Chapter 13
Thirteen
Daphne
Iwas soaked, freezing, and shivering like crazy when Cory helped me out of the ocean.
My knees buckled the second my feet hit the dock. He caught me before I collapsed, shrugging off his jacket and wrapping it around my shoulders.
“Here,” he said softly, rubbing his hands over my arms to warm me. “Let’s get you back to the castle.”
I refused to look back at the party, but I could feel the stares on my back.
Just wonderful.
I contemplated jumping back into the water and letting the tide carry me away.
If my grandparents heard about tonight—and I knew they would—I was in deep shit. Elodie had been right. One of us was destined to drown the other.
Tonight, Brooks had won.
Water dripped from us as I bundled myself tighter in Cory’s jacket and followed him toward the castle. It did almost nothing against the cold, but at least I wasn’t walking around naked.
I glanced over at him. His wet shirt clung to his chest, and what remained of his blue face paint had bled down one cheek. He looked like a drowned member of the Blue Man Group.
Maybe he wasn’t so bad after all.
“Why’d you jump in after me?” I asked him.
Cory stopped and shoved a hand through his damp hair. “I’m loyal to my country.” He looked straight at me. “Loyal to my princess.”
Cory confused the hell out of me.
One minute, he was leaving me alone with a psychopath holding rat poison. The next, he was jumping into the ocean to save me. I couldn’t figure out which Cory was real.
He cleared his throat. “I wasn’t lying when I said I wanted you as my Fawn. Maybe next year, when Brooks is gone, we can make that happen.”
I smiled. “I’d like that.”
We walked the rest of the way in silence. The castle was quiet except for staff strolling down the corridor. No one seemed surprised seeing us together. I was sure that would feed the rumors about us one day marrying.
When we reached my bedroom, I stopped and slipped his jacket from my shoulders.
“Goodnight. And thanks again for jumping in after me.” I handed it back and motioned toward his soaked clothes. “Sorry you got dragged into the Brooks and Daphne shitshow.”
He smirked. “It was worth it, Princess.” He leaned in and brushed a kiss against my cheek. “Goodnight.”
I pushed open my bedroom door.
Oh, for fuck’s sake.
Brooks sat lounged against my headboard like he owned not only my bed but the entire damn castle.
Vittoria stood in front of him, fumbling with her corset. She froze when she saw me. All the color drained from her face when she spotted Cory behind me.
Brooks followed her stare to the doorway, straight to Cory. His lazy slouch vanished. For a second, he didn’t move at all.
Then he slid off my bed, slow and deadly, like a snake getting ready to strike.
“Cory, do me a favor and show this half-wit twit back to her quarters.” He hooked his thumb toward a horrified Vittoria.
Poor thing.
She’d walked right into Brooks’s trap and should consider this a good lesson.
Never trust men in power.
Especially the pretty ones. They were the worst.
Vittoria shot me a glare so nasty I saw her mother in her.
Her hostility made no sense. She was in my bedroom, halfway out of her clothes, with my psychopath.
I hugged Cory’s jacket tighter around my shivering body.
Brooks cracked his neck and rushed toward us. He ripped me away from Cory and sent me stumbling toward the armoire.
Cory let out a long, exhausted sigh, like he was already sick of breaking up fights between Brooks and me. “Come on, Vittoria.” He motioned toward the door.
Vittoria didn’t budge as she waited for Brooks to change his mind.
Brooks tipped his chin toward Cory. “Go with him.”
“But …” Vittoria glanced between them. “I thought—”
Brooks spoke over her, “You thought what? I’d fuck you in your cousin’s bed?”
The way he said it made Vittoria look worse than him.
When she didn’t move, Brooks grabbed Vittoria’s arm, handed her off to Cory, and shoved them both into the hallway.
“Wait!” Vittoria cried before the door slammed in her face. She immediately started yelling from the other side.
Brooks calmly locked her out.
I stared at him in disgust when he looked at me. “My cousin, really?”
“Relax.” He tugged at his sleeve, as if explaining himself was already becoming tedious. “I had no intention of touching her. She was merely my source to get into your bedroom. The striptease wasn’t part of the plan.”
“Did you ask her to stop?”
“Actually, yes.”
“Liar.”
“Do you think I care if you believe me?”
“Why’d you want in my room?”
He rolled his head back, staring at the ceiling, as if I was the annoying one. “I’m so tired of repeating myself.”
“Then answer the question like a normal person. Be straight up and honest for once.”
When I wrapped Cory’s jacket tighter around me, I knew I’d made a mistake. Brooks’s eyes zeroed in on it.
Uh-oh.
Wearing another man’s clothes when Brooks was in one of his possessive moods was a bad idea. But it wasn’t like I put myself in this position.
“I told you to stop letting other men touch you. I’ve made that pretty fucking clear, but you don’t listen.”
“You’re seriously mad about Cory rescuing me from the water?” I threw my arms up, and the jacket fell open, exposing my naked body.
Brooks’s stare immediately dropped to my breasts.
I yanked the jacket closed again. “Maybe you should’ve jumped your lazy, throwing-a-girl-overboard ass in and saved me.”
“You know how to swim. I used to watch you do it in my family’s pool, wearing one of your skimpy bikinis.” He dragged his tongue across his lower lip.
“You’re unbelievable—you know that?”
“Unbelievable in all the good ways.”
“In all the evil ways.”
I turned my back to him and opened the armoire, staring at rows of formal dresses. Not a pair of pajamas in sight.
Every comfortable outfit I owned was in the dresser across the room. To reach it, I’d have to pass Brooks. I knew he’d demand some form of payment before letting me pass, like an evil troll guarding a bridge.
I looked at the dresses again.
Sleeping in a ball gown can’t be that uncomfortable, right?
I twisted around. “Fine. Next time I end up in the ocean by your hands, I won’t accept help. I’ll just let the sharks eat me.”
“That’s my good girl.”
Heat rushed through me at those four stupid words, and I begged every turned-on cell in my body not to fall into his trap.
“Excuse me?” I snapped when he shrugged out of his blazer. “What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
“Getting ready for bed.” He draped the blazer over the ottoman at the foot of my bed and started unbuttoning his shirt. He worked the buttons open one by one.
Long fingers. Big hands.
Hands I knew way too well.
I snapped my stare back to his face. “No, you’re freaking not.” I pointed at the door. “Get out.”
The bastard smiled before faking a yawn. “I’m too exhausted to do that.” With his next sham of a yawn, he stretched his arms over his head.
“I’ll scream.”
“Scream away.” He popped another button free, knowing I wouldn’t.
How would I explain how Brooks got into my room?
I’d either have to rat out Vittoria or let everyone assume I’d snuck the president’s son into my bedroom for a late-night sleepover.
By breakfast, the entire castle would know.
I could only imagine how much of a field day Oriana would have with the story.
While Vittoria wasn’t exactly my favorite person at the moment, I wouldn’t do that to her. Brooks had humiliated her enough.
He reached for his waistband.
Oh no.
I sucked in a ragged breath, waiting for him to drop his pants, but he only unzipped them and gave me an unhinged look.
His pants hung low on his waist as he walked over, nudged me aside, and started looking through my dresses. After a few seconds, he let out an irritating sigh.
“None of these come off easily.” He glanced over his shoulder at me. “I suppose you’ll have to sleep naked.”
I snorted and tried to sidestep him.
He grabbed Cory’s jacket and tugged me toward him. Before I could pull it closed, he stripped it off me and tossed it over his shoulders.
“Much better.” He took his sweet-ass time inspecting what he’d uncovered before letting out a low whistle.
I crossed my arms, hiding myself the best I could. “Are you done tormenting me now?”
“Not even close.” His mouth kicked into a satisfied smirk. “Now, time for bed.”
“You’re not sleeping here.”
He ignored me and headed for my bed. “You don’t make the rules.”
“It’s my bedroom.”
“And?”
Fine. If he wanted to be difficult, so could I.
I grabbed a pillow and blanket, marched them into the bathroom, and dumped both on the floor.
“There’s your bed.” I kicked the pillow. “I hope it’s as uncomfortable as you make my life.”
I barely made it one step before Brooks came after me and backed me against the marble vanity. The cold edge dug into my back.
“You just made yourself a bed,” he murmured, his fingertips skimming the curve of my breast. “Should’ve saved that energy for me.”
“You—”
He pressed a finger to my lips. “I’m sleeping in your bed, Princess.” He slid his palm over my nipple. “Tonight, I’ll refer to it as our bed.”
I needed to shove his hand away, but instead, I stupidly leaned closer.
“I could call security,” I managed to say. “They’d be here in a second to kick your ass out.”
“Do it then.” He fully cupped my breast.
A violent shiver raced through me, ruining every ounce of credibility behind my threat.
He pinched my nipple once, then backed away and returned to my bedroom.
I grabbed a towel off its hook, wrapped it around myself, and stormed after him. I made it three steps before stopping dead at the sight of Brooks shoving his pants down his legs. They pooled around his ankles before he kicked them aside.
My mouth went dry.
His shirt hit the floor next.
“You’re not sleeping in here n-naked.”
“I’m not naked.” He hooked a thumb beneath the band of his briefs and snapped it against his waist.
“Fine, you’re not sleeping in here in briefs.”
I stomped to the dresser and pulled open a drawer. I grabbed my pajamas, dropped the towel, and pulled them on as fast as possible before finding a tank and shorts for him.
I tossed both at his chest.
He didn’t bother catching them. They landed at his feet.
I pointed at them. “There’re your pajamas for the night.”
He bent down, picked up the shorts, and stretched the waistband between his hands. “These don’t even fit around my cock.”
“I’ve seen said cock.” I shrugged. “It’s the master of disappointment.”
“Disappointment, huh? How about I produce evidence of that?”
He dropped his briefs. My smart-ass response disappeared right along with them.
His cock sprang free, and for several humiliating seconds, I did nothing but stare.
“Go ahead.” He nodded toward the abandoned shorts now on the floor. “See if you can fit them around my cock.” He shamelessly stroked himself.
“What the hell is wrong with your brain?”
“A million things.”
My mouth watered at how hard his cock was. The tip was swollen, his fist gliding slowly along his length.
“The better question is …” His thumb swept over the tip. “Why can’t you stop looking?”
“Because I want to bite it off.”
His grin widened. “Do it then.”
I forced my attention above his waist.
He swept his tongue over his upper lip. “But lick it a few times before.”
For one stupid second, I actually considered moving closer, but sense thankfully smacked into me.
“In your dreams,” I squeaked out.
He took three long strides before pinning me against the wall and slamming his hands against the wall on each side of my face.
“You have no idea what you do to my head.” He curled his fist against the wall.
His voice dropped like he was about to deliver his biggest secret. “I dream about you underneath me. About tasting your pussy. Hearing you moan my name.”
He brushed his knuckles over my cheek, surprisingly gentle after those filthy words. “I have plenty of nightmares about you too, but the dreams always fucking win, Princess.”
He slid his fingers behind my neck. “You’re mine in all of them. At Saint Vale. In Calira. It doesn’t matter where you run. You belong to me until I say I’m done with you.”
I hated the tiny ache his words left behind.
Until I say I’m done with you.
That was the reminder I needed to knock some damn sense back into myself.
“Only in your dreams will I ever be yours, Brooks,” I whispered.
I was making my own plan damn near impossible. I was supposed to make Brooks fall for me, not keep pushing him away. Still, I couldn’t stop.
“I don’t want you here.” I looked down my nose at him. “You’re a stalker who followed me across the world because I won’t give you the attention you so desperately want from me.”
I tipped my chin higher, twisting the knife because I was stupid. “Maybe you’re the one who should be on your knees, worshipping me like the obsessed man you are.”
Brooks went completely still.
Barely. For just one second.
He loosed his grip on my nape. He looked like he wanted to say something but stopped himself. And just like that, every trace of his arrogance disappeared.
Not faded like it usually did.
Straight disappeared.
I wished I could’ve shoved those words back into my mouth.
For one second, Brooks had dropped his guard. Admitted I was in all his dreams. That I fucked with his head. I’d taken that confession and sharpened it into a weapon.
I gasped when his erection jerked against my thigh. He didn’t move away.
“You’re right.” He rolled his hips forward just enough to make it clear how badly he wanted me. “I did travel across the world and cross the ocean for you.”
He caught my lower lip with his teeth, tugging it before slowly letting go. “And I’m not leaving Calira empty-handed.”