The Bride: A Sequel to Hwarang: The Saga of the Sooks Book #7

Chapter 12: Life Is as Sweet as Honey

As they stepped outside after she informed her cook that she would not require dinner and her lady's maid that she was headed out for the evening, Ni Na settled in next to him for the long walk to his house. She glanced up at the blue sky. She was feeling terribly self-conscious now.

With each step, her feelings for him seemed to grow larger and more intense. She took a steadying breath.

Her father had never attempted to arrange a marriage for her. Though she wasn't really sure why. Many of her acquaintances had suffered such a situation long before their fifteenth birthday. Here she was, well on her way to eighteen, yet she was uncommitted. A fact for which she was supremely grateful today.

Perhaps Appa was simply too busy representing the king hither and yon. Too occupied with his diplomatic affairs to give his daughter's future any sort of proper consideration. Whatever the reason, she sighed with relief. And slid a surreptitious glance towards the lofty lord escorting her to his house.

Only to be speared by that heated, green gaze. "What thought is resting so heavily on your consciousness right now?" he murmured.

And grinned with delight as her cheeks suddenly bloomed two bright roses.

Instantly, he flashed that gorgeous grin at her once more, and she felt her heart sliding towards him yet again. Would she ever recover if this man didn't choose to spend the remainder of his life with her?

She lifted her lips in a careless smile. "Nothing so terribly heavy," she lied as she glanced away from him. "What is your mother like?" she attempted to distract him from pursuing her true thoughts.

"Utterly delightful," he claimed with a grin. "But you already know that." He chuckled inwardly as he eyed her curiously.

"Oh, right," she muttered.

"Are you sure that you're all right?" he queried with a knowing gaze.

She sighed. "I have just begun to question my life of late."

His interest piqued, he quirked one arching eyebrow. "Have you now? How so?"

"Mmm. I'm wondering how much longer I shall live alone," she uttered truthfully.

"Ah. You are speaking of marriage."

"Or of my father returning."

He glanced pointedly at her. "Is he often gone?"

"He is gone all of the time," she intoned flatly.

And for some reason, his heart hurt as he listened to her low rumble.

"Why does he not take you with him?" he asked curiously.

Her lips flipped up into a humorless smile. "I think he believes that, in general, he is traveling places that might endanger me. A defenseless woman."

"Defenseless, eh?"

She nodded as her eyes captured his. Her lips twitched. "I am, you know? I've never had one second of training in self-defense."

"Does it interest you?"

"Not really," she shrugged. "I would much rather live in my pottery room than traipse about the earth looking for trouble. I did not inherit a single one of my father's adventurous bones."

He frowned. "And why do you think that is?"

"I do not know. I've always been terribly cautious. Perhaps because my mother died so young," she postulated.

"What happened to her?"

She sighed. "She came down with a fever. It never left her. Instead, she left us. And taught me that sometimes life is terribly fleeting. And always precious. So...why put myself in harm's way if I don't have to?"