8
Alcohol blunted his common sense, feeding his self-righteous rage. He began to remember what he only wanted to remember, and he conveniently forgot anything that painted him in a bad light.
The light turned red, and Grant started pummeling the steering wheel. I warned her, damn her. She should have listened me and stayed the hell away from Reid Chalkias!
That he had cheated on her first didn’t matter. He had everything with Lou in control, and besides, he hadn’t been a virgin to start with. But Fawn—-
“Fuck you,” Grant howled.
The indestructible-looking gates of the prince’s property loomed in the distance, and Grant slammed his foot on the gas.
“I’ll make you goddamn pay—-”
He wrenched the gearstick down, and his car stormed down the driveway with a burst of speed. He wanted to run something – someone – over, and he almost got his wish, his headlights about to kiss the prince’s gates in a head-on collision.
Sanity returned at the last second, and Grant hit on the brakes hard. His car screeched to a stop, a mere inch away from being smashed.
“FUUUUUUUUCK!” Still shaking with terror at his brush with death, Grant had to wrestle with the lock before finally tumbling out of his car. He fell on his back with a heavy groan and found himself suddenly blinded by the blazing white light coming from the watchtower’s security lights stationed on top of the walls.
A moment later, shadows fell over him, turning his world dark. The next thing he knew, men on each side had grabbed his arms, hauling him up.
“What the hell—-who the fuck are you?” Grant thrashed wildly against his unknown captors, but they remained expressionless and immovable, forcibly dragging him towards the side entrance to the prince’s compound.
Fear crawled down his spine, penetrating the alcoholic haze in his mind, and Grant struggled harder against their vise-like hold as the men took him through the narrow passageway. “If you don’t fucking let me go,” he blustered, “I’m going to have your asses hauled to—-”
The metal door slammed shut behind him with a hard thud, cutting him off, and Grant whitened, realizing that he had been effectively abducted.
“Let him go,” a mild voice spoke from the dark.
His captors threw him to the ground, and he crashed on his knees. Rage and confusion had him looking about wildly, and he stiffened when he realized that a circle of uniformed men had him surrounded.
The circle broke in front of him all of a sudden, a figure stepping out from the darkness.
Reid Chalkias.
Hatred that tasted like vitriol filled Grant’s mouth as the Prince of Darkness walked towards him with unhurried grace. Seeing the other guy looking so damn sophisticated and composed – so goddamn perfect – made his vision go red.
This was the asshole that had his cock in his girlfriend’s mouth!
With a hoarse roar, Grant rose up and charged towards the prince—-
The prince stilled.
“This is for what you did to Fawn—-” Grant threw all his strength into the fist he swung towards the other guy.
The prince deftly turned sideways at the last second, and Grant missed his target completely, leaving him clawing the air just before crashing back down, his nose smashing against the hard ground.
Grant howled in rage as he rolled to his back, clutching his bleeding nose. Forcing himself to sit up, he threw a baleful glance at the prince, gritting out, “F-fuck you!” Even to his ears, his slurred words sounded humiliatingly pathetic, and his fists clenched in shamed rage. “Fuck you, asshole—-”
“I suppose you’re here to talk about what you heard over the phone.”
The polite mask on the prince’s too-pretty face didn’t change as he spoke, and the sight of it had Grant nearly choking in his anger. A sense of recklessness seized him, and all he wanted then was to get even.
Forcing himself to get up, Grant snarled, “You think I don’t know the truth about you, bastard?” When the prince only looked at him, Grant said viciously, “I know who your real parents are, asshole, and I fucking wish you had died with them!”
Instead of flying into a rage like Grant hoped, the prince only looked at him. “Is that really what you want to talk about?”
And that was when Grant saw it—-
Even with the prince’s face remaining unreadable, the taunting gleam in the prince’s green eyes was unmistakable, and it was almost like he could hear the prince ask mockingly in his mind, When are we going to talk about Fawn sucking on my cock?
Grant completely lost it and even knowing that he would fail, his feet started to move, pounding harder and faster towards the prince, throwing his fists wildly and aimlessly in hopes that he could sneak even just one fucking punch.
But it was impossible.
The prince seemed to be always ten steps ahead of him, easily anticipating and evading Grant’s fists. Even his kicks landed on thin air, the prince knowing exactly when to turn or step back. More seconds passed, a combination of exhaustion and an impending sense of defeat making Grant more desperate.
Goddamn it, he just wanted to hurt the prince the way he was goddamn hurting—-
“She was my girlfriend, asshole,” Grant screamed as he threw another fist that only struck air. “My girlfriend!”
The prince’s lip curled. “If only you had remembered that before fucking another girl behind Fawn’s back—-”
Grant’s face turned a livid shade of red. “Don’t you dare fucking judge me when Fawn’s letting you bang her—-”
At his words, the prince’s jaw started to tick, and he cut Grant off, saying tautly, “I haven’t touched her—-”
Grant released a maniacal laugh, demanding incredulously, “Do you really think I’m that fucking stupid to believe you?”
“Yes.” The prince stared at him coldly. “The day Fawn became my lover was the day she caught you with your pants down fucking your council’s vice president in an empty classroom.”
“ Bullshit. ” Grant spat at the ground. “She’s a whore—-”
The prince’s face hardened.
Grant laughed wildly. “What? Are you telling me an asshole like you is offended?”
“For your sake,” the prince said softly, “I’d advise you not to say another word about her.”
“Her? Do you mean Fawn? My girlfriend ?” Now that he had found a crack in the prince’s mask, Grant clawed into it greedily, sneering, “She’s exactly what I said. A whore. A cock-sucking whore —-”
The prince hissed, “This is your last warning—-”
Victory tasted so damn sweet, and Grant lost his head with it. “Since she seems to fucking love cocks so much, I think I’m going to invite her out and have all the guys from the council have fun with her. They can take fucking turns—-”
Either Grant was too drunk or the prince was too fast, but the next thing he knew, he was choking, with the cold metallic barrel of the prince’s gun shoved halfway inside his mouth.
His terrified gaze collided with the prince’s, and Grant could feel his blood leeching off his face as he found himself staring into the eyes of a killer.
“Be very still, Bennett.” The prince’s tone was exquisitely soft, almost dangerously playful, if playing with a man’s fate was a game. “Move too much, and I might accidentally pull the trigger—-”
Grant whitened.
“—-like this.” The prince pulled the trigger, the gun fired, and the cylinder spun for the next shot.
Grant screamed.
A second later, the prince retrieved the gun from Grant’s mouth, and Grant fell to his knees, trembling hard, unable to believe what had just happened.
Over his head, the prince crooned, “You got lucky.”
Grant heard the prince cock his gun.
“Shall we play again?”
Fear razed his mind, and Grant started to throw up—-
The prince yanked his head back by the hair, and the barrel was back inside his mouth, forcing Grant to swallow his own vomit. “Do you know,” the prince crooned, “I’ve always been just a little jealous of you, for knowing Fawn before I did. I despised you for it, Bennett, and because of it, the mere sight of you repulsed me.” The prince’s grip tightened around his gun. “But I’ve never wished you dead until now.”
A frightened sob tumbled past Grant’s trembling lips.
“You don’t know,” the prince whispered. “You don’t fucking know how close I am to killing you right now.”
But he did, Grant thought sickly. He did know how close the prince was to taking his life.
“And I probably would have killed you,” the prince murmured, “if certain circumstances didn’t require me to keep you alive.”
It was all in those merciless eyes of his—-
“So here’s what’s going to happen instead. I need you to do several things for me—-”
And if Grant made the smallest mistake—-
“I will tell you what it is, and you will do them.”
He would be dead.
“Do you understand?”
Grant knew he should say yes . And he did mean to, only fear got the better of him, and he choked—-
It was not the answer the prince wanted.
The gun fired the second time.
Air exploded inside his mouth, and a silent scream of horror tore out of him. His body jerked and shuddered, and it took several moments for his senses to return, for his brain to accept that he wasn’t dead—-
Yet.
He heard the prince say musingly, “You’re quite the lucky man, aren’t you, Bennett? But don’t celebrate just yet, mm? I can fire the gun again and again until we get to the slot that does have a bullet in it—-”
Grant broke down.
He choked. He cried. He begged. He did all things that destroyed his pride, but at that moment he no longer cared.
But it was too late.
Shoving the barrel deeper down Grant’s throat, the prince murmured, “I’m going to repeat what I said one last time, and you will answer by nodding or shaking your head. Yes?”
Grant nodded jerkily, the barrel bumping up against the roof of his mouth.
“First – you’re a cock-sucking son of a bitch, to even think of something that vile—-” As the prince spoke, the cold rod of metal pushed an inch farther inside before pulling out, mimicking the movements of a cock.
“Do you agree, Bennett?”
Tears of humiliated rage burned his eyes, but Grant still made himself nod.
A smile formed on the prince’s lips. “It’s good that we understand each other now.” He motioned for one of his men to take over. Stepping back, he said dispassionately, “Let’s give this gentleman what he wants and make sure to get him to suck as much cock as he needs.”
Grant jerked.
“Yes, sir.”
The barrel started thrusting harder and faster into Grant’s throat, partially blocking his airway, and Grant began to gasp for oxygen.
Almost from a distance, he heard the prince say, “Show us how much you love to suck cocks.”
Knowing what was asked of him, Grant’s stomach turned over, and he began to retch.
But the prince only shook his head, sighing, “Bennett, Bennett, Bennett. Do you need to be reminded? If you don’t do what I tell you to do, I’ll get you to swallow a fucking bullet.”
Ruthless green eyes glittered down on Grant.
“So start sucking.”
Even as Grant choked on his own vomit, he forced his tongue to move, and he slowly, painfully, began to suck.
“That’s a good cock-sucking boy.”
The prince’s men laughed.
Grant’s tears rolled down faster on his face, but even so, he couldn’t make himself stop sucking on the barrel of the gun.
The prince crouched down in front of him. “Now,” he purred, “here’s what else I need you to do.”
You will continue acting like Fawn’s boyfriend on paper.
You will not tell Fawn or anyone else about what happened tonight.
You will not do anything that would hurt Fawn.
THE PRINCE WATCHED expressionlessly as his men half-escorted, half-carried a completely unresisting Grant out of the premises. Bennett was silent and pale-faced, his eyes dull, his body still trembling from his ordeal and stinking of vomit.
He was no longer the same man he used to be, and the prince knew that if Bennett proved to be even weaker than he believed, he would never be the same man again.
One of his guards approached him, the prince’s Desert Eagle in his hand. “Your gun, sir?”
“Get rid of it,” the prince said grimly before slowly turning to walk back to where his limousine was waiting, its engine still running. He pulled his phone out absently, sending a text message to Jason Christakos so his friend would know he had been delayed in leaving.
The prince heard footsteps behind him, and soon, Noah fell into step beside the prince.
“What time is it, Noah?”
The question was unexpected, but Noah was too well trained to show his surprise. He only checked his watch and answered, “A quarter past midnight, sir.”
Ah. Fifteen minutes, he thought. It had only taken him fifteen minutes to destroy the man who had hurt Fawn, but even so, he remained invulnerable to either guilt or remorse.
He really was the Prince of Darkness, after all.
“Do you believe I was too hard on Bennett?” the prince asked in a voice completely devoid of emotion.
“The boy had to be taught a lesson,” Noah answered grimly. “Being drunk doesn’t change a man. It only loosens the tongue, and what Bennett said was exactly what he was thinking—-”
The prince’s smile didn’t reach his eyes. “You do know you’re making me want to get Bennett back here again and beat the shit out of him, don’t you?”
“Do you want me to get him back, sir?” Noah asked dutifully.
“Thank you for the offer,” the prince said politely, “but let’s not risk that. I might end up killing him next time.”
A veiled look touched the prince’s eyes, and seeing it, Noah knew that the master could only be thinking of one person. And when the prince spoke again, he knew he was right.
“Fawn will probably be frightened,” the prince murmured without inflection, “once she finds out about what I did.”
“No, sir.” And Noah meant it. If anyone here was frightened—-
The prince’s lips twisted. “But if she is, it’s probably better that way. My life is not for her. The kind of person I am...is not for someone like her.”
It was Reid Chalkias himself, Noah thought, who seemed unable to accept that he had found someone to care for more than anything else – and the fact that the same person happened to care for the Prince of Darkness more than anything else as well.
“You were merely bluffing, sir,” Noah said finally. “There’s nothing wrong with that, you only wanted to make sure the message got across.”
The prince only nodded, even though Noah was wrong. He had not been bluffing the entire time. There had only been one bullet inside his gun, and he had no idea when the gun would fire off with ammunition.
“IF YOU DON’T LEAVE soon,” Igor said gently the next day, “you might be late for your meeting with the student council, signorina .”
Reluctantly turning away from the driveway, Fawn glanced back at Igor with a forced smile, saying, “I’m not even surprised you know my schedule as well as I do.”
“Security’s been instructed to shoot to kill if Mr. Bennett makes one wrong move.”
Since the words were spoken with a straight face, she said weakly, “You’re joking...right?”
But it was as if Igor hadn’t heard a thing and instead the older man opened the car door for her, saying with a respectful bow, “Have a good day in school, signorina. Please do not hesitate to call if you need any kind of assistance.”
As Igor gently but firmly ushered Fawn inside her car, she could no longer help herself and blurted out, “Have you heard from the prince?”
“No, signorina. ”
“I see.” But the truth was, she didn’t, and his absence hurt. “He told me he’d be here.” And it wasn’t like the prince at all to break his word.
Seeing the fear lurking in Fawn’s gaze, Igor deliberately attempted to lighten the mood, saying, “The day has arrived then.”
Fawn blinked. “What day?”
“The day,” he intoned seriously, “that the signorina has become quite clingy .”
Fawn’s jaw dropped.
Igor stepped back and closed the door in her face.
Holy sweet Jesus—-
As Igor kindly waved goodbye from the front steps of the mansion, Fawn raced down the driveway, trying but failing to outrun her embarrassment.
She was being clingy!
Fawn shuddered.
It was a good thing the prince wasn’t here, after all, or Igor wouldn’t have been the only one to witness her fall from grace. The prince would have seen it for himself, too, and she’d never have heard the end of it if that happened.
When she made it to school, Fawn was surprised to find a good number of the prince’s bodyguards waiting for her outside the university, working incognito in civilian clothing and looking not much different from the other students in the area.
Martin, the guard closest to her, was seated on one of the steps, a book in his hands, and doing his best to look like he was unaware of how a small group of eighteen-year-old girls was eyeing him like they wanted to have him for lunch.
Walking to Martin, she asked under her breath, “Are you here for the prince?”
Martin stared at her blankly. “Do I know you?”
The girls behind him tittered, and Fawn glowered at the guard. She was so telling his wife about this, Fawn vowed to herself even as she turned away, realizing that Martin – or any of the other security guys for that matter – would never talk to her while on duty.
As she headed to the conference room, she pulled out her phone to send a text message to Priscilla.
Are you in uni? Your bodyguards are hanging out here.
Fawn waited restlessly for the prince’s reply, but none came even by the time she made it to the conference room. The prince hadn’t wanted her to attend this without him, but she had insisted, knowing that it presented her with the perfect opportunity to have some closure with—-
Oh .
She halted by the doorway, unable to pull her gaze away from Grant, who was deep in discussion with the student council president in front of the room. It was her first time to see him like he had come to class without having taken a bath. His hair had a messy, greasy look to them, and his eyes were bloodshot and swollen. Even his clothes looked like they were the same ones that he had gone to bed with, its collar half-turned, and the front marred with a rather large stain.
What was wrong with him? Taking one of the seats at the far end of the table, she tried catching his eye, but either he was too intent on his talk with the president or he was deliberately avoiding looking at her.
“Good morning, guys,” a voice cooed from the doorway, and Fawn stiffened. It was Lou, and even though she no longer felt the same way for Grant, she realized that it didn’t make her hurt any less at seeing the girl her boyfriend had cheated on her with.
Lou was dressed in a white skin-tight dress that looked prim and proper up front but exposed her back completely with crisscrossing strings. All eyes were on Lou as she sashayed towards Grant, leaning to kiss him on the cheek—-
Fawn’s eyes widened when Lou suddenly pulled back, her nose wrinkling in revulsion. “Oh my God, Grant, you stink!”
The entire room fell silent.
Fawn waited tensely for Grant to blow up or at least defend himself, but he only looked at Lou, mumbling in a dull voice that everyone could hear, “I’m sorry.”
The student council president was shaking his head. “Seriously, what’s wrong? You’ve been out of it since you came here. Do you have a hangover or something?”
Grant shook his head.
“Then what is it?” Frustration underlined the president’s tone. “ This is your brainchild, Grant, and yet not a single word you’ve told me made sense. Get yourself straightened out or I’m getting someone else to take over.”
As the president stalked towards the head of the table to take his seat, Fawn’s anxious gaze swung to Grant, who looked even paler now and almost like—-
Was it just her, Fawn wondered uneasily, or did Grant actually look like he wanted to cry?
Lou hissed something to Grant’s ear, too low for anyone else to hear, but with her face a mirror of fury, it was pretty easy to guess that she didn’t care about comforting Grant.
The door to the conference room opened again as Lou continued to reprimand him in front of everyone, and Fawn, thankful for the distraction, turned to see who the newcomers were.
She almost fell off her seat when she saw all twelve of the prince’s bodyguards filing in, presenting themselves as part of Derek Christopoulos’ staff and sent for the sole purpose of observing the minutes of the meeting.
What was going on?
The meeting commenced, and it became a question that Fawn appeared fated to ask practically every minute.
Lou was tasked with the opening remarks, and the beautiful vice president performed her task with envious ease. She made all the right jokes, albeit a little bit too risqué for Fawn’s taste, and once in a while her taunting gaze would seem to seek Fawn, as if mocking her for not doing anything about Grant’s unfaithfulness.
Fawn had never had her confidence so undermined, and only the knowledge that the prince’s bodyguards were there behind her, ready to come to her aid at the first sign of trouble, gave her the strength to stay.
A round of applause erupted from the small crowd, punctuating the end of Lou’s speech.
Grant replaced her behind the podium—-
And he turned out to be a complete disaster.
It was like watching a train wreck unfold, she thought sickly, and she was a helpless bystander without any power to stop what was inevitable.
For as long as she could remember, Grant had always thrived in the limelight, someone who never had trouble charming and impressing all kinds of audience.
But that Grant was not the Grant she was watching now.
“So...”
Fawn managed to stop herself from cringing. It was the first word that Grant had spoken, and so far he had repeated it three times in the past thirty seconds.
“The project we’re here to discuss today is...” Grant broke off.
“Anything wrong?” the president asked impatiently.
The projector had the first slide of his presentation on display, and Grant turned to look at it with a vaguely bewildered look, almost like the entire text was written in Latin.
And it all went downhill from there.
The hour-long presentation was reduced to ten minutes, but it was still the most painful ten minutes for everyone in the room. Names that even kindergarten students would have no problems with were either misspelled or mispronounced, and project estimates miscalculated even though they could have been easily computed without a calculator.
It was one humiliating and inexplicable mistake after another, and by the time the president furiously got up to reschedule the meeting, Fawn’s heart had long broken for Grant.
“On behalf of Mr. Bennett,” the president bit out, “I apologize for this inexcusable waste of everyone’s time. We’ll have this meeting rescheduled next week.” He shot a hard look at Grant, saying coldly, “Let’s hope for a better outcome then.”
As soon as the meeting was officially adjourned, the president was the first one to stalk out of the room, followed by an irate-looking Lou, who hadn’t spared Grant a single glance. Everyone else filed out, including the prince’s bodyguards, but only after they had gotten their cue from Fawn.
The conference room was empty in less than a minute, leaving Fawn alone with Grant.
He was slumped on the chair next to the projector, and she approached him slowly, unsure even now of what she could say to him.
She might be his girlfriend, but it was nothing but a nominal title now.
When she was a foot away from Grant, she hesitated, wondering if she was doing the right thing.
What if Grant didn’t want her now?
What if he wanted Lou?
And yet—-
Lou wasn’t here.
She was.
And Grant was still a man she had once loved.
Taking a deep, shuddering breath, Fawn finally closed the distance between them. When he didn’t show any signs of being aware of her presence, she touched his shoulder gently, saying, “Grant?”
“I’m sorry for this.” Grant’s head remained bent as he spoke.
Ah. He knew she had been there all the while then, and yet—-
He had ignored her.
Why?
“I didn’t want you to see me like that.”
A lump formed in her throat, making it hard for Fawn to swallow. She had never heard him sound this... weak. Never. And if she had a choice, she would never have wanted to.
Then you’re being stupid. He cheated on you, remember?
Yes. I do remember. But I loved him once. Remember?
So?
Before Grant became my boyfriend, he was my friend first, and how can I ever want to see a friend of mine be in this much pain?
Like I said, you’re being stupid—-
“There’s no need to do that, Fawn,” Grant suddenly muttered under his breath.
Startled and confused, she asked dumbly, “Do what?”
“Talk to yourself.”
Oh.
“You only do that when you’re troubled.” And finally, Grant slowly raised his head, and she couldn’t stop her heart from crying out in pain at the empty look in his dull blue eyes.
“What happened?” she whispered. “What’s wrong?”
Grant shook his head, saying brusquely, “It has nothing to do with you.”
“Of course it has.” And she knew then she couldn’t make herself break up with him – or at least not now. Not when Grant looked like he was about to shatter any second.
Digging her fingers into her palms in an effort to stay focused, she reminded him forcefully, “I’m y-your girlfriend , remember?”
Grant flinched.
“Grant, say something.” Her fingers dug deeper in frustration. Why wouldn’t he tell her what was wrong?
And almost as if he had heard her unspoken question, Grant suddenly choked out, “I don’t deserve you.”
The words shocked her, but more than that, they hurt because once she would have done everything to hear him say them.
But it was different now.
“This i-isn’t like you, Grant.” She fought to keep her voice steady. “Why can’t you tell me what’s wrong?”
Grant only stared at her, repeating, “I don’t deserve you.”
“Grant—-”
“Last night—-” And then he started in his seat, terror flickering in his gaze.
Fawn stiffened. Last night?
Grant jumped off his seat. “I h-have to go.”
She managed to block his way, demanding, “What do you mean last night?”
Grant shook his head jerkily. “It doesn’t matter—-”
“It clearly matters. It’s written all over your face.” When he stared at her in horror, she asked shakily, “Is this about you calling me last night?”
“No.” And then he was walking away, and for one moment, all she could do was stare at him, unable to believe that he would end their discussion just like that.
When he was halfway to the door, Fawn finally got herself to move and running to catch after him, she said fiercely, “I don’t believe you. This obviously has to do with last night’s call.” She reached for his arm—-
He wrenched himself out of her hold hard, like her touch burned him, and shoved her away in the process.
A stunned Fawn staggered a step back, and Grant said brokenly, “I’m sorry.” This time, he was the one who reached for her—-
“No.” She backed away from him. Her eyes were burning, but she would die before she’d let the tears fall. She didn’t even know why she felt like crying, but one thing she did know was that someone like Grant Bennett—-
Or at least this Grant Bennett who had cheated on her—-
This Grant Bennett who no longer seemed to give a damn about shunning her, hurting her—-
That kind of man would never deserve again even a single drop of her tears.
Grant was gazing at her with painfully bleak eyes. “I’m sorry.”
“I k-know.” Her voice shook. But it wasn’t enough.
His desperate gaze clung to hers. “Forgive me.”
Ah. She wished she could ask him what he was apologizing for, but at that moment she just...couldn’t. She wanted to hate him, but the bitterness she felt on the day she saw him cheating on her seemed no longer within reach. It didn’t even feel that it still existed inside of her.
When she looked at Grant now, all her heart could do was ache—-
Like it was grieving over a broken piece that could never be a part of her heart again.
She stared at him, and the ache grew worse and worse.
“I have to go,” Fawn choked out.
As she spun away, she heard Grant whisper hoarsely, “Stay, luv.”
The tears started to fall.
Dump him. Take pity on him. Scream at him.
Hadn’t she just thought that their love wasn’t ever the two-way kind?
And yet here he was—-
“Please.”
She walked faster, and her tears fell faster as well.
I’m sorry, Grant.
He might need her now, but it was too late.
Someone else already owned her heart.
FAWN WAS DRIVING BACK to the prince’s compound, with the prince’s bodyguards trailing behind her car, when her phone started to ring.
Again, the ringtone clued her in, and Fawn was all thumbs in her haste to answer it. After pressing the loudspeaker button, she answered breathlessly, “H-hello.”
“I’m sorry for breaking my promise this morning, parthena mou .”
Oh. Fawn swallowed hard, forcibly keeping down all the questions that wanted to rush out of her. You’re his lover, not his girlfriend, Fawn. Remember that.
“It’s o-okay.”
The prince leaned back against his chair at the overly bright tone of her voice. The hotel suite he was in was completely dark, with all the lights turned off and the blinds completely drawn.
Even so, he could see Fawn so clearly and vividly in front of him—-
It was almost like she was really there.
Almost like he missed her so damn much that he could no longer function properly without her.
All of these were true, and as soon as it became clear to him, the prince jerked in his seat, knowing that his time with Fawn was drawing to an end.
His grip tightened around his phone almost as if he needed to hold on to her, even if it was just the sound of her voice.
“Are you driving back home already?” It was the first thought that had come to his mind, and he didn’t hesitate to ask it. All he cared about was being able to keep hearing her voice...while he could.
“H-home?” Despite the prince’s abrupt tone, Fawn couldn’t stop a little spurt of hope from growing inside of her. The prince had just referred to his place as ‘home’ while talking to her.
She knew she was being silly, but even so—-
It was a good thing, wasn’t it?
“Fawn?”
Clearing her throat, she stammered, “Yes, sorry, I was thinking of something. I’m, umm, on my way...back.” She managed to catch herself from saying ‘home’ as well.
Silence.
Where are you? What are you doing? Why did you break your promise?
Those were the questions she wanted and needed to ask of him, but in the end, she couldn’t.
She had no right to.
And so she asked finally, “Is everything alright?” It was the safest question she could ask.
“Shouldn’t I be the one asking you that,” the prince murmured evenly, “since you were the one who met with Bennett today?”
Her brows furrowed. Was that why the prince seemed so distant? Was he wondering if something had happened between Grant and her? Or was he worried that she had confronted Grant and admitted the truth about them?
Her teeth sank in her lower lip. From the very start, the prince had told her he could only be Fawn’s lover behind Grant’s back. Did that mean if she were not—-
Don’t go there, Fawn.
“Is it that bad?” the prince demanded sharply when it took Fawn too long to answer.
“N-no,” Fawn forced herself to answer. “But things didn’t turn out the way I expected.” She paused then added lamely, “I also didn’t expect your bodyguards to be at the meeting, too.”
“Were they not enough to keep you from feeling alone?” the prince quizzed.
She almost took her gaze off the road to gape at her phone. She had not seen that coming at all, but now that she knew why the prince had all those bodyguards around –
It made perfect sense.
And it was another example of how easily – Holy sweet God, but he made her happy so, so easily.
“Should I have sent another dozen instead?” the prince was asking, prompting her to release a slightly stunned giggle when she realized that he was perfectly serious.
“Prince!” And just like that, she went from wanting to cry to wanting to laugh out loud. “Be serious.”
“Two dozen more then?” But this time, the prince’s smile was evident in his tone, and she relaxed even more at the sound of it, her tight grip on the steering wheel easing.
“They were more than enough,” she managed to say once she was sure she wasn’t going to cry. “They definitely... helped .”
“I see.” The prince paused. “But they weren’t enough to keep you from hurting.”
Oh.
“Did Bennett or his slut do something to you?” the prince pressed.
“Grant s-seemed different,” she whispered painfully. “The other girl...she was shouting at him in front of everyone, humiliating him, and he didn’t do a thing. Today’s presentation should have been simple for him, and he m-messed it up. He wasn’t himself, and I just...”
She swallowed. “Do you think G-Grant knows?”
“If he does,” the prince countered calmly, “don’t you think he should be the one feeling guilty instead? He cheated on you first.”
“But he doesn’t know that I saw him—-”
“But he knows you ,” the prince pointed out silkily. “If he suspects you of doing the same thing, he would know that you wouldn’t have become my lover without a valid reason.”
Even knowing that the prince’s words made perfect sense, she still couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was incredibly wrong with Grant—-
She remembered how weak he sounded, how lost—-
“Should I start feeling jealous, parthena mou ?”
The unexpected question completely threw her off, and it was a good thing she had just driven past the automated gates of the prince’s compound or she might have ended up in an accident. “W-what are you talking about?”
“It almost seems like you miss Bennett’s attention,” the prince drawled.
She turned red. “I d-do not.”
“Then let’s stop talking about Bennett.”
She bit her lip, telling herself not to push it, but in the end she couldn’t help herself. “ Are you jealous ?”
“Extremely.”
Fawn made a face at the prince’s dead serious tone. “Yeah right.”
She shook her head at herself.
You’re so full of it, Fawn Cornwall, thinking that the prince could get so jealous over you.
“Ye of little faith,” the prince sighed out in mock hurt. “If only I had the time to go over there to show you just how possessive I am about you, I would have.”
The too-sweet words had Fawn sucking in a breath, and she desperately warned herself, Don’t do it, don’t do it—-
But her heart proved too stubborn, and it still ended up skipping a beat.
And another.
And another.
And another, again and again, until she had no choice but to temporarily pull over.