by Marian Tee
When the waiter was done serving their food, Lace dug in immediately, hoping it would dissuade him from bringing up more “good” times.
Every time he tried to speak, she would immediately stuff her mouth full with whatever was within reach. Dinner roll, steak, mashed potato, clam chowder, crème brulee. Unfortunately, they could only last for so long. Even with her stomach groaning, she started to call for the waiter, determined to eat until she died choking.
“Lacey—”
She waved her hand at a nearby waiter, trying not to be desperate. “Excuse me?” When someone finally noticed her, Lace almost expired in relief.
But the feeling was short-lived. As a waiter headed her way, Grant said in a hard voice, “I still have your video on my phone, you know.”
Oh God, not that.
She waved the waiter away desperately.
“I watch it several times a day. I love hearing your hands run over —”
The waiter came to their table anyway. “What may I help—”
“No, none, please go away.”
The waiter threw her an odd look before bowing stiffly and leaving. When he was out of earshot, she hissed, “How could you?”
“How could I what?” he asked, still smiling. “Pleasure myself while watching you in the shower?”
“You’re sick!”
“Why…how?” She stared at her naked self on the phone, taking so damn long to shower because she was an idiot. An idiot, she thought with self-revulsion.
“My shower, my rules.”
Her head jerked up, a thousand words of recrimination brimming on her lips. But when she saw Grant’s eyes, she knew it was pointless.
“You’re sick.” She saw it now, what she was too caught up with the excitement of her new life to see. What she had been too scared to see. His mood swings, his bursts of violence, his tendency to stare at her for far too long, longer than what was normal.
“Grant—”
“Don’t look at me like that!”
“Get rid of the video. Of the recording. I’ll pretend this never happened—”
“And what? You’ll pretend you don’t love me, too?”
“I never did,” she cried out.
“Liar! What about the times you told me I’m your number one—”
“You are my number one. You’re my best player, but that’s it!”
“And the hours you spend with me almost every night, letting me feel your body—”
“We were practicing. PRACTICING!”
“I don’t believe you,” he snarled. “You’re just lying. To me. To yourself. You love me, you love ME!”
“No,” she screamed back. “I don’t and I—”
“You will love me, Lacey baby. You will. You know why? Because if you don’t, I’m going to show this to everyone. I’m going to ruin all your chances of your dream ever coming true.”
Lace remembered the first time he had shown it to her like it had just happened a moment ago. The feel of her blood turning cold inside her veins, of the ground disappearing under her feet, of the sense of betrayal choking her, making her unable to breathe.
When she remembered, it hurt. And it made her hurt. Not Grant. But herself. She hated herself for always thinking she was so smart but in the end, she had been more of an idiot than anyone could have ever imagined.
“Enough with the B.S. What do you want, Grant?”
“You. Always you.”
And she knew, in a way, he meant it.
“I’m sorry. You can’t have me.”
“It’s not over between us.” He spoke like he hadn’t heard a thing she said. She had always thought this was a cute part of him, one that was effective when blocking out yells from the rival team’s fans. But now, she saw it for what it was – his psychotic side, only showing him the world the way he wanted it to be.
“I gave you time, you know.” His voice was indulgent, as if he were speaking to a runaway pet. “I wanted you to realize on your own that you’re mine. Always been mine. But…it’s taking you too long, so I thought I’d give you a reminder.”
Standing up, he laid a hundred dollar bill on the table. “I hate to leave you first, Lacey baby, but I thought you’d appreciate seeing this on your own.” He pulled out an envelope and laid it on the table as well.
As Grant walked away, she slowly took the envelope. Opening it, she saw a set of photos, all of it from the video he had taken when she had borrowed his shower.
Over his shoulder, Grant said, “You can frame them if you like.”
Bad Moves
Lace arrived at the airport lounge thirty minutes ahead of time. Even at seven in the morning, the lounge was a busy place, and there was even a long line leading to the shower stalls.
All seats were occupied, every inch of available space already taken by sleeping bags laid out on the floor.
No good place to wait, all in all, which meant her airport pass from Slade meant nothing.
“Lace?”
Turning around, she saw that it was the European prince Silver had been in such a great hurry to take her away from. “Gabriel.” The memory made her smile. Silver had told her he had been extremely jealous that time.
In a t-shirt and jeans, Gabriel was dressed far too casually for his standing. According to the royal family’s P.R. guy, the prince was on an “indefinite leave” to provide the necessary time for “personal persuits”. According to rumors, it was basically the prince sowing his wild oats before his arranged marriage.
“Are you flying out, too?” Gabriel asked.
“No. I’m just waiting for Silver. He’s due to arrive about twenty minutes from now. You?”
“I am set to leave as soon as my perpetually late cousin makes it here. Would you like to join me at the jet while we both wait?”
“Does it have ESPN?” she asked seriously.
“Of course.”
“Lead the way,” she said brightly.
His royal guards materialized the moment they exited the lounge, the men clearing the way as they headed towards the hangar. “I bet you do this all the time to impress the girls,” she joked.
He snorted. “No. Only to those whose brothers have their own jets, too.”
She nodded in understanding. “Great way to filter gold-diggers, although it does leave you with rather few choices.”
The prince’s jet was as fancy as she expected, but instead of bearing the royal crest of his country, it had on a Dutch company’s logo. Her eyebrow raised. “You borrowed this or something?”
He shook his head. “De Koningh side of the family.”
Climbing inside, she found the interior ruggedly masculine, the décor a mixture of leather and stainless steel.
“What do you want to drink?”
“Just water please.”
She expected Gabriel to issue an order, but his attendants, after bowing in his presence, left immediately, prompting Lace to ask in a tone filled with wonder, “You like doing things independently, don’t you?” He was completely unlike her brother, Slade, who never did anything for himself as much as he could help it.
Gabriel only shrugged, but since he was the one serving them drinks himself, he had already answered the question.
“Make yourself at home, by the way.” His voice was dry, but his eyes gleamed with amusement with the way Lace was already making herself comfortable in one of the couches.
“Oops. Sorry.” But she was grinning when she said it.
After offering her bottled water, Gabriel took a seat across her. “So…you’re still with Silver?”
Lace made a face. “You make it sound like that’s a miracle.”
“It is,” Gabriel agreed. “I never pictured him to be the patient type.”
“Umm, excuse me?”
“You rather made a cake of yourself that night,” he said with malicious sweetness.
She said honestly, “You’re so different from what the papers say about you.”
He laughed.<
br />
The sound startled her, and Lace suddenly realized it was her first time to see the prince laugh.
“I apologize. It just struck me that I had actually let my guard down with you.” An odd smile played on his lips. “Probably because…you’re the first girl I know I’m a hundred percent sure I won’t need to play the prince for.”
“Because—” Lace had to ask, even if she was already pretty sure she’d end up being insulted.
“Because I don’t see you as a girl, I suppose.”
She knew it.
“I mean no offense,” the prince said seriously. “I only mean, that night, it was obvious to me how much you loved Silver March. Since I won’t ever find a way to tempt you into my bed, why bother keeping up the act?”
“Err…” Lace didn’t know what to say. “Thanks for being honest with me, I guess?”
“It’s my pleasure.”
Pfft. The prince had actually taken her seriously.
“So, you and Silver? Everything going smoothly?”
She only hesitated a second before blurting out gloomily, “I’m doomed.” She leaned back against the couch, throwing a hand over her eyes. With KC and Aria, she felt she had to keep up an act, too.
But with the prince, who felt more like her confessor than anything, Lace felt herself opening up. “I have a problem…”
“And?”
“But I didn’t want Silver to know, so I ended up lying.”
“Why don’t you want to tell him?”
She rolled her eyes. “Because it will make me weak. Duh.”
Gabriel snorted. “You mean you’re too proud.”
“God, you remind me so much of how an asshole Silver is. No wonder you’re friends.”
“Actually, it’s his older brother Steel I’m friends with.” The prince was about to say something else when the intercom buzzed. Answering it, he spoke in Dutch, nodding at whatever the person on the other end was saying.
When he was done, Gabriel said, “Silver’s jet has arrived.”
****
The sound from the runway was deafening, but somehow her heartbeat felt noisier. It was embarrassing, the way excitement made her skin prickle at the mere thought of seeing Silver again.
When the plane touched down and the stairs were in place, her heart pounded harder against her chest. By the time the door slowly opened and the security team started to file out, Lace was itching to run towards the jet. Only the thought that it would be such a cliché stopped her.
And then Silver appeared —
Too. Irritatingly. Perfect.
Not only because he was physically imposing, but more because she loved him, helplessly and desperately.
He was dressed almost entirely in black, the only color in his business attire the white silk handkerchief peeking out of his breast pocket. His handsome face was unusually severe as he spoke on his phone. Whoever was on the other end, Lace was willing to bet the person was about pissing in fear now.
When he was done with the call, he turned to the group of men behind him, saying something that had everyone laughing.
Her chest hurt. That was her Silver all right, ruthless one moment, charismatic the next.
Silver’s head suddenly towards her, his gaze swinging unerringly to her like some kind of instinct had told him she was there. Even so, a bemused expression flitted over his face, as if a part of Silver couldn’t believe she really was there.
He started walking towards her, and when his security team started to follow him, Silver lifted one hand up, holding them off without taking his gaze off Lace.
They fell back immediately, and even she was impressed at how attuned his men were to his commands.
When he reached her, she didn’t beat around the bush, saying gruffly, “I thought I’d surprise you for a change.”
“If you really wanted to surprise me,” Silver drawled, “you should’ve come running and thrown yourself at me—”
Lace said immediately, “I’m going home.”
A silvery laugh, just before Silver captured her wrist from behind, whirling her around.
Both of them were smiling when they faced each other again.
“Wyndham.” His voice was a low, seductive caress.
Her toes curled, her voice breathless as she said, “March.”
His head bent while she lifted hers. They kissed, starting with a tender, sweet brush of lips. A moment later, Silver tugged her towards him, and Lace’s body slammed against his. Her laughter was swallowed by his deepening kiss, her tongue eagerly mating with his.
When he lifted his head, Lace found herself hugging him tightly, unwilling to be separate from him. Fighting the urge to cry, she thought, I really, really missed you. I’m so scared I’m going to be the next YouPorn sensation. Please, please, please tell me you’re not going to leave me if that happens.
Over her head, Silver suddenly said, “That’s Gabriel’s jet, isn’t it?”
When Silver gently set her away, she didn’t have the courage to stop him, didn’t have the courage to keep clinging to him even if she wanted to.
When she realized he was still looking at Gabriel’s jet, “He’s still there,” she offered.
He frowned.
“I hung out there a bit,” she explained, “while waiting for you.”
“Really?”
She was probably imagining the cool note in his voice, Lace decided. “Umm, shall we go?” Her phone rang then, and the ringtone had her freezing. It was the tone she had assigned to Grant.
Silver asked in an icily pleasant voice, “Aren’t you going to answer that?”
“It’s just…Gabriel.” She said the first name that popped into her head and could have killed herself after. Oh God, why couldn’t her mind have thought of Aria? KC? Mariah Carey? Anyone with boobs – no, wait, if that was so, KC wouldn’t have counted. Oh God, lying was so driving her crazy.
When the ringing stopped, Silver murmured, “I thought it was Penny.”
Lace blinked. “Who?”
“The one you met with?”
Oh. God. Would somebody gag her now?
She said weakly, “Yeah, well, that’s not possible. He’s already at, umm, Karygstan?”
“Do you mean Kazakhstan or Krygyzstan?”
“Umm, the second one?” She would never be able to repeat either one perfectly even if her life depended on it.
They looked at each other, and Lace knew he knew she was lying.
“It wasn’t Penny who called me. It was Gabriel.” Ah, dammit, dammit, dammit. All her life, she had served as her boys’ conscience, warning them against lying to their girlfriends. Once you started, you won’t ever stop.
So why, dammit, why couldn’t she do the same thing in her own relationship?
Tell him the truth, her conscience urged.
But then she looked at Silver, and her mouth ran away from her. “I’m sorry I lied. I thought you’d be weird about it after…what happened that time.”
Silver’s nod was like a king offering pardon to a traitor. “I understand. Next time, though, I hope you don’t lie about it again. It’s inconsequential.”
“Really?” Her talking to another guy was inconsequential? She couldn’t make up her mind if she had to be offended or not.
Silver’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Yes. Really.”
The silence continued even when they were already ensconced inside Silver’s limousine. She badly wanted to speak, but she couldn’t, frightened that if she did, Silver would tell her something she didn’t want to hear.
Even if he thought she was lying about Gabriel, she wouldn’t admit it. As long as he had no evidence, Lace would go to her grave before she admitted anything. Anything.
“We’ve reached your home.”
Her head jerked up.
For a moment, she couldn’t understand why they were at her home. Shouldn’t they be at his place?
Silver stepped out. When he held the door for her, that was when she rea
lized he was waiting for her to come out.
Because her boyfriend didn’t want her in his place.
Lace took a deep breath. I am not going to kick him in the balls. I am not going to chop off his cock. And I am not going to cry.
Taking his hand, she said brightly as she came out, “You’re so sweet to drop me off first. I knew you’d understand. Besides a really early morning class, I’m also actually expecting a call from Gabe tonight.” She almost gagged at how she had shortened the prince’s name.
Silver asked incredulously, “You call the prince ‘Gabe’?”
“Of course. He insisted on it, actually.” Liar, liar, pants on fire. Although right now, it wasn’t just her pants burning, but her entire body. “You see, we’re cooking up this sports project…I would have asked for your advice if I thought you’d be interested.” She paused. “And let’s be honest, you don’t really know much about it either.”
This time, his flare of temper was evident, Silver’s voice cutting as he said, “Apologies for being so disappointingly clueless about sports.”
“Oh, please. Don’t be. I love you just the way you are.” Raising herself on her toes, she dropped a quick kiss on his lips. “See you.” She walked away without looking back. She dared not, with the way tears were quickly streaming down her face.
Damn you, Silver March.
Bad Timing
“Unbelievable.” Even over the phone, the wonder in the prince’s voice was unmistakable. “You acted exactly like I thought you would.”
Since she had a good feeling he was referring to her penchant to lie her head off – even when the smartest thing to do would have been to ‘fess up – Lace didn’t bother asking what he meant.
Instead, she demanded, “Will you do it or not?” He better, Lace thought as she locked her dorm room behind her and raced down the stairs. Managing to get his private number had required her to ask a favor from her older brother, which she normally avoided at all costs.
But desperate straits called for desperate measures so…
“You are playing a dangerous game, little one. You are aware of that, aren’t you?”