His price? Damen stared at him, astounded. Did Laurent think he actually considered him as bought property? Perhaps you ought to have brought chains to remind me of my station. It was preposterous. Laurent was a Prince in his own right. He was Prince Consort of Akielos now. Damen's equal in every way. And yet he seemed to think Damen had some sort of power over him.

It was the other way around, he thought with a sigh.

"There is not a price on your heart, Laurent," Damen said, and his eyes were dark and piercing on the bright-haired figure. "Nor on your thoughts. But they are hidden from me, and I cannot read them as I would wish. And so I must ask rather than guess what is in them. It would have served us both better than that term, I think." He could see that now, and it was the closest he'd come to an apology yet.

"Theron believed you acted purposefully today, in your...attentions to certain of our company. Is there forethought in this, a plan of some sort?" With Laurent on the defensive now, Damen feared he would receive less of the truth this way than he would have if he'd gentled his words and sought Laurent's confidence from the beginning. Then again, maybe Laurent would have told him nothing from the start; perhaps he had been trying to stir Damen up, or conjure an excuse to leave.