In Love with a Ruthless Man (Wrong for You)

5

She managed a smile. “I’ll see you whenever then.” She raised one trembling hand up, her fingers fluttering to wave goodbye at him.

And at that moment, she knew.

Grant might be the first man to make her heart beat fast—-

The first man to kiss her—-

The first man to break her heart—-

Grant was all those and more, but even so—-

No matter what happened after this, it was over.

And when Grant suddenly whitened in front of her, it seemed like he knew it, too.

“Fawn.” His voice was hoarse, but when he seemed to walk towards her, the prince stalled him, coming to stand beside Fawn.

Grant froze, and so did Fawn.

“You should go now,” the prince advised gently. “There seems to be an urgent matter with the council.” As the prince spoke, he placed his hand on the small of Fawn’s back, and she bit her lip at the way Grant jerked in reaction to the prince’s gesture.

“I’ll take care of her, so you have nothing to worry about.”

Grant’s eyes swung to her.

She swallowed. “Grant, I...” She didn’t know what to think or do, but the prince made the decision for her as his hand on her back moved and his fingers began to gently caress her spine. With his friends forming a half circle around them, she knew that the movement of his hand was completely hidden from other people’s views, but even so—-

She could feel her cheeks heating up at the prince’s caress.

In front of her, pain flashed in Grant’s eyes.

Oh.

A moment later, Grant straightened, and it was like seeing the old Grant again, handsome and smiling. “I’ll entrust Fawn to you then.” But he didn’t look at Fawn as he spoke, and after a quick wave, he turned and walked away.

She waited for him to look back. She wondered painfully what she would do if he did.

But he didn’t.

WHEN THE PRINCE JOINED his friends in Derek Christopoulos’ office and they saw that he was alone, all four of them smirked.

He bristled. “What?”

The prince’s defensive tone was more than they hoped for, and their laughter rang out, causing the female employees outside the office to sigh dreamily.

Boyfriend goals, they all thought admiringly.

Squad goals, the few male employees present thought enviously.

“I need a fucking drink,” the prince muttered as he threw himself at the vacant wingback chair next to the recliner where Derek was seated.

Nathan got up from the settee. “I’ll pour you one since I need a drink myself.” As he walked to the bar, the prince raised a brow at the others. It was rare for Nathan to drink more than a glass during daytime.

The twins, who were sharing the couch, shrugged.

“He’ll tell us when he’s ready,” Derek said simply.

In the act of pouring a shot of whisky into two glasses, Nathan stilled, and without turning back, he said drily, “I know you’re all talking about me.”

“I meant you to,” Derek returned. “You’re starting to worry us with how unusual you’ve been the past few days.”

Taking the glasses from the counter, Nathan walked back to his friends and gave one to Reid.

“Thanks,” the prince murmured.

Nathan returned to his seat, saying calmly, “We can talk about my problem next time. For now, we need to concentrate on what’s more important.”

Jason raised a brow. “Such as?”

As Reid raised the glass to his lips, Nathan murmured, “What else...but Reid Chalkias acting jealous for the first time in front of us?”

The prince choked on his drink, and laughter from his friends rang out, and squeals once again erupted from the growing crowd outside Derek’s office. Nick slanted a distracted glance at them, unintentionally meeting a couple of girls’ gazes, who then let out excited shrieks.

Nick started in surprise. “What the—-”

“He looked at me, he looked at me!”

“No, did you see that? He looked at me!”

When the two girls actually started pulling each other’s hair, Nick swiftly turned his back on the crowd with a shudder. Damn. Women these days could be seriously deranged.

“Aren’t you bothered by them?” Jason asked.

Derek grimaced. “There’s nothing I can do about it. You know about the Montfort scandal, right? Since then, the board came to a decision that all offices in the university should have transparent windows.”

“Makes sense,” Nathan acknowledged. “Although obviously, it has its downsides.”

“It’s worse in this office,” Derek reluctantly admitted. “All the interns who applied are female.”

“Does Jaike give you hell about it?” Jason asked sympathetically.

“Occasionally,” Derek said wryly. “But since I also like seeing her jealous face from time to time...” He paused as something occurred to him, and looking at the others, the same thing appeared to have occurred to them as well.

The prince found himself the center of everyone’s attention once more, and knowing exactly what they were thinking, he said stiffly, “No. I was not jealous.”

Derek grinned. “You fucking were, Chalkias.”

Color stained the prince’s high-boned cheeks.

Pfft. Out of respect for Reid’s badly dented pride, the four men did their best to control their laughter.

The prince stared stonily at his friends. “Fuck all of you.”

This proved too much, and the office once again rang with his friends’ laughter.

Outside the office, chaos erupted anew, but this time, the prince and his friends knew better than to pay attention to the ongoing hysteria, knowing that their attention would only make it worse.

“You do know you’re worrying for nothing, don’t you?” Nathan finally asked when he managed to rein his amusement in. “The whole time I’ve known you, a girl only has to spend a few minutes in your company to want to fuck you. Or at least have a crush on you.”

Derek scowled. “Jaike’s not like that.” Right?

“Lilac isn’t either,” Nick said grimly. Right?

Jason cracked his knuckles. “Keanne sure as hell isn’t.” Right?

Nathan rolled his eyes. “Let me rephrase. Any single girl who isn’t in love with any of you three would likely fall head over heels for Reid. And you have to know that, Chalkias.” When the prince didn’t answer, Nathan’s look turned pensive. “Have I gotten you wrong about this girl? Is she extremely experienced and that’s why you’re worrying—-”

“She’s innocent,” the prince said stiffly.

The Christakos twins looked at each other. The girl was a virgin, and her cheating boyfriend an asshole who could and would never compare to their friend. There was clearly nothing to be worried about, and yet...Reid was, visibly so.

This was not like the Prince of Darkness they knew—-

And it was funny as hell.

I think I’m about to laugh again , Jason’s smirking gaze told his older brother.

Nick subtly shook his head, his lips twitching. You have to remember we’re more honorable than that. He nodded towards the prince. We don’t beat someone who’s already down.

Jason’s gaze became thoughtful. So I suppose this means we should wait for Reid to recover just a bit, and then we can laugh—-

The twins suddenly sensed being subjected to a deadly stare, and when they turned to face Reid, the prince said coldly, “I liked you two better when you were at each other’s throats.”

Jason and Nick looked at each other.

He seems recovered.

Then I guess we can—-

The twins started laughing again.

The prince’s expression became even stonier as he wondered whether this was enough reason to put an end to their friendship. It would feel extremely good to beat their too-pretty faces up right now, the prince mused.

Nathan glanced at the way Reid was eyeing his knuckles and then the twins, who were still smirking. Realizing it was time to play mediator again, he said mildly, “Don’t mind them. You know they only want to get back at you for taking the role of knight in shining armor when they were having trouble with their own women.”

The twins stopped laughing and started scowling, neither of them wanting to be reminded of the past.

The office phone rang then, and Derek stood up to take the call. When it was over, Derek had a grim look on his face. “Security’s apprehended someone who suspiciously sounds like a hired lackey by Davos.”

Nathan’s lips tightened at the news. “He’s getting desperate, isn’t he?”

“Nick and I spoke about this, Reid,” Jason said slowly. “We’d like to take Beatrice from you, so you’ll no longer be in danger.”

The prince shook his head. “Neither of you have the necessary connections to look after her, and you both know this. Besides, I’ve had her all this time, and they weren’t able to take her from me. It’s best we continue with the present arrangement. It’s only for a few weeks, anyway, and all this will be over.”

Nick shook his head. “We all appreciate what you’re doing, Chalkias, but right now – it doesn’t seem right that you’re placing yourself and even the people working for you in unnecessary anger.”

“My staff’s more than aware of what it means to work for me.”

Derek asked quietly, “And what about Fawn?”

“She’s Bennett’s girlfriend,” the prince said flatly. “As long as she belongs to someone else...she’ll be safe.”

WHEN FAWN ARRIVED BACK at the mansion and found out that the prince hadn’t yet returned, she was torn between relief and anxiety. Even now, she still didn’t know how to face the prince, much less what to say.

“Do you know what time he’ll be back, Igor?”

The older man shook his head. “However, he’s left you a message.”

She tensed. This was it. Fawn squared her shoulders, telling herself that whatever the prince had decided, she would accept it. She would not make a fuss. She would be cool and adult-like—-

“You are to clean the pool for the master’s use.”

Oh.

“Right.” That was unexpected. “Okay.” But on the other hand, it would give her something to do, and the more she thought about it, the more she realized that it was exactly what she needed. Flashing a bright smile at the prince’s right-hand man, she said, “Thanks, Igor. I’ll get on it right away. I just need to change into my uniform first.”

As Fawn turned around and headed up the stairs, Igor slowly shook his head. When the master had given his orders, he had a lot of misgivings about it, thinking that no girl would accept such a menial task after having her position in the household elevated.

But the master clearly knew Fawn far better than anyone else , Igor thought. He would never have imagined that such an order would place stars in the girl’s eyes, and yet it had.

In the months she had been working for the prince, she had only been tasked to clean the pool twice, and it used to be her least favorite backbreaking task. This time it was the opposite, and she threw herself into her work with full vigor, literally rolling up her sleeves as she worked on draining the pool and then scrubbing the tiles clean. She started with the walls first and after, she got down on her knees to scrub the tiled floor.

It was while she was meticulously checking grout lines for any signs of molding that memories slowly start trickling in—-

She rocked back on her heels and shook her head vehemently.

I don’t want to remember.

But still, faces she didn’t want to see began to crystallize in her mind.

No! Stop it! I don’t want to remember!

Desperate to stop herself from thinking, Fawn fumbled for her phone in her pocket and dialed the prince’s number.

The prince answered on the second ring. “Priscilla speaking.”

“Uh.” The unexpected greeting left her blinking, and all the words that had been about to roll past her lips diffused in a cloud of confusion.

A moment later, she heard the prince’s chuckle travel down the line, and recovering from her shock, she stammered accusingly, “You knew that would throw me off!”

“Of course I did.” The prince sighed. “There’s only one reason you’d call me first, after all.” Before she could ask what that was, the prince murmured pensively, “I thought having you clean the pool would be enough to keep your mind off things, but I guess not.”

Fawn was momentarily distracted by the prince’s revelation. That was the reason why he had her clean the pool? Was that his way of comforting her?

In spite of everything, the thought had a faint, rueful smile touching her lips. As expected, Fawn thought, from the Prince of Darkness . But even so, she was thankful—-

“Should I let you clean the dungeons next time?”

“Prince!” I take it back, Fawn thought with a grimace. She was not thankful at all.

“If it’s what it takes...” The prince deliberately let his voice trail off, thinking that an irritated-sounding Fawn was definitely better than one who sounded like she was about to shatter any moment.

Which was what he knew she would end up being , the prince thought grimly, if he had allowed her to have too much time on her hands .

“I’m never going to clean the dungeons,” Fawn was saying hotly. “It’s creepy as hell, you know.”

“Mm.” The prince was deliberately noncommittal, thinking that if it could get Fawn to react this way, then maybe the dungeons would indeed prove to be a necessary distraction next time.

“Prince!” When he didn’t answer, she warned darkly, “I’m serious. I won’t ever clean your haunted dungeons. Ever .”

“It’s not haunted,” he dismissed.

“It’s a dungeon. All dungeons are haunted.” And the way she was speaking, it was as if she couldn’t believe he had so little IQ not to understand that, making the prince’s lips twitch.

“I mean it, prince. I won’t ever—-”

“Fawn.” He wished he could continue arguing with her, but the prince knew doing so would only delay the inevitable.

The prince’s sober tone got to her, and Fawn quieted, sensing a sudden change in his mood.

“How are you feeling now?”

The prince’s tone was quiet but firm, and she knew it meant he wouldn’t stop until she gave him an answer. But even so, she couldn’t make herself speak.

“Fawn.” The prince’s tone became gentler. “You know we have to talk about it.”

She swallowed. “I don’t want to.” But even as she spoke, she knew it was too late. The part of her heart that still belonged to Grant began to crumble again, and she choked out, “Did you see how he looked at me? At you?”

“It was him being jealous and realizing that he had taken you for granted,” the prince explained calmly. “That’s all it was.”

“How can you be sure?” she whispered haltingly. “I saw the look in his eyes, and—-”

Again, memories tried to assault her mind.

And this time, they succeeded.

The scrub slipped from her fingers as she clutched her chest, feeling like it was about to collapse at the pain searing her heart.

Oh, Grant.

Why?

I loved you.

I loved you.

“You did nothing wrong, Fawn,” the prince said grimly. “You wouldn’t be in this position if Bennett hadn’t cheated on you first.” She didn’t answer, but the silence that stretched between them told him enough, and the prince’s fists clenched in frustration.

“Talk to me, parthena mou .”

“I don’t know what to say. I thought I’d feel vindicated, seeing him hurt...but I don’t. I just...”

She clutched her chest harder as more memories rushed in.

Will you be my girl, Fawn Cornwall?

You’re the only girl I’ve had eyes for.

And that’s how it will always be.

Fawn squeezed her eyes shut. “I can’t forgive him, but I can’t make myself hate him. I thought I’d want him to hurt, but I don’t.”

“Because you love him.”

Did she? Maybe she did, but it was no longer the same, and it wasn’t just because Grant had cheated on her.

“You know what’s crazy?” Fawn whispered unevenly.

“Aside from the fact that you still have feelings for an asshole?”

A trembling laugh escaped her. “Oh, prince.”

“Forgive me,” the prince said half-seriously. “My ego isn’t used to having to listen to my woman talk about another man.”

“Oh, prince .” She couldn’t help smiling even as her eyes started to sting. “B-bear with me just a little bit. Please ?”

“You ask far too much.”

“I’ll owe you a favor—-”

“Done,” the prince said so swiftly it left her blinking. “And I’ll have that favor returned tonight.”

“Umm.” Had she just been manipulated?

“Now...what you did you want to talk about?”