Playboy Princes (Royals of Arbon Academy, #2)(11)

I was damn near speechless, my jaw hanging open in shock.

"And if I don't?" I spluttered, the horror of what he was suggesting creeping over me like a thick black fog.

"If you don't?" He shook his head again, trailing a light hand down the side of my throat. My mind couldn't help bringing up the image of him and Claudette in the hallway, how he’d choked her and she’d come. "If you don't, then you'll find yourself with a broken neck at the bottom of a set of stairs. Just like Jasmine. Or worse."

I knew what he meant by “worse.” Claudette’s casual comment about non-consensual IVF labs in Siberia still haunted my memories.

Bile rose in my throat, and I could feel the blood draining from my face. "You killed her," I whispered accusingly. "I believed you when you said it was an accident."

A flicker of something passed across his eyes. Pain? Disappointment? Maybe it was just plain old psychosis.

"I didn't kill her," he said gently, his thumb still stroking the soft skin of my throat. "But it was no accident. Don't be stupid, Violet. Don't make them kill you too."

Oh fuck. My ears rang, and I needed to blink several times to fight back the creeping blackness. I was going to pass out if I didn't sit down soon. This was a million miles above my pay grade, and that was why they chose people like me. To them—and the world—we were nothing. We had no power. No rights.

Nothing.

"Take a breath," Alex ordered me, his voice cracking with command. He'd never spoken to me like that before. I hadn't even known he had it in him. "You're panicking."

"No shit!" I shrieked. "You just threatened to kill me if I don't become your fucking puppet!"

Alex rolled his eyes, like I was being painfully dense. "No, I didn't. I told you you'd be killed."

"Semantics!"

He sighed. "Just go and get yourself cleaned up. I’ll be back in the morning."

Numb and in shock, I stumbled past him toward my bathroom. This... was so far removed from how I’d thought this conversation would go.

I paused in the ensuite doorway, turning my face just enough that I could see Alex still standing at my bedroom door.

"I fucked Rafe," I announced. What the hell I was hoping to achieve with that, I had no idea. Maybe I wanted to hurt Alex in some small way—hurt him just a fraction of how he'd hurt me. But the reaction I was looking for never came. When he turned around, his face was a cool, unaffected mask. Like stone.

"Good thing your IUD is still effective then. The last thing I need to deal with is another bastard pregnancy in my fiancée." His voice was pure frost.

I snarled. "I'm not your fiancée, Alex."

"Not yet," he replied with a shrug. "Go and shower. You've got a show to put on tomorrow at breakfast. Can't go letting that Swiss dickhead think he's won this round."

My stomach churned and dread rolled through me, but I’d been out-played. For now, I'd bide my time... but if Alex really thought I'd roll over and take a life of servitude as his walking womb? Oh yeah. He had another fucking think coming.

He had no idea who he was truly dealing with, but I intended to show him really soon.





Chapter 5





Anxiety clawed at my belly the whole way down to the dining room for breakfast. My palms were sweating, and I had to keep wiping them off on my uniform skirt. Not that I gave two shits what Alex thought of my clammy hands, but the idea of facing my friends...

"If you could look a little less like you're about to vomit, that would be amazing," Alex snarled at me under his breath, all the while smiling like he didn't have a care in the world. It was terrifying.

"I am about to vomit," I hissed back. "Just being near you makes me want to throw up everywhere."

While that wasn't totally untrue, my anxiety was mostly fueled by another source. Another two sources. Rafe... and Jordan.

Fuck.

I knew I should have dealt with that situation when it happened on Friday night, but I hadn't. I'd fucking panicked.



"You're joking." I said to Nolan and Jordan, the shower splashing as Rafe washed the evidence of our hate fuck off his hard, inked-up body.

Nolan laughed. "Okay fine, I'm joking. You're like a second sister to me, and I don't get down on the twincest thing. Also, I'm likely to try and turn Rafe on to dick and then get punched in the nuts for it." He shivered dramatically. "No thanks. I just came to tell you the coast is clear, then caught the end of that convo and couldn't help myself."

My attention then drifted to Jordan, but he didn't look amused. He looked... hurt.

"I wasn't joking," he said. "I like you, Violet..." Shooting an unreadable glance to the bathroom where his best friend showered, he frowned.

Fuck. Fuck, fuck, double fuck.

I couldn't do this. Not when my heart was still a bleeding, shredded mess from Alex's betrayal.

I yanked Rafe’s shirt on and ran.



My back slamming into the wall jerked me out of that unpleasantly guilty memory, and I gasped.

"If you have any desire to see another sunrise, I suggest you improve your acting skills," Alex growled with menace, his face just inches from mine. "Fast."