Reign: The Haunting Read Free Page B

wine goblets.
    â€œThank you.” Kenna smiled as she took one. Bash declined with a swift shake of his head.
    â€œI’d rather not spend too much time here,” he said, an arm around his wife’s slender waist. “Too many Italians for my liking.”
    â€œDon’t be such a spoilsport,” Kenna teased, standing on tiptoes and tilting her head to plant a gentle kiss on his downturned mouth. “We’ll drink, we’ll dance, we’ll see our friends, and then we’ll go back to our rooms and have a party of our own.”
    Bash couldn’t help but smile at that thought. Perhaps he and Kenna hadn’t had the most auspicious of beginnings, but he had never known such a passion. She was just as bright and brave and caring as she was beautiful and it was a combination he found difficult to resist, even here in public. He loved watching her dress for an occasion, the way she braided her long, silken brown hair, applied her kohl and rouge. He counted as the maids fastened the tiny silk-covered buttons that fastened her beautiful gold silk dress. It gave him even more pleasure to know every man in the room had their eyes on his wife but only he had his hands on her. She was his and he was hers. Forever.
    â€œYou’re making me want to leave right away,” he growled into her ear, his hand sliding around the waist of her gown, his fingers lightly sliding upward until they found her bare shoulder blades. She shivered with delight. “There are thirty-six buttons holding this dress together. How long do you think it would take me to unfasten them all?”
    â€œYou can rip them off for all I care,” she whispered, her voice hot in his ear. She stood right in front of him, tracing a line down his chest and then resting her hand right above his belt. “But I am going to make you wait.”
    With that, she danced away from Bash, laughing as she swayed through the crowds, raising her goblet to him as she went.
    â€œMarried life is treating you well, brother?” Francis threw a heavy arm around Bash’s shoulders, his tired eyes light with laughter as he watched Kenna make her way across the room. “I would never have guessed how well you would take to it.”
    â€œNeither would I,” Bash admitted, clearing his throat as he came out from under Kenna’s spell. “Luckily, of all the decisions our father made in his madness, this one seems to have been blessed.”
    â€œYou’re a lucky man,” Francis replied. His golden-blond hair glowed against his black jacket, the silver-blue embroidery picking out the color of his eyes. It was a favorite of Mary’s. Thinking of her, he knew he had some explaining to do after his bolt that afternoon. “Lady Kenna is—”
    â€œMary,” Bash interrupted his brother, his eyes drawn across the room.
    â€œWell, no,” Francis said, thrown. “I mean, she’s very beautiful, but—”
    â€œMary is here,” Bash said, gently elbowing his brother. “Look.”
    And it wasn’t only Francis who looked. A page announced Mary’s arrival, but he needn’t have said a word: everyone in the room stopped and stared. There was no arguing with the fact that she was a beautiful woman, but tonight she looked unearthly. Her long, dark hair shone almost black in the light of the lanterns and her dress sparkled as she moved, the midnight-blue silk skirt billowing out around her, the bodice seemingly decorated with thousands of tiny diamonds. It looked as though she were wearing the night sky itself.
    â€œHello, boys,” she said, heading straight for the light- and dark-haired brothers. “Are you not drinking? Is something wrong with the wine?”
    â€œWe couldn’t possibly raise a glass without our queen,” Bash replied. Everyone knew he had loved Mary fiercely, including Francis—his brother, her husband, and the king—and while that was