Cruel King (Royal Elite #0) by Rina Kent

18





Astrid





The push isn’t painful, the fall is.



* * *



I sit in Levi’s car — the same car I vandalised. That should mean the sky will fall on the ground any second now.

I’m still stunned from the kiss in the car park. I unknowingly find myself licking my lips as if I’m chasing the taste.

The surreal feeling.

The complete abandonment.

It’s like an experience out of my own skin, and I still can’t wrap my head around it.

As if that isn’t enough, Levi kidnapped me to his car saying that he’ll drive me home. He wasn’t hearing my half-attempts at reminding him that Dan is my ride. Then, the rain started pouring and he pushed me inside the Jaguar.

Of course, someone like Levi drives a fast car. Everything about him is. Nothing goes slow when he’s around including my heartbeat, my thoughts, and my memories.

And I’m licking my lips again. Dammit.

I need a night’s sleep to think through whatever mess I’m in the middle of.

It doesn’t matter whether I back off or not. Levi is the type who slams in head first just like he did with Jerry.

The power from earlier still stifles the air like a potent aftertaste.

Even now while driving, he has this constant, volatile energy that’s barely tucked under the surface. He’s like gasoline, waiting for a spark to erupt so he can leave ashes in his wake.

I’m not sure whether I’m the spark or the ashes. Or both.

“How did you learn to whistle that way?” he asks as we stop at a red light.

He has his shirt’s sleeves rolled to his elbows and I can’t help gawking at his strong arms with veins and tendons rippling over his skin.

I shake my head from the distraction. “Mum used to stop taxis that way and I picked up the habit.”

“Did she teach you any other cool tricks like that?” He flashes me a charming grin.

For the love of Vikings, can he stop doing that?

No wonder he has all the girls dropping their knickers — or to their knees — for him.

I like to think I’m above being charmed, but thinking back to how I melted in his arms, my case doesn’t look so good.

I stare through the window. “Mum taught me everything I know. My first sketch. My first bike ride. But most of all, she taught me not to kill my fire and to be myself.”

“She never thought you’d end up in this plastic world, did she?”

My head cocks his way. “How do you know I ended up in this world?”

He winks. “I can find out anything I want, princess.”

Ugh. The arrogant prick.

“You don’t like the life you were thrown in, huh?”

“What’s there to like?” My gaze gets lost in the lights and buildings being soaked by the rain. “Everyone here are copies of copies. It’s like they strive to be each other instead of their own selves. If anyone tries to rise above the norm, their heads will be chopped off.”

Silence greets me, and I slightly tilt my head in Levi’s direction. I gulp at the intense look in his eyes as he watches me. It’s like a reappearance of the black Levi who beat Jerry to a pulp.

Only now, violence doesn’t seem to be his driving force.

It’s something much more unsettling and invasive that I feel it straight to my bones.

Goosebumps erupt along my skin, and I’m sucking the air out of my lungs instead of breathing.

There’s wickedness in the way Levi watches me. A promise. A damnation. And if I’m not lying to myself, there’s also a connection. Since that day I stopped and saw him in that party, there’s been an invisible line enchanting me towards him.

I tried to push, I tried to pull, but the damn thing won’t break. He’s trapping me with his cruelty whether I like it or not.

“Uh, did your mum teach you any cool tricks?” Way to go, Astrid. You sound like an idiot.

I just had to fill the silence with something or I would’ve been sucked into his orbit.

My question seems to have done the trick since he focuses back on the road. “My mother threw me at the step of my father’s house in the middle of the night when I was two days old then she ran away like a thief and never looked back.”

“Oh, umm…” I’m flabbergasted, not only by the load of information in one sentence, but also by the apathetic tone he said the words.

Just when I’m debating how to respond to such a bomb, he continues, “the only thing I learnt from that woman is that you can become rich if you’re knocked up by the right man.” He winks. “Not that I can use her tactics.”

His complete disregard of something so important is crazy. No. It’s terrifying. It only proves how much a deviant Levi King actually is.

But again, if his mother who should be bound by nature to love him abandoned him, why should he have any compassion for the rest of the world?

“What about your father?” My voice is small as if a higher range would make him run away.

“What about him?”

Did he abandon you, too? Are you completely incurable?

Before I can voice the questions, the car swivels to the right and I brace myself, almost hitting the roof of the car.

It’s then I notice we’re headed in a completely opposite direction from home. The road’s lights disappear and the way becomes narrower and darker like in a real-life horror film.