Chapter 183 - 184
"Did you enjoy your Name Day present?" asked Lessa, face flushed as she rested her chin atop Alistar’s bare, muscular chest. Tracing circles on his left shoulder with an index finger, a momentary glint in her eyes revealed the same underlying sense of anxiety that had been creeping into her expression more and more frequently in recent months.
"What do you think?" he said playfully, raising a hand to run it through her tousled strands in an affectionate manner. "My birthday was a week ago. If I didn’t like your presents then I wouldn’t keep accepting them, would I?"
The soft sounds of birdsongs and the intermittent screeches of unseen cicadas accented the gentle backdrop, which was frequented by soothing whispers from the surrounding foliage every time a warm breeze filtered past them. They were currently lying atop a thick blanket in a discreet corner of the estate’s property, both naked and covered in sweat from nearly an hour of enthusiastic relations.
After lying together for a short while longer, Lessa eventually sat up and turned to face him in a cross-legged position. "I wish I could stay," she sighed, "but Father wanted to attend the reception as a family." She gave him a long, somewhat forlorn look.
Why must you look at me like that?
After stopping by at the estate for breakfast, Lessa had hinted at her desire to go riding with him and Anice, though his cousin had turned down the offer and run off with a poorly hidden frown after claiming that Caedmon needed her help with preparations for the day’s festivities. The holy delegation from Providence Region had been touring the kingdom for the past month or so, and was set to arrive in Distan sometime in the early afternoon. Because of this, a festive atmosphere had swept through the entire county, with a grand reception planned by Alder and his uncle that was already in the final stages of its organization.
"Must you go? Anice and I were going to attend with the others. You’ll be the only one not with us."
"Even if he’s lost my love, I still need to listen to my father. Once I’m gone I’ll have no way of knowing when I’ll get the chance to see him again, and the same goes for my mother. He’s already angry enough that I left home first thing this morning."
"If only he knew what you were up to," Alistar teased, wishing in his heart that such was the case.