The Wild Heir(77)

Ella





I’m too angry to head back downstairs to the gala though I do feel like running after that red-headed twat and pushing her down the stairs, which means I should probably wait to calm down. I’m not quick-tempered—at least I never thought I was—but ever since I’ve been thrust into Magnus’s life, I find myself wanting to boil over at least once a day.

What the hell was she talking about? A few weeks before we met? After we met? Had Magnus been seeing this girl when he was leaving the estate at night? He said he was going to Harold’s but was that just a lie?

Then his mother’s words are slicing through my head, razor sharp and leaving wounds.

Surely you’ve seen him take interest in one thing and drop it the next?

Has he already started? Does till death do us part mean anything if it started under a lie? I might be marrying him but where is the guarantee that he’ll be faithful? At this point, how could I expect him to be?

“Ella?”

I don’t know how long I’ve been stewing in the dark, staring absently at a Monet, but suddenly Magnus is here.

I turn around, feeling the fire roll through me again as he strides toward me, looking like a rough and rugged James Bond with his scruff and his wild hair and his massive frame that seems like it can barely be contained.

“What are you doing here?” he asks, his pace slowing when he sees the expression on my face.

“Did you run into her on the steps?” I ask. My voice is cold.

He frowns. “Run into who?”

“Don’t play stupid,” I tell him. “You’re so good at that.”

He stops and raises his palms. “Hey now, I like you nasty but not without reason. What’s going on?”

“I saw her. That girl you fucked!”

He raises his brows, and I know he’s thinking, that could be anyone.

“Who, specifically? There are a lot.”

“You’re such an asshole.”

“Why, because it seems like I’ve had sex with everyone but you?”

I feel like my head is about to explode. “What?!”

He narrows his eyes at me. “If you don’t fight fair, I won’t either. But, hell, I’d sure like to know just what the fuck we’re fighting about. Who did you see?”

“That girl! The prime minister’s daughter.”

“Oh god.” He runs his hand over his eyes and then gives me a cagey look. “She’s here? Heidi?”

“Yeah, she’s here. She ran into me up here after I came out of the bathroom. Like she was stalking me.”

“That’s what she does.”

“I didn’t know who she was, she was just babbling on about how you still love her.”

“You didn’t know who she was? Didn’t you recognize her from the sex tape? I mean, she made sure that camera was getting all her best angles.”

“I never watched that stupid video! And nice way to gloss over the fact that she said you still love her.”

He sighs heavily. “Because that’s her. That’s a thing she would say, just like stalking you to the bathroom is too. Ella, she’s nuts. And not in a good way.”

“She says she saw you at your apartment a few weeks ago,” I say, wishing my heart wasn’t racing so fast. I need to keep it together. “Is that a lie too?”

Magnus shakes his head. “Yeah, I saw her. Outside of my apartment. She’d never been there before but somehow she found out where I lived. Ella, she leaped out of the bushes at me. Einar was there, he can back me up.”

I cross my arms, still on edge. “When was this?”

“A few days after we first met. The night before you came back and told us you wanted two weeks.”

“Why didn’t you tell me about it?”

“Why would I have?” He looks confused.

“Because it’s important.”

“But it really isn’t,” he says. “I’m sorry that she got to you tonight but you have to take everything she said as a fabrication. I’m not in love with her and she was never in my apartment. She’s nothing.”

“She’s not nothing! It was her sex tape with you that got you into this mess with me!”

He frowns, his jaw tensing as he stares at me. “Right. This mess.”

“You know what I mean, don’t twist it around.”

“I just don’t know what your problem is. She’s nothing, okay? Yeah I had a few nights of fun with her and yeah I made one hell of a stupid mistake with her filming us, but that’s all done now. I’m moving on. With you.”

“I suppose I should enjoy it while it lasts.”

“Fuck, Ella,” he snarls at me, coming over and grabbing my arm. “What is going on? I mean, what’s really going on here? You’re usually so logical and rational and I’m supposed to be the one flying off the handle with crazy thoughts.”

“I am not flying off the handle!” I yell at him. “And I am not having crazy thoughts. These are valid thoughts.”

“Then tell me what these damn thoughts are and quit your squawking.”

“Squawking?” I repeat, my voice going higher.

“Yeah, you sound like a fucking chicken right now.”