by Rachel Jonas
I lifted my gaze to Driskel. “Is she aware of what you discovered?”
He shook his head. “It’s not customary that I reveal my findings, and I didn’t deviate from that practice here today.”
So, she had no idea I knew.
I swallowed and, with a firm nod, I gave my final statement on the matter. “We’ll manage.”
With those two words, I practically sealed the transaction in blood by admitting that, despite Corina’s flaws, I still … wanted her.
Standing from my seat, I shoved both hands in my pockets, watching as the doctor updated his file with a notation about my refusal to accept his offer for disposal. And just like that, everything was set in stone.
The others stood at the door with me as we watched him leave. Elle waved as the white van left the driveway, headed for the path toward the front gate.
“Scotch, gentlemen?” Levi spoke for us all, exhaling a frustrated breath.
“Took the words right out of my mouth,” Roman grumbled.
As Elle locked up, the rest of us headed toward the study where I kept the good stuff. The meeting with my father was scheduled to begin soon, and if ever there was a time for a strong drink, it was certainly now.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Julian
I stood there, waiting outside her door. Me coming to personally escort Corina to the car was Elle’s idea. Apparently, at some point, she’d come to understand women better than I did.
The idea was that this act of chivalry might make Corina feel welcome here. After all, we were officially stuck together for the foreseeable future. While I didn’t totally believe she’d appreciate the gesture, I figured it was worth a try.
Today—despite the early hour—had already been tough for her.
My fist rattled the door for a second time, and it seemed I was right to assume this wouldn’t work, but then, just as I turned to walk away, the hinges creaked quietly. So quietly, had it not been for my keen hearing, I might have missed it. I glanced over my shoulder and felt that faint pounding in my chest, the somber beat of a heart that typically thumped so infrequently I barely noticed it.
It was triggered by the mere sight of her.
She looked different today; no longer hidden beneath a coating of pale makeup, or sporting the red irises that had me fooled a short time ago. Now, her cheeks bore a pink twinge and a hint of golden-brown Ianites were incapable of achieving. Dark waves rested on her shoulders, and I caught the scent of her, even with several feet between us.
She was beautiful, even through the veil of sadness that marred her innocent face. Based on what I knew of her, I was aware that this innocence was a mirage, but this knowledge still hadn’t lessened the guilt. It was brought on at the thought of me being the cause of the puffiness beneath her eyes, and the wad of tissue she clutched in her hand. It mattered little that today’s decisions had been made to keep her safe. I imagined that, in her eyes, she only saw me as the tyrant who’d forced her into a lifestyle she never wanted.
Little did she know, I was no fonder of this idea of forced companionship—however deep or shallow it ran—than she was.
My gaze scanned Corina quickly, noting how well she wore the ensemble Elle had chosen. It had been brought to my attention that she was severely malnourished, but somehow, living in what I guessed to be a state of perpetual hunger hadn’t left her void of feminine curves. Tracing them with my stare, they offset her otherwise slender figure. It was no wonder I hadn’t noticed her human tells the night before.
There were so many other marvelous things to notice about her.
“Good morning,” I greeted, clearing my throat right after as I reminded myself of why I’d come.
No words left her mouth. She simply let her gaze slip to the floor.
“We need to run an errand,” I informed her. “If you’re ready—
“We?” she interrupted. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
Remaining still, I stared into the gaze of the most defiant human I’d ever met in my entire life. Usually, they cowered when standing face-to-face with any Ianite. That intimidation only intensified when that Ianite was royalty.
But not her.
Not this devastatingly beautiful troublemaker.
I sighed deeply, before making things clearer. “I wasn’t asking. Me being polite was merely a formality. You’re coming whether you like it or not.”
She didn’t move an inch. Instead, she kept her stare trained on me, as we silently acknowledged we’d reached a stalemate. Only, I was determined to win this argument at all costs.
“You can either follow me out like a lady and maintain your dignity, or I can have you dragged out like an animal,” I warned through gritted teeth. “The choice is yours.”
With that, I turned to leave, taking several steps away from her.
“I’m locked up like an animal, so you may as well be consistent.” The defiance in her tone grated on my nerves.
My steps halted and it took everything in me not to rush toward her, showing her all the reasons she’d be wise to mind her manners, wise to fear me, but I restrained myself. Instead, choosing to behave like a gentleman.
This time.
“You’ve been treated like an animal here?” I asked, doing nothing to hide the disbelief as I turned around and stepped closer, inhaling the very human, very feminine scent of her. It created a momentary distraction and forced me to soften a bit despite being filled to the brim with rage.
“Hmm … I don’t know,” she answered mockingly, feigning confusion just to dramatize what came out next. “You tell me a more fitting term for being locked and confined in a room without my personal belongings, and we’ll go with that.”
Maddening.
This girl was absolutely maddening.
Her suite had been outfitted with fine linens and artwork, her wound tended to, and her bathroom stocked with imported soaps and oils fit for a queen. And yet, it wasn’t enough.
“I’ve treated you with nothing but kindness since you arrived here,” I reminded her.
“Kindness.” A humorless laugh bubbled from her diaphragm. “I didn’t realize monsters were capable of such a thing.”
“Last I checked, saving someone’s life still counted as kindness, regardless of who did the saving,” I retorted, never once breaking my gaze.
“And what about my things?” she reiterated. “It’s impolite for a lady’s purse to be stolen and rifled through.”
My hands ached when the urge to punch a wall swelled within me.
“First,” I stated, “your purse wasn’t stolen, it was retrieved from the sentinels. Second, whatever you have inside that’s so precious has remained untouched. No one has so much as breathed on it, let alone opened the thing and rifled through it,” I scoffed, burning on the inside to blurt the rest. “And lastly, it would be remiss of me not to state that being a woman doesn’t make you a lady.”
The comment didn’t rattle or offend her. Not even a little and, God help me, I liked that she hadn’t faltered. I liked that she could hold her own and was obviously readying herself to deliver another insult. It’d been years since anyone other than my brothers had spoken their minds around me. And although the conversation with Corina was a heated one, her honesty was refreshing.
Seeing her get bothered and flustered was just … downright sexy.
For instance, she seemed to rather enjoy sharing that she thought of me as a monster—a point I would never argue against.
“Well, Your Highness,” she said hatefully, “since I’m stuck here, a little trust between us might go a long way, and holding my belongings captive isn’t exactly helping matters.”
The smile I held in broke free now and the sight of it seemed to surprise her. I guessed by the way her brow quirked and how that scowl of hers faded ever so slightly.
“Trust? This from the girl who won’t even tell me her real name.”
Only the whites of her eyes showed when she rolled them to the
back of her head. “I’ve already told you my name,” she sighed. “It’s not my job to make you believe me.”
Both arms locked tight across her chest when she folded them.
I decided to play her little game. “Corina what? I’ll need a last name.”
Her expression straightened. The question was somewhat of a trap. Humans didn’t typically have surnames worth protecting, seeing as how they were made up and issued by orphanages purely for identification purposes. So, I fully expected her to rattle off one of the fifteen or twenty that commonly circulated, but instead …
“I won’t give you that,” were the words that escaped her lips, hinting toward a bigger picture I wasn’t allowed to see.
I hated that I found her vagueness so intriguing. The more the hours stretched, the more of a puzzle she became. My thoughts went back to the news Dr. Driskel had just delivered regarding her condition and, for reasons I couldn’t pin down, it made me marvel at her strength even more.
What kind of girl behaved so brazenly despite being stricken with such an illness?
A wave of silence broke up what had once begun to resemble a shouting match, one I was sure my brothers heard loud and clear. However, now, the conversation had cooled to a reasonable pitch. Corina seemed to notice the shift in tone when I did, forcing her gaze away from mine. She touched her fingers to her cardigan where, just beneath the material, lie a fresh tattoo on her shoulder.
This … magnetism between us, it reared its ugly head at the strangest times. Like now, when we should have only been focused on our frustration toward one another.
I stared into her brown eyes, hating that I sensed the raw emotion within them, reminding myself of the outcome the last time I was swept up in her allure. The thought of it sobered me instantly.
I hadn’t forgotten the humiliation when I realized that I’d mistaken her heat for mutual attraction, a sign that I’d gotten to her just like she’d gotten to me.
Or how she caused my heart—which typically only beat once or twice a minute—to hammer inside my chest the moment I laid eyes on her, warming my body until my temperature nearly matched hers. I’d never felt something so raw, so intense, in my entire life.
What I hadn’t realized at the time was that it had all been an illusion. Whether it was my ego or naivety, I made pulling off this scheme so easy for her, giving her every opportunity to make a mockery of the Dynasty.
Of me.
My lids slammed shut as I forced myself to accept that there was no distinction. The woman I danced with on the terrace and the one who’d brought down this scourge upon my family were one in the same. The brief moment of attraction I felt for her was not only one-sided, it was likely part of some elaborate plan.
One I intended to get to the bottom of soon.
“You’ve got two minutes,” I stated firmly, making sure my statement was received as a command and not a request.
This time, when I walked away and began my descent down the stairs, I didn’t stop. Corina had to learn her place here sooner or later, and being soft on her wouldn’t get it done. Even if I did secretly enjoy her feistiness. There was a delicate balance of order and respect that had to be maintained, so I’d do my part to enforce the rules.
Corina made it clear she intended to give me hell.
I hoped she understood I was more than willing to give it right back.
***
The entire building was abuzz. Members of my father’s staff rushed in and out of rooms. Some hauling files, others cradling electronic devices, most barking orders at one another as they all worked in sync, focused on one task.
Damage control.
From the moment I found myself locked inside my father’s sixth-floor office, I knew all hell was about to break loose. To lessen the blow, I phoned his assistant, William, early to give him a heads up about my plan to officially claim Corina.
He agreed to be the bearer of bad news, but didn’t hesitate to warn me of my father’s foul mood. I’d made a mess of things and everyone on staff knew it.
My father entered the room, towing William and Jenna in his shadow. His spiteful gaze passed over me and he stared a moment, his expression only mirroring his fury. With one swipe of his hand, a stack of papers soared from his desk. Jenna stiffened at her post beside the door while William—completely used to these sorts of outbursts—didn’t move a muscle.
I was nowhere near calm enough to stand in one place, so instead wore a path from one end of the room to the other. My father was a hard man, but he was fair. As his only son, I prided myself in being a good son. Still, without a doubt, I knew he’d never been more disappointed in me than he was at this very moment.
“A Doll?” The question was asked from between gritted teeth. “You’re one year away from holding the most powerful seat in the entire Dynasty, and this is the stunt you pull?”
I scrambled for a defense and blurted the best I could find. “What I’ve done isn’t illegal.”
Hearing me rationalize my stupidity only angered him more.
“Do you think that’s what concerns me?” he asked. “Trust me, son, you’ve put far greater things at risk than your freedom,” he added before running down the list. “The ready-made trust our people were willing to just hand you on a silver platter? Gone. The endorsements reps would have been beating down your door to offer? Kiss them all goodbye. No one wants a sympathizer posing as the face of their brand. And, in one night, you’ve taken the likelihood of you finding a suitable wife down to a handful of women willing to share her husband with some filthy, human girl.”
His hands tightened into fists when the frustration got to be too much.
“So, yes, you’re right,” he went on. “What you’ve done is perfectly legal, but somehow you missed the notion that what’s lawful is not always wise. And furthermore, as a future king, you should have set yourself to a higher standard.”
Disappointment hung heavy in the room and it was an unfamiliar feeling, one I could have gone my entire life without experiencing.
“I just … I don’t understand what you were thinking” he concluded, searching for an explanation.
These circumstances—even though I’d covered myself legally—were bad.
For me, and for my family.
My father’s entire reign, he managed to get by without scandal, without tarnishing our name. In one night, before even taking my rightful place as his successor, I’d already done both.
All for a girl who lied to my face, and had more secrets than alibis.
“You realize they’re having a field day with this, don’t you?” my father’s voice boomed. As he paced, as he yelled, he scanned the screens mounted on the far wall—all nine tuned in to different news stations, all nine focused on one topic.
Me.
“There’s still time to get out in front of this, Your Highness,” Jenna chimed in, passing a glance my way as she addressed my father. She scrolled the tablet in her hand before continuing. “Right now, the media is only making guesses, mostly because there are so many conflicting accounts of what happened. With the sentinels’ sworn oath to protect the dynasty above all else, there aren’t any official statements for reporters to sink their teeth into, only speculation.”
My guess was, it hadn’t taken the public long to become fascinated with us, Corina and I. Even before seeing us leave together, before realizing she was human. With so many lenses pointed our way while we conversed in the ballroom, while I all but melted at her feet, the cameras hadn’t missed a thing.
Before logging out of my accounts indefinitely, the images I’d seen plastered on every social media site in existence were damning. The way they captured me interacting with her, gawking like the lovesick fool she made me out to be. While some were still in disbelief that their prince would ever consort with the likes of a human woman, those in attendance the night before knew better.
And their opinions were spreading like a plague as the holes in this story continued to grow.
When the story broke hours ago, my role in the catastrophe was called into question.
‘Is the prince a part of some bigger picture we’re not seeing?’
‘Who is this mystery woman?’
‘Spectators who noticed the two interacting at the gala stated that she’s unmarked, unbranded … so where did she come from?’
‘Is it possible our next emperor is keeping a dark secret?’
Whether they suspected me of being a criminal, or just the imbecile who’d fallen victim to the wiles of a stray, it was an embarrassment. One bold reporter dared to speculate this incident might be an indicator of a disastrous reign in the forecast, and as I peered up at my father, I couldn’t help but to wonder if he hadn’t thought the same.
“How do you suggest we fix this?” he finally asked, addressing Jenna.
Before answering, Jenna swallowed hard. It wasn’t lost on me that the hint of attraction I always sensed behind her gaze had now all but disappeared. Apparently, what my father said was true—what took place last night had turned off every Ianite woman in the universe.
“Well, I believe a formal press conference would be an excellent place to start. So far, the public has only gotten the media’s twisted versions of what took place. It would show great courage for Julian to address the people himself. They’ll feel better getting the story straight from him … even if the situation isn’t ideal,” she added, making it clear she shared that opinion.
My father’s stare was locked on me when he spoke to Jenna. “Set it up. In twenty-four hours the world will hear the story straight from the prince’s mouth.”
I swallowed hard and looked my father in the eyes. Not doing so would have made me seem like a coward, and while I was many things, that simply wasn’t one of them.
“I’ll do it.”
“Of course you will,” he scoffed, making it clear the decision had been made for me. “And what you’ve shared here today … this is the whole truth? Everything?”
