Ruthless Empire (Royal Elite #6) by Rina Kent

Doll Master





Do you ever get the feeling that you’re so close? That one step is all it’ll take for you to get it? That you’ve taken several steps, but the last one is the hardest?

I do. All the time.

However, it hasn’t been working out so well lately. Too many eyes. Too many people. Too much security.

I need to get my doll out before it’s too late.

I’ll protect her. I’ll bathe and wash her. I’ll feed her.

And eventually, she’ll realise her fate has always been with me.

She’s wasted her life enough on people who don’t deserve her. I do.

In fact, I always have.

I deserve her more than she deserves life.

I have to act fast because the other one is picking up on what I’m trying to do.

The plan is already in motion. I just need to get all the annoying things, called people, out of the way.

No one gets between me and my doll.

My art.

My masterpiece.





23





Silver





A week passes and Cole leaves me alone.

Partially, at least. He still uses every chance to get on my nerves and make me lose at everything, even if it’s a debate I started.

He never backs down. I swear he lives to see me suffer.

However, he hasn’t tried to have sex with me since that time in the shower. He hasn’t even tried to tie me up like in Ronan’s house.

Well, I have locked my room’s door every night, but I haven’t heard it being turned, which means he hasn’t tried. I mean, he’s the one who said he doesn’t like his bed and would prefer to use mine.

Not that I’m disappointed or anything.

I wasn’t even disappointed when I woke up that morning after I fell asleep in his arms and found myself alone in my bed.

I wasn’t.

The thing is, I never felt my bed was empty until he slept in it, dwarfing me in his hold, just to disappear as if it never happened.

Why hug me to sleep if he planned to leave? Besides, how come I didn’t feel him leave? I was tangled all around him. I should’ve sensed it when he untangled himself from me.

What would I have done if I had? It’s not like I would’ve told him something stupid like ‘stay’.

So anyway, I’ve been at peace. Complete peace. I’ve visited Mum and we’ve had lunches. She still seems out of sorts, but she’s working and campaigning for the party. Mum does better when her head is occupied with work. Besides, she’s seeing a successful French businessman, Lucien, whom she introduced me to. He appears to be fun and has an older man charisma that might actually rival my father’s.

Not in my eyes, obviously, but in hers. If she introduced him to me, he’s not going to be one of those guys she goes out with once and then ghosts.

This means my parents will never get back together. Not that they had any chance when they were both single.

Papa’s campaign has been doing fantastic. I love reading the comments on our social pictures and how most of the people respect him even if they don’t agree with him.

There are often comments about how good-looking Cole is, and asking whether he’ll follow in his father’s or his stepfather’s footsteps. Business or politics. I want to reach out and poke their eyes out. I have comments that compliment me on my social media, but I have no idea why I become enraged when it’s about Cole.

Fine, so I get worked up about everything to do with Cole. Believe me, I want to control it, to somehow get over it, but every time I lie in bed, my fingers find my pussy and I imagine him there lying beside me as I bring myself to orgasm. They never feel as intense as the ones he brings me and I always feel dirty afterwards, and yet, I repeat it every night.

I need help.

But I refuse to admit that out loud, so I focus my efforts on breaking Elsa and Aiden off.

He’s starting to stray away from me and I don’t like it. I need a constant backup plan and Aiden is that plan for me.

And okay, maybe I’ve been keeping an eye on Cole. Since his ‘I know it all’ speech from the other night, I’ve been discreet about how I act. I doubt he knows about the girls I told lies to about his dick or about how cold he is — they seem to dig the latter, so they keep coming back for more, and that’s when I have to threaten them.

Sometimes, I feel guilty about it, and other times, I feel like I’m doing the world a favour and protecting those girls from the craziness that is Cole.

And no, I’m not jealous.

Then there’s Aiden. When I mentioned him seeing Elsa and told him we had a deal, he brushed me off.

“And I can end the deal whenever I wish,” he said. “I’ve had my fun, and I’m free to end it. Besides, you’re a cheater, Queens.”

He laughed as he passed me by. Wanker.

I’m a cheater? What about his damn sexcapades with Elsa?

Not that it matters. I know I’m holding on to a wobbly thread, but I can’t simply let go.

As I head towards the school car park, there’s no one in sight. I quicken my pace to my car because Cole just left, and he told Helen he’d be home late today. He doesn’t have practice and Ronan isn’t throwing a party tonight, so I need to figure out where he’s going.

A small tap-tap sound comes from behind me and I freeze. My shoulder blades snap together and it’s as if someone is grabbing me by the gut.