by Eve, Jaymin
Mattie followed me into the room I’d been assigned for private study sessions with Alex. The prince was already there, sprawled back in his chair, a decent spread going on. Normally that would be my undoing, but he was literally repulsive to me now. My skin crawled at the sight of him.
“You can leave, Matisse,” he drawled, not looking up from his palm reader. Whatever he was typing into it had almost all of his attention, but he somehow knew I wasn’t alone.
Mattie snorted out some fake laughter, like this was hilarious. “Yeah, not gonna happen. I seriously need to study as well, and since this is a study session, there’s no reason I can’t be here.”
Alex got to his feet, his eyes lifting from his palm reader for the first time. They were cold and hard. “I’m not going to ask you again. Leave, Matisse, before I have to hurt Violet.”
It was my turn to snort out some laughter. But mine was genuine.
Alex shot a look in my direction. “Yeah, I know you’re Violence, a fucking psycho, according to the gossip. But remember, I control every aspect of your life. The dean… he’d be happy to remove you from Arbon if pushed a little.”
His words cut off my amusement. Not the threat, but the fact that he knew I was Violence.
Gossip?
Was that why people had been treating me a little different lately? I’d thought it was the whole Alex thing—she’s with a crown prince, be nice to her. But maybe, just maybe, that small amount of respect had been because of my purple persona.
“You won’t get her kicked out,” Mattie drawled. “You need her.”
Alex took a step closer, and I sidled in front of my friend. She shot me a withering look but didn’t argue. “If Violet is no longer in Arbon, she’ll be stuck in the Switzerlands with no money and no way to get back to New America. She’ll need me, and I will put her right where she belongs.” His eyes met mine. “In Australasia. In my bed.”
I shook my head. “Yeah, I’d rather sleep in the snow, thanks.”
Mattie pushed up behind me. “And she will always have options now. I have plenty of money; I can fly her wherever she wants.”
Alex growled at her. “You’d start a war? Over this…” He waved his hand at me, and I tried really hard not to be insulted.
Mattie didn’t even bother to answer, she just stepped around me and dropped her books on the table. “Let’s study,” she said.
I followed, staying as far from Alex as I could. It made no difference; he just moved his shit and sat on my free side, boxing me in between him and Mattie.
No matter how much I shifted, he just followed, so I eventually gave up, choosing to ignore him as best I could.
“You need help with anything?” Mattie asked as she opened her book.
I shook my head. “Nah, my classes seem to be easier than ever.”
Alex grinned beside me, and I clenched my fists as I imagined punching his teeth in.
My palm reader buzzed a bunch of times, but I wasn’t about to read those messages with this leech at my side.
Motherfucker. What I’d give to get Alex in the fight ring. I bet it’d be all kinds of satisfying to slice that smug smile off his pretty face. I’d be totally willing to pay for the cleanup if it meant ridding the world of one of the worst future monarchs around.
“You gonna check those?” he asked, indicating to my palm reader’s flashing lights.
I shook my head. “Nope.”
For lack of any better ideas, I flipped open my shiny new textbook—Econ 302, for fuck’s sake—and started reading. Or I pretended to, anyway. Damn, economics was boring. Or maybe it was the fact that I’d been dumped straight into a third level class with zero understanding of the subject on a basic level.
Ugh. Whatever. I just needed to get through the next hour without giving Alex any reasons to fuck my life up any worse. Then I could meet Jordan in his room and… uh… strategize. Yep. Strategize.
Naked.
“Mattie, just go,” Alex drawled, snapping me out of the decidedly dirty daydream I’d just engaged in. Yet another reason to junk punch the fucker. “I promise I won’t accidentally push Violet down the stairs if you leave us alone.”
Mattie gasped, and even my jaw dropped. The way he so casually referenced Jasmine’s death—sorry, Jasmine’s murder—was legitimately shocking.
“You sick fuck,” Mattie snarled, leaning on the desk to hiss at him over me. “If you think I’d give you even one second alone after a comment like that, you’re more screwed in the head than I gave you credit for.”
Alex just shrugged like her scathing anger meant exactly nothing to him. “Suit yourself.”
Something about the way he said that, then immediately turned to his palm reader to send a message set off alarm bells in my brain.
“Alex,” I snapped. “Don’t.”
He blinked at me with those gorgeous blue eyes, a picture of fucking innocence. It wasn’t hard to see how I’d fallen so hard and so fast for his fake ass.
“Don’t what, sweetheart?”
“Don’t do whatever the fuck you’re doing. Just don’t. You’ve done enough. You’ve changed my whole schedule so that I’m forced into your classes, which totally screws my own degree credits. You’ve forced me into this bullshit study period. You’ve made it abundantly clear that you hold my future and freedom in your slimy grip, so whatever the fuck you just did on your palm reader? Undo it. Mattie sitting here or not doesn’t make any difference to how much I fucking hate you.” My voice remained calm and quiet as I said this, and I gave myself a mental pat on the back for that. Because as much as I despised him now… he’d hurt me. And that wasn’t something that healed overnight.
He grinned, and Mattie’s palm reader lit up with an incoming call.
“Too late,” my psychotic ex said, and Mattie cursed. It only took one look at her pale face to know whatever he’d done was bad news.
She bit her lip, staring at her palm reader before flashing me a distraught look. “It’s my mother,” she told me, her voice edging on panic. “I’m sorry, Vi. I have to—”
“Take it,” I ordered her. “Go. Seriously. I’m a big girl, and Alex knows better than to try and manhandle Violence, right?” I shot a snarky glare in his direction, but he just grinned like the cat who caught the canary.
My bestie scowled, but her hands were shaking as she tossed her things into her bag and hurried out of the library.
“What the fuck was that all about?” I demanded, whirling in my seat to confront Alex. “What the hell did you do, you shady bastard?”
“Me?” He spread his hands out like he had no idea what I was talking about. Damn, I wanted to hurt him. Physically. “I think you’re starting to see monsters in every closet, Violet. Maybe Matisse’s mother just wanted to check in on her daughter.”
I stared at him for a long moment, searching desperately for that devil inside—the devil I knew to be inside—but he had seriously the best game face I’d ever seen. If I didn’t loathe him so much, I could have learned a thing or two.
“Bullshit,” I spat. I slammed my textbook closed, having not understood a single word, and stuffed it in my own bag. My chair scraped the floor sharply as I pushed back from the table, and Alex’s hand shot out to grab my wrist.
“Where do you think you’re going?”
My eyes narrowed into a poisonous glare. “Anywhere but here. Got a problem? Tell the dean. I’ll be sure to tell him you’ve been sleeping around with Claudette and endangering her betrothal to Rafe. You know, the most powerful heir in the world? Yeah. Let’s see how that goes down.” I forcefully yanked my wrist out of his grip. “Don’t fucking touch me again, Alex. You make me sick.”
I made it all of three steps away from the study desk before his chair crashed to the ground. A shocked gasp was all that left my lips as he grabbed a fistful of my hair and slammed me face first into a bookshelf. It was more a power move than anything intended to injure me, and despite the dull ache in my eyebrow I didn’t think it’d leave a lasti
ng mark.
Fuck, I wanted to make him pay for that cowardly move, though. But I knew it wasn’t that easy. Resorting to physical violence against a prince would not solve my problems. I needed to be smarter than that to win this battle. I needed to think long term, beyond the short satisfaction of beating the shit out of him. For now, that meant letting him manhandle me and allowing him the illusion that I was some helpless, scared little girl.
Alex’s psychotic chuckle rolled over me as he pressed his body to my back, crushing me against the shelves in an attempt to prove who was in charge. Hot tip, it wasn’t me.
Not right now, anyway.
“Silly little Violet,” he murmured, his lips caressing my earlobe even as his grip on my hair tightened to the point of painful. “You seem to have forgotten your place. Maybe someone needs to leave an anonymous tip with the Swiss Guard. It’s quite the crime for a commoner to own a steel bladed weapon, don’t you know? Especially at a college full of royal heirs.” He tsked in the most condescending way that made my blood boil.
“That would fuck both of us, Alex,” I reply, clenching my teeth with anger. I remained dead still, not trying to buck him off or punch his lights out. Why play my hand when all he wanted to do was assert a bit of pissy dominance? I’d learned a long time ago that my pride was only damaged if I allowed it.
For what seemed like the thousandth time, I reminded myself that my problems couldn’t be solved by beating the ever-loving crap out of him. A move like that only ended one of two ways. Either I killed him, and then I was responsible for killing the crown heir of Australasia… Or I didn’t, and it just made my own situation worse with his petty anger and revenge tactics. Nope, right now, as much as I hated it, Alex held too much power over me and my freedom.
He hummed a thoughtful sound. “But would it? Stupid, lovesick Rafe would never let them execute you, and I bet it’d be really easy to get them to release you into my custody.”
My stomach churned, and nausea made me dizzy. Custody would give him total control over my life—where I went, who I spoke to, what I spent my money on. But then again, was that really any different from his current plan to make me his personal baby machine?
“Of course, it doesn’t have to be like that, Violet.” He released my hair and spun me around to face him. “All I need to know is that you’re not going to cause any trouble for me. The lottery has run this way for generations and is controlled by much bigger players than you or I. Don’t make waves because your feelings are hurt.”
I seethed. “So, sit down and look pretty? That’s what I’m expected to do?”
He laughed, throwing his head back with mirth. “Oh, babe. No. I also expect you to spread your legs on cue. Think you can handle that?”
Vomit threatened to come up. “I think I’d prefer to take my chances with the Swiss Guard, thanks.” I tried to slide out from between him and the bookcase, but he pressed his body harder against me, trapping me.
This time when he laughed, it was that awful, dark sound. His villain laugh, as I was starting to think of it. “You gonna force my hand, Violet? You didn’t have any problems taking my cock two weeks ago. You were practically begging for it, as I remember.” His hips rocked into me, and I realized with utter revulsion how hard he was.
“I thought I was in love with you two weeks ago, Alex,” I hissed at him, my words dripping with scorn. “Or with the person you pretended to be. Now I know better, so get the fuck away from me before I make you.”
His mocking smile said it all. Sure he’d heard gossip about Violence; he’d even connected the dots and correctly guessed she was me. But he hadn’t witnessed my fight firsthand. He hadn’t seen the bloody pulp I’d reduced my nameless, faceless opponent to… all the while picturing it was Alex. He was a damn fool.
“How about you stop with the posturing and empty threats and use those lips for something far more valuable?” he suggested and actually reached down to unfasten his pants.
I wished I was making this up.
“Oh hell no,” I spat, reaching down between us and grabbing a solid fistful of his balls—through his pants, mind you. “You need a lesson on how to act like a decent human being, Alex.” I was snarling now, and my fist tightened enough that Alex’s eyes went wide and he stopped breathing. “I personally don’t have the time or desire to teach you, so we’ll do it the easy way. Listen real carefully because I won’t repeat myself. Try to force me into a sexual situation one more time, and I’ll personally rip your balls clean off your body, then shove them down your throat. Ever seen someone bleed to death from their missing scrotum, Alex? I have.”
Just to drive my point home, I gave a little yank and twist, drawing a satisfying yelp from my loathsome ex-boyfriend.
“Glad we understand each other,” I whispered, then released his junk and shoved him hard enough to send him sprawling on the floor. “I almost feel sorry for Claudette.”
With one last disgusted sneer, I stepped over his groaning, fetal-positioned body and hurried my ass out of the library.
When the heavy doors swung shut behind me, I broke into a run, and by the time I’d arrived at the dorms, my whole body was shaking with tremors. I knew that I could beat Alex down in a fight, but this was so much more than that. He was a powerful heir who could destroy every aspect of my life, and I couldn’t kill him or I’d end up in prison or executed.
He fucking had me.
Without even realizing it, I’d let him into my head. My body’s reaction was a clear reminder that I could never outrun my past, that the scars of shitty foster homes and even shittier foster parents would stay with me for a long, long time.
Sniffling, I knocked on the door I’d arrived at.
“Hey,” I croaked, when the door opened, and even though I’d promised myself I wouldn’t cry over that fuck, one or two tears escaped. “Can I come in?”
Chapter 13
Rafe stared at me, his face blank and unreadable, but not cold.
Stepping back, he opened the door and allowed me inside. Moving past him, I didn’t look around, knowing he wouldn’t want me prying into his personal shit.
I actually didn’t even care what was in here, and I had no idea why, of all people, Rafe was the one I’d run to. Jordan made more sense, especially with Mattie currently out of commission.
Speaking of. “Is she okay?”
Rafe always seemed to know everything. I was praying he wouldn’t let me down with this.
“Alex was two minutes from creating an international incident between Australasia and the Guays. And in that situation, one is a superpower, and the other is… not.”
Spoken matter-of-factly.
“But she’s okay?”
He nodded. “Yes, Violence. She’s fine. It was averted by her leaving the room and Alex calling off his family.”
He watched me closely, those glittering eyes mysterious, his body looking ripped as fuck in his white button down with the sleeves rolled up. Like, why would he do this to my poor hormones? All men knew this was chick-kryptonite.
“When’s the next fight?” I pressed him.
He stepped closer, and I sucked in a deep breath, trying not to let show how much he affected me. “Did you not read my messages?” he asked softly. Deadly.
I cleared my throat, crossing my arms to try and protect myself. “I didn’t have a chance, what with being assaulted by my ex-fucking-boyfriend.”
When I lifted my palm reader, my hands were shaking, and I jumped as Rafe reached out and wrapped his hand around mine, engulfing it. Heat coated my palm as I closed my eyes briefly to get myself under control.
“Why do you let him do this to you?” Rafe murmured, so close now that I could smell him. He smelled fucking delicious, dark and spicy. His scent was as dangerous as he was.
“He holds all the power,” I whispered back, my eyes opening to lock with his. “I could kill him, sure; I probably have the skills to take him down, but then what? I’ll be hunted and executed for that c
rime. He knows there’s nothing I can do, and that makes me vulnerable.” My voice got harder. “I hate being vulnerable more than fucking anything else in the world.”
He yanked me closer; it was so sudden I had no time to brace myself. I landed hard against his chest.
“I know exactly what you need,” he said, the smallest of smiles playing across his lips.
Fuck.
Yes. Please may he be saying what I thought he was saying, because I needed that sort of distraction more than I needed air.
“Follow me,” he said, and then he let me go and disappeared into his walk-in wardrobe.
I blinked at that, because… the closet…?
Okay.
I was a few steps behind, and when I got in there, I slowed, swallowing hard at the bare back in front of me. Rafe had just shucked off his shirt, and as I watched the play of muscles, those curling tattoos that marked his body, I nearly bit off my own tongue so I didn’t moan.
He pulled on a tight black tank, leaving those arms bare.
Uh, wait a minute. Was he getting dressed again?
This wasn’t exactly what I’d thought we were doing.
Spinning around, he threw another shirt my way.
“Come on, Violence. It’s time for you to train.”
Well, fuck.
* * *
He led me onto the soccer field, but we continued on through that, ending up in a large gym crossed with a dojo. I paused at the door, breathing in that familiar scent—sweat, chalk, and deep heat. Some of the panic that had been thrumming through my body faded. A hundred memories hit me, and I wondered if a portion of my unease over the past few months had been because I’d stepped away from this life.
The indoor running track, mats, weights, and a bunch of other shit that I’d used every day for the last ten years were scattered about, and I was so here for it.
“I had no idea this room existed,” I said breathlessly, looking around with a gleam of excitement. “I’ve missed training.”
Rafe let out a low laugh. “I figured.”