From the moment she'd spotted him, Dahlia had been avoiding Orys. The reminder that she'd only had the foresight to ask his first name and not his second was something she was already kicking herself for as she never would have thought the answer to be ' royce ' . The information had come in the form of her bothering one of her friends for his name , and she'd been appalled to find that not only was he nobility...but a ruling lord as well . Dahlia was not one to make mistakes. She was a woman who double and triple checked her work to ensure that there was no room for anything to fall through the cracks . But she'd thought there'd been nothing to check that day she'd found herself rolling around a Vale meadow with a man that set her skin on fire . No . That wasn't true . For once in her life she hadn't thought to check and let herself be carried away by the demands of her lust . But a noble ? There'd been nothing noble about the things they'd done among those flowers .

Her plan to avoid him had been going perfectly until she lost sight of him which , by all means , shouldn't have been easy considering his notable height . Now she was on edge , trying to find him once more so that she could put as much distance between them as she could . Her teeth worried lightly at her bottom lip while dark brows drew together , and she was entirely unaware that the man she sought had apparently found her first whether it was by accident or intentional . With the ruling lord of Runestone standing mere feet behind her she spoke her frustrations aloud . "By the seven - where has he gone?"