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Jaime wedged his shoulders under the heavy velvet wall of the tent, thankful that Cersei had remembered to cut a slit for him to crawl through. It took some maneuvering, but finally he pulled himself through and landed in a pile on the floor of the tent.
“You know, the laundrywomen will be most wroth,” Cersei remarked without turning around, seated in front of her mirror and brushing her hair.
“They’re always wroth about something,” Jaime said.
“To you, perhaps,” Cersei said. She switched her strokes to the other side of her head.
Jaime watched her, enraptured. He came up behind her. “You are lovelier by the day, sweet sister,” he said, dropping a kiss to the top of her head.
Cersei smiled at him in the mirror, setting aside her brush. “So…?”
“So?” Jaime said, skimming his thumb up the exposed skin at the back of her neck where her hair parted.
Cersei huffed. “So has he mentioned me?”
Jaime frowned, pulling his hand away. “Who?”
“The prince, of course,” Cersei said, eyes narrowed.
Jaime groaned. “The married prince? That one?”
“Father says she is frail and growing frailer by the day,” Cersei said matter-of-factly.
“She is still your princess,” Jaime said, frowning harder. “And he is my prince, I would hardly speak to him of another lady while they are wed. Prince Rhaegar is a man of duty, he will not stray from his bride.”
Cersei’s lips pressed thin, and her motions when she resumed brushing her hair were noticeably stiffer.
“Cersei, it is already hard enough to sneak off from my post – I am supposed to be sitting vigil,” Jaime said. “I thought –” He put his hand on her arm.
“Oh, so I must always be the one to sneak away from my guards?” she said, shrugging him off. “You do not seem to mind asking me to endure –”
“That’s not what I meant,” Jaime said, irritated. “More that I only have so much time before my absence is noticed.” He set his knees on the padded bench she sat on, kneeling behind her, and leaned in. “You know what I am here for.”
She elbowed him away. “Have you no caution? Here, now? Where anyone could hear?”
“You sent your maid away, did you not?”
Cersei nodded.
“Half the lords and smallfolk have already begun their celebrations,” he said. “I passed half a dozen drinking contests just on my way to find you. You would have to be making an awful lot of noise to pierce through the thralls outside.” He grinned. “Though I might take that as a challenge…”
“Jaime,” she said, sighing, “I am not a fool, though I cannot speak for you on that regard. We would be in so much trouble. Father would kill us.”
“Hang Father, I am here for you,” Jaime said. He pressed his lips to the side of her neck. “Cersei, please…”
Cersei sighed again, but she didn’t push him away. “Tell me more of the prince. Is he to take part in the tourney?”
“Yes,” Jaime said, growing ever more annoyed.
“Good,” she said, pleased. “Will he wear his wife’s favor?”
Jaime scowled. “Does it matter? Forget the prince – I am all the prince you need.”
Cersei laughed at that. “You? You could not even sit through your lessons without falling asleep or drawing on your papers. I did half your sums for you!”
“I could be a prince,” Jaime said, sulking.
Cersei only laughed harder.
“Keep laughing, and I will call my Kingsguard on you,” he said, pinching her side, making her squeal.
“You are a Kingsguard – or will be, tomorrow,” she said.
He smiled, spirits lifting. “I know,” he said.
“Will Prince Rhaegar read you your vows?”
Jaime’s patience ran out. “I am sick of hearing about Rhaegar,” he said, and he spun her around in her seat, kissing her hard. “I would have you curtsey to me now, my subject.”
“Jaime,” she said, “you –”
“Prince Jaime,” he corrected.
She laughed again. “Prince Jaime,” she said, airy and mocking. “You would make an odd prince, I think.”
“Who are you to speak to your prince that way, girl?” Jaime said, attempting the tone that Tywin employed to such effect, a ringing confidence, an iron certainty that his word would be obeyed.
It worked. Cersei went breathlessly quiet, looking up at him with wide eyes. When she spoke, there was contemplation in her tone instead of contempt. “I apologize, my prince. How can I serve you?”
Jaime wasn’t expecting the fissure of heat that went down his spine. He stood straighter, head high the way it would be with a heavy golden crown atop it. “I asked you to curtsey for me.”
Cersei smirked, just slightly. “And if I don’t respond to polite requests?”
For a moment, Jaime wanted to snap at Cersei for not going along with it. Then he realized. “Then I am not asking,” he said, in that same tone of iron command. “Curtsey for me, girl.”
Cersei stood from her bench. Then she dropped into a deep curtsey, head inclined, eyes downcast prettily. But she watched him calculatingly through her eyelashes.
“Very good,” Jaime said. Then he faltered, lost as to what he should do next.
Cersei, as always, was one step ahead of him in their game. “Perhaps my Prince would like some wine? Shall I stoke the fire, my Prince? Shall I turn down your bedcovers?”
“Yes,” Jaime said, nodding. He sat on the edge of her bed, watching as she puttered around, endeared at how she clearly had no idea how to stoke a fire.
She pressed a goblet of wine into his hand. “How else may I serve you, my Prince? Should I help you undress for bed?”
“Yes,” Jaime said hoarsely, setting the wine to the side.
Cersei took the hem of his linen shirt in her hands and lifted. He was dressed lightly for his vigil, so there were no laces and buckles to fuss around with, thankfully. It was scarcely the work of moments before he was naked in her bed, surrounded by her bedsheets, surrounded by the scent of her perfume.
“And will there be aught else?” Her fingers lingered at his thigh. “Let me serve you.”
Jaime wrapped his fingers around her wrist and pulled her in. “You may certainly serve me, girl.”
“My Prince!” Cersei’s look of wide-eyed shock was lovely. “You ask me to dishonor my name?”
“The attention of your crown prince is honor enough,” Jaime said, loving this, loving her. “I will be your king, someday. Do not pretend it would not a great privilege to share my bed.” He pulled her down and kissed her.
She smiled, still leaning over him. “You think highly of yourself, my Prince,” she teased.
“No, I think highly of you, girl,” Jaime said. “Of all the maidens in the kingdom, you are by far the loveliest.”
She liked that, he could tell, though she pretended it had no effect on her. But her eyes gleamed. “This kingdom?”
“Any kingdom,” Jaime said. “All of the Seven Kingdoms.” He paused. “Which I rule. As the prince.”
For a moment, Cersei had to press her lips together to keep from laughing. “Yes,” she said finally. “Thank you for the reminder.” She sat at the edge of the bed, skimming her hand up his belly. “But I am not so sure yours is the bed I wish to warm. I have had my eye on the youngest of your Kingsguard – he is as fine a knight as any in Westeros, and as handsome.”
Jaime allowed himself to preen for a moment. Then he said, “The Kingsguard do not take women into their beds. And even if they did, I am sure my youngest knight already has a lovely woman who owns his heart, from whom he would never dream of straying.”
Cersei smiled. “As lovely as me?”
“Lovelier than anyone else the young knight has ever seen,” Jaime whispered.
“You are such a sap,” Cersei said, smacking his chest.
Jaime grinned, and he pulled her down, rolling so she was on her back beneath him. She yelped. “Don’t call your prince a sap,” he said.
Cersei giggled, and giggled harder when he started tickling her in punishment.
“Your prince would see you nude now,” Jaime said, pulling at her dress. “And no, that is not a request.”
“I will gladly obey him,” Cersei said, undoing the ties of her bodice. Together, they divested her of her many layers of velvets and silks.
Jaime kissed her as soon as the last of her clothing was removed, sliding his hand up her thigh and arranging her legs around his waist. He loved the way she arched up into him, and pressed back, slotting their bodies neatly together.
“Next time, I get to be the princess,” Cersei whispered against his lips.
Jaime laughed. “Cersei,” he said, “next time, you will be a queen.”
And oh, she liked that, he could tell.