Chapter 15
Chapter Fifteen
Robyn navigated a grocery cart through the cereal aisle, the front wheel clacking sideways every other step. Thank God for her little support group, Meryl and Kathy. If not for them, she’d have gone home, canceled the weekend with Kyzel, and cried into a bottle of chardonnay, alone.
Good thing Meryl wasn’t like Rol, that was for sure. Imagine being jealous enough to try to undermine a friend’s love life. What kind of friend did that?
A pretty pathetic one.
That was going to be a hard conversation to have with Kyzel, but if he was serious about a long-term relationship, he needed to know what his friend had done.
And that she wasn’t going to be the replacement wife.
She caught her lower lip between her teeth.
What if he didn’t want to hear it, though?
What if he got pissed off and ended their relationship anyway?
A spike of hurt shot through her heart, just like when Rol had cornered her.
Hopefully it’d take a lot more than that to—
“Robyn?”
She jerked her head around. “Kevin?”
Her ex grinned as he pushed his own cart closer. “Sorry. Didn’t mean to startle you. I thought you didn’t grocery shop on Mondays anymore.”
She didn’t, not since four months after the divorce, because he used to miraculously always be there at the same time. Was he back to his old tricks? “Just came in for a few things.”
“Me too.” He waved his hand over his cart. “Planning a dinner for two with Raven.”
“Oh?” She eyed his items. Potatoes, baked beans, a head of cabbage, two steaks, and a bouquet of pink carnations. Could it be that he really wasn’t stalking her this time? “She’s a t-bone steak kind of gal, huh?”
Kevin directed a small frown at the steaks. “Actually, I don’t know. Why?”
“Depends on how much you want to impress her.”
“A lot.” He raised his gaze to meet hers. “Should I get something else?”
Not once in five years did she expect to give Kevin advice on how to impress another woman. My, how things changed. “If you’re really serious about her, go with a Filet Mignon.”
“Really?”
“Yep.”
He grinned, and for a moment she glimpsed the guy he’d been when they’d first met. “Thanks, Robbi. I owe you.”
“No worries.” She gave her hand a wave. “I’m really happy for you.”
“Thanks. I’m happy for you too. Who knew you’d bag yourself a royal?”
She blinked at him, her own smile dropping away. “Excuse me, what?”
“Uh, yeah. Your winged off-worlder.”
“What about him?”
Vertical worry lines appeared between Kevin’s brows. “Don’t you know?”
A spark of irritation flared. “Know what, Kevin?”
His eyes went wide. “You don’t know. Oh, shit, Robbi….”
“Tell. Me.” She forced the words out between her clenched teeth.
“He’s…well, he’s one of the four kings of Bezchi, or something like that.”
A king? He couldn’t be. He would’ve told her, wouldn’t he? Kevin must be making it up. “How do you know this?”
“Raven. She works for Blast off!. She told me.”
“Your new girlfriend works for that gossip rag?” The tell-all media outlet for the who’s who of off-worlders? Oh, didn’t that just figure? “Are you sure she’s got a thing for you, or is she looking for a story?”
Kevin gaped, as if that had never occurred to him. A wave of guilt crashed over her. Who was she to destroy another’s happiness? Unless he was up to his usual games. No, this was too deep for him.
“I’m sorry, Kevin. I didn’t mean it, I’m just a little…shocked. I’m sure Raven’s a great person who really cares for you.”
“No.” Kevin shook his head. “No, you may be right. I thought I was lucky that some babe who’s decades younger even noticed me.”
Decades? “Kevin….”
“Leave it, Robyn.”
She snapped her mouth shut hard enough for her teeth to clack together. He was right, though. There was nothing she could say that’d help.
Kevin made a scoffing noise. “Aren’t we just a pair? Both discovering…dammit. I gotta go, maybe drown my sorrows in a bottle of Jack. See ya.”
He turned and trudged back up the aisle toward the front of the store and rounded the corner, shoulders slumped like he’d just lost his dog…except he’d never had a dog in his life. Poor guy was hurting bad though, he’d left his shopping basket and food.
Well, she’d walk out too if she wasn’t out of milk and sandwich meat at home.
May as well finish my shopping.
She cast a glance at Kevin’s abandoned basket.
In good conscience, she couldn’t walk away and let the food spoil.
It would be no big deal to put his items back as she finished her personal shopping.
She transferred the steaks, then reached for the baked beans.
Beans, and cabbage? Really, who gave their new girlfriend beans and cabbage for dinner? Talk about a major dating faux pas.
Wait a minute. She stopped. No one did something like that, unless they were an idiot…which Kevin was, but still.
If he’s the idiot, why am I picking up after him again?
That manipulative little twit. Was there even a Raven at Blast off!? And if he’d lied about that, then was Kyzel really a king? She reached into her purse and fished around until her fingers bumped against her phone. Ah ha. She lifted it out. Time to fact-check at least one of Kevin’s stories.
She finger-typed Kyzel and Bezchi and tapped the search icon. A series of articles and pictures popped up, many of them of Kyzel and a tall, willowy, winged woman.
“Careene.” She whispered the name.
Kevin hadn’t lied. Kyzel was a monarch, and Careene was stunning with her million-dollar smile and crystal blue eyes. Not a headfeather out of place.
I can’t even compete with that.
Her gaze was snagged by a headline, “Monarch Careene passes to the Great Aerie.” The accompanying photo was of Kyzel, alone, head bowed, black fabric draped over his magnificent wings. Her heart ached for him.
“Oh, Kyzel.”
But he lied to me by omission.
A little hot coal of anger started burning in her chest. Why the heck had he kept that vital bit of information from her?
His royal status wasn’t a problem, but not telling her about it definitely was.
If he had just been up front with her, she would’ve been more than willing to figure out how to make things work out between them.
Men were all manipulators, no matter what planet they came from. And she was the idiot who fell for it every single time.
I’m so done with this.
Done with being manipulated by Kevin. Done with being manipulated by King Kyzel and his little friend. Just done. She transferred the steaks back to Kevin’s abandoned cart for someone else to deal with. Someone not named Robyn Martin.
By the time she’d finished her shopping, checked out, and pushed her glitch-wheeled cart to her car, the first doubt had creeped in.
What if Kyzel had a reason for not telling her?
Why assume the worst without giving him a chance to explain?
Her ex didn’t have a stellar record in the empathy department, but it wasn’t fair to lump Kyzel in with him.
She pushed the key into the trunk lock of her sedan then gave it a twist until it popped open. How had Kevin found out anyway? Maybe Raven was real—
An arm snaked around her shoulders, and she was pulled back against a solid male chest. She sucked in a sharp breath of surprise just as a noxious cloth was slapped over her mouth and nose.
“This is for your own good, Robbi.”
Kevin. Why?
She let her body go limp to throw him off kilter with her deadweight, but blackness was closing in, and it dragged her into a void of nothingness.