(Author's note. This Scene is with Greyson not the real Chase)
Tilly Ann POV
The first event was speed. Chase won, naturally.
His dragon tore across the course like it was born to it, and the crowd—the same crowd that should have been laughing at a wolf on a dragon—went wild.
Anyone riding that fast had no sense of self-preservation. None whatsoever.
The second event was precision. He won again.
Each victory was met with more cheers, more swooning, more ridiculous posturing from a man who already had more attention than any one person deserved.
And through it all, he didn't look at me again.
Not once.
He was polite when our paths crossed at the refreshment tent—a nod, a murmured "Princess," a brief flash of those dark eyes—but no more.
He was the same with everyone. The blonde from earlier. A brunette who asked for his riding tips. A redhead who laughed too loudly at something he said.
The same. With. Everyone. I was everyone.
I wanted to throw something at his perfect, infuriating face.
"You're doing it again," Jovina murmured, appearing at my side with a cup of lemonade. "The glaring."
"I'm not glaring. I'm watching the competition."
"You're watching him watch other girls."
"I am not—" I stopped. Swallowed. Jovina's face was soft with something that looked dangerously like pity. "I don't care who he talks to."
"Of course you do"
"I don't. He's a rake. He's the whore of Troita. He's—"
"Tilly." Jovina touched my arm. "It's okay to be jealous."
"I'm not jealous. I can't spend the rest of my life being jealous. It's no way to live"
"You're white-knuckling your lemonade."
I looked down. The cup was trembling in my grip, the liquid sloshing against the rim. I set it down carefully, my heart pounding, my face hot.
"I don't mean anything to him, Jovina," I admitted quietly.
"You don't know that—"
"He told me himself." I looked up. Briefly, our eyes met across the crowd. He looked away. "Now he's showing me. Publicly. Now everyone knows my husband-to-be is a rake who flirts with everything in a low-cut bodice. And I am…" The words caught in my throat. "He thinks I'm…"
I couldn't finish. Couldn't say it out loud.
Couldn't say he was mine for a few minutes in the storeroom and the reading table when clearly and publicly he wasn't.
Couldn't say he touched me like I mattered when I was clearly just another girl in a long line of girls.
Jovina squeezed my arm. "Talk to him."
"No."
"Tilly—"
"No. I hope he breaks his neck. Really."
The final event was the obstacle course. It separated the skilled riders from the merely competent.
For a moment, I really thought I was going to get my wish. He was going to get himself killed.
I said nothing.
Chase was the last to run. And I saw it: the same reckless grin he'd worn before mounting Emperor. The same look that said he had nothing to lose.
I was done pretending.
I had everything to lose. I had him to lose.
Something in me just snapped.
"Chase!" I screamed his name. "Stop!"
He turned instantly. Not slowly, not reluctantly—instantly. Like he'd been waiting for my voice.
For a long moment, we simply stared at each other. The crowd murmured, confused. The other riders looked between us. I couldn't breathe.
I guess this was the part where he publicly humilates me. Where he simply tell everyone I meant absolutely nothing to him and go back to trying to get himself killed.
But then, without looking away, he dropped the laddle. Dust puffed where it landed. He conceded.
He actually conceded—pulled himself from the final event, handed victory to his opponent.
I blinked. I couldn't believe it. Couldn't believe he conceded for me.
"Winchester!" he called across the arena.
I looked at him, my heart pounding so hard I was sure everyone could hear it.
"All you ever needed to do was ask."
I looked away instantly. My face was on fire. My hands were shaking. The crowd was buzzing—whispers spreading like wildfire through the stands. Did you see that? He conceded. For her. The princess called and he stopped.
I didn't know what to do with any of it.
He dismounted, his face flushed with exertion, his shirt clinging to his chest.
The blonde from earlier was there with water. The brunette had a cloth. The redhead was already reaching for his arm.
And I—
I was standing at the edge of the competitor's area, my fists still clenched from fear, my heart still pounding, my eyes still fixed on him.
He stopped the blonde from touching his arm. He refused the water the brunette handed to him.
He didn't laugh at something the redhead said, it was like everyone else in the arena disappeared and it was just us. Chase Dubois and I.
All you ever needed to do was ask.
He said that out loud for everyone to hear. His father. My father. The whole world.
He was closer now. Too close. Every sense of decorum or self preservation on his part went with the wind.
"What are you doing?" I whispered.
"Something I spent the entire night thinking of doing, consequences be damned"
He was even closer now and I knew in a few moments, he would lean in and kiss me in the most inappropriate way. In front of my father. In front of his father. In front of everyone. And that scandal would follow us forever. The wolf prince who lost control and the dragon princess who let him.
"Chase—"
"Why the hell shouldn't I want you? Who said I have to follow their stupid rules?"
His hand went around my neck and he pulled me closer. So close there was no space left in between us. Then he leaned in and ..as for me, I surrendered.
I closed my eyes.
"Don't!" The voice came from his own side of the table. It was the wolf Queen, his mother.
He exhaled shakily. Held my gaze. I could have sworn he looked shaky. Out of control. Barely hanging on to sanity and then— he let go of me.
I barely heard Electra's voice when she came for me.
"Tilly—"
"It's okay. I'm fine." I told her.
"Come on. Let get out of here."
"Electra, I'm fine."
I didn't want to go anywhere. I was exactly where I wanted to be. Here. With him. Staring at me like the sun and the moon revolved around me.
Electra grabbed my hand and pulled. And just like that I came to my senses and with it the panic of exactly what had occurred.
I, an unwed princess almost kissed an unwed prince in the presence of his father and mine.
That... officially, was a scandal.