Vicious Prince (Royal Elite #5) by Rina Kent

“Huh. Is it because—”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?” I approach her until once again she’s against a surface and I’m towering over her.

I’m starting to like this position, maybe even love it.

She seems to realise this fact as well since her nails dig into her arms.

Teal doesn’t back away though. She has this adorable habit of glaring even when she’s cornered.

There’s so much fight in her, and I want to explore it inch by agonising inch then maybe break it.

Definitely break it, so I can see what’s behind it.

“All I know is,” she says in a neutral voice, “if you do that again, I’ll also be having people go down on me in front of you. I’m your fiancée, and that makes me your equal, not your toy. If you disrespect me in front of other people, I’ll do the same.”

I smile, but there’s no humour behind it. “What makes you think I care?”

“Then continue. By all means, let’s see who’s the biggest exhibitionist between the two of us. For the record, I never lose.”

Fuck. This girl.

“You’re not going to La Débauche tonight.” Or ever, for that matter, but that’s for another day.

“Why not?” she taunts. “I can have someone strip me as I get on my knees for him. I feel like recreating the scene from just now.”

I grab her by her nape and she stills, her breath hitching. Fuck me, just one touch and she’s already this responsive.

What would it be like if I pinned her down and ate her out like she’s my last meal? Or better yet, if I fucked her without holding back, like I’ve always wanted?

“L-Let me go.”

“You might want to make that a bit more convincing,” I whisper.

“Ronan…”

“Oui, ma belle?”

“If you don’t let me go—”

“What? You’ll leave another love bite like the one on my lip?” I tap the slight cut that’s slowly healing.

Her gaze follows my finger and she swallows, her breaths crackling in the silence of the closet.

“Does it turn you on to know you hurt me?”

“What? No.” Her voice is the lowest I’ve ever heard.

My little crazy beauty.

“Then is it the prospect of being hurt in return?” My finger traces up and down the skin of her nape, and that’s when I feel the shiver that overtakes her.

When she says nothing, I lean in to whisper, “You don’t have to hide your crazy from me, ma belle. Show it, and I promise to feast on it.”

She shoves me away, her cheeks turning red. I chuckle as she opens the door and bolts outside.

“You have a week to break off the engagement,” I call after her in my charming tone.

She doesn’t turn back and runs to the nearest exit.

This is the second time she’s run away from me, but there won’t be a third.





10





Teal





“Hey, Agnus.” I smile for the first time today.

Knox likes to tease me by saying I smile only once a day, and I’m hoping he doesn’t catch on like Elsa has and realise who I smile at.

I snap the seatbelt in place as the car swerves in the streets.

Agnus has raised Knox and me as if we were his children. When we were eight, Knox and I were kidnapped by his brother, Reginald, though I wouldn’t actually call it kidnapping. Knox and I were running away from the brothel in which Mum worked. We were starved and cold, so cold; I can still feel the chill on winter nights even when I’m under covers.

Reginald was this posh driver who offered us food if we met his mistress. Knox didn’t like it and said we shouldn’t go, but I took Reginald’s hand and we went into his car.

We had our food. We ate so much until I thought we were going to burst, but being hungry dirty kids, we continued to eat because we never knew when we’d eat next.

Then, Reginald’s mistress showed up — Dad’s dead wife, Abigail — and she was a spitting image of how Elsa looks now.

She was kind and showered us then gave us new clothes. I didn’t speak, not even once, but Knox kept thanking her and being his charming self.

What we didn’t know was that she was mentally ill and only fed children who looked like her dead son. The moment she found out I was a girl who had my hair cut short, she kind of flipped.

Knox and I were trapped in an underground basement for days or weeks, I still don’t remember. We barely ate, and she once cut our knees so we’d have the same injury as her son.

Back then, Knox cried, even as he hugged me and told me everything would be okay.

I didn’t.

I was too numb, and it wasn’t because of that incident. I didn’t speak either. All I kept doing was licking my lips to taste the last of the chocolate we’d had.

Then Dad showed up.

People think knights are your love interests, but mine is Dad, Ethan.

He saved us from his wife and was about to take us back to Mum, but Knox begged him not to.

I just shrunk back, my whole body shaking at the thought of having to return to that life in the brothel and go through everything that came with it.

Even though it’s been more than ten years, I still remember the first time Agnus spoke to me. Dad was busy talking to Knox, and then this man crouched in front of me and asked in a soothing tone, “You don’t want to go back?”