Playboy Princes (Royals of Arbon Academy, #2)(68)

He was turning to leave, so I reached out and grabbed his arm. “I—Uh, is that a good idea? I mean, what if your parents are as horrible as his and they have me killed for using the wrong fork or something?”

Rafe’s lips twitched, and I wondered what he would say to my blunt statement. “Vi,” he murmured, his hand wrapping around my shoulder and pulling me close, “my parents are good people. I promise. I would not take you where you were at any risk.”

His eyes darted over my head. “To make it even safer, I’ll request Nolan and Mattie too. That way it’s not obvious this is anything more than me taking my friends home for a week to hang out before the ball.”

We were alone in the stadium grounds now, but I still didn’t expect him to capture my lips like he did. “I’ll keep you safe,” he promised as he pulled away. Then he all but pushed me into Jordan’s arms. “Don’t let her out of your sight,” he warned before he lifted the bag he must have dropped at some point, threw it over his shoulder, and turned and stalked away.

Mattie let out a low shriek, clapping her hands. “Rafe’s place is un-fucking-believable.” She clapped and bounced. “You’re going to die when you see it. They’re somehow in the mountains but also right beside a huge lake, and it’s heated all year from an underground… something. I don’t know, lava or some shit, and we can swim as much as we want.”

She carried on a ton more about his home, but I was distracted by Jordan, who still had his arms around me and was tracing his hands across my back.

"Are you okay?" he whispered in my ear, his breath warming my skin with tingles. "Want me to smother Claudette with a pillow while she sleeps tonight?"

I grinned at the idea, then looked up at him to see if he was serious. "You'd do that for me?"

All traces of joking faded from his eyes as he pressed a light kiss to my lips. "I'd do fucking anything for you, Violet. Killing that self-important bitch would be a damn privilege." His voice was laced with dark violence, and my pussy clenched with arousal.

Fuck me. I really was going to hell.

"Hey, you two." Mattie snapped her fingers, regaining our attention. "Are you paying attention?"

"No," Jordan answered for us both, and I snickered. My cheeks were warm with pent-up desire, and I could barely focus on anything except the need to get him alone. Soon.

Nolan screwed up his nose at us, teasing. "You two are so sickening. I'm amazed Rafe hasn't lost his freaking mind yet. His alpha-male instinct must freak right the fuck out every time he sees you guys touching."

Jordan laughed him off, but I was inclined to agree. I'd been thinking the same thing just last night in the bathroom, when Jordan had walked out in a silent fit of rage after Rafe marked his damn territory on me.

This whole lust-triangle was destined for disaster, but I just couldn't bring myself to end it. With either of them.

Did that make me selfish? Yes, probably. But we all had our faults.

"Oh shit," Nolan cursed, his eyes widening. "Incoming."

Jordan and I separated with a quick step, creating enough space between us that no one would suspect anything. It killed me to do it, but I shuddered to think what might happen if Alex's dad found out I was fucking other princes and not his son.

"Violet!" Alex barked from the direction of the locker rooms. He was stalking toward us, and his face was a mask of fury. "Why haven't you answered your messages? I told you it was nonnegotiable."

His whole tone and body language dripped with rage and disdain. He wasn't even pretending to be that easygoing, laid-back prince charming I'd fallen for on my first day at Arbon.

"Whoa, Alex," Nolan commented, raising his brows in mock surprise. "Is that any way to speak to your girlfriend?"

"Oh fuck right off, Nolan," Alex sneered. "As if she hasn't told you four every little detail. Did she tell you about how she was in my bed just a few days ago, too?"

"You mean when you blackmailed her into getting her shirt off, then pretended to have been fooling around when your parents called?" Jordan clapped back. "Yeah. She told us. We don't keep secrets."

Alex's face darkened, clearly pissed that his attempt to stir shit had been thwarted. "Well, I hate to break up the party, but Violet and I have places to be.” He grabbed my arm and gave it a sharp tug, making me stumble a few steps away from my friends.

Jordan's hand shot out, snagging my other hand and stopping Alex from forcefully pulling me from the field. Which would be great, except now I felt like a chew toy between two angry dogs.

As subtly as I could, I extracted myself from both of their grips and took a step back. "Stop it. I'm not going anywhere with you, Alex. I’m certainly not going to meet your creepy parents and play happy family after the shit you pulled last night."

A dark shadow passed across Alex's face, and a frown pulled at his brow that hinted at more concern than anger. Still, he had walked away and left that psycho nurse to do whatever she wanted to me while I was restrained and helpless.

Of course, he didn't need to know that Nurse Reller had met a rather unexpected end to the night. As far as he knew, I'd had my IUD forcefully removed and a tracking device inserted.

"If you'd taken the damn ring, maybe it wouldn't have come to that," he snapped, his concern washing away and morphing into irritation. "You brought it on yourself. Now stop acting like a brat. If you think what the nurse did was bad, you really don't want to keep my father waiting."