Vicious Prince (Royal Elite #5) by Rina Kent

His other hand is holding his phone up, and he glares at it as if contemplating cracking it to pieces.

All the doubts I had — and still do — evaporate at that sight. He’s waiting for a reply while staying alone.

Ronan isn’t the type of person who likes loneliness. While Aiden and Cole are completely comfortable with it and Xander can gravitate towards it sometimes, Ronan is always with people, one way or another.

At first, I thought it was because he loved partying so much, but it’s probably something more.

To find him willingly alone is a first. He always makes up dramatic fights with Aiden and Xander when they pick their girlfriends over him. The fact that he kicked them out to stare at his screen is new.

He types something and my phone vibrates. I check it with a lump in my throat.

Ronan: You know, I hate being alone. It’s when the demons come back and want to rage and burn the whole fucking place down.

I swallow, staring between his text and his face.

Demons.

For some reason, I suspected he had them, but I never thought they were real, I thought maybe I was projecting myself on him. Turns out, his demons are real; he just hides them so well you’d never even presume they’re there.

I doubt the others know about their existence.

Sucking in a breath, I type back.

Teal: I stay alone because that’s how I can control my demons. People bring them out.

As soon as I hit Send, I stare back at him. A smile tilts his lips and scrunches his beautiful face — his stupid beautiful face that I can’t stop dreaming of.

He straightens in his seat then types.

Ronan: We’re opposites that way. But hey, luckily there’s some shit people say about opposites attracting.

Ronan: That’s you and me by the way, not you and some other fucker.

Instead of continuing the dance over the phone, I quietly drop my backpack and phone on the floor and walk up to him.

He’s still staring at his phone when I stand in front of him, blocking his view. His eyes slide from the phone to me and stay on me.

The more he looks at my face, the harder it becomes to breathe. It’s like he’s confiscating my air, my sanity, and all my better judgment.

He’s confiscating things and feelings he has no right to.

“Whoa, this shit is good if it makes me see what I want.” He twirls the joint. “I need to add to my stash from that Liverpudlian, stat.”

“I’m really here,” I murmur.

“You’re not answering the text.” He waves the phone. “Can I make you do that while you’re standing here?”

I grab his phone and yank it from his fingers.

“Not on my phone, on yours…or your original image’s, or whatever.”

“I’m actually here Ronan. It’s not an image.”

He stares blankly for a second then without warning, he grabs my wrist and pulls me down. An excited yelp leaves my lips as I end up on his warm, hard lap.

He palms my cheek with the other hand and then pinches.

“Ow.” I wince. “What was that for?”

“You’re real.”

“That’s what I was saying.”

“You’re here.”

“Obviously.”

“Why are you here?” He narrows his eyes. “Did you have some sort of rendezvous with Captain?”

“You sent me a text saying you were here alone, remember?”

“So you’re here for me?” He says it with such wonder, as if he doesn’t believe it.

“Don’t expect me to say it.”

“You’re so fucking infuriating — do you know that?”

“You kind of told me that in long clingy texts.” I was supposed to scold him or something, but I sound happy even to my own ears.

I don’t even remember the last time I was happy, or if happiness means just sitting on someone’s lap and having them palm your cheek.

No, not someone. Him. Ronan.

His lips tilt in a smirk. “You still came.”

I scoff.

“Now, belle, it’s time for your confessions.”

“My confessions?”

“Don’t think I forgot about it. What did you do wrong?”

As he speaks, he strokes the skin of my wrist and runs his other thumb near my lip, but not close enough to touch it.

“I don’t know,” I murmur.

“Of course you do. You just don’t want to say it. You have to, belle.”

“What if I don’t want to?”

“Then we’ll just keep circling in an endless vicious cycle. I’m as fucked up as you are.”

“Fine. It’s about Agnus and how I refused to let go when you told me to.”

“Why didn’t you?”

I bite my lower lip and try to stare away, but he brings me back with a firm grip on my chin that has my thighs tightening.

“Why, Teal?” He has a way of speaking with a command in his tone that turns me to putty in his hands.

This is so wrong.

And yet so right.

“I wanted to see your reaction, okay?”

“You wanted to see my reaction. I like that.”

“Well, I didn’t. Your reaction sucked.”

A wolfish grin curves his lips as he brings me nearer until his breath tickles my skin, hot and close, so damn close my toes curl — which they never do.