The Wild Heir(33)

He backs off and I turn my attention back to Heidi. She’s not wearing a coat, just jeans and a very low-cut sweater that shows off her ample cleavage. Her face is done up with more makeup than I’ve ever seen on her, her red hair styled in waves around her face.

She’s more hot than pretty and just the right amount of inhibited and crazy in bed. But my instincts have never steered me wrong, and I have a feeling she’s just as crazy outside the bedroom. Hence the fact that she seems to have been stalking me.

“What are you doing here?” I ask her, giving her a tight smile before I look around to make sure no one is coming up the street. Wouldn’t that be the million-dollar picture.

“I know,” she says quickly, taking a step toward me and grabbing my arm. Her breath smells like peach schnapps. “I wasn’t sure how else to reach you.”

“You used to text me,” I remind her, not sure that I like her holding on to me.

“You haven’t responded to my texts,” she says, a hint of sharpness to her tone.

She’s right. She has texted me a lot over the last week and I’ve seen them and ignored them. I’m not the best at texting people back in general, but I was making sure I wasn’t touching Heidi again with a ten-foot pole.

And yet here she is, in the dark of night, hanging on to my arm outside the entrance to my apartment. I hadn’t even shown her where I lived—we always went to her place to screw—but somehow she found it.

“I don’t think it’s wise we text each other,” I tell her, taking a step back so that her hand falls away, “let alone see each other.”

“But I need to talk to you,” she pleads, her face crumpling.

I don’t handle crying chicks very well. They’re my kryptonite. But I straighten my back and resolve to stay strong, no matter what she does. It was her crying when I broke up with her that led us into this whole mess. “So talk. And make it quick.”

She frowns at that. “That was kind of rude.”

“Well, you did just ninja jump out of the bushes at me when I was about to go home, aaaaaaaand it was your idea to film a sex tape and it was your phone that somehow got hacked into, so yeah, sorry if I seem a bit rude but I’ve had a hell of a week.”

Her eyes get all wide and twitchy. “You think this is my fault? You don’t believe me? My phone was hacked, Magnus. It wasn’t just that sex tape. There were a ton of naked photos of me on there that got shown to the public.”

“You have a great body, so what do you care?” I tell her, looking over my shoulder and nodding at Einar. Not for him to do anything, just for him to kind of stand-by in case she becomes a stage-five clinger.

“You really think I have a great body?”

I look back at her, frowning. “What? Yeah. Sure. Look, Heidi, what we had was fun until it really fucking wasn’t. Now it’s time for us to part ways and never speak again. For real.”

“You’re such an asshole,” she sneers. “I could ruin your life, you know.”

I tilt my eyes skyward. “Right. What else could you possibly do?”

“First of all,” she says, shoving her finger into my chest. At that I know Einar is making his way over, because it’s pretty much against the law for anyone to touch me in a threatening manner. “I didn’t do anything. I was hacked. Okay? Second of all, you are an asshole. Everyone knows it. Third of all, you’re going to die alone.”

I tilt my head at her. “You know, telling the Prince of your country that he’s going to die, whether alone or not, can be seen as a threat. If I really was an asshole, I could lock your sorry ass up right now.”

“Oh really?” she says, withdrawing her finger and crossing her arms. “I’m sure that will fly when my father runs this country. You’re from a monarchy that has no power. Sure, everyone loves you and you get all the prestige and attention and the validation, but my father is the one who runs this place.”

Validation? That was an odd choice of words. “Are you done?”

“Yes,” she says and then grabs her head, starts tugging at her hair. “No. Magnus. We had something. Don’t let what happened ruin that. It’s been hard but no one understands me the way you do and no one understands you the way I do.” Her arms drop and she steps toward me, her eyes glistening, looking hopeful. “Being in the public eye, being judged. Feeling like people don’t see the real you. I get that. I live that. You shouldn’t give up so easily.”

Oh boy. There’s only one way out of this.

“I’m not giving up easily,” I tell her, just as Einar joins my side. “I’ve met someone else.”

She blinks at me for a moment before it hits her. I can tell she wants to explode, but Einar tenses up and her eyes go to him and she knows she has to hold it together. She hisses, “You what?”

I nod. “I’ve met someone else. Fallen in love. She’s swept me right off my damn feet.”

“You’re a liar,” she says. “You’re a liar and an asshole.”

I shrug. “You’ll find out soon enough,” I tell her. “When we get married and it’s all over the news.”

Then I step back out of the way while Einar steps between us, his hands out, ready to move her. “You have to go, ma’am,” he says gruffly.