Morphed into Love, Book 2

12- The Favourite Parent

RONAN

I hadn't thought this through. When I'd knocked on the conference room door and asked Ophelia to join me in meeting Zegyi, it had been an impulsive decision. A terrible, thoughtless decision that I was already regretting. We were half-way through the marketplace and, despite the hundreds of people surrounding us, all I could see was her.

I was currently watching Ophelia charm a merchant selling necklaces adorned with jewels farmed from the Zangaard Region. Rare, beautiful and extortionate in expense. He took one look at her walking by and yelled out: "pretty woman, you simply must purchase an exquisite necklace for your exquisite self!"

Clearly, his plan had backfired because from the looks of things the man was close to busting in his pants. From the first word that had left her full lips, he was in a trance.

I watched on, silently, as he allowed Ophelia to try on a necklace littered with sapphires.

"It makes your eyes look even more spectacular!" He swooned, clasping his hands together with a blush.

Irritation licked at my lungs like fire until they burned, "Are you done, little elf?"

"Oh." Ophelia stopped smiling and, for some reason, it hit me in the gut like a boulder, "My apologies."

She returned the necklace to the merchant, despite him offering it to her for a fraction of the original price and followed me. Ophelia was too selfless to agree to such a pitiful price and leave a man penniless.

"You can't stop at every stall." I reminded her, "These men will try to keep you talking for hours."

"Whatever for?" Her big blue eyes glanced up at me and, try as I might've, I had to look away.

"To look at you for longer." There was no harm in honesty, objectively speaking Ophelia was stunning.

"Is that why you're taking me to Zegyi? To keep me away from prying eyes?" She joked, the points of her ears sticking out from her lavender hair.

"And so what if I was?" I smirked, "So what if I want you all to myself for today?"

"Then I would venture to question your motives." Ophelia wasn't a fool and despite my best acting skills she was probably suspicious already. I hated my mother for forcing my hand and sending me on a ridiculous mission of seduction. I was a sycophant by nature, but this was really taking things too far.

"Why?"

"You despise me."

I sighed, "I do not despise you."

"Tell that to your face that, my Lord." Ophelia hid a smirk, leading the way like she'd visited Zegyi many times before.

I followed, meticulously watching as the citizens did double-takes and gawked at her beauty. The path cleared for her merely because I was there and the peasants thought I'd kill them if they touched me, but it made Ophelia all the more exposed. She was attracting attention, a lot of it.

I caught up to her, until we were walking side-by-side and I could lean into her ear, "Are you aware of how many men just eye-fucked you, little elf?"

Heat and pink washed over her features like a rosé landslide, "I implore you to seek more apt vocabulary, Prince Ronan."

"I've never been apt, Ophelia."

She shivered. She fucking shivered. It was warm and sunny, and she'd shivered at the sound of my voice. Perhaps her hate had created a route for abandoned want to creep in.