6
“For you to touch my lips.”
For one moment, she could only stare at him, unable to believe what she was hearing. When the prince continued to stare at her, his gaze patient, she croaked out, “E-excuse me?”
“You heard me,” was the prince’s lazy answer.
“You want me to touch your lips?”
“As promised, it’s not a kiss.”
“But—-”
“Is it too much to ask?” He stepped away. “Because if it is, then it’s time for me to go, alone, which I had wanted to do so in the first place.” He started to turn away.
“Wait!”
The prince stilled.
“I’m g-going to do it.” She had barely finished speaking when the prince swung to face her again, so swiftly it had Fawn nervously sucking in her breath.
Oh my God, I can’t believe I’m doing this. Grant, forgive me, but at least it’s just something simple. It’s not a kiss. It’s just—-
She raised her trembling fingers, pausing mid-air.
Oh God, she couldn’t breathe.
Slowly, she moved her fingers, and then she was feeling it, the soft firmness of the prince’s lips. She was about to yank her hand away when she saw the way he was looking at her—-
Oh God, the way he was looking at her—-
Unable to stop herself, Fawn slowly and shakily traced the curve of his upper lip.
She wetted her own lips.
And so did he, only—-
With her still touching him, his tongue inevitably grazed the tips of her fingers—-
“No!” She reared back from him with a gasp, jerking her hand away from his lips like she got burned. And oh God, it did feel like he had burned her, with that impossibly warm sensation of his tongue touching her fingers—-
“You’ve kept your promise, and so I’ll keep mine.” The prince’s voice was still steady, but the look in his eyes belied it.
He was still looking at her like he wanted to eat her.
Why didn’t that revolt her the way Grant had?
Why?
The prince asked quietly, “Do you still wish to accompany me?”
His question...
Oh.
He had planned this all along , Fawn realized. He had asked her to do that, had deliberately done that to her, knowing that it could force her to push him away.
Well, he would learn not to underestimate her.
IT HAD BEEN FAWN’S plan to at least pretend she was mad with the prince throughout the entire meeting, but as soon as she joined the two men in the patio, her intentions were all but forgotten and she once again found herself worrying about the prince.
As the two continued to talk about Beatrice Crichton’s tormentor, it was becoming increasingly clear to her that the man they were up against was a vicious psychopath who thrived on inflicting pain. His billions and cunning might have enabled Abraxas Davos to conceal this side of him, but a spade was still a spade and once a psychopath, always a psychopath.
At one point, she noticed Jason Christakos glance at her curiously, and Fawn wished she could melt into the wall to escape his notice.
Oh, if only she wasn’t so worried about the prince!
She heard the prince murmur something in Greek, which had his friend raising a brow.
Fawn wondered uneasily what the prince had said. Hopefully it was nothing embarrassing.
Eventually, the conversation turned to Jason’s twin and his fiancée, which Fawn did her best not to look like she was eavesdropping on. When it became obvious that Jason had feelings for his twin’s fiancée but said woman had rejected him, Fawn quickly trained her gaze on the floor.
This. Was. So. Awkward.
She wondered if this was one of the reasons why the prince hadn’t wanted her to come.
When the meeting was over, she trailed behind the two friends as the prince walked Jason Christakos to the door.
All of a sudden, the blue-eyed Greek stopped walking and turned to her.
The prince said warningly, “Jason.”
“Give this man hell, will you?” he asked with a wicked smile. “It pisses me off that the Prince of Darkness’s the one giving me love advice when he iss who he is.”
“Umm...”
“Goddammit, Christakos.”
Fawn’s eyes widened. She knew the prince swore, of course, but he had never done so in such a manner in her presence.
“Also, make him wait. Make him suffer. And—-”
She said uncomfortably, “That’s not possible—-”
This time, the prince’s warning gaze moved to her.
“Why not?” Jason asked.
“Because I’m already engaged. To someone else.”
Jason was visibly stunned. “I see.” He glanced at his friend. “Well. Damn .” Switching to Greek, he said incredulously, “And you dare give me advice about Lilac.”
“Because my situation is different from yours.”
“In what way?”
“You love Lilac.” The prince looked at Fawn and said grimly, “I don’t love her.”
Jason looked at him for a moment and then slowly shook his head. “Bullshit.”
“You can believe what you want to believe,” the prince answered evenly.
“Does she at least know you don’t love her?”
“She doesn’t care to know.” The prince’s lips twisted. “She’s in love with her fiancé.”
“Well, fuck.” After a moment, Jason said it again, but this time he was smirking. “I didn’t see that coming.”
“See what coming?”
“The Prince of Darkness has been friendzoned .”
When Jason left, she asked uneasily, “Did you two get into a fight?” There had been one tense moment when she was terrified that the prince would actually throw a punch at his own friend. What could Jason Christakos have possibly said , she thought worriedly, to make the prince so furious?
When the prince still didn’t answer, she looked up, thinking to ask if something was wrong but instead found herself the recipient of his glare.
Holy. Crap.
What had she done again?
“You actually told him you were engaged .” The last word was uttered with complete contempt.
“B-but it’s true!” The way he was making it seem like she was at fault made Fawn glare at him, and more importantly, it reminded her that she, too, had something to be angry about. “Also, you lied! You promised you weren’t going to seduce me!”
“You were the one touching me, parthena mou, ” he pointed out silkily. “So who was seducing whom, do you think?”
Realizing that he got her there, she said hotly, “Well, what about your promise not to kiss me?”
He rolled his eyes. “Grow up. That was in no way a kiss—-” His lip curled. “Or does your fiancé not know how to kiss?” The words had him thinking about the other man tasting Fawn’s lips – lips that he had not yet tasted – and the prince’s jaw hardened as jealousy like he had never known before simmered inside of him.
She said tightly, “You don’t have the right to insult someone like him.” It didn’t feel right at all to hear Grant’s name on his lips—-
Lips that she had touched , she thought sickly, and enjoyed.
The way she seemed so damn hurt for another man’s sake made his fists clench, and the prince gritted out, “I can insult him whenever I want—-”
“No.” Her voice was fierce. “You can’t.”
“It’s my fucking house,” he snapped, “so I want to say I think Grant Bennett’s a fucking asshole—-”
She slapped him.
And then she whitened, never realizing that she could do something like it.
The prince said quietly, “Get out.”
She suddenly wanted to cry and she wasn’t even sure why. She was the one who had slapped him, not the other way around.
Fawn whispered shakily, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
“I said—-” The prince’s cold voice turned viciously sharp. “ Get the fuck out.”
Choking back a sob, Fawn whirled around and left.
He watched her run away.
And he let her.
She had made her choice.
So let her fucking live it.
THE PRINCE KNEW HE should have forgotten her by now.
But he hadn’t.
And so in the end, it was inevitable he found himself doing the one thing he had thought he would never do – the one thing he had despised the most in the women who kept throwing themselves at him.
He had become a stalker.
It was a hard thing to swallow, so much so that he had to ask his friend Nathan Callis to accompany him and make sure he didn’t do anything stupid during his debut as a stalker. Nathan, considered as one of the world’s most successful male models, was also one of his closest friends. But more than that, Nathan could be trusted to keep a secret, and he definitely didn’t want their other friends learning about his newfound hobby.
Swinging his seat to face his friend, Nathan asked curiously, “How did you get Derek to give you access to his office without asking what you’re going to do?”
As the son of the university’s founder and chairman, Derek Christopoulos not only had his own office on campus, but access to the CCTV as well. Access that they were now putting to good use, Nathan mused, although the “good” part was admittedly debatable.
“I didn’t.”
Nathan’s brows shot up. “So we’re breaking and entering?”
The prince shook his head. “No. I took the easier way out and told Jaike I needed to do this for a girl I couldn’t stop thinking of.”
“Oh man. You made Jaike think you were in love with her, didn’t you?”
Actually, he hadn’t, but Jaike had been convinced he was.
As they continued to watch Fawn’s movements on the screen, Nathan said pensively, “I never imagined the Prince of Darkness could ever sink to this level.”
“Shut up.”
“The prince, actually stalking—- ”
“It’s a different kind of stalking,” he muttered.
Nathan smirked. “There are different kinds of stalking?”
“There’s the creepy-I-plan-to-kill-you-afterwards kind, and that’s not me. I’m more the I-just-want-to-see-what-she’s-up-to kind.”
“Ah, the jealous type.”
“Fuck you—-” He broke off with a frown as it occurred to him that the screen hadn’t shown Fawn moving for almost five minutes now. She was still there, rooted to her spot, back straight and facing one of the classrooms.
“Is it still working?” he asked.
“Yeah, I think so.” Nathan raised a brow. “Why?”
He slowly shook his head. “I think something’s wrong.” He decided to switch cameras, accessing the room that Fawn seemed to be staring at.
Nathan whistled at the sight of the couple fucking inside the empty classroom.
The prince shot to his feet. “I have to go.”
“Gonna stop her from watching live porn?” he asked quizzically.
“It’s not porn,” he said grimly, “when it’s your boyfriend fucking another girl.”
FAWN AWKWARDLY SHOVED her hands into her pockets as she tried to ignore the way people kept staring at her. Either they recognized her as one of the former maids who worked for the Prince of Darkness, or they knew her as Grant Bennett’s girlfriend and were wondering why she was alone.
Either way, it didn’t change the facts, and that was that she was eating alone in the cafeteria. It was practically equivalent to having LOSER written on her forehead, and since she had been doing this for almost half a month, Fawn knew the people looking at her now had mentally upgraded her status to THE BIGGER LOSER.
More weeks of this, and she could win the university’s title for the biggest loser on campus.
Despite having lost her appetite and still feeling people’s pitying gazes trained on her, Fawn forced herself to finish the rest of her meal. She wasn’t exactly swimming in money these days, making her loath throwing away food that she had paid good money for.
If only she had time to make friends, she thought despondently.
But she hadn’t.
Since her freshmen year, she had struggled to make ends meet, doing her best not to make her school loans compound. Before working for the prince, she used to have three part-time jobs in one day. What little free time she had left afterwards were divided between her studies, the occasional date with Grant, and sleep.
Picking up her phone, she refreshed her inbox, hoping she got an email from Grant, but there was none. Lately he had been distracted again and more often than not ended up bailing on the times they were supposed to meet.
She so badly wanted to tell Grant she really needed him by her side right now, but guilt held her back. How could she even think she had the right to complain after what happened – what could have happened – between her and the prince?
Her phone vibrated then, and she almost dropped her fork in her haste to reach it.
Fawn frowned when she saw that the message was from an unregistered number, asking her to meet at one of the classrooms in the building across the street.
It could be Grant , she thought. Maybe he was using a friend’s phone if his own had run out of battery. Deciding that there was nothing to lose, Fawn finished her meal in a hurry, grabbed her bag, and headed out to the street.
Maybe it’s time I come clean about everything, she thought. Nothing happened. Something happened. It was all a painful, confusing mess in her mind, and maybe telling Grant the truth would help her make sense of things.
She took a deep breath as she reached the room texted to her.
I’m going to tell him, for better or for worse.
Fawn was about to turn the knob when something made her check the room through the peep glass.
Grant.
But he was not alone.
Her fingers fell from the knob.
She knew she should stop watching, but she couldn’t.
Every second that passed—-
It felt like she deserved to see this, like she deserved that this was happening.
Grant.
The Grant she knew was beautiful inside and out, always smiling, the one who never let go of her hand in everything that she did.
But this Grant she was seeing now—-
Buttocks bared, pants pooled around his ankles, and oh God, the way he was clutching the legs encircled around his waist-—
The way his hips were pumping furiously against another woman—-
This was not the Grant she knew.
Grant.
Minutes trickled down.
Oh God, how long could this last?
They didn’t stop fucking. She couldn’t stop watching.
Grant.
WHEN A KNOCK SOUNDED on her bedroom door, Fawn continued folding her clothes as she called out, “Come in. It’s not locked.”
So many things to pack, she thought worriedly, and she only had a few days left before summer camp.
When she heard the door open a moment later, she asked, “What is it, Mom?”
“It’s me.”
Recognizing the voice, she whirled around in shock, and it was indeed Grant.
He was leaning against the doorway, looking exquisitely handsome in his usual collared shirt and pants. Most teenage boys wouldn’t even know what to do with a collar but Grant – it was like he had been born to impress, and for as long as she could remember, he had always seemed more mature than his age.
It was, she thought helplessly, one of the things she loved most about him.
“So...” He grinned at her. “Can I come in?”
“Of c-course.” As he stepped inside and closed the door behind him, she realized too late that there wasn’t actually any place in her room that he could sit. Her clothes and books were scattered everywhere, taking up every inch of space.
When she looked up, Grant’s gray eyes were twinkling in amusement. “No need to panic, Fawn. I actually came here just to tell you something.”
She frowned. “What is it?”
His grin widened. “You mean that, don’t you? You really have no clue.”
She bit her lip as she racked her brains for something that could have required him to come to her room. When she came up empty, she slowly shook her head. “Sorry,” she mumbled. “I just can’t think of anything—-” As she spoke, Grant had started walking towards her, causing her voice to trail off nervously.
Clearing her throat, she tried to start again, saying, “If there’s something you need—-”
Grant was standing in front of her now. “There is.”
Fawn gulped. “W-what is it?”
“This.”
And then he was cupping her face, and as she gasped, his mouth had covered hers.
Her first kiss.
Grant’s tongue slipped inside her mouth.
Make that her first French kiss as well.
Fawn found herself clutching at Grant’s shirt as the kiss deepened.
When he lifted his head, all she could do was gaze up at him, unable to understand what just happened.
“Will you be my girl, Fawn Cornwall?”
She burst into tears.
“Fawn?” Grant’s voice was worried.
“I n-never thought this c-could ever happen.” And as he pulled her into his arms, she found herself sobbing against his chest.
She felt him kiss the top of her head. “You’re too cute, Fawn.”
“Y-you’re cuter.”
She felt his lean body shake against hers in silent laughter.
“You haven’t answered me yet,” he whispered.
She looked up. “You r-really still need one?”
He nodded.
With a teary smile, she said, “Yes. I want to be your girl.” Her voice muffled against his chest, she asked, “W-what made you do this?”
“Summer camp,” Grant admitted ruefully. “It’s the first time you’ll be spending that much time away from me, and I hated the thought of another guy making a move on you.”
She hugged him tightly. “I’ve never seen any guy except you, Grant.”
“It’s the same for me.”
She pulled away, looking up at him doubtfully.
He chuckled. “Yes, I did date. But did any of them become my girlfriends?”
She slowly shook her head. “No.”
“I told you. You’re the only girl I’ve had eyes for.” Bending down, he whispered against her lips, “And that’s how it will always be.”
SO MANY MEMORIES , Fawn thought numbly. Almost seven years worth of memories, and he had thrown them—-
No.
He was fucking them away, each and every memory she had once cherished as her most priceless treasures.
Grant, why?
Inside the room, the girl cried out Grant’s name.
The pain was so much, crippling her, strangling her—-
Oh God.
I can’t do this anymore.
And then hands suddenly covered her eyes.
And she knew.
She knew without him speaking, without her seeing – she knew it was him.
She knew, but right now she just couldn’t even make herself ask the questions she should ask.
Why are you here? Did you know about this? Do you think I deserve this? Do I have the right to feel hurt?
Those were the questions she should ask. And there were more she should ask, but right now all she could think of was—-
Grant.
Tears stung her eyes, and she tried, God, she really tried to keep them from falling, but she couldn’t.
The prince’s hands pressed harder against her eyes, and as the tears flowed faster, she also found herself seeking shelter in the black, unseeing world he offered.
He really was the Prince of Darkness , she mused numbly, and right now it was what she needed.
Behind her, she heard the prince ask in a quiet, neutral tone, “What do you want to do?”
A shudder went through her at the words.
What do you want to do?
The words made things so hurtfully real, made it impossible for her to keep closing her eyes until she could pretend that she had just imagined what she saw.
Sobs tried to crawl out of Fawn’s throat but she forced them back down, sinking her teeth into her lower lip until she drew blood. It was tempting – so, so tempting – to sink deeper into the oblivion the prince’s hands offered.
But she knew she couldn’t do that.
Because now she realized that was what she had been doing all these months.
Pretending she didn’t notice Grant was changing—-
Pretending she didn’t know Grant was lying—-
Pretending she didn’t feel Grant was cheating—-
Fawn reached shakily for the prince’s hands, and she didn’t have to say anything else. It was as if he had read her mind, felt her need to face her fears and her pains, and the prince slowly released her from his hold.
She turned to him.
She could see him again.
And somehow, even though Grant was no longer in front of her, seeing made the pain worse.
He took her hand, and she let him. A moment later, and he was drawing her away from the door. As they descended the stairs, they heard footsteps coming up and the prince automatically released her hand.
She followed behind him, neither of them speaking until they made it out of the building where the prince’s limousine was waiting.
He helped her inside and as the car started to move, the prince said casually, “Just say the word—-”
She looked at him in confusion.
“And he’ll die tonight if you want.”
Fawn almost, almost laughed. “ Prince .”
His rock-hard shoulders moved in a Gallic shrug. “You know who I am.”
“Oh, of course I know you,” she managed to say with feigned solemnity. “You’re Reid Chalkias, Christopoulos University’s most infamous and heartless playboy.”
“And a prince,” he reminded her solemnly.
“And a prince,” she agreed.
But deep in her heart, she knew...
She had always known the prince was more than that.
The prince was a man burdened by secrets—-
A man trapped in the darkness—-
But he was also a man who took away other people’s pain, a man who gave others a chance for a new life at the cost of his own.
Shaking her head, she said unevenly, “I do know who you are, prince, which is why I know you wouldn’t really have been able to kill him just like that.” She snapped her fingers for emphasis.
The prince’s lip curled. “You underestimate me, parthena mou. Whoever said I’d have to dirty my hands with his death?” He added solemnly, “I can always ask one of my henchmen—-”
“Stop it.” This time, Fawn managed a watery smile, thinking how the last word was so woefully inaccurate in describing the fatherly demeanor of Noah, Igor, and the other senior guys in the prince’s staff.
“We both know you won’t do that,” she told the prince. “So stop pretending.”
“Not pretending,” the prince said quietly. “I just wanted you to smile.”
Oh.
“Sorry. I’m n-not used to you joking.” She swallowed. “I mean, I’m used to seeing you joke around with others, but with me, you don’t really—-”
“My adopted mother says the same thing,” the prince revealed in the same casual tone, almost as if he was deliberately downplaying the fact that he was telling her things she had never expected to know about him.
“S-she does?”
“When I crack a joke in her presence, she thinks it’s the end of the world.”
She choked back a teary laugh. “I k-kinda feel the same.”
As the prince watched her wipe her eyes, he heard himself say, “I’m sorry.”
She froze.
“I’m sorry I made you leave that way.”
Without meeting his gaze, she whispered, “Then why did you say it?”
The prince laughed humorlessly. “Do you really not know?” Tipping her chin up, he looked straight into her eyes and said in a hard voice, “ Because I was jealous .” Her eyes widened, and he could see that she truly had no idea.
The prince released her and exhaled his breath in frustration.
Well, damn.
She was even denser than he thought.
“Sorry,” he heard her mumble in a small voice. “I didn’t realize it.”
“It’s fine.” And not wanting to give her a chance to delve deeper into his fit of jealousy – which he was doing his best to forget – the prince swiftly changed the subject, asking bluntly, “Do you wish for more time to lick your wounds?”
Despite the numbing pain inside of her, Fawn couldn’t help rolling her eyes at his less than sensitive question. “Are you ever this outrageously offensive with other people?”
He smiled lazily at her. “Only with you.”
“Oh.” Should she be flattered or offended? She thought about it and decided on the former. It wasn’t the nicest method for giving comfort, but she couldn’t argue with the results, the way he was able to keep her mind from—-
Ah.
Images she had unconsciously tried to bury resurfaced.
She choked out bitterly, “I can’t stop seeing them fuc —-”
A finger on her lips cut her off, and Fawn froze. A second later the prince was peering down at her, and all of a sudden his classically handsome face filled her entire vision.
“Don’t do that,” the prince murmured. “While I admit to having fantasized about hearing you say dirty words, I don’t want to hear it if they’re for another man’s sake. You understand this, don’t you, parthena mou? ”
She nodded, and a familiar, drugging sense of heat enveloped her body as the movement caused her lips to rub against his finger.
Oh.
The prince straightened, and as soon as her lips were freed, Fawn immediately wetted them, feeling like they were suddenly too dry. She swallowed, noticing the way the air around them was charged with sexual tension, something she had never felt with Grant.
When she looked at the prince again, it was to realize he was staring at her mouth, and she mumbled, “No.” A kiss was just going to confuse things, even if she was sure it was the one thing that could take her mind off—-
Stop it, Fawn.
His eyes were laughing at her. “What do you mean no, parthena mou ?”
“You know exactly what I’m saying, and—-” She looked at him suspiciously. “What does that mean anyway?”
The prince was visibly surprised. “You truly don’t know?”
She shook her head. “I didn’t think it was right to look it up,” she said awkwardly. “If I did, it would mean b-betraying Grant.”
His jaw clenched as he forced himself to smile. “I see.”
Grant Bennett, you lucky son of a bitch.
Thankfully, the man was enough of an idiot to not realize what he had.
“If you want to know, look it up.” She started to take her phone out, and he shook his head, murmuring, “Not now.” He took hold of her hand then, and ignoring the way her body jerked, he entwined her fingers with his.
“ P-prince .”
Gazing at their entwined hands, he asked steadily, “Do you still love him?”
The fingers in his hold tensed, and with it he already had his answer.
Grant Bennett, you fucking idiot.
“I wish I could say I stopped loving him the moment I saw him—-”
“Fucking another woman,” the prince spelled out in a hard voice. He saw her flinch, and he bit back a curse. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
But they both knew it was not.
He had been an insensitive ass, and they both knew that, too.
Dragging air into his lungs, he said slowly, “Up until I was eight years old, I was raised in an environment where weakness of any kind was beaten out of you.”
Fawn was stunned. “I didn’t know. I’m s-sorry.” But now it was beginning to be clear to her that the rumors about the prince – which she had believed were just rumors – had more than a grain in truth in them.
“I’m the one who should be sorry, and I’m only telling you that because I didn’t want you to think I was a complete ass.”
“U-understood.” Fawn gave him a studious nod. “And you were successful.” Managing a smile, she said, “Now, I just think you’re half an ass.”
His lips twitched. “I can take that, I suppose.” He drew her to him then, and she didn’t even think of resisting. Her head fell against his chest. Her eyes closed.
She needed this—-
This reassuring sense of security telling her that she wasn’t alone, this feel of invincible strength, telling her that he could protect her from the pain—-
She needed...him.
Fawn felt the prince’s lips touch the top of her head. “I am sorry you had to experience such pain, parthena mou .”
The prince felt more than saw her smile against his heart as she whispered jokingly, “Me, too.”
Good girl , he thought.
Strong, brave, beautiful girl, and he was damn proud of her.
He heard her sigh, and he asked, “What are you thinking of?”
“ Him .” Her fingers curled into a fist between their bodies. “I know it’s bad, but I just wish I could hurt him back.”
She expected him to tell her to stop being bitter, but then again she should have known she couldn’t expect something so benign from the Prince of Darkness.
Instead, the prince said easily, “You could.” Before she could answer him, the prince tipped her chin up. “You can hit him where it hurts the most.”
When he spoke again, it was the Prince of Darkness’s voice he used, and the husky, melodic cadence of his tone wrapped its seductive notes around her bruised heart as he murmured,
When the prince’s head lowered, Fawn’s common sense urged her to push him away. But it was too late. The mesmerizing promise in his emerald green gaze had enslaved her, and all she could do was wait-—
“Simply say the word—-”
His tongue began to trace the curve of her lips, and it was like tasting fire.
Oh God.
“And I will be your lover behind his back.”