A Tigress

Ronan's POV

“We should start heading back to the palace. I promised my wife I'd be home early for dinner. I don't want to risk offending her again just after I cut her vacation short,” Lucien said.

“I was hoping I could challenge you to a duel. I need to be very exhausted. It's the only way I'd be able to sleep tonight,” I replied.

“Just thirty minutes,” I added when I saw the hesitation in his features.

“On one condition,” he said. “When we're done, you'd have to follow me back to my chambers to explain to my wife that you're the reason I'm late for dinner.”

I nodded. “Consider it done.”

He gave me a wolfish grin. “I'm going to have so much fun beating you.”

“We'll see about that,” I replied with a smirk.

We ended up dueling for an hour and by the time we finished we were nearly totally out of breath and our muscles had turned jelly.

The only thing we could do was plop down on the ground.

“Admit it,” I said panting, “I've become so much better.”

“Don't look so smug,” he replied.