Chapter 26
After the message I sent her last night, I’m not surprised when Jazmina storms into my office, heels clicking like gunshots against the floor.
To be honest, I expected her sooner, but one look at her outfit tells me the princess went home to change instead of coming straight from campus.
Yes, I’ve memorized her entire class schedule. I’ve never denied being controlling. Deal with it.
“You think you’re very clever, don’t you, duke?” she says, skipping any greeting, which means she’s furious with me. She’s always polite, even when angry. “You must be celebrating now that you’ve scared off all my suitors.”
I just wanted to see her, truth be told. I didn’t have to send that message, but I wanted an excuse to bring her back here, even if it meant seeing that pretty face armed for murder.
“You’re referring to the bankrupt CEO who invited you on a boat ride? I did you a favor. The bank is repossessing that yacht in five days,” I say bluntly.
“What?”
“You heard me. You have terrible taste in friends, princess.”
That part is true. I get daily reports on everyone she talks to at university. Except for Josephine, if you take the rest and glue them together, you still don’t get one functional human being, at least in terms of character.
“What are you implying with that emphasis on friends? They’ve never been more than that.”
“I wasn’t talking only about men; I meant both genders. Feeling guilty, Your Highness?” I ask, and now I’m the one losing it, jealousy crawling under my skin.
“No. As you well know, I’ve never kissed anyone but you, Your Grace.”
Shit. I should let that go, we’re headed down a dangerous road, but who said I have any self-control left? Apparently spending weeks away from her destroyed whatever rationality I had left.
“I know. You’re a virgin, and as far as I’m concerned, you’re staying that way.”
“I never planned to stop being a virgin. I intend to marry like that. I only wanted to have a bit of fun.”
I don’t want to go down this path. Thinking about her virginity and her golden beauty in the same breath is a recipe for disaster. “You were going to take a boat ride with a man you barely know, Jazmina. Out in open water, he could’ve drugged you and God knows what else.”
“I know how to defend myself. And besides, we wouldn’t have been alone—his sister would have been there.”
“Bullshit. Your friend,” I sneer, “made plans to go out with her boyfriend.”
“What?”
“You heard what I said. She played you again. And why? To leave you alone with her brother in a foreign country. That only proves you don’t know how to defend yourself at all. And speaking of defenses, how did you get past security without being announced?”
“It wasn’t hard,” she says, and even though she looks shaken by what I just revealed about her fake friend, she gives me a smile that doesn’t reach her eyes. “All I had to do was show them this.”
Only now do I notice the newspaper in her hands.
“You didn’t think it was odd that even though you texted me last night, I only came now?
Let me explain: my phone was dead, so only this morning at university did I see your oh-so-kind suggestion for me to visit the museum on Saturday.
I wanted to come here immediately, but as the saying goes, revenge is a dish best served cold. ”
“What are you talking about?”
She waves the newspaper again. “I needed enough time for the story to make it into the afternoon edition. It wasn’t easy, but turns out my last name opens doors. Oh, and of course, it helped that I placed a nice financial incentive in the columnist’s hand.”
“What did you do, Jazmina?”
I walk toward her, unsure if I even want to read it. My intuition tells me she’s up to something.
But nothing prepares me for what I see printed on the page.
Princess Jazmina Faheem of Rheadur grants exclusive interview announcing her engagement to billionaire Rodrick Alistair Gastrell MacQuoid, Duke of Kindubh
“Let’s see who gets the last laugh now, Your Grace. Say goodbye to your nightlife and those potential brides. Until I decide to end this—and I should warn you I’m not in a hurry—you are officially taken. If I can’t have fun, neither can you.”
I inhale slowly because the urge to throttle her is dangerously strong. I want to bend her over my knee and spank her. Almost as much as I want to drag her against me and shut her wicked mouth with my tongue. “You have no idea what you’ve just done, you lunatic.”
“I was a princess, now I’m a lunatic? Your standards are slipping, duke! You used to be more polite. And regarding the interview, of course I know what I did: I ruined your romantic plans for at least the next three months.”
One more step and our breaths mingle. The chemistry between us is undeniable, maddening, and I swear God himself decided the woman who drives me insane must also be the one I can never have.
“No, Jazmina, you don’t know. You just bound yourself to me permanently. In my family, once an engagement is publicly announced, it carries the force of a contract.”
As if to prove my point, the phone rings. When I walk back to my desk, I see it’s not a relative calling, even though I’m sure the congratulations from a hundred aunts and distant cousins will come soon enough, but Kaled.
Fuck.
I return to her and show her the screen.
She goes pale.
“See what you’ve done? Did it occur to you the story wouldn’t only affect me, it would affect your family too?
You made your bed. Now lie in it. You won’t embarrass me in front of my duchy.
We’re keeping this fake engagement for a while before we publicly break it off.
You wanted freedom to do whatever you pleased?
Get ready, princess. As of now, you’re mine. ”