Rose of Passion

Chapter 12; Traitor

"Hello," Aesc greeted, striding into the dining room where Kate ate her breakfast. She tensed but gave him a closed-lips smile, her mouth filled with pancakes. "Iscariot, you may leave. Don't bother telling Lycoan he has the day off; he knows." His piercing blue eyes never left Kate, but her eyes remained on her plate, her eyebrows furrowed to hide her true feelings.

She prayed for Faellan to arrive quickly as Aesc dismissed the other servants in the room.

"What do you want to do today, Kate?"

She forced herself to look up at him and swallowed her food. He sat directly across from her and stared at her in the same he always has, but the expression didn't entice the same feelings it used to. "Um, whatever," she mumbled.

He frowned, "You mean nothing?" His eyes narrowed as he struggled to read her, making her fidget. He always had a knack for being able to see right through her. What if he caught on that she wanted to leave? What would he do? Who would be hurt the most - emotionally and physically? Fear was her greatest motivator; she'd done theater acting, but she told herself that this would have to be Oscar-worthy.

So, Kate smiled widely, putting up a brave front. "No, of course not. Sorry, I was eating. These are really good. Honestly, what I meant was that we could do almost anything and I'd be fine with it...But, I wouldn't mind reading."

Aesc looked surprised and a little hesitant. "Reading? Reading what, exactly?"

"Well, you could read whatever you want, but I-"

"I was hoping to do something together. Maybe even romantic." His brow furrowed slightly.

"Reading is romantic! Of course, it depends on what you're reading, but Shakespeare sonnets can be very romantic. What girl doesn't want to hear about him thinking of love as immortal?"

"I'll give you that," he said simply. Aesc's cheeks had started to burn pink, and Kate hoped he would back out of embarrassment.

But he didn't, and less than thirty minutes later of eating in silence, Aesc had stood up to sheepishly announce that they should head to the library. When they arrived, Aesc and Kate skimmed the rows and rows of books looking for a collection of Shakespeare sonnets. Kate purposefully skipped over a group of some and when she noticed Aesc staring at her instead of searching, she hoped he hadn't noticed. Based on his expression, he hadn't.

"Here are some collections," Aesc called out a couple of minutes later, filling Kate with dread. She walked over to him with a grin, though. One of his eyebrows was raised as he looked from the shelf to the book he'd taken off the shelf to Kate. "Didn't you pass this area?" He smiled back at her teasingly.

Kate shrugged and put on a mask of innocence. "Whoops."

Aesc chuckled, and Kate felt relieved. He believed her performance so far. He sat down on the couch and opened the book. It must not have ever been opened or not touched for a while, because dust rose from the pages. Aesc waved his hand through the air to disperse of the floating particles then wiped down the book with his bare hand and blew on it as Kate sat next to him as least awkwardly as possible.

Aesc handed her the old book. "I want to hear your favorites first."

Kate narrowed her eyes. "You just don't want to be the one to read them out loud."