Thorne Princess(66)

“No, no, no!”

“How come he is still working with you? I thought you were planning to sabotage and make him quit.”

“He is more hardheaded than me,” I admitted.

“That’s a first.” There was a pause before Keller said, “You know, I think he’s going to be huge in Hollywood.”

“I don’t think he’ll be sticking around,” I said, with relief. The thought of Ransom trailing behind another woman—a beautiful woman—made snakes slither in my stomach. They twisted together into a venomous ball.

We hung up. I drew myself a long, warm bath, then curled my hair and slipped into a yellow crochet-trimmed mini dress. Last night, I’d downloaded an interview with a psychologist about how to treat dyslexia to keep my mind off of Ransom. It was really inspiring, and I already had a lot of ideas on how to improve my life.

When I got back to my bedroom, a USB waited by my laptop.

Huh. That’s weird.

Certain it was from my parents, I shoved it inside and watched as a window popped open on the screen, containing an audio document titled HeraBridesmaidSpeech.mp3.

But when I double-clicked it, the low, gruff voice that filled the room was unmistakable.

Ransom.

He’d recorded the speech for me.

I closed my eyes. Thank you.

I slipped my earbuds in and let his voice seep into me, calm and commanding. It mortified me, how out of focus I became while listening to him. How my thighs clenched deliciously whenever his voice hit the pit of my stomach. My breathing turned heavy and ragged. Maybe it wasn’t such a bad idea, that we were parting ways in just a few months.

This kind of temptation, it never had a happy ending.

After memorizing the speech, I finally made my grand appearance in the living room…only to be met with a smiling, oblivious Max. My heart dropped.

No Ransom?

Max sat on the couch, reading one of his thick sci-fi books.

“Hey, Hallie!” He stood up.

In that exact moment, I realized my fascination with Ransom had crossed the line of curiosity and turned into something bigger. Beastly and ghastly, out of control.





Possibly recognizing my distress and disorientation at seeing him and not Ransom—whom I bet was screwing another woman right now—Max suggested we go get some shopping done. My parents were still in D.C., and so was Hera.

“You must need to grab some pre-wedding items, right? Gifts and such.”

I nodded faintly, my mind a million miles away. Only when we hit the shops did I remember I couldn’t actually buy anything. Nor had I the desire to, for that matter.

“Max.” I let out an embarrassed laugh as we slid out of the car. “I don’t have a credit card. Let’s turn around and go home.”

Max produced a card from his pocket, wiggling his eyebrows. “For emergencies only. But putting a smile on your face qualifies as an emergency to me.”

“I don’t want you to get into trouble.”

He was so nice, so wholesome, I hated myself for not being attracted to him. What was wrong with me? Why did I want the one man who would probably break me all over again?

“I won’t get into trouble so quickly.” He ducked his head, his cheeks flushing. “Ransom and Tom are notoriously hard to please. They barely hire. They wouldn’t let me go so fast.”

“Well, if you say so.”

I made a reluctant attempt at grabbing a few pieces of fine china I thought were appropriate as a wedding gift for a young couple (Hera would not appreciate secondhand anything). Afterwards, Max got us iced coffees and we sat in a park and bird-watched. The day crawled to its end, each minute dragging across my nerves deliberately slow.

“Where’s Ransom?” I asked when we slipped back into the Explorer.

“Hell if I know. He’s a very secretive man.”

“He didn’t take the car,” I noted.

“Not this old thing.” Max took off his sunglasses, rubbing his eyes before putting them back on. “He rented a rad-ass Bugatti. You should see it, Hallie. It’s a piece of heaven.”

“Driven by a piece of work. What is it about smart men and dumb cars, anyway?” I wondered.

“It’s an expense.”

“So my father’s footing the bill?”

“Pretty much.”

Nice to see Ransom was using his spare time polluting the environment.

But this piece of information worked to my advantage, because when we got back to the hotel and Max parked the Explorer, I noticed we passed a Chiron Noire—a three million dollar beast on wheels—parked at the far end of the lot.

He was here.

In my head, I’d already gone through the images of him and a leggy blonde doing all kinds of sordid acts together while Max took me on my daily walk, as if I were a Chihuahua. I was so frustrated—so incredibly furious with Ransom—that I forgot to be a good person and did something terrible to Max.

I slipped my hand in his when we entered the service elevator leading up to my suite. Max’s eyes bulged out of their sockets, pinned on our entwined fingers. I bumped my shoulder to his, mustering an encouraging smile.

Max’s eyes dropped to my mouth. I felt horrible for using him, and yet exhilarated at the prospect of being caught by Ransom.

“What’s happening here, Hal?” Max asked softly.