by Tee, Marian
As the prince watched her wipe her eyes, he heard himself say, “I’m sorry.”
She froze.
“I’m sorry I made you leave that way.”
Without meeting his gaze, she whispered, “Then why did you say it?”
The prince laughed humorlessly. “Do you really not know?” Tipping her chin up, he looked straight into her eyes and said in a hard voice, “Because I was jealous.” Her eyes widened, and he could see that she truly had no idea.
The prince released her and exhaled his breath in frustration.
Well, damn.
She was even denser than he thought.
“Sorry,” he heard her mumble in a small voice. “I didn’t realize it.”
“It’s fine.” And not wanting to give her a chance to delve deeper into his fit of jealousy – which he was doing his best to forget – the prince swiftly changed the subject, asking bluntly, “Do you wish for more time to lick your wounds?”
Despite the numbing pain inside of her, Fawn couldn’t help rolling her eyes at his less than sensitive question. “Are you ever this outrageously offensive with other people?”
He smiled lazily at her. “Only with you.”
“Oh.” Should she be flattered or offended? She thought about it and decided on the former. It wasn’t the nicest method for giving comfort, but she couldn’t argue with the results, the way he was able to keep her mind from—-
Ah.
Images she had unconsciously tried to bury resurfaced.
She choked out bitterly, “I can’t stop seeing them fuc—-”
A finger on her lips cut her off, and Fawn froze. A second later the prince was peering down at her, and all of a sudden his classically handsome face filled her entire vision.
“Don’t do that,” the prince murmured. “While I admit to having fantasized about hearing you say dirty words, I don’t want to hear it if they’re for another man’s sake. You understand this, don’t you, parthena mou?”
She nodded, and a familiar, drugging sense of heat enveloped her body as the movement caused her lips to rub against his finger.
Oh.
The prince straightened, and as soon as her lips were freed, Fawn immediately wetted them, feeling like they were suddenly too dry. She swallowed, noticing the way the air around them was charged with sexual tension, something she had never felt with Grant.
When she looked at the prince again, it was to realize he was staring at her mouth, and she mumbled, “No.” A kiss was just going to confuse things, even if she was sure it was the one thing that could take her mind off—-
Stop it, Fawn.
His eyes were laughing at her. “What do you mean no, parthena mou?”
“You know exactly what I’m saying, and—-” She looked at him suspiciously. “What does that mean anyway?”
The prince was visibly surprised. “You truly don’t know?”
She shook her head. “I didn’t think it was right to look it up,” she said awkwardly. “If I did, it would mean b-betraying Grant.”
His jaw clenched as he forced himself to smile. “I see.”
Grant Bennett, you lucky son of a bitch.
Thankfully, the man was enough of an idiot to not realize what he had.
“If you want to know, look it up.” She started to take her phone out, and he shook his head, murmuring, “Not now.” He took hold of her hand then, and ignoring the way her body jerked, he entwined her fingers with his.
“P-prince.”
Gazing at their entwined hands, he asked steadily, “Do you still love him?”
The fingers in his hold tensed, and with it he already had his answer.
Grant Bennett, you fucking idiot.
“I wish I could say I stopped loving him the moment I saw him—-”
“Fucking another woman,” the prince spelled out in a hard voice. He saw her flinch, and he bit back a curse. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
But they both knew it was not.
He had been an insensitive ass, and they both knew that, too.
Dragging air into his lungs, he said slowly, “Up until I was eight years old, I was raised in an environment where weakness of any kind was beaten out of you.”
Fawn was stunned. “I didn’t know. I’m s-sorry.” But now it was beginning to be clear to her that the rumors about the prince – which she had believed were just rumors – had more than a grain in truth in them.
“I’m the one who should be sorry, and I’m only telling you that because I didn’t want you to think I was a complete ass.”
“U-understood.” Fawn gave him a studious nod. “And you were successful.” Managing a smile, she said, “Now, I just think you’re half an ass.”
His lips twitched. “I can take that, I suppose.” He drew her to him then, and she didn’t even think of resisting. Her head fell against his chest. Her eyes closed.
She needed this—-
This reassuring sense of security telling her that she wasn’t alone, this feel of invincible strength, telling her that he could protect her from the pain—-
She needed...him.
Fawn felt the prince’s lips touch the top of her head. “I am sorry you had to experience such pain, parthena mou.”
The prince felt more than saw her smile against his heart as she whispered jokingly, “Me, too.”
Good girl, he thought.
Strong, brave, beautiful girl, and he was damn proud of her.
He heard her sigh, and he asked, “What are you thinking of?”
“Him.” Her fingers curled into a fist between their bodies. “I know it’s bad, but I just wish I could hurt him back.”
She expected him to tell her to stop being bitter, but then again she should have known she couldn’t expect something so benign from the Prince of Darkness.
Instead, the prince said easily, “You could.” Before she could answer him, the prince tipped her chin up. “You can hit him where it hurts the most.”
When he spoke again, it was the Prince of Darkness’s voice he used, and the husky, melodic cadence of his tone wrapped its seductive notes around her bruised heart as he murmured,
When the prince’s head lowered, Fawn’s common sense urged her to push him away. But it was too late. The mesmerizing promise in his emerald green gaze had enslaved her, and all she could do was wait-—
“Simply say the word—-”
His tongue began to trace the curve of her lips, and it was like tasting fire.
Oh God.
“And I will be your lover behind his back.”
The End of Part I
Reid and Fawn's story continues with A Dangerous and Cruel Love, the second half of the Dark Mafia Romance duet.
