Callous Prince

by Becker Gray

  I glared at our de facto leader. “You hear that bullshit he’s spewing?”

  “Rhys, you’re a dick,” Keaton said in the beleaguered tone of a parent with squabbling children. “We love you, dude, but seriously, stop being a gaping dickhole.” Keaton looked at me and threw his hands up to say, “Satisfied now?”

  No, I was not goddamn satisfied.

  Rhys shrugged. “She’s no longer of interest to me anyway.”

  Say what? He’d put me through the wringer and now he was bored? “What the fuck do you mean? You did all of this just to tick me off?”

  Rhys gave me a level stare, and a chill ran through my body because it was as if, for once, the shield that he used as a barrier to ever having to feel any emotion came down for just one moment, and his eyes were clear. “You wanted her. You acted like you didn’t, but you did. It was apparent to everyone here. And hopefully, it’s apparent to you now. You were never going to take any step besides just torturing her, which I’m a fan of. But it was boring. I wanted to see if I could make you do something. And you did. Congratulations.”

  I swiped Owen’s hand off my chest. “Relax, I’m not going to hit him.”

  Owen’s smirk was cold. “So you say. But your emotions are running rampant. Lock them down. We’re Hellfire. We’re all mates here.”

  I growled at him. “Some mate.”

  Rhys grinned at me. “You know, I can always go and kiss her again.”

  I started toward him, and this time Keaton stepped in front of me then shook his head. “That’s enough.”

  “Fine.” But then, I dug deep for the one thing I knew would rattle Rhys. “You know what? It’s not really going to work out with Sloane. Irreconcilable differences. Instead of her, you know who is well fit for me? Serafina. I danced with her last night. I’m pretty sure you saw.”

  Just like that, the walls went right back up around Rhys, and he lifted a brow. He didn’t say anything, so I pushed further. “God, that arse. You haven’t lived until you’ve palmed that perfect piece of an arse. She’s so slender but has curves just where they matter. A simple squeeze could take you to heaven.” I gave Rhys an evil grin, and I could see his lip curl as he scowled at me.

  “Stay the fuck away from Serafina.”

  I laughed then. “Why should I? She is very interested in me.”

  Rhys started towards me, but Keaton stood in front of him. Thanks to rugby, Keaton was massive. Even Rhys didn’t want that kind of fight. “I warned you because we’re friends. You put your hands on Serafina, I will end you.”

  Keaton rolled his eyes. “You two are ridiculous. Rhys, you might be the worst.”

  “The thing with Serafina and me, it’s private.”

  Keaton shrugged. “Yeah, well, you’re both dicks.” He turned to me. “Better figure out your shit with Sloane.”

  I rolled my shoulders. “Like I said, irreconcilable differences.”

  Rhys threw up his hands. “Jesus Christ, for a fucking smart guy, you’re an idiot. Whatever issues you’ve got with her, she’s under your skin. There’s no way you’re letting her go.”

  Owen clapped me on my shoulder. “He has a point. You’ve been obsessed with Sloane since she got here. I don’t understand it. Is she worth this messy shit? Is any girl? Whatever irreconcilable difference this is, maybe you should find a way to reconcile that because we have all seen it. You literally carried her out of there over your shoulder. I hate to agree with him, but Rhys is right.”

  Rhys settled into a chair and leaned back into it. “I’m always right. Just none of you are smart enough to agree with me.”

  I watched my friends. They had a point. Sloane was like a promise, a pact, a vow, signed with our blood. She was mine to torment. Or maybe I had it wrong. She was my tormentor. I couldn’t shake my feelings for her off no matter how hard I tried. And I needed to figure out just what I was going to do about it. My dick chimed in with a, ‘Oh, she’s mine. If you can’t get her for me, I’ll be taking the reins.’

  Sloane was in my blood. There was no purging her from my system. I hated that Rhys was right. He was just so goddamn smug about it all. I had nearly kicked him in the arse. Sloane is the key, though, to sorting myself out.

  But would we even be able to get past everything? Was that even a possibility for us?

  The real question is, can you get over what her father did to yours?

  The question dogged me through dinner and through the interminable drinks after. Ostensibly tonight’s meeting was so we could discuss nominations—each year’s outgoing seniors nominated freshmen to replace them in the club—but it was a farce, and we all knew it. The incoming Hellfire members had already been decided years ago. Probably at fucking birth.

  If you had a house in Bishop’s Landing or an uncle or a godfather who’d been in the club, then you were in. Letting the current members pretend to choose was the most token of gestures.

  So I tuned out the nomination talk, and the inevitable turn of the conversation toward the initiation ceremony that would happen at the end of the year, and I thought of Sloane. Of her hateful father, of the dark months that followed my father’s arrest when paps crowded outside our house trying to catch glimpses of Boris’s betrayed wife.

  When even after our retreat to Liechtenstein, the internet teemed with the worst kind of rumors and gossip, and my mother used to cry alone in the dark of the library, hoping no one would notice.

  But inevitably my traitorous mind drifted back to Sloane herself. To her full mouth and perceptive, green gaze. To the watchful, careful way she held herself, like a knife waiting patiently inside its sheath.

  To the way her mouth parted in something almost like wonder when she came.

  To the way she smiled when she came.

  For the first time in four years, I had no idea what I wanted. And it terrified the shit out of me.

  15

  Sloane

  Serafina found me curled up in a ball on my bed when she came in from brushing her teeth. She’d slept in until the November day was bright and silver outside our window, but I’d barely slept at all, kicking off my blankets and tossing all over and generally just being miserable. And now it was nighttime again and I’d done nothing with my day except brood and sulk like a goddamned girl. I mean, I was a goddamned girl, but still. I hated it.

  I couldn’t stop seeing Lennox’s face in the scullery shadows from the night before.

  Why did you think I was selfish? Greedy?

  Get the fuck off me.

  “Oh my god, do your feet hurt as much as mine do? I don’t care how pretty those Jimmy Choo’s were, they were not worth it. Also, I was talking to Nika Monroe from Croft Wells, I guess some girl got attacked at a party two nights ago, but she managed to fight the guy off. Scary as hell, right? Can you imagine if something like that happened here—” She cut herself off as her gaze slid over me.

  “Hey.” She approached the bed and eased herself onto it, tucking her feet under her body and settling in next to me. “What’s the matter?”

  “I don’t know,” I whispered.

  She laughed. “Um, I highly doubt that you don’t know what’s going on.”

  “Well, as it turns out it’s not really going to work with Lennox.”

  Concern etched itself onto her face. “What are you talking about? The way he picked you up and tossed you over his shoulder, god that was so hot. Tell me why it’s not going to work. That’s ridiculous.”

  I shook my head. “It’s just not.”

  Sera rolled her eyes. “Whoever this is, are you done whining yet? Bring Sloane back. My badass friend who thinks anything can be done with a switch blade and some hot glue.”

  I did love my switch blade, and hot glue could fix anything but—not this.

  “I’m not in the mood, Sera.”

  She frowned and patted my knee. “What in the world is going on?”

  “I realized that everything I’m doing is futile.”

  Sera grabbed hold of
my knee and rubbed. “All right, spill it. Tell me everything. And if we’re going to go kill someone, at least let me change into something chic but comfy. I don’t want to get blood on my favorite bathrobe.”

  I laughed and then broke into a sob.

  Her eyes went wide. “Hey, now you’re really freaking me out. What’s going on?”

  God it was so weak, but I couldn’t help the sob. “It’s just never going to happen. And I just, I don’t know why, but it hurts. It was so much better when I didn’t let myself feel anything.”

  “Lennox is an idiot, Sloane. He’s clearly all about you. He was willing to fight Rhys to have you. And let’s be clear, he’s the lucky one.”

  “Well, doesn’t matter,” I said around a sniffle. “He doesn’t see it that way now.”

  She blinked slowly once, then twice. “I’m going to kill him.”

  “It’s not even his fault. He has a right to be mad, sort of. Okay, so after he picked me up like the stupid caveman that he is, everything was going great. We were in the maze, he was kissing me, and it was amazing, and I’ve never felt like it before. Just beautiful and sexy, and just . . . hell, it was . . . incredible.”

  Sera was quiet, and she just kept patting my knee as we talked. So, I walked her through everything. How much I wanted him. How much I’d been willing to give him. And how close I had come to giving it to him. Then Aurora, and then his subsequent blow up, which ended with the conversation with my father. The revelation of what he’d really done to the Lincoln-Wards all those years ago.

  When I was done, Sera stared at me. “Jesus Christ. When you go big, you go big. Also, let’s call my concierge doctor and get you on the pill. I don’t care how hot all that ‘I want to fuck you bare’ shit is. There’s no need to be careless.” She paused. “It is really hot though.”

  “I don’t even know what I was thinking,” I mumbled. “It just felt so good, and I could smell him, and he smelled like metal and flowers, and I couldn’t even breathe for how much I wanted him to do it. You know?”

  “I’m not sure I do,” Sera said softly, but there was a line between her brows as she looked away from me to the floor. As if she was thinking about someone else, someone who wasn’t here right now.

  I had an idea of who it might be. “And let’s be clear, so that there’s no confusion with us,” I added. “You and I both know Rhys was only kissing me to make you jealous.”

  Sera shuddered, looking back to me with a face that was all pretty haughtiness once again. “First of all, we’re not talking about Rhys. Second of all, hardly. Third of all, the only Hellfire Club idiot I care about right now is Lennox and what he’s done to you.”

  “But you see, it’s not even his fault. I’m not only revenge, Sera, I’m deserved revenge. He’s right to want that revenge, he’s utterly right to hate my family for what we’ve done to his. If I were in his shoes, I might have already killed him by now.”

  Sera lifted a brow. “You are kind of prone to murder though.”

  No lies detected.

  “Right? I wouldn’t ask any questions, so how can I expect him to ask questions? How could I expect him to give me the benefit of the doubt?”

  She nodded sagely. “Well, honey, the thing is, do you like him?”

  I wiped my nose with the back of my hand, only mildly grossed out when snot came back and met me. “I didn’t think I did. But then he was kissing me and it just—god, it felt good. And much different than when Rhys kissed me.”

  “What did you feel when Rhys kissed you?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. Like, it was nice. Even fun, I guess. But I don’t know. When Lennox kisses me, it’s like I’ve been lit on fire on the inside, you know?”

  Sera grinned at me. “You like him. That’s good. I’m surprised I have to be the one to tell you this, but direct is always better. No dancing around. You’ve done that enough. Has it worked for you?”

  I frowned at that.

  “Yeah, so maybe you don’t do that anymore. Maybe you should open up with him. If this was me, you would be telling me to just deal with it. No pussy-footing around, not be afraid of it, just deal.”

  I leveled my gaze on her. “So is this the time we talk about Rhys or not?”

  Serafina wrinkled her nose and then pursed her lips as if she’d smelled something gross.

  “I told you, we are not talking about him. Besides, could you imagine addressing anything with him head on? He’s impossible to talk to. Ever tried having a conversation with a flat-out dick?”

  I nodded sagely. “I still have a point.” Because while Rhys deigned to toy with me, I had known I was only a mere substitute for Sera. The two of them had been in the same boarding schools since the lower grades. I couldn’t explain it, but they had this thing. “Fine, I appreciate your advice, but Lennox is not going to listen to me.”

  “Maybe he will. You won’t know unless you try. And my friend Sloane isn’t a coward. My friend Sloane deals with things no matter what may come.”

  I gave her a weak smile. “Thank you.”

  “Anytime. You are my rock. If I see you distressed over a guy, then I know you must really like him. Even if you can’t get through to him, that’s okay. Because you’re awesome. And if he isn’t going to see that, that’s his loss. You’re beautiful, and there’s a sweet core in there. I don’t know where it is, but it’s in there.”

  I coughed a laugh. “Don’t tell anyone.”

  “Moi? Never.”

  She pushed to her feet then. “Now, can you help me get the rest of this double-stick tape off from last night? The left side wouldn’t come off in the shower, and now I’m regretting all my fashion choices.”

  I grinned up at her. “But you looked awesome though.”

  “Thank you very much. Beauty before comfort, I always say.”

  She turned away from me, sliding her robe off to her waist. I started picking at the edge of the tape on her ribs, tutting at her whenever she flinched or fussed.

  “Why don’t you maybe go knock on Lennox’s door?” she suggested as I got hold of the tape and peeled. “Aurora said they had one of their stupid Hellfire meetings in the city today, but I bet they’re back by now.”

  I frowned. “Then I don’t want to bother—”

  Sera lifted a brow and pursed her lip, making me feel like I was a six-year-old who just spilled nail polish over her fancy dress. “Are you really going to make excuses?”

  Was I?

  Was I going to spend the rest of my life like I did today, tossing in bed and replaying every moment I spent with Lennox?

  No. No fucking way.

  And maybe this is the time to fix what you’ve done.

  I thought of the letter in my safe right now, throbbing at the edge of my consciousness like Poe’s telltale heart.

  I sighed. “Actually, good point. Here.” I’d gotten the tape to the edge of her breast, where she could reach it to pull off the rest. I definitely didn’t want to be around when she had to pull it off certain sensitive parts of her skin; I wasn’t sure my ears could handle the storm she was sure to swear up.

  I grabbed my hoodie, and while she wandered into the en suite to see to the nipple-tape situation, I quietly opened my safe and pulled out the letter, tucking it into my hoodie pocket.

  “Have fun,” Sera said, poking her head out from the bathroom. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do. I mean, there’s not much I wouldn’t do, so that gives you a lot to do.”

  I snorted a laugh. “I’m not going to do anything.”

  “If you say so.”

  I pushed out of the room and moved down the hall towards the common balcony. The way the upstairs dorms were set up was that at the end of each hall, there were staircases leading down and up. There was a door to a balcony that was common for both sides. Boys and girls. But to get from one side of the hall to the other, you had to go downstairs and then go up the other stairs on the other side. And the doors at the top of the stairs were closed as it was past
10 p.m., and you had to have the keypad code to enter.

  This was to keep the boys and girls on opposite sides. It was changed daily and communicated to the dorm mother and father. But of course, I had my own code. It was called Sloane can climb buildings like Jason Bourne.

  Next to the door to the balcony, there was a window. As I opened it, I quietly glanced around for anybody coming along, then eased myself out onto the sill which was only six inches wide. Luckily, the lip on the boys’ side ran all the way around like a ledge coming up the sides of the building. It wasn’t uncommon to see the boys sitting in their open windows, straddling their windowsills on the lip that went around. I eased along it as quickly as I dared. I knew the hedges below would catch my fall if I did misstep. But it would still be unpleasant. And I’d likely get several thorns up my ass.

  When I reached Lennox’s room, I peered inside before opening the window. The room was dark and quiet—maybe he hadn’t come back from the city yet. Disappointment mingled with relief: it was better that he wasn’t here, surely, so that I could put the letter back.

  But I wanted to see him again. Even after our fight, even knowing how he’d look at me, how he hated me for what my father had done . . .

  I wanted to see him.

  Stuffing the feeling down, I used my student ID to lift the window hook from its eye, and I eased into his room. I was certain he would have his security team with him in the city, but I was less certain that there wouldn’t still be someone here in the dorm. And while they didn’t have any cameras in his room—no one needed to see how often the prince jerked off, after all—they could still be patrolling the corridors. I kept myself quiet as I lowered myself to the floor.

  The letter I’d stolen from him burned a hole in my pocket.

  You’re just going to put it back and then you’re going to leave.

  But when I tiptoed back over to his laptop and pulled the letter out of my pocket, a deep rumbly voice said from behind me. “What the fuck are you doing here?”

  Alarm and lust blurred together, but at least my brain was one step ahead. I jammed the letter under the stack of papers before I whipped around. “Um, hi.”