Where Flowers Don't Belong

Chapter 6-Diamond Shadows

I stayed perfectly still, listening for any sort of movement in the pitch-black room. The bed dipped slightly and I sucked in a quick breath. I could feel the king laying down next to me, his body heat rolling onto me.

I waited for a moment, then two, but nothing happened. Well, I guess that was it. How strange. He didn't punish me. He didn't have sex with me. All he had done was put slow-acting poison on my wounds and put me in his clothing. None of it made sense.

I moved silently off the bed, ready to go back to my own quarters so that the king could sleep. I was grateful that he had decided to leave my punishment until tomorrow. I would accept any extra time that he wanted to give me.

I was eager to get back to my room, to sleep in a familiar place where I could process everything that had happened tonight. But as soon as my feet touched the floor, the king spoke.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

I hesitated. "I-I was going to go to sleep. L-Like you said." He had said that, right?

"Okay," he replied slowly. "Then where are you going?"

"To-to my quarters, your majesty."

I heard him chuckle deeply into the darkness. "That's not what I meant, baby."

Baby? Baby? Why would he be calling me baby if he wasn't attracted to me and didn't want to have sex with me?

"You will be sleeping in this room," he said.

My whole body stilled. He wanted me to sleep in here? In this room? I had never been anywhere as nice as this room. It was warm in here and the floors weren't wet. It would be a dream to sleep here.

"In here, your maj—Elijah?" I asked in a timid voice.

"Yes," the king responded. "In here."

I tried to look at him through the darkness so that I could tell if he was joking but couldn't see him. What about him? Where would he go if I was here? There was nowhere in the entire packhouse that was nicer than this room.

"Oh," I replied softly. I almost asked him where he would be sleeping but shut my mouth quickly. That was none of my business. He could do whatever he wanted. It was not my place to question him.

Choosing to just nod in response instead of asking more questions, I moved quietly off the bed, getting ready to move to the floor so I could sleep. I wanted to give the king space, so I moved all the way to the other side of the room, finding a corner that didn't have any furniture in front of it. I sat down on the hardwood floor, running my hands gently across the smooth wood. I never thought I would describe wood as soft but that's exactly what the surface beneath my fingertips felt like. I laid down on my side, bringing my knees up to my chest and curling into a ball on the ground the way I always slept. I sighed in content. I had never felt more comfortable in my life. I couldn't believe I got to spend the night here. Never did I ever think I would be allowed such luxuries.

"What are you doing?"

I jerked in fright. I couldn't see the king but I could tell that he was above me, looking down at me on the floor. Wow, he moved quietly. How long had he been there?

"I'm sorry," was my immediate response. "Had you not said— Didn't you want me to sleep in here?" I asked hesitantly. I was seriously getting sick of being so dumb that I needed clarification on everything the king said to me.

"Yes, I did say that," he replied. "So why are you on the floor?"

I shifted uncomfortably. Was I missing something?