“Why is your hair mussed? And your shoes are off.”
Alaric could be a stiff, but he sure as hell wasn’t stupid. The longer this conversation went on, the more certain I was that our secret wasn’t going to be hidden for much longer.
“I was lying down. I took my shoes off because they hurt! You want to spend two hours in brand new high heels? Be my guest!”
More silence.
“Where is he?”
“What?”
“Don’t play stupid with me, girl. I know what you were doing up here. The only questions arewhowere you doing it with andwhereis he?”
“What the hell are you talking about? There’s no one here.”
“It’s one thing to look me in the eye and lie, it’s another to try and convince me I don’t know what is right in front of me! Now, tell me who he is andwherehe is.”
I wasn’t about to stand there and let Ava lie, take the heat, for what we’d both done. It was time to stop the deceit, to come forward, whatever the cost.
I placed my hand on the doorknob and turned it, understanding that my life was about to change forever.
With a push of the door, I entered the bedroom. Alaric was standing in front of his daughter with an expression of pure anger on his face. He turned to me, the anger shifting to confusion. He cocked his head to the side, as if unable to process what he was seeing.
“Luc? What is going on here?”
Ava’s expression fell, and in that instant, I could sense that she understood that the lies were over.
“Alaric. You wanted to see the man who was with your daughter. Here I am.”
The confused look stayed on his face.
“Here you are? I do not understand. Why are you here in my daughter’s room?”
He’d been on the warpath, ready to tear the arms off anyone who looked at him the wrong way. Now that he was face-to-face with the truth, he didn’t seem to be able to process it.
I was going to have to be very clear, and not leave a bit of doubt. It all had to be put on the table right then and there.
“I’m in your daughter’s room because we’ve been seeing one another.”
Ava pursed her lips and looked directly at Alaric. He didn’t say a word, just kept looking back and forth between the two of us.
“He’s right. That’s what was going on. I’m sorry you had to find out this way.”
Alaric still said nothing, his finger moving through the air as if he were silently putting all of the evidence together.
“You and my daughter,” he said finally. “Were… intimate?”
“That’s right.”
He nodded slowly. “I see. I see.”
I watched his hands ball into tight fists. Before I could process what was happening, he strode over to me, raising his fist and swinging it in my direction. I was a trained fighter—it was part of being the king’s closest aide and protector. My instinct was to step away, or to even grab his fist and pull his arm, placing Alaric into an armbar.
I didn’t. Instead, I stood still and let his fist fly toward me, connecting with my cheek. Ava let out a scream as her father struck me, the blow sending me stumbling backward against the dresser. Pain rang out, first from my face, then from my lower back as I hit the solid brass drawer pull.
Alaric marched toward me, preparing to strike again. He pulled back his fist and swung just as I shot my hands up, grabbing onto his arm and moving him away, putting some distance between us.
“Stop this!”