The Wrong Prince Charming

by Renee, Holly

  The Wrong Prince Charming

  Holly Renee

  The Wrong Prince Charming

  Copyright © 2019 by Holly Renee

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously.

  Visit my website at www.authorhollyrenee.com.

  Cover Design: Regina Wamba

  Cover Photography: Perrywinkle Photography

  Editing: Ellie McLove of My Brother’s Editor and Becca Hensley Mysoor of Edits in Blue

  Proofreading: Judy Zweifel

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  Created with Vellum

  To my incredibly hot husband.

  Never let them doubt that I get all my inspiration from you.

  The ultimate book boyfriend. ;)

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Epilogue

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Also by Holly Renee

  One

  I’d never been to one of the Kappa’s legendary parties. I’d heard about them, of course. Within the first three minutes of my campus tour, someone was already talking about them.

  Theo had told me a little about them too, but I didn’t get all the dirty details until I met my new dormmate, Dillon. She had the lowdown on everything.

  And I mean everything.

  But experiencing it firsthand was completely different from hearing about it.

  When we stepped into the house, it was clear that Kappa parties were the party to be at. It was only ten PM, and there were already people everywhere.

  The frat house was huge and looked like the only time a girl was in this house was for parties or when someone was getting laid, because there wasn’t a feminine touch anywhere to be seen. A TV bigger than any I had ever seen before covered one wall and had some sports talk show on even though you couldn’t hear a word of what they were saying over the booming music.

  Dillon tugged on my hand to pull me through the crowd that was attempting to swallow us up, and I cursed her for talking me into wearing a pair of wedges that were already killing my feet.

  “Let’s get a drink,” she yelled over the music and pointed to the kitchen where another swarm of people waited.

  I scanned the crowd as I followed behind her. Theo Hunt was the object of my search. He moved into the frat house during his freshman year—which is why I knew he’d be at the party. But I didn’t see him anywhere.

  “My feet hurt.” I leaned back against the kitchen counter as Dillon started rummaging through the bottles of liquor.

  “Stop being a pussy. Your legs look great.” She didn’t even look up at me as she pulled a crystal clear bottle from the group of liquor bottles. “Ah ha.”

  She pushed an empty red Solo cup in my hand before unscrewing the lid off the bottle of vodka. “Should we make it a double?” She wagged her eyebrows at me as she began pouring the alcohol into my cup.

  “It’s our first college party. I say we can live a little.” Plus, I had spent my entire summer interning for my dad. I was allowed to get a little wild. The wildest things going on around Duncan Enterprises was leaving the office a couple hours early for a round of golf.

  “Cheers.” She tapped her cup against mine with a grin on her face, and it didn’t drop as she brought the cup to her lips.

  The liquor slid over my tongue, and I winced as my throat began to burn. Dillon didn’t seem fazed. She drank it down like water, her face not showing an ounce of discomfort. But I wasn’t surprised. Dillon didn’t seem like she was scared of much—not that shot of liquor and definitely not all the guys who couldn’t seem to take their eyes off her.

  She appeared to be about as bothered by them as she was the liquor.

  Loud cheering rang through the house from outside, and Dillon slipped her arm through mine without a second thought before pulling me in that direction.

  Two beer pong tables were set up on a large deck, and at least half the party was surrounding them as they watched the games play out.

  “Ohhh.” The crowd laughed and some cheered as one of the players missed his shot, but I couldn’t see a thing. I stood on my tiptoes to try to get a better look. There was a sea of polo shirts—some pastels, some sharing school spirit—but they all looked the same. They looked the same as the guys from my hometown—the douchebags who thought they were hot shit because their parents had money. They treated me like I was one of them, I suppose in their eyes I was, but I was nothing like them. I refused to be. Theo wasn’t like them either. No matter how much he tried to fit in, he always stood out. He was never one of them, but when my eyes finally found his handsome face, I prayed that he hadn’t changed a bit.

  His jaw was just as square as the last time I saw it, his hair the same shade of dirty blond, and I sighed a little when I was certain that his first year of football hadn’t ruined his face in the least little bit.

  I pointed over the crowd to where he stood at the end of one of the beer pong tables and nudged Dillon. “That’s Theo.”

  Dillon pushed on my shoulders as she jumped in the air just a bit to get a better look.

  “That’s Theo?” she said as she laughed. “As in, ‘my best friend Theo is a Kappa. I want to surprise Theo at this party tonight’? That fucking Theo?”

  I didn’t take my eyes off him as I answered her. “That would be the one.”

  It had been exactly three hundred and sixty days since Theo left our hometown for college.

  Three hundred and sixty days of text messages, at least a hundred days of FaceTiming, and three hundred and fifty-four days that I didn’t get to touch him.

  He only came home from school for six days.

  Those six days felt like everything was exactly like it was before. I had my best friend back, the smell of his cologne wasn’t a distant memory, and his hair still flopped over his forehead in a way that made my hand itch to brush it out of his handsome face.

  But those six days came and went in the blink of an eye.

  And then he was gone again.

  But the plan we had been making for the past five years was finally happening. One freshman, one sophomore, and one stupid pact. But the promise that we would go to the same college, that we would stay together no matter what, meant more to us than anything else.

  When the University of Georgia offered Theo a full ride scholarship for football with the help of my dad, I tucked the letter I had received from Columbia University into the bottom of my panty drawer and tried not to think about it.

  Theo expected me to follow him to the University of Georgia.

  My parents expected me to follow in their footsteps at the University of Georgia.

  And I couldn’t swallow the thought of disappointing either.


  Dillon smacked my arm trying to get my attention, and I winced as I looked down at her in shock. “The way you talked about him I thought he was going to be like a big cuddly teddy bear. You didn’t tell me he was sex-on-a-stick Theo. Make-your-ovaries-quiver Theo. Do-whatever-the-hell-you-want-with-me Theo.”

  I actually chuckled because she wasn’t wrong. “He’s hot. Yeah?”

  “How in the hell have you not fucked him?” Dillon leaned on some guy we didn’t know this time to get a second look. “Like seriously? How long have you been friends?”

  “Since we were twelve.” I watched as he threw a ball and sank it in one of the cups. “He wasn’t as hot back then.” Actually, he was, but she didn’t need to know that.

  “And what? As he aged, your vagina shut down from his beauty?”

  I rolled my eyes at her just as the party broke out in a loud cheer. I couldn’t see a damn thing that was going on, but from the sound of things, the game was over, and people were clearly excited about the winner.

  “Alright.” The crowd quieted a bit as a guy tried to talk over them. “We have a new winner on table two. Theo and Cam.” The crowd cheered again. “Do we have any new challengers?”

  Hands shot up like crazy, but there was no way I wasn’t getting in on this game. I clasped Dillon’s hand in mine and jerked her forward as I squeezed through all the polo shirts.

  “We want in,” I called out as we finally pushed our way through the front of the crowd.

  Theo’s gaze slid over to me, and it took him a second to realize that I was standing in front of him. “Holy shit.”

  “Surprise.” I held my hands out to the side like I had just performed the greatest trick and smiled at my best friend.

  His matching smile was the best thing I’d seen since I arrived in this town.

  He moved, and as soon as he was within touching distance of me, my feet left the ground. Theo spun me in his arms, and I took a deep breath for the first time in forever.

  I buried my face in his neck and breathed in the smell of home. Not the home where my parents lived, but this home, with him.

  “What are you doing here?”

  My feet had no chance of touching the ground as he squeezed me against him.

  “I came a couple days early.” My words reverberated against his skin.

  “You should have called me. I would have come to you.”

  He lowered me to the ground, my body pressing against his the entire time, and I blinked up at him. I could barely believe we were finally here.

  “I’m here now.” I tipped my head up, meeting his gaze.

  “You are.” He pulled me tighter against him and fingered a piece of my hair. “And just in time to get your ass whipped in beer pong.”

  “Keep dreaming, frat boy.” I pushed against his chest, and his smile grew to the point that his dimples appeared. Those dimples were my favorite part of him.

  “We’ve got our challengers, Sam,” Theo called over his shoulder to the guy leading the games without taking his eyes off me.

  Theo moved back to his side of the table, and I watched as more cups were placed on the table and beer was poured into each.

  “Do you need me to remind you how to shoot? Line you up?” A slow smirk uncurled across his lips, and my heart quickened.

  “I think I’ve got it.”

  From where I stood, I watched a group of girls stare at him like lovesick puppies as he took his first shot. I couldn’t blame them, but all of their attention on him still made me uneasy. But I should have been used to it by now. He sank the shot, just as I knew he would, and I quickly popped the ball out of the cup with my finger before lifting the cup to my lips.

  Theo’s teammate, Cam, over-shot and the ball soared past us. He was cute in a way that most of the guys here were, but he looked just like them and nothing like Theo. A guy from the crowd tossed the ball back to Dillon, and she lined up before taking the first shot for our team.

  The ball quickly bounced off the top of a cup before hitting Theo in the chest.

  “You’re already on the losing end, Maddy.”

  I stretched my arms out dramatically. “Don’t worry. The champ is here.”

  “She’s big talk,” he said, loudly enough for everyone to hear.

  Laughter broke out around us, and I smiled as I lined myself up directly across from where he stood at the other end of the table. Theo smiled at someone beside him as they said something I couldn’t hear, and I took the opportunity to throw the ball directly at Theo’s perfectly sculpted chest.

  His mouth opened in shock as the ball bounced off his chest and landed dead center of the middle cup as if I had planned it that way.

  “Ohhhh.” All the friends who were laughing at his earlier joke went crazy, and I tried not to laugh but couldn’t help it.

  Theo didn’t say a word. He just grinned as he lifted the cup to his mouth and chugged the beer.

  The game continued on shot after shot until we were both down to only one cup. It was Theo’s turn, and he hadn’t missed a shot the whole game. He never missed a shot.

  “I really feel bad for you, Maddy. You’re going to lose in front of all of these people.” He pushed up the sleeve of his white t-shirt and the curve of his bicep made me lose concentration for a minute.

  “Show him your boobs to distract him.” Dillon’s words caught me off guard, and I snorted in laughter as Theo looked back and forth between us.

  “Do not.” Theo pointed his finger at me, but he knew I hated being told what to do.

  I was always told what to do.

  “Don’t what?” I leaned forward a bit to where he could catch a glimpse of my cleavage at the top of my tank top. There was no way in hell I would pull out my breasts in front of all these people. Theo should have known that too, but I was just tipsy enough to make him think differently—to tease him just a little.

  “Maddison Ray Duncan. I swear to God.”

  “What?” I shimmied the tiniest bit, and Cam laughed beside him before Theo smacked him directly in his stomach.

  “You better take your shot, Hunt.” I slowly slipped the strap of my tank top off my shoulder, and Theo growled before quickly throwing his ball in our direction. It hit the rim of the single cup and slowly rolled along the edge in a circle as it made its way in. I didn’t hesitate as I leaned forward and blew in the cup, causing the ball to bounce back out.

  “No fucking way,” Cam yelled just as I grabbed the ball off the table.

  “Sorry for your luck, boys.” Dillon and I high-fived each other like we had just won the game, but we still had one shot to make.

  Theo was staring at me like he either wanted to kill me or kiss me, and I prayed it was the latter. I had been thinking about the latter for too many years to count.

  “We have to win now,” Dillon whispered where only I could hear.

  “Then make your first shot of the night.” I was talking to her, but I was still looking at him.

  She flipped me off as she took a step back from the table and raised her arm in the air.

  “Don’t try so hard. Just look at the cup and let the ball slip through your fingers.” I had been coaching her through most of the game, but her closest shot landed about a foot in front of the cups.

  She still didn’t listen to a single word I said this time either, and I watched in horror as she closed her eyes and tossed the ball forward without a semblance of aim. I held my breath as the ball soared through the air—one, two, three seconds. The ball hit the far edge of the cup almost knocking it over, almost causing us to lose the game, before it finally fell into the beer.

  “Holy shit.” I heard Theo’s words just before the cheers broke out. I wrapped my arms around Dillon, and the two of us jumped up and down in celebration.

  You would have thought we had just won an Olympic medal instead of a game intended to get you drunk.

  “That game was rigged.” Theo tugged on my hand and pulled me away from Dillon and toward him.
Exactly where I wanted to be.

  “Don’t be a sore loser. It’s not a good look on you.” I flicked the thick piece of hair that hung over his forehead out of his face so I could see both of his brown eyes clearly.

  “You don’t think I look good?” He put his hand over his heart. “First, you kick my ass in front of practically the whole school. Then you call me ugly.”

  “A pretty boy like you.” I let my fingers roam over his clean-shaven cheek just before I patted it mockingly. “No one could ever call you ugly.”

  He grinned and nipped at my fingers just as I jerked them away. “I can’t believe you’re finally here.”

  “Me either.” I shook my head. “It doesn’t feel real.” I had been thinking about getting out of my parents’ house for so long that I never thought it was going to happen. But I was finally here, and even though they still had just as much control over me, I still felt freer somehow.

  “Stay with me tonight.” He nodded toward the house that was still so filled with people I had no idea how anyone could sleep in it.

  “I have Dillon with me.” I wanted to stay with him. I wanted to stay more than I wanted anything else.

  We used to stay the night together all the time growing up. He would sneak in my bedroom window when my parents were fighting or when his father was too drunk not to be cruel. We didn’t stop when I had a boyfriend for a total of five days or when his girlfriends always seemed to have a problem with how much time he spent with me.

  No one ever came between us. Not some girl, not some guy, and definitely not our parents.

  Theo looked at my parents like they were gods, and I knew why. His father only cared about work, alcohol, and him doing well at football. They were the only things he had cared about since Theo’s mother died when he was thirteen.