by MJ Prince
Everyone is staring at us, and I’m all too aware of Layla’s eyes burning a hole through my back. Raph seems oblivious to it all, but I suddenly lose my appetite.
That’s great for him, though, because he takes it as a signal to start helping himself to my lunch.
Dani is watching him eat from my plate, when he turns to her and flashes that smile that makes all the girls fall at his feet. I can see it has the like effect on Dani.
“Hi, you’re Jaz’s friend, Dani, right?”
“I’m Raph,” he introduces himself with a straight face, although I think it’s totally ridiculous, because there isn’t a single student in the entire school or a single person on this entire planet most likely, who doesn’t know who he is.
“Jaz?” Dani repeats, quirking an eyebrow at the nickname. I shoot her a look of death.
Raph smirks in response.
“Yeah, it’s my nickname for her.” I’m about to tell Dani that the only reason he calls me that is because he thinks my full name has too many syllables for someone so insignificant. A waste of breath is what he called it. But I get the feeling that it’s no longer the reason. The nickname has irritatingly stuck and I feel like I wouldn’t like it if he did actually start calling me by my full name.
“I like it,” Dani says.
“Me, too. Best friends should have nicknames for each other.”
I frown in response, as Dani grins from ear to ear.
“We’re not best friends,” I say quickly.
“I get why you’d want to deny that in front of Dani here, but I’m sure she won’t be offended. We can both be your best friends.”
I cover my face and groan in frustration.
“By the way, what was Devon Waldorf doing at your table?” Raph asks, after a moment, and I don’t miss the pointed look that Dani gives me.
“He was asking me out on a date,” I reply coolly.
A frown mars that otherwise perfect face.
“He’s a jackass,” he replies harshly.
“Isn’t he one of your teammates?” I reply incredulously.
“Yeah, that’s why I can say that he’s a jackass.”
“What did you say?” he asks and I can sense the tension in his voice.
“I didn’t get to say anything, because for some reason, he ran off,” I reply through gritted teeth.
Raph doesn’t notice my irritation or at least he pretends not to.
“Hmm. Must be your garlic breath from this pasta.”
Dani bursts out laughing.
I cut my eyes at her and Raph in response, and his smile only grows wider.
“Anyway, it’s a good thing. You don’t want to go out with that asshole.”
Something about his tone pisses me off.
“How the hell would you know what I want?” I ask, my voice rising.
He has the gall to wink at me. “As your best friend, it’s my job to know and it’s also my job to make sure you don’t go out with any assholes.”
I get up, glaring at him all the while.
“Urgh. Screw you. The only asshole I see around here is you.” And with that, I stalk out of the cafeteria, well aware of Raph’s laughter following me and Dani joining in, too.
“Urgh, I’m so beat right now,” I groan as I follow Lance and Raph through the large golden doors of Sovereign Hall. I stayed behind after classes to finish off some work in the art studio while Lance and Raph had soccer practice. Then we headed over to the woods on the far side of the island to practice fire and earth.
Now, I’m exhausted. But there’s no rest for the wicked, because I have some serious studying to do.
“You did good, though,” Lance says, as he heads towards the living area. Baron and Keller I’ve gotten to know pretty well so far, but I haven’t spent much time with Lance. Dani was right about what she said on the first day of school about him, though, he does seem like the nicest of the three guys who basically rule Regency. He’s drop dead gorgeous, but doesn’t seem to know it, or at least he doesn’t use it to his advantage to get into girls’ panties. He’s also got a wicked sense of humor, which is definitely refreshing. I have no idea what a guy like him is doing with someone like Ivy Hemlock. Ivy is the only one of the heirs who still seems to agree with Layla about hating me. I don’t see her around much, but when I do, she’s right by Layla’s side, giving me the look of death.
“You mean apart from the part where she almost burned down that tree and started a forest fire?” Raph quips, and I give him a withering look in response.
I head upstairs and expect Raph to join Lance in the living area. Lance is powering up the console, and it looks like he’s settling in for another night of gaming. The three guys seem to do that often, and it’s so human-like and just so plain normal, that it’s easy to forget that these guys aren’t actually normal people at all—they’re freaking gods. Gods teaching me how to influence the elements.
I shake my head at the thought, though I can’t help the smile on my face.
“You going to bed?” Raph’s voice behind me startles me. I hadn’t realized that he was following me up the stairs.
“I wish. I have to study for my Eden introductory exam,” I say, stifling a yawn. Up until now, the only difference between the subjects at Regency and those that I studied back on Earth, has been elements class. Even the history and geography topics are centered around Earth. Because the two worlds are so aligned, or so I’m told.
But when Magnus called me a few days ago, I found out that it’s because everyone else learns Eden history, geography and politics much earlier on, with the Earth-based topics studied during high school. I’ll have to catch up by private study, taking exams along the way. None of which, I’m looking forward to. Despite my ongoing uncertainty about my place in Eden and my willingness to stay, some part of me is curious to learn more about this world.
“I can help you with that,” he offers, as I reach the door to my suite and I stare at him surprise.
He shrugs and looks almost shy for a moment. It’s strangely adorable.
“I mean, if you want.”
“I don’t know …” I begin to say. It’s one thing to take him up on his offer of elements training. But studying together? Spending time alone in my bedroom with him? That feels like something entirely different. I realize then that I’d drawn a line somewhere between us and hanging out in my room with Raph would definitely be crossing it.
He flashes that impossibly beautiful smile.
“I’d like to think that I know a fair amount about my own world. Heir to the throne and all. And I’m not just a pretty face, you know.”
I laugh then, despite myself.
“Who said your face was pretty?” I reply, raising an eyebrow.
“You did,” he says, that cocky smile growing wider.
“I don’t think I’ve ever said anything of the sort,” I retort.
“You don’t have to, it’s written all over your face—I mean, why else aren’t you be able to keep your eyes off me?” He flashes me a wink, as I gape at him in outrage.
“You have got to have the biggest ego in the world—no, both worlds. Earth and Eden.”
What comes out of his mouth, makes my own mouth drop open and I wonder again how the hell I could’ve mistaken this devil for an angel.
“That’s not the only part of me that’s big—I’m told that I also have the biggest dick in the word—both worlds, to be exact.”
I hide the tell-tale flush on my cheeks by turning my back to him as I open the doors to my suite.
“Ew. Just ew.”
I turn back to him and realize that he’s still waiting for my answer. Am I going to let him in?
I try to picture that line that’s been drawn, but all I can see is that smile, those vivid blue eyes and I find myself nodding, when I should be saying no.
17
Four hours later, I’m lying on my front, on the plush faux fur rug, which is in front of the large fireplace at the center of m
y room.
My Eden textbooks are scattered in the space between where I’m sprawled out and where Raph is sitting, his back leaning on the plush velvet couch at the edge of the rug.
“I hate to say this, but you are pretty smart,” I say, as I close my history textbook, feeling all studied out for the night. I hate to admit it, but I’m certain that Raph’s help tonight has cut down what could have been days of studying, to a few hours.
The introduction to Eden history section was pretty much everything that Magnus had told me on my first day in Eden, but in far greater detail. Eden geography is entirely new to me, though. Eden, it turns out, is indeed a mirror of Earth, even down to the countries and cities. The only differences being the names and of course, the fact that the Dynasties rule everything. The entire goddamn planet. Raph mentioned though, that there are other parts of Eden which do not mirror any place on Earth. The royal city of Arcadia being one of them.
“Why do you sound so surprised?” Raph asks, raising a golden eyebrow.
“Because you’re an ass,” I retort, unable the resist the opening.
He laughs in response, and I have to shift my focus to the open pages of my Eden politics book, in an attempt to distract myself from the way that laugh lights up his whole face, making him look innocent almost. Something he definitely isn’t.
The book is open on the modern politics section and my gaze falls on a diagram of the current Dynasty heads. Magnus’s face looks back at me and the other faces on the page are familiar, too. I’d seen those faces watching me at that first ceremony, the disapproval in their eyes veiled, but there all the same.
The book must be outdated though, because the image at the head of the diagram is the face of the man who was meant to be my father, Arwen Evenstar. The image is small compared to the wall to ceiling portrait that hangs in the Evenstar palace. But those eyes, so like mine, are just as piercing.
I can feel Raph’s eyes on me, trying to read me. But I don’t want him to. I divert his attention to the space where the heir to the throne should be instead. It’s blank, Raph’s destiny yet to be written, although there’s no doubt as to what that is.
“I guess you’re not so important after all, if they neglected to include your picture here,” I say mockingly.
Raph just flashes me that infuriatingly cocky grin.
“Hardly. It’s just because it’s near impossible to capture this image of perfection.”
The gagging gesture that I make is only half pretend. His expression is as arrogant as ever, but I think I glimpse something beneath that is at odds with everything he seems to be trying to portray.
I don’t know what makes me ask him the next question.
“Do you want the throne?”
My question catches him off guard, and for a moment I feel stupid for even asking it. Raph is regal in every sense of the word. He was made for that throne, he exudes it, emanates it. He carries himself with the air of a throne that is his by blood and a crown that is his by birthright. To question whether he wants it is, absurd, yet I can’t help but think otherwise, when I catch a glimpse of something unreadable in those endlessly blue eyes.
“I’m sorry, it’s a stupid question,” I say when he doesn’t respond.
He shakes his head then.
“No … it’s just that I don’t think anyone has ever asked me that before.”
That doesn’t surprise me, as just seconds ago I’d felt stupid for even asking, when the answer is so obvious. But his next words aren’t what I expect to hear.
“I’ve been raised to want the throne, taught since birth to want it above all else. It’s all I’ve ever known.”
There is so much left unspoken in those words, and I have no idea how to respond. But I try anyway.
“I guess you’re lucky then,” I say, although the words don’t feel true.
His eyes darken as he looks away into the fire that he’d started in the fireplace earlier. He looks different just then. It’s not just the glow of the fire warming his already golden features, but something tinges those devastating features—sadness?
“Things aren’t always what they seem,” he says quietly, almost as if he doesn’t want me to hear it.
“Everyone always assumes that my life is perfect—but they have no idea.”
I stare at him in confusion, and I want to ask what he means. But something inside me holds me back. Believing that this impossibly beautiful guy is shallow, conceited and couldn’t possibly understand all the loss and loneliness in my life is easy. It’s safe. I don’t want to believe that there’s anything more to it, that there’s some deeper side of him that maybe understands those painful parts of me only too well. So, I keep my mouth shut as I shift to lie on my side.
Raph seems to sense the unspoken decision, too.
When he turns back to me, that easy charm is back and I’m glad, because that glimpse of what lies beneath it is downright dangerous.
He flops onto his back beside me and we talk about classes and other things which don’t really matter. As much as I hate to admit it, I like having him here. With me. I’m so used to being alone, that the feeling should be alien. But it’s not, it feels strangely right, like some part of me has known him my entire life. It’s difficult to remember that only a few weeks ago, I hated this guy.
My eyes are starting to drift shut when I feel Raph shifting beside me. The fire in the fireplace goes out. Before I can register what he’s doing, I feel his arms around me, lifting me up and carrying me across the room to my bed.
“I can walk, you know,” I protest, but it’s a weak one. I’m half asleep and I find my arms looping themselves around his neck, as if they have a mind of their own.
“I know. But where’s the fun in that.”
He carries me like I weigh nothing. A reminder of the strength contained in that powerfully muscled body. His arms are oddly gentle around me. I must really must be half asleep and I think I might be imagining it, but as he lowers me onto the bed, he lays me down almost tenderly, as if I’m made of glass.
I expect him to leave then, but he flops down next to me on the bed instead, and he looks like he’s settling in for the night.
“What are you doing?” I ask after a moment. I’m now fully awake and painfully aware that Raph is lying next to me. On my bed. The bed is huge, so there’s plenty of space between us, but his presence is still overpowering.
I turn to look at him. The room is dark, the only light coming from the silvery moonlight streaming in through the floor to ceiling windows. Of course, Raph always glows with his own light. God, he’s beautiful, I find myself thinking, and at the same time, trying to stamp the thought out because no good can come of it.
“What does it look like—I’m sleeping in your bed. Duh,” he replies, flashing me that insufferably charming smile.
“No, you’re not,” I reply. “You have your own bed across the hall in your room.”
“I know. But I like your bed.”
He looks back at me all wide-eyed and innocent.
“Best friends have sleep overs all the time.”
“That would be true, but we’re not best friends so …”
I’m fully aware that I’m lying there with my arms crossed over my chest, looking stiff as a board. I’m glad that I changed into a t-shirt and sweats earlier instead of my usual sleeping shorts and vest.
Raph picks up on my extreme discomfort and laughs. He actually laughs.
“Oh, come on, Jaz, I had no idea you were such a prude—don’t tell me you’ve never slept in the same bed as a guy before.”
I clamp my lips together and Raph’s eyes flare in surprise as he interprets my silence.
“No way—”
I cut him off with an indignant look.
“Well, if you must know, I haven’t,” I say, through gritted teeth. I hope that it’s enough to shut him up. But of course, Raph doesn’t drop it.
“You haven’t what?” he prods, his smile growing wider. I wa
nt to wipe it off his face, but I say nothing.
His voice is oddly gentle when he speaks again.
“Are you a virgin, Jaz?”
My face is flaming and for a second I consider lying and telling him that I’ve slept with plenty of guys before. But why would I do that? It isn’t true and it would just feed into the rumors that the Dynasty heirs have spread around school about me—that I’m some kind of whore.
The memory of it burns in my mind, and I’m suddenly angry.
“Yes. I’m a virgin.”
His eyes darken and there’s something there that I can’t read, but I’m too angry to care just then.
“Ironic, isn’t it? Those rumors about me being a whore—rumors that you probably orchestrated, couldn’t be further from the truth, because I’ve never even had sex before.”
“But you’ve done other stuff right? I mean, back on Earth you …” He trails off, but I know what he’s referring to.
“I took the job at Rodeo Ricky’s because I didn’t really have a choice. I was one year from being out of the foster system and out on my own. I was saving up for art school and needed to be able to support myself. You wouldn’t understand what it’s like to be in that situation, where you have to do whatever you need to, just to provide for yourself. Sure, I had to wear a skimpy outfit and serve burgers and beers to a room full of perverted old men. But I sure as hell didn’t let any of them touch me and I wasn’t sleeping around.”
The expression on Raph’s face when I turn to him is not one I’ve ever seen before.
“How is that even possible?” he says after a moment, and hurt spikes inside me at the insult.
“How is what even possible? You think that just because I had to bare my body just to provide for myself, that I’m some kind of slut that—”
He cuts me off.
“No, that’s not what I’m saying at all.”
“What I mean is—I mean look at you, you’re gorgeous, Jaz. I …”
He trails off, and I’m stunned into stillness, because I can’t believe my ears. Did he just call me gorgeous? And the way that he’s looking at me just then as if …