"My family and my kingdom have been perfectly fine<i>without you</i>," Ryland said, and not without a touch of venom. "In which case, sir, what you are actually offering is in fact an extortion racket. Furthermore, I find it worrying that my objections rank to nothing further than to elicit<i>pity</i>from you."<br/><br/>And then Ryland had to resist his temper.<i>The added incentive.</i>Was this man deaf? What about this was Ryland supposed to find as incentive? That he could make the man lose the bet and then name the price as the withdrawal of his proposal? But Kethaias would do it anyway, he knew. He was, after all and had professed himself as, a man who took what he wanted.<br/><br/>Kethaias began stalking toward him, speaking gently as though he was sneaking up to a fearful animal. Ryland drew himself up further, obviously unimpressed. And if it was intimidation, well, Ryland wasn't having that, either, no matter the reputation and rumors.<br/><br/>It was nothing Ryland hadn't heard before, from his family and others. Spirited, bold, arrogant, creative... if only he applied it to something more than those very same addle-brained preoccupations. It was a familiar litany.<br/><br/>And he could do no wrong, it seemed.<i>The gift of reason under pressure... while being so outraged at the thought of marrying me.</i><br/><br/>"Oh, piss off," Ryland said, aware that he was being made fun of.<br/><br/>Kethaias was quite close by then, and the hair along Ryland's arms under his sleeves was standing on end. He resisted the urge to move bodily away, especially when Kethaias' finger ran idly along the little mechanical bird.<br/><br/>There was an element of betrayal from his own body, because the absent gesture wasn't lost on him, either. Kethaias was a handsome and solid man, just the sort that Ryland had been--until a moment ago--thinking about crawling into bed with for a night or two. But that had been where the attraction stopped. Kethaias would have finished the treaty (without Ryland's help in any way, because if anyone ever took Ryland to bed for political reveals in pillow talk, they were always sorely disappointed) and gone home. That would have been the end of things.<br/><br/>Kethaias was speaking again, in that self-assured tone of his, as though he was going to get his way despite it all. It made Ryland want to punch him right in his pretty, unsmiling mouth.<br/><br/>Would he prefer to forget the bet. Not that it would change anything, and then to have his own words thrown back at him... And how it would be easier to get Kethaias to smile if he knew he wouldn't lose the bet.<br/><br/>Ryland met his gaze. "No. You should lose on purpose<i>.</i>Given my objection, it would be decent of you to prove that you can in fact smile, and that the loss of the wager is less important than proving me wrong about your<i>unfortunate face </i>in the remaining time in which you will fail to convince me anyway. Even the chance of erasing my doubts should be more than enough<i>incentive</i>, I would hope."