Chapter 26: 26__Princess treatment

With an unamused expression etched onto his face, Thoran crossed his arms over his chest, looking at the bunch standing before him.

“Have you lot lost your minds?”

Gunnar sighed, glancing at the hopeful trio behind him. “Steel, as the leader, it’s only right for you to take care of a guest.”

Looking at Gunnar, he scowled. “You think this is funny, Gunn? Don’t think I don’t see that laughter in your eyes, it’s too early for this shit.”

Expertly killing the twitch on his lips, Gunn looked offended. “The girl needs to bathe, Steel.”

“She can bathe where everyone else is bathing.” He looked at Amethyst and the wide-eyed look she was giving him. Damn her big, hazel-green eyes.

“But I…” She pouted. “It’s full of men.”

“Right,” Frank said. “Can’t be right to have her bathe there, she’s just a gal.”

“Who said anything about bathing with men?” Thoran demanded. “You wait for the men to all finish and then you take a stroll down to the rivers and bathe. Done.”

She looked horrified. “I can’t do that! It’s a r-river. I’ve never bathed in a river, what if there’s a snake in the water?”

He put his foot up on a stack of wood and dug a little knife out of his boot before snatching up her hand and pressing the knife into her palm. “Here.”

“What’s this?”

“Any snake come up to you while you’re bathing, you cut it open with this knife and it’ll leave you alone.”

With an incredulous scoff, she stared at him. “You can’t be serious.”

She was damn nearly crying, her eyes shining with desperation as she clutched the knife.

“Aren’t any snakes ‘round here though,” Harald absent-mindedly commented.

With a pitiful whimper, she turned to Gunnar. “Gunnar…”

He nodded. “It’s okay, I’ll speak to him.”

Thoran glared at him but the look had no effect. The effects of such a deadly look sometimes wore off when you had over fifteen years to get used to it. “Look, Steel—”

“Gunn,” Thoran muttered. “I haven’t got time to take her all the way to the bloody cave, we have work to do. Ten of our men are infiltrating Worringten today, I need to be there to double-check a map of the city for our next job.”

Gunnar shrugged. “I’ll go to Worringten.”

“No—”

“Steel, the girl wants to wash. She’s scared witless of bathing in an open river, surely you can understand.”

“I can’t! Move.”

“Just look at her.”

Muttering curses, Thoran sighed. He looked at Amethyst, his frown deepening at the sight of her pitiful expression. Bloody hell. He’d told her he wouldn’t be catering to her princess whims!

“I’m not doing it,” he said coldly. “So, bathe in the fucking river or stay dirty.”

_________________

The sky rumbled with warning. It would soon start raining.

Thoran glowered into the forest as he held onto his horse’s reins, expertly directing the beast.

Happily, Amethyst hummed a tune, sitting with her back to him, but both legs were on one side of the large horse as they rode between the giant trees.

His nostrils flared with annoyance at her cheerful tune. How dare she? After mistaking him for some fop named William, kissing him within an inch of his life and then waking up with no recollection of the matter, how dare she happily hum? It was his own fault. He should’ve stood firm on his refusal to take her to the damned cave.

Why he’d given in, he had no idea. Maybe it had something to do with how completely devastated she’d looked when he’d refused.

Damn it. Why did he care about that? She was the only person in the world who expected princess treatment from her so-called enemy, a Barbarian, no less.

It wasn’t good. Soon, she would despise him and realize that he wasn’t some good guy she could expect favours from. He was a merciless punisher of people like the very ones who’d raised her.

He sighed. She would learn very soon.

With a start, Thoran realized that her humming had stopped. A quick glance down at her showed him why.

With her head bobbing back and forth due to the movement of the horse, she was falling asleep. His brows rose. Why did she keep falling asleep with him? On a moving horse, too, she managed to fall asleep. Was she really a princess? Why, there was a fairytale about one who couldn’t sleep from the mere presence of a pea under her mattress. And yet, his princess fell asleep on a galloping horse.

A scoff parted his mouth. The horse landed a slightly high leap over a fallen branch and she went reeling forward. With one hand, he caught her, muttering a curse. Now he’d have to control the horse and keep her from falling to a cursed death.

Sighing, he gently pulled her toward him until her body leaned on his. With a low moan, she turned her head, tucking her face into the crook of his neck.

His body stiffened.

With a sigh, she continued her slumber, relaxing fully against him. Swallowing, he focused on riding the horse. The moment he lost concentration and started thinking about how her soft breath against his body was making him hard, they’d both get tossed into some rocky ravine.

He didn’t know when he’d gotten to the point of having to deal with such thoughts where she was concerned but he sincerely hoped that he would go back to normal as soon as he saw Riona. How long it would be till then, he hadn’t a sorry clue.

Raising one hand, he readjusted her head on his chest so she was comfortably cradled between his chest muscles, preventing her head from lolling back and forth.

A sigh of exhaustion left him. As king of Barbarians, his duty was to lead them to restore the happiness and peace of their people. An honourable cause for which he’d given up everything, risking his own life. Yet here he was, cradling a sleeping princess as he took her to a private pool of water for her bath.

God’s truth, things weren’t going as planned.

When they arrived at the cave half an hour later, he only got more annoyed by the loud rumbling in the sky. A drop fell on his arm and then another on his nose. Soon, a slow and steady fall of fat raindrops began.

“Bloody hell.”

Putting one hand over her head to shield her, he rode the horse into the shelter of the cave door where they stopped.

He gave her a moment to come to but she was still limp against his chest. Mildly alarmed, he looked down at her chest. The gem was there. An exhale parted his lips. She was just dead asleep then.

He cleared his throat. She didn’t wake. Lowering his gaze to her head, he put one fingertip on her forehead and nudged. Her head lolled back against his shoulder, leaving her face open and clear for his scrutiny.

In silence, he looked down at her fair face, studying the long sweep of her lashes and how they nearly brushed against her cheeks. Her nose was a perfect little triangle now, yet he could already picture that little scrunch she did when she argued with him. It was a wonder she didn’t have any bloody scrunch lines on her nose bridge. Suddenly, her mouth moved as if chewing invisible food in her sleep, slowly coming to a stop and leaving her lips parted enough for her teeth to show.

He scoffed, a hesitant smile tugging at his lips. There could be nobody else in the entire world who took such a delicious nap on her sworn enemy’s chest. How did she expect him to respect her as his nemesis?

The sky boomed with thunder and she jolted awake, her eyes dazed as she sat upright. Quickly turning away, Thoran cursed the sky as he dismounted.

“It’s raining…” she muttered absent-mindedly. She watched him silently go around to tie the horse and blinked at the stone wall. “Oh! Have we arrived?”

Without a word, he came over and reached for her. Without hesitation, she gave him access to her waist, her hands finding their place on his shoulders as he assisted her descent. She’d reached out for him. That was all she’d done, it didn’t make sense for such a simple action to elicit warmth spreading all the way to his damned earlobes.

Holy hell, he needed to get to Riona fast.