Miles watched as Caspian left the room, once again picking up on some resentment from the prince but not understanding where it was coming from. In his mind, he hadn’t done anything worthy of stirring up his friend’s passive aggression. He’d kept Iris safe for the entirety of the lockdown, and he had invited him over to see that she was okay the very morning after the restrictions had been lifted. If anything, he felt like Cas owed him for risking his neck for the sake of a woman he had never even met before the last week.
Subtly, he raised his shoulders in a shrug to himself. If it was important, Cas would probably bring up the problem eventually on his own. For now, he would just ignore the odd behavior and carry on with what he was doing—which, hopefully, was clueing Iris in to his interest in her so he could figure out if the feelings were mutual. At this point, he had no idea what it would look like to go after someone who had been a commoner and a member of the Scourge, but he didn’t like to think that far ahead anyway. If it turned out that she was into him too, he would just figure that out when they got there.
When she spoke up to ask about Jay, he turned away from the door and shrugged again, more prominently this time. “Dunno. Probably soon. I told him there would be food and substances, so I’m sure he’s hurrying to get here as fast as he can.” He couldn’t wait for the other high born to arrive. With any luck, Jay’s presence would distract Caspian from whatever had crawled up his butt that morning. “Why? Do you miss him?” he added with a teasing smirk. Though the question was framed in a playful manner, he was trying to rule out the possibility that she fancied the other man. Cas had already told him that nothing had happened between them, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t catch feelings for Jay.
Meanwhile, Cas headed to the oversized pantry where the Kinders’ stored their liquor and closed himself inside, leaning with his back to the door and his arms crossed over his chest. An uneasy expression colored his features as his eyes roved absently over the shelves of bottles. Though he had told Miles he was going to bring back champagne, he had no intention of fulfilling his promise right away. First, he needed some time to cool down and process what had just happened in the bedroom.
When he’d first arrived at his friend’s estate, he’d been thrilled at the thought of reuniting with Iris and picking up where they had left off a week ago. However, now he was starting to wonder if he’d gotten his hopes up prematurely. It had never crossed his mind that something would happen between Miles and Iris while they were staying together during the lockdown. Over the course of it, he’d assumed she wouldn’t be interested in anyone other than him, so there had been no reason to worry. How naïve that had been. She was a beautiful woman, so of course the other high born would take an interest in her. And Miles was both handsome and had the confidence that so many other girls swooned over. Tossing the two into a room together for a whole week had been a recipe for disaster.
At the thought, he grimaced, curling his fingers tensely against his arms. Betrayal stabbed at his heart like a knife, and even though he knew he had no proof that he was right about them, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he’d just sabotaged himself by giving her another option. If he had only thought of a way to hide her from the soldiers without pushing her into Miles’ open arms, she wouldn’t have learned that there were other, better men in the capital than himself. She wouldn’t have sat in front of him, flirting with one of his best friends as if nothing had even happened between them in the districts.
But what the hell kind of life would that be? He closed his eyes and leaned his head back against the door panel. As much as it pained him to admit it, he couldn’t control her like that. If he tried to hide her away from every other man in the capital, he knew she would just resent him for it. They would have to trust each other not to leave the instant a new plaything was presented to them… But what if she didn’t want to stay with him in the first place? What if he was the only one who had gotten invested enough to decide that he didn’t want anyone but her? Maybe his guess had been right, and she was testing the waters with Miles because she wanted to explore what it would be like to be with someone else. Objectively, she had every right to date around. She didn’t belong to him, and he couldn’t control who she wanted to see. He just hated how quickly it seemed like she had moved on when he was still so thoroughly entangled in his feelings for her. He’d meant it when he’d told her he loved her, after all.
Biting his lip to stifle the roiling uncertainty and hurt inside of him, he took a step away from the wall and flipped on the light switch beside him to look through the Kinders’ stores of champagne. Thoughts of Iris still circulated inside his brain as he browsed the glass bottles for something his friends would like to drink. He wished desperately that he could just talk to her and find out what was going on, but at the same time, he was afraid to hear the answer. To find out that she had moved on would have been devastating, and he wasn’t sure if he could handle it before he’d had a chance to brace himself for the worst.
Pulling a bottle of Louis Roederer Cristal Vinotheque from the shelf, he took a steeling breath and headed back into the hall to go back to the others. As unsettled as he was, he couldn’t let Miles know what was going on. He’d already told his friends that nothing had happened between him and Iris, and he had to stick to that story. He just hoped he wouldn’t return to find them in an even more compromising position than they had been before.
Snowdrops
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Rapture
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