Eleven years ago, to be precise, and at sixteen years old and more woman than teenager, Thalia was easily the most stunning creature in their land. She was no longer the little eight-year-old Bastien had defended from bullies. She’d been his shadow and dear friend since.
On that particular day, Bastien had agreed to go fishing with her, something he was having less and less time for because of his military duties. It was awkward for Bastien—while he cherished his friendship with Thalia, he was twenty-one, and she was getting to the age where he couldn’t see her as a young girl anymore.
The princess had filled out in all the right places, and he would’ve had to have been dead not to notice. Bastien felt guilty because she was an innocent, and he was not. He had no right to be thinking of her in any way but as a friend and fishing companion, and sometimes it was easier to decline her invitation.
He had tried to do so on that day, but she kept badgering him, and seeing how it was his day off, he really couldn’t blame his duties for preventing him from going.
Ultimately, he agreed after she taunted him with a bet. “Are you afraid to go fishing with me because I might catch more than you?”
“Silly girl,” he responded with an air of superiority. “There is no way you will ever be a better fisherman than I am. So no, I am not afraid.”
“Well, that’s true, because I’m not a fisherman. I’m a fisherwoman. But it’s okay if you’re scared. I won’t tell anyone.”
“I’m not afraid you’ll catch more fish than me,” Bastien grumbled.
Thalia’s eyes twinkled with mischief, and that should have been a warning to him. “How about we make a wager?”
He couldn’t help but be interested. He was a competitive man. “A wager? What would you want?”
Thalia never hesitated. “I get to name your next pet.”
Bastien rolled his eyes. “You want to name my next pet?”
“If that doesn’t seem too unreasonable to you.”
Bastien was confident in his fishing skills, and he also knew she had goaded him into going, but he’d let that pass. “Okay. Deal. Let’s go.”
Pleasure rippled over Thalia’s face, and Bastien had the insane urge to kiss her, which he promptly banished from his mind.
“Wait,” Thalia exclaimed. “What do you get if you win? I mean, I know it’s a long shot, but I’d still like to know the stakes.”
Bastien knew it would be wildly inappropriate to even so much as wish for a kiss if he won. He had no right to take advantage of her that way, but fuck if that’s not what he wanted.
Instead, he offered, “How about you clean my tack for a month if you lose?”
Thalia stuck her hand out for him to shake. “Deal.”
She beat him badly, catching eight fish, one of which was a twenty-one-inch brown trout. Bastien caught a measly three fish, and she taunted him the whole way home.
Still, he couldn’t deny that it had been wonderful spending the day with her. Thalia was the one person with whom he could be completely at ease.
Two weeks later, Bastien bought a colt at a traveling horse auction, and the big, black beast was quite the sight. Thalia was at the auction with her parents, looking to add to their stables.
They approached Bastien, lauding him over the purchase of such a fine animal. Thalia stroked the white blaze on the muzzle and said, “I better think of a name pretty soon, huh, Bastien?”
Frowning, Bastien patted the horse’s neck. “What do you mean?”
Thalia grinned at him. “That bet you lost a few weeks ago. You said I could name your next pet.”
Bastien forgot about the bet because truly, the joy had come from spending the day with Thalia. He looked over at her parents who watched with amused smiles. The king and queen were like extended family to Bastien. With his father, Graeme, commanding the entire army, they were frequently invited to meals in the palace’s private living quarters. The king and queen were also supportive of Bastien and Thalia’s friendship from that very first day he protected her from those bullies.
Turning his attention back to Thalia, he declared, “A war stallion is not a pet, Thalia.”
“Technically, he’s a colt,” she pointed out. “He won’t be a stallion until he’s four, and besides that… we’re not at war.”
Bastien snorted and tweaked Thalia’s nose. That was all true, but he wasn’t having it. “Sorry, you’ll have to wait until I bring home a stray cat or something.”
“I disagree,” Thalia replied, and she had that tone in her voice that said she wasn’t teasing anymore. “Will you not feed this horse?”
“Of course I will,” Bastien drawled.
“Will you not provide shelter for this horse?”
“You know I will.”
She tipped her head, and Queen Selena chuckled. “Will you not bathe and groom this horse?”