by James Tate
Mattie’s face shifted so quickly from shock to anger. “She was instrumental in almost getting you killed. In my opinion, Rafe went easy on her. I’ve got a call in to my family to see if we can cut any ties to the United Kingdom, too.”
Something hot and unfamiliar churned in my stomach, rising to my chest and burning my eyes. Tears threatened to fall, but I held them back. My reactions, they were … real emotions. These royals cared about me, and I felt the same way. I had only been at Arbon for a short time, but it was enough for me to develop real feelings for them all.
Even Rafe. The asshole. Okay, most of the time I felt like punching him, but every now and then…
Maybe we were on a path to mutual respect or some shit.
“You can’t do that, Mattie,” I told her gently. I mean, I appreciated the hell out of her for trying, but we both knew she didn’t hold enough power. Not to mention all the damage cutting such an important political tie would do to her kingdom.
Her lips pursed and her chin quivered a bit, like she was thinking about maybe crying. “Well, I can try, at least. So anyway, now that Alex has finally stepped more than three feet away from you, what do you want to do? Are you hungry? We could go grab an early dinner in the dining hall.”
Despite my stomach rumbling at the mention of food, I cringed at the idea of people seeing my messed up face.
“Maybe later,” I murmured. “I’m pretty tired to be honest.” That wasn’t a lie. I was still aching all over, and all I wanted to do was hibernate until I was healed.
Mattie pursed her lips, not buying my white lie. “Okay, new deal. I’ll get dinner sent up, and we can watch a movie?”
I rolled my eyes with a half smile. “Anyone would think you guys are scared to leave me alone or something.” Mattie just scowled at me, so I sighed. “Okay, fine. But I want an action movie this time. And a steak.” I nodded, then remembered my manners. “Please.”
Mattie just laughed and flipped her shiny copper hair over her shoulder like a supermodel. “You got it, Vi.”
I groaned. “What’s with the nickname, Mattie?”
She smirked back at me, even as she pulled up the details for the dining room on her palm pilot. “What? It’s what Rafe’s been calling you, and I think it’s cute.”
Of course she would, and I bet he hadn’t explained that it was short for violence, not Violet. Fucker.
“Don’t jump off a bridge just because Rafe does,” I sulked.
Even though I hadn’t seen the Swiss prince since he’d busted into my room Friday night, he’d been the subject of conversation any time my friends had visited. Guess he was just one of those magnetic people.
Mattie just laughed and placed our food orders with the kitchen, then got comfy on my bed. “Action movie it is,” she muttered, keying something into her palm reader and sending the command to my projector box.
* * *
The next morning after I’d showered, I found a pleasant surprise waiting for me.
“I thought you might need some help,” Mattie announced, laying out countless cosmetics on the top of my desk and indicating that I sit in the chair. “Not that I think you’re vain or anything, girl. Just that you wouldn’t want people whispering. Right?”
I nodded faintly, touched by her gesture. “Right.”
She got to work, blending flesh-colored creams and liquids together and dabbing them ever so gently onto the mess of bruises all over my face. The cut was more difficult to cover, but I knew she’d at least make it a little less obvious.
“I should warn you, though,” she murmured as she worked, “people do know something happened with you, Claudette, and Brandon.”
I startled. “What? How?”
Her lips pursed, showing her annoyance. “Well for one thing, Claudette apparently bragged to her bitchy friends Kara and Rose that she arranged to have you beat up. This was before Rafe broke off their engagement. And for another…” She trailed off with a heavy sigh, giving me a look. “There’s a video.”
A fucking what? “Come again?”
“I don’t know for sure; I haven’t exactly seen it myself. But Nolan told me that Luca told him that Brandon showed Keith a video of him beating you up. Anyway, the guys are crazy pissed off, so I figured better that you know now.” Mattie wrinkled her perfect little nose as she eyed me. “But can we talk about how you seriously need to take some lessons in self-defense? For some reason I’d thought you were kind of a badass, but the state of your face looks like you didn’t lift a finger to defend yourself.”
I grimaced, thinking of how fucking hard it had been not to defend myself. Not to strike back and pound Brandon’s smug face into the floor. But what Mattie was saying confirmed my suspicions. He’d been filming that room, and if I’d struck back, if I’d betrayed my secret life as a trained fighter in possession of a highly illegal weapon, I’d have been totally fucked.
Some small condolence for the ass-kicking I’d submitted to.
“Yeah, I’ll get on that,” I replied. “Jordan offered to teach me a thing or two.”
Mattie snorted and rolled her eyes. “I just bet he did. Okay, you look good. Ready for breakfast?”
Giving my reflection a quick glance, I nodded. “Impressive work. Thanks.”
She beamed at the compliment, then waited while I slipped on my shoes and grabbed my school bag. “Couldn’t let that slimy little prick think he’d actually hurt you,” she commented as we headed towards the dining room. “Besides, I was getting all kinds of lonely with Alex dominating all your time in your room. What did you guys do all weekend, anyway?”
Unable to resist the urge to tease her, I grinned and winked. “You really want to know?”
Mattie gasped, stopping dead in the middle of the hall. “Shut up. Did you? You didn’t. Or did you?” Her eyes were wide as she tried to work out if I was messing with her. “If you did, I’m fucking impressed. I’d be willing to bet money your body looks worse than your face.”
I snickered a laugh and shook my head. “No, Mattie, I didn’t have sex with Alex while nursing a zillion and one injuries.” I paused, pursing my lips thoughtfully. “Not that the idea didn’t cross my mind, though.”
My friend laughed and started walking again, looking more than a little relieved. “Okay, well I can’t blame you there,” she commented. “He is fine as fuck, I’ll give him that.”
I gasped dramatically. “Did you just say something nice about my boyfriend? I’m stunned.”
“Whatever, bitch,” she grumbled. “He did take really good care of you this weekend, and he seemed genuinely worried…”
“He’s honestly not bad at all, Mattie,” I told her seriously. “I think I could be kind of falling for him. Sort of. A little bit. Maybe.”
Her brows shot up, and her expression took on a bit of an uneasy slant. “Just be careful, okay? I don’t know what I believe about Alex now, but I really don’t want you getting your heart broken if he turns out to be a total backstabbing skeezeball, okay? Or, you know, you getting killed when he decides he’s bored.”
I snorted, but deep down I knew that if Alex turned out to be anything even close to what my friends thought he was, I’d be totally crushed. I was that far gone already. This weekend … it had built something real between us. I could almost feel it pulsing in the air every time we were together.
“Did you end up asking him about it?” Mattie pushed, her brow furrowing. “About the night Jasmine died?”
I swallowed hard, thinking back to the tense moment I had brought this very topic up to Alex. I had no idea why I’d done it … I hadn’t planned on it, but the timing felt right. We’d been sharing secrets. Growing closer. And no matter my surety that he hadn’t been involved, I’d had to ask him.
“Yeah, I did actually, “ I said softly, and Mattie all but ground to a halt.
“You did?” She shook her head. “And he didn’t kill you.”
I snorted before punching her not that gently. “Shut up. Bitch.�
�
Mattie shrugged, not at all concerned by my insult.
“He explained what happened, and he was really shook up about it,” I continued, not wanting my best friend to continue hating my boyfriend. “He said they had a huge fight, and that Jasmine ran from him. She was sobbing, missed her footing on the stairs, and fell. Alex was two steps behind her, Mattie. Two freaking steps short of being able to grab her before she fell.”
In my head I recalled his eyes when he choked out the words, how red and shiny they were. His grief was palpable. He described all the details so clearly, right down to the two story curved staircase that took his fiancée’s life. My chest grew tight again, just as it had last night.
“It all fits with my research and the police findings,” I whispered.
Mattie’s expression was hard to read, but her eyes looked a little shiny too. “He had scratches…”
I nodded. “Yeah, their fight was pretty epic, and they had just broken up, which is why Jasmine was so upset. Alex told me that they broke up a lot, but this one felt different. He was done and she could tell.”
“Jasmine wouldn’t have taken that well,” Mattie said with a reminiscent sort of laugh “She was pretty used to getting her own way.”
I didn’t point out that most royals were.
Mattie pushed the doors open, and my pain over Alex was replaced with a small wave of anxiety as I stepped through. Would the makeup be enough to hide the bruises on my face? Were people staring? How many had seen that video of my ass getting kicked? How utterly humiliating.
“Stop dragging your feet,” Mattie hissed at me. “You look fantastic, no one can tell. Oh, well, that’s a new development.”
The surprise in her voice jerked my attention back up, and I saw what she’d meant. There was our usual table, with everyone early for once. But that wasn’t the strangest part… Nope, it was the fact that Alex was sitting there with our friends like he didn’t have a care in the world.
That was, of course, if you ignored his clenched jaw, tight shoulders, and balled fists.
“Alex, hey,” I blurted out as we arrived at the table. People were definitely staring now. “What, uh, what are you doing here?”
His brows shot up, and from the corner of my eye I caught the smug sneers on Nolan’s, Jordan’s, and Rafe’s faces.
“I figured you’d be sitting here for breakfast, so I thought I’d join you,” Alex replied, totally ignoring the other boys. “Seems weird to sit across the room from my girlfriend like we’re embarrassed to be seen together or something.”
Girlfriend? Okay, well, it seemed we were publicly going there now. I wasn’t going to argue. I’d never have thought any crown prince would be so open when dating a titleless orphan, but Alex hadn’t tried to hide me for a second.
“Okay, yeah. Cool.” Argh, why was I suddenly talking like an idiot? Trying to cover my embarrassment, I sat down in the empty chair beside him and flailed for a change of subject. “So, I heard you ended things with Claudette, Rafe?”
What. The. Fuck?
Why did I just say that? Of all the different subjects I could have jumped on, that was what I chose? Maybe Brandon had damaged some brain cells when he hit me in the face.
The whole table fucking knew I’d fucked up, too, because everybody froze, waiting for Rafe’s reaction.
“You heard incorrectly,” he finally responded, his voice ice-cold. “I guess growing up as you did, you can be forgiven a certain lack of understanding on these matters.”
I frowned. Aside from the obvious insult implied there, was he seriously lying? Mattie had said the whole school was talking about it.
“Uh, okay. So you didn’t break off your engagement and kick her out of the country because she tried to get me killed?” I could find no excuse for why my mouth kept running away from me, but this couldn’t possibly end well. For me.
Across the table, Nolan was trying to subtly shake his head at me, and Alex intertwined his fingers with mine in my lap.
“Let’s get something straight, Cinderella,” Rafe sneered, and it was like a bucket of snow being dumped over my head. So much for the progress and mutual respect I’d thought we’d been forming. “If I were to ever make such a reckless move with my country’s future, it certainly wouldn’t be to defend the honor of a street urchin who I can barely even tolerate on the best of days. Perhaps you don’t fully grasp what’s going on, seeing as Alex is content to string you along with the hopes of getting his dick wet, but we are the heirs to our kingdoms. We don’t marry for love or even for like. We do it for political alliances. Do you seriously think I’d throw away an alliance with the United Kingdoms for you?” He scoffed a mean laugh, pushing back from the table. “Keep dreaming, orphan girl.” With that, he stalked out of the dining room.
“What the actual fuck?” I blurted out as uncomfortable silence fell across the table. “I thought—”
Nolan cut me off, shaking his head. “We did too. But the official party line is that the whole Claudette-and-Rafe-breaking-up rumor was started by a student here, but was just that. A rumor. There was even a press release from the Swiss palace this morning, assuring the people that they would not be cutting ties with the Britains. Claudette has gone to visit her ailing grandmother, or some shit.”
Confused, I looked to Mattie, who just spread her hands helplessly.
“I’m as lost as you are, girl. This is all news to me.”
Jordan cleared his throat. “We shouldn’t be discussing this here. You never know who might be listening.”
That comment shut everyone up, but it only stoked more questions in me. Still, before I could ask any of them, Alex gave my fingers a warning squeeze.
“Maybe at lunch I can explain how some royal families operate, beautiful. It might help you to know that all of us heirs have expectations to act certain ways. For some, it aligns well with our personalities. For others…” He trailed off with a small shrug.
“For others, every request from their personal advisor is like nails down a chalkboard,” Jordan murmured, his gaze distant. “I should go check on Rafe. Catch you guys later.”
Confused as all fuck, and stinging a bit from Rafe’s cutting words, I just stared as Jordan left the dining room, also without breakfast. I definitely hoped Alex would explain it to me because the inference I was getting indicated that there was no future for me with Alex. So why the hell did he keep calling me his future wife? Was it because his betrothed had died? Or did they do things differently in Australasia?
“Forget them,” Alex murmured in my ear, distracting me as he slid my chair closer to his. “You look gorgeous this morning. I can’t wait to get you alone later.”
A low, throaty chuckle escaped me. “I’m more than ready for that. Not sure the body will hold up, but the mind is willing.” I shook off Rafe’s stupid, jealous comment about Alex only trying to get into my pants. Sex was healthy and natural, why shouldn’t I get my socks rocked?
Concern brushed his face as his smile faltered. “Is it bad still? Should you be back in class?”
Is it bad still…
Uh…
Had he already forgotten the myriad of bruises and cuts that had scattered my skin like a patchwork quilt? It had been two and a half days. I mean, I was good, but not even I could heal that fast.
“I’m fine,” I said softly, deciding I was being too harsh. I could see his concern. And he couldn’t feel my pain to really know.
Breakfast was quiet and kind of tense. Alex being at this table had a lot of gossip flowing around the room, and it caused the usual inhabitants of this table to bail early.
“Finally alone,” Alex said with a smirk once Mattie skipped out.
“No one can clear a room like you, babe,” I said.
Alex’s lips twitched. “Babe?”
I rolled my eyes to cover my own awkward embarrassment. “You called me beautiful, so I thought I’d test it out.”
He grinned widely, but his gaze was firmly locke
d on my lips. “I like it. I like anything you want to call me.”
His lips met mine in a kiss firm enough to make me gasp. Not just because he was kissing me in the middle of the dining room, but because my split lip was still healing and it kind of hurt.
Still, nothing in this world could make me stop kissing Alex.
“I’ll see you at practice today?” he asked when we finally parted. His breathing was labored, and I could see the hard evidence of his arousal straining against his uniform trousers. The way he looked at me while his thumb stroked my cheek… it was honestly like I was the only girl in the entire world.
“Wouldn’t miss it for the world,” I murmured back, my voice dripping with desire. “Pretty sure the Arbon Royals is my favorite thing about this school.”
Oh yeah. The academy team was legitimately called the Royals. Arrogance ran deep in these families.
Alex’s brows quirked up. “The whole team?”
My mind played images of hot, sweaty, muscular boys kicking around a ball, and I bit my lip. Yeah, dude. The whole freaking team. But that was my raging hormones talking, so I gave Alex an indulgent smile and kissed his lips softly.
“Okay, one player in particular.” Lies.
The smile on my boyfriend’s face made that small truth-stretch worthwhile, though.
“I’m walking you to class,” he said firmly as we picked up our bags and walked hand in hand out of the dining room. Whispers followed us like a swarm of bees, but I couldn’t give two shits.
I smiled, bubbling with confidence from his very public displays of affection. Claudette and her lackies had tried to break me, and they’d fucking failed. They could all kiss my damn ass.
“No, it’s okay,” I told him, “Your class is nowhere near mine and I’ll be fine. Go and learn stuff, I’ll be in my usual spot this afternoon.” I’d only attended three of his practices, but I was already thinking of my seat in the sports area as my seat. Yep, I was falling hard and fast.
Alex hesitated, but something in my face must have convinced him, because he relented. “Okay, but message me when you’re at your desk.” I nodded, and then he kissed me one more time like no one was watching, before he headed toward his class.