105 The Fifth Consort

Ten minutes later, they were both seated in front of the crackling fireplace, sipping on warm mulled cider, thawing their bodies from the intense cold outside.

Jero seemed to be contented with simply being there, enjoying the rare moments that he was spending with Sibyl.

She, on the other hand, looked rather perturbed. The firelight glowed on her pale skin, casting shadows on her tragically beautiful face.

Jero cleared his throat. He had to break the ice that had wedged between the two of them for so very long.

"You look pensive. Let's talk, Sibyl."

"About what?" Sibyl took a sip of her hot cider. "We honestly have nothing to talk about other than the fact that you are here to see your children."

"We definitely should carve out some time to spend together as a family." Jero took a deep breath. She was most definitely making it very difficult for him to reconnect with her.

"I will call them here so the three of you can spend some time together but don't pull me into any of your schemes." Sibyl looked away.

Jero pursed his lips. "I will be here for at least a week, if not longer. There is enough time to spend with them. I want to spend some of that time just with you."

Sibyl shook her head. "No need to do that. We have nothing to talk about."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm positive. You and I are nothing to each other. We just happen to have two children together. That is it."

Jero shook his head. "I've always considered you as one of my wives. You know that."

"I have never been one of your wives." Sibyl sneered. "I don't like to share my man with anyone."

"Would you reconsider for the sake of your daughter?"

Sibyl narrowed her eyes. "What do you mean?"

Jero sighed. "Cedric Blaxtone will be introducing our daughter as his bride and the new Queen of Faria. There will be much noise about her family and who they are."

Sibyl frowned without saying a word. This was something Cedric had already mentioned. He did not want Talia to be looked down upon as the illegitimate daughter of the King of Betaluse.

"I understand that I have to pretend to be your consort to give legitimacy to my daughter. For her sake—"

"No Sibyl." King Jero shook his head. "That simply will not fly with me. I am the Monarch of a kingdom."

"And?"

"I cannot 'pretend' to be married to a woman, or 'pretend' to have a daughter who will be the Queen of a neighboring kingdom." Jero gave her a pointed look.

Sibyl turned away from him and stared into the fire.

When he put it that way, she could hardly argue with him. Who would believe that the King of Betaluse would have a pretend consort with a pretend daughter?

Seeing her capitulation, Jero pressed onward.

"I have always upheld myself as a man who speaks truths. In this, I will allow the withholding of truth to protect our family privacy. Do you understand, Love?"

Sibyl shook her head.

"What I mean to say is that I will announce that you and I have always been husband and wife, but due to our conflicting work schedules, we have lived apart for many years."

"During those times, we have, of course, kept in touch and spent time together, hence our second child, Prince Tarot was born nine years after our first child was born."

Sibyl glared at him.

"Well, it's true." He muttered. "I use Goji to talk to you almost every day, and we did meet ten years ago and had our son."

"You are assuming that he's your son. How do you know he's not another man's son."

Jero rolled his eyes. "Please. It's not like any other man will be fearless enough to approach you. And besides." He snorted. "Goji has never seen you spend time with any man in all the years you have been living apart from me."

Damn Goji. Sibyl cursed silently at the owl once again.

Jero chuckled gently to himself. If there was one thing he knew about Sibyl, it was this.

Sibyl truly was not attracted to any man that he had ever seen, and he had kept a very close eye on her all those years she had been apart from him.

"I will announce to the world that you are and have always been my Fifth Consort."

Sibyl bit her lower lip and said nothing. She absolutely did not want to be a Fifth Consort. It just all sounded so sordid and unappealing to her.

"I know you and I never got a wedding." Jero's eyes softened, seeing her reaction to his suggestion. "But I can throw a huge celebratory anniversary event for us, which would rival that of any huge wedding you and I missed out on."

"No need." Her face froze into a cold visage. "If I have to be your Fifth Consort to give my daughter an easier life, then so be it, but it is nothing to celebrate."

"Why are you having such a hard time with this, Sibyl?" Jero's voice dropped to almost a whisper.

"Because it is insulting to be known as your fifth woman, standing in line behind all your other women." She put down her cup and stood up.

Jero smiled. "Would it help for you to know that you are my only mate?"

"Oh please." She turned away from him. "I don't believe that in the least."

"Nevertheless it is true. I marked you as my mate. Only you."

Sibyl turned back and shot him a look of disbelief.

"Are you telling me that you didn't mark any of your other women? Not even your main wife, the Queen of Betaluse?"

Jero shook his head.

"I have told you this repeatedly but you do not seem to want to accept it as the truth." He stood up and came closer to her.

"The Queen was an arranged marriage that my parents set up for me. In order to become the King of Betaluse, I had to agree with the marriage."

"After that, since I showed no interest in the Queen, there were many other attempts to bring various ladies into the palace for me to choose as consorts."

He grimaced. "To make my parents happy and to get them off my back, I chose several who looked adequate."

"You had children with some of those consorts."

"Yes." He sighed. "I had to produce heirs for the kingdom. It is actually part of my kingly duties." He admitted in a dry tone.

"That must have been fun."

"Yes, so much fun." He sighed.

"I did my duties, but it didn't mean I had to mark them as my chosen mate. That was still my choice and something I had control over."

Sibyl tossed her head. "You're a werelion. You can mark more than one woman."

He reached out, as if wanting to touch her. At the last moment, he dropped his hand.

He did not want her to move away from his touch.

"I can, yes. But I never found another woman that I wanted to mark. There is no other woman in my heart, Sibyl."

Sibyl turned to walk away, but Jero reached out and caught her arm.

"Sibyl. You were the only woman I actually chose for myself. You may hold the Fifth Consort position in the kingdom but in my heart, you are the only one."

"Since the moment we first met, there truly has been no one else but you."