  “You are impossible!”  Tossing his poem on the ground, she jumped up.  And balled her fists.

He stood staring down at her with a half-smile crowning his lips.  “Quite probably,” he murmured before bending to retrieve his poem.  He glanced down at it after rescuing it from the dirt.  “You didn’t care for this?  No matter.  I shall write you another.”  He turned to toss it into the stream.

A little cry left her mouth as she lunged for it.  Grasping it just in time.  Before it could sink beneath those warm waters.  But in her haste, she bumped into him, and his hands were forced to come up to steady her so that she too was rescued from a bath in that bubbling brook.

Focused on the parchment, she didn’t, at first, realize that she was in his arms.  But once she’d determined that her poem had survived unscathed, she became instantly aware that her body was pressed up against his.  She stiffened and drew back.  He released her immediately.

“Careful, princess.  One might suppose you have a fondness for poetry,” his soft voice warned her.

She didn’t meet his eyes.  She did, however, return to her pleasant perch.  Then she sniffed as she ignored his presence, her gaze on the distant horizon. 

But he grinned at her.  For his poem was clutched securely in her fist.  He watched her for a few moments as she turned her attention elsewhere.  His eyes slid over her gleaming hair.  And her now rosy face.  She was truly beautiful.  Wrapped in summer’s embrace.

He fell to his knees before her, surprising her.  Her head spun his way.  And her lovely, dark eyes widened.

“A princess fair,

Wrapped in summer,

Its sweet embrace

Blooming her face.”

He paused to draw a breath, and she scoffed at him.  “Your first two lines didn’t rhyme,” she criticized him.

“Really?  You won’t give me fair and summer?”

She simply stared at him, frost emanating from her gaze.

“You are a tough one, aren’t you?” he whispered.  “But I bet I could make you melt,” he breathed as he bent close to her.

She gasped and drew away from him.  But the tell-tale blush creeping across her cheeks gave evidence of the increase in her heart rate.  Bolstering his confidence.  His smile spread across his face, causing her heart to gain even more speed.  The man was shockingly handsome when he grinned.  She wished he would stop smiling.  It was easier to dislike him then.

She sought for a means of stealing that smile from his countenance.  And found only a lie.

She looked away from him.  “I heard that you fell out of favor with my brother.  And are leaving tomorrow.  I wish you Godspeed.”

But her ploy failed.  Instead of frowning, he suddenly burst into laughter.  Which only made him all the more attractive.  She gasped inwardly as her startled eyes clung to his beautiful countenance.  The man was a masterpiece when he was overcome with joy.

I could spend the rest of my life gazing at that face.

Her thoughts terrified her.  Her eyes grew round as she stared, horrified, at the captivating man.  He was assaulting her on every front.  With his beauty, and his words, and his tenderness.  What man dropped to his knees before a woman?

But it was his eyes that drew her most.  Those mesmerizing, cinnamon orbs.  Warm and inviting.  Trying to draw her in.  Every moment that he spent with her.

Cross now, she rebuked him.  “I thought you were going to write me a poem.”

“Indeed,” he murmured as he continued to caress her with his eyes.

She was amazingly fun to play with.  He was discovering just how much he liked her.  His lips twitching, he kept watching her.  But the smile died on his face when her eyes met his a moment later.  For he read distress in her gaze.

“What is it?” he breathed.

She blinked.

“What’s distressing you?”

You are, you infuriating man!  I was just fine mourning the loss of my love.  Why did you have to appear to shake things up?  I cannot possibly carry any fondness for you in my heart.  There simply isn’t room.

For Seon Woo had filled that fragile vessel with his lovely presence.  How could anyone else find his way in?  

But confusion was swirling through her heart.  For it seemed that Jong Su had found a hidden door and wrenched it open.  How could she be so drawn to this man?

She was hiding from him again.  Her eyes had slid away from his to watch the sun painting their blue dome a glorious shade of gold.  But he could tell that she wasn’t gazing at that outward display of beauty.  She was trapped on the inside of herself again.  A place he was pretty sure had imprisoned her for a very long time.

How could he coax her out?  Into the sunlight with him? 

How could he convince her that his motives were pure?  That he wanted her for herself?  And not for the crown attached to her?

It was true that his brother needed this alliance with her brother.  But couldn’t that be just as easily attained through Jin Heung’s marriage to Eun Sook? 

Jong Su didn’t really need to marry Sook Myeong.  He could find another bride.  From another kingdom.  And ratify a second peace for his brother.

But, as he gazed at the princess, he had to admit to himself that he didn’t want another woman.  He wanted this one.  It was unaccountable.  Inexplicable.

How could he desire an ice princess?

However…her eyes slid his way again surreptitiously.  Trying to sneak a peek at him.  And he caught the shade of vulnerability in them.  And he realized what it was about her that drew him to her.

She needed his love.