Ficorpio
Chapter 1
Chapter 1
The Grand Tutor was always at odds with me.
So I had his twin brother seized and bullied him mercilessly on my bed.
His mouth was gagged, his clothes in disarray, his eyes wet and shimmering.
I hooked the tip of my slipper beneath his chin and lifted his face, then said with a sweet, teasing smile, “Well, whose fault is it that you two have the exact same face? I can’t win against him, so I’ll just have to take it out on you.”
Later, when I looked at those twin brothers and saw how completely different their expressions were, I started to tremble.
The Grand Tutor bent down close, his breath brushing my ear. “Princess,” he murmured, “why are you shaking?”
Grand Tutor Lucien Blackwood commanded the armies of the realm and held power enough to make even the crown step carefully around him.
He had gone to my brother, the king, and coolly advised him that a princess keeping a house full of handsome male favorites disgraced the royal family.
And so, every lovely young man I had so carefully gathered was dismissed, and I was confined to one of my country estates under watch.
The very thought of it made my teeth grind.
If I didn’t vent this fury somehow, I wouldn’t sleep a wink.
Then I heard that Lucien’s twin brother, Julian Blackwood, had returned to the capital.
I smiled at once.
I might not be able to do anything to Lucien Blackwood himself, but surely I could take my frustration out on his brother.
The man kneeling beside my bed looked so eerily familiar that my breath caught.
He was all clean lines and unearthly beauty, his wrists bound behind his back. His black hair spilled loose over a rumpled pale silver nightshirt, and a strip of cloth had been stuffed into his mouth. He stared at me with a cold, cutting gaze.
“So alike. Far too alike.”
I slipped barefoot from the bed and crouched in front of him, catching his chin in my hand. My thumb brushed slowly back and forth over his red lower lip.
“What a heartbreakingly pretty face.”
His throat bobbed. He let out a shallow, strained breath and tried to wrench his jaw out of my grasp.
I caught him again with insulting ease.
Hooking a finger beneath his chin, I smiled at him, lazy and bright. “Don’t bother. You’ve already breathed in the incense.”
His eyes sharpened instantly.
I laughed under my breath and sat back down on the edge of the bed, then lifted one foot and pressed my toes against his chest. Even through the thin fabric, I could feel the heat of him.
A muffled sound escaped him, and that fierce look in his eyes slowly began to blur.
I rubbed my foot upward, inch by inch.
Every place I lingered made his breathing grow heavier.
From his chest to his throat, from his throat to his chin, I teased and toyed with him until the tips of his ears had gone so red they looked ready to bleed.
Chapter 2
Chapter 2
“Well, whose fault is that?” I said lightly. “You brothers had to be born with the same face. I can’t win against Lucien, so I’ll just have to take it out on you.”
Something in his expression shifted. The corners of his eyes were flushed now, damp with a watery sheen.
His half-open collar had fallen aside, exposing pale skin washed with soft pink.
My mouth went dry.
I seized his collar and dragged him up onto the bed. Sandalwood washed over me the instant he came close.
I bent down and bit hard into that lovely flushed neck.
His low, muffled sound, tangled with the pounding thud of his heartbeat, only made me more exhilarated.
“Scared?”
I sprawled across his chest, tracing idle circles with my fingertips, then tipped my chin up at him with a bright, playful smile.
His breathing was rough now. He turned his face away.
I ought to stop.
If I pushed this too far and truly angered Lucien Blackwood, I’d be the one to suffer for it.
Bracing a hand against his chest, I pushed myself up and went to fetch the antidote.
“Don’t scream.”
I pulled the gag from his mouth even as I warned him.
Knock knock.
The sound at the door startled me. Before I could think, I bent down and covered his mouth with mine.
The instant our lips touched, the man beneath me shuddered.
“Your Highness, someone has come from the Grand Tutor.”
I lifted my head and called back a response.
Then I pressed the antidote into his mouth and tapped a finger against those wet red lips.
“When you go back, tell Lucien Blackwood to stop provoking me.” My eyes danced with mockery as I let my tongue graze the crimson rim of his ear. “Or next time… I really will sleep with you.”
He trembled again, his eyes roiling with emotions I couldn’t read.
I let out a soft laugh.
Just a scholar, after all. Surely he wouldn’t dare go back and speak of this.
Lucien’s return to the capital this time was for a post at the Royal Academy.
As for my little stunt of abducting his brother, not a whisper of it spread afterward.
The breath I’d been holding finally loosened, just a little.
I couldn’t help it. Faced with Lucien Blackwood—a man who held the kingdom’s real power in his hands—I was, quite frankly, a coward. All I could do was scheme in petty, secret ways.
Half a month later, once my confinement was lifted, I felt refreshed enough to breathe again and went straight to the Royal Academy.
There, I sidled up to the man in plain robes with that cool, elegant face and teased, “Did you miss me?”
His pale fingers, curved around a teacup, paused.
I leaned against him at an angle, then caught a loose strand of his hair and wound it around my finger, playing with it.
Chapter 3
Chapter 3
A servant bringing over a stack of books took one look at us and started trembling. “Grand Tutor, the volumes you requested.”
My head buzzed.
My whole body went rigid.
“Grand… Grand Tutor…”
I gave a stiff, awkward laugh and quickly picked up the teapot to refill his cup. A thin sheen of sweat broke out across my back.
Lucien only glanced at me.
For one fleeting instant, I thought I saw the ghost of a smile in his eyes.
Oh no. No, no, no.
He had something on me again.
Just then my brother the king arrived with his entourage, heading our way.
My headache doubled on the spot. He wasn’t going to tattle again, was he?
“Eleanor, what is this?”
Under normal circumstances, I avoided Lucien whenever I saw him. The fact that I was now standing obediently at his side was bizarre enough that even Edmund couldn’t miss it.
I forced a bitter smile. “I’m here to apologize.”
Lucien lowered his eyes and adjusted his sleeve, the corner of his mouth lifting slightly.
My brother nodded, then tried to comfort me. “You should show a little restraint too. Keeping handsome favorites… if word gets out, people will talk. If nothing else, you should at least be discreet about it—”
Then he caught sight of Lucien’s steadily darkening expression and abruptly changed course.
“If you’ve taken a liking to some young lord,” he said, “you can always tell me. I’ll arrange it for you myself.”
Though Edmund and I were not born of the same mother, he had always treated me well.
My eyes lit up at once.
Lucien flicked me a cool look and said mildly, “And which lord has Her Highness taken a liking to?”
“…”
The name that had nearly left my mouth lodged itself halfway up my throat.
“Heh… no one. No one at all.”
A cold sweat broke over me.
I had just flirted with him moments ago. If I brought up another man now, I might as well dig my own grave.
Endure.
I would endure.
At the autumn fête in Deer Park, ladies and gentlemen drifted through the gardens, admiring the turning leaves while musicians played nearby.
I stood beneath the gallery, my gaze fixed on Adrian Ashford under the osmanthus tree, dressed all in cloud-white.
At last year’s midsummer feast, I’d gotten drunk and lost my way.
Adrian had been the one to help me.
“No wonder you still think about him, Sister. Lord Adrian really is exceptional.”
I glanced sideways at the newcomer, flicked my sleeve, and kept looking as if I didn’t care in the least.
My third sister, Princess Vivian Sterling, had always been like this. Whatever I wanted, she wanted to snatch away. Anything of mine, she had to fight over. It was unbearably childish.
“I’ve heard even the handsome favorites you keep all bear at least a passing resemblance to Lord Adrian…”
She hid half her mouth behind her hand, but her voice carried on purpose, loud enough to turn more than a few heads our way.