the three month deal

"Do not toy with me." The words left her mouth without her really meaning them to. She had only said them to mask the guilt she felt for pulling away from him.

"What?" Prince Sam said, incredulity looking at her for even suggesting he would do such a thing.

"I would never toy with you Kiera."

She thought about the piece of meat he had offered to her and an image of the Beast King appeared at the front of her mind. Now it was Kiera's turn to feel hurt. A sense of betrayal gouged at her heart.

"The Beast King told you about the Offering didn't he?" She asked the prince. "You know what it meant when you offered your food to me." The absence of emotion on his handsome face was enough of an answer to her.

"Is that what you and the Beast King were speaking about the other day? How best to woo his Beast General?" It all made sense to her then. The conversation shared between the two men was playing through her head. She was almost certain of all the things her King must have told the prince.

"No, Kiera, you misunderstand me. I didn't approach your King with the intention of scheming my way into your heart. He simply offered me some advice on the different Beast customs. I listened to him only because I did not want to offer you another flower. That night at the banquet, I gave you a flower thinking I was giving the woman I fancied a token of my affection, only to learn that I was offending her."

"I was given information only on the different customs of your culture. That was all."

"Your Highness," she was hurt and couldn't stop the emotion from seeping into her voice as she spoke, "What is it that you want from me?" It was an idiotic question, she knew. For the prince had made it very clear to her what it was he truly wanted from her.

She shook her head.

"I have already told you that I can't give you my heart."

"Give me three months." His response to her rejection stunned her. The amount of persuasiveness that dripped from his voice made Kiera look at him in disbelief. Where was the never-serious and ever-smiling Third Prince?

"Give me three months to change your mind." There was no smile on his face as he looked at her. His determination was written plainly in his darkened eyes. "Three months," he repeated, "and I'll prove to you that I can become someone you can give your heart to. A 'mate' you can place your whole trust in."

Her body stiffened as the word mate left his lips, but she focused on the entirety of his words. Prince Sam's proposition didn't make sense to her.

"The peace talks won't take that long to conclude. I'll be back at Wolfcyre Forest come three months."

Prince Sam shook his golden head at her.

"They will." He didn't explain his reasoning as to why he thought that any further. "You'll come to realize what I mean in the coming days."

"May I?" He motioned for her hand, and Kiera let the prince take her hand in his as she was still mulling over his last words.

"You asked me what it was that I wanted from you." He said before bending down to brush his lips over the back of her hand. The gentleness of his touch shocked her. It was a sweet and intimate kiss, something she had never shared before with anyone else.

"I want your love Kiera. I want the pleasure of being by your side, to be able to watch you accomplish everything that you set your sights on. I want to get to know you even more, as nobody has ever known you before." Her cheeks gradually became warmer as he spoke. His words were sweeter than any dessert.

She wondered how he was capable of saying such words with a straight face.

"From the very first day I laid eyes on you, I couldn't help the growing attraction I felt for you. Please, won't you accept my deal?"

His barrage of words left her absolutely flabbergasted, his pleading voice to give him a chance took out all the air from her lungs as she felt herself slipping. Her defenses were left in shambles as Prince Sam's emerald eyes pierced into hers.

Her first thought was to reject him. But if the piercing look he gave her was any indication, he had his mind set on making this deal with her. Even if he was rejected today, there was a high probability that he would continue asking her.

In any case, she thought it would be best to accept the deal. After a while, he would understand how fruitless of an endeavor it was to vie for her affection. If the rumors were anything to go by, his fixation with her would be over after about a month. Maybe even less.

"Three months?" She repeated, her voice sounding hollow to her ears.

"Three months."

"Very well." She whispered, and for the first time in a very long time, she realized she had been utterly defeated by a very willful Solomon Prince.

***

"Three months." He said the next day as he clasped his hands together on top of his oak desk. Sam had spent the past couple of minutes staring off into his office as Kepler stood by with a stack of papers in his hands.

"I have three months to prove to her that I'm capable of becoming her Mate."

"You should have asked for more." Wisecracked his aid, inattentively adjusting his silver monocle over his eye.

"No, she wouldn't have made the deal if it were any longer than that. She already thinks the peace negotiations will end soon."

"We knew the peace discussions would last for some time," Kepler's eyes peered down at him, "but I do not think they will last as long as three months."

Sam nodded his head.

"No, the discussions will continue for the time being, but as it currently stands, they won't persist for more than a month." He rose up from his chair, going over to look outside the grand study's window. "That is why we will need to extend the negotiations for as long as possible. We'll need to pull some strings."

Kepler didn't respond for some time, prompting Sam to turn around from the window to look back at the neatly dressed figure.

"Apologies your Highness. I am only thinking of all the possible ways for why this plan could go horribly wrong." Kepler didn't pull any of his punches, knowing his words were like a direct hit to Sam's gut.

"Nothing will go wrong Kepler. You should know me well enough by now."

"I might know you," Kepler shook his head, "but I don't know the Beast General."

"What if you go through all this trouble to extend the discussions, only for her to not choose you? Or worse, what if she ends up leaving before the agreed-upon three months' time?"

"Then I'll follow her to Wolfcyre Forest."

Sam shrugged his shoulders as if he was saying the easiest thing in the world.

"Sam," with one of his hands, Kepler pinches the bridge of his nose, "Wolfcyre Forest is known to be a harsh and unforgiving place, even to the Beasts. A prince like yourself would never last a day in that kind of environment."

"You are making me out to seem like I've never held a sword," Sam said, amused by Kepler's choice of words.

"You might be quite formidable with a sword your Highness, but you cannot compare yourself to the might of a Beast."

"Kiera will protect me."

Kepler let out a frustrated sigh. "That is if she accepts you as her Mate."

Sam grins, walking closer to his aid. "You worry too much Kepler." He gives his aide a pat on his back. "Kiera won't leave before the three months are over. She has more honor in just the tip of one of her fingers than most of my father's knights."

"For your sake, I do hope that you're right." Sam was touched by how much his aide seemed to worry over him, however, his thoughts were quickly dashed when Kepler next spoke.

"I don't want to take over the copious amount of work you have if your heart gets broken."

"You really are a piece of work." He said that, but he knew Kepler was his most trustworthy servant. Sam could even say they were friends. The two of them had known each other for a long time now, so each man could guess what the other man was thinking. Both of their minds were equally as calculative.

"Now help me think of ways to move Kiera's heart." Sam smiled widely at his aide.

"As much as I would really love to discuss such matters with you," Kepler moved to drop the stack of papers that were in his hands onto the top of Sam's desk, "you have a lot of work that needs finalizing. Work that is quite frankly above how much you pay me."

Sam looked down at the pervasive stack of papers now scattered all over his desk. His green eyes unenthusiastically scanned through some of the words he could make out from the various reports.

"How fun." He said dryly.