"No."
"Come on." His tone was teasing.
"I said 'no'!"
"I heard you, but you don't mean it."
"Let me assure you, James of Cavell, when it comes to my friends, they need time to warm up to someone. So no. You cannot just turn up to training in the morning and 'shock them all' by kissing me. They'd pound your brains out."
He smiled at her. "You're so beautiful when your being intense. You crazy knights all get worked up when you're in your element, I should never have let you out of that war zone. Maybe I should help you channel that passion somewhere else."
"James." The look she gave him was not the flirty response he had come to expect from his wooing of court ladies. Then again, she was no court lady. She was scared and he could tell. She was scared of what her friends would think of her choice in him, of what he thought and felt about her, of what the court would say about them. This fresh material for the gossips, no longer was Kel a loose woman, now she could be so many other horrible things, a cheater perhaps or neglectful of her duties as knight now that she had a man. Not that she'd had him yet, not in that way, just in every other. And he could tell she was scared of that too.
He wrapped his arms around her, "Shhhhhh love. I'll hush down. I love you and I'll play by all of your rules. Even if they are ridiculous. Besides, I think my father will be so proud when he finds out that he will tell the whole realm."
"Or he'll disown you."
"As long as you'll own me, I think I'll survive."
"Flirt."
"Goddess."
"Don't try to be sweet. You weren't in Tortall when I was in training. You don't know how bad it gets. People don't like me, they always find something wrong with what I do. I don't want them to do that to us. Not when we've not been 'us' for very long." She looked down. It amazed her that such a powerful, wonderful, kind man had taken an interest in her, especially since he was the son of the man who had once hated her most of all. And he didn't just want to bed her, or at least she didn't so, he must be very patient if that's all he was after.
She banished the thought from her head, no son of Wyldon would ever engage in such loathsome acts.
He took her face in both of his hands and kissed the tip of her nose. "We may not have been 'us' for very long, but we will be 'us' for a very long time and no overreacting friend or windbag court gossip will be able to convince me otherwise."
And he kissed her gently on her lips.
