“Smart and smooth,” I said, giving him a wink. “No wonder Prince can’t take you anywhere.”
He simply smiled, and I took the opportunity to step away. I shot a glance at my father, but he wasn’t watching me. He had a meeting tonight that he wanted me present for, but it looked like I still had a few minutes.
“If you’ll excuse me,” I told Dax. “Duty calls.”
I could feel Dax’s and Prince’s eyes on me as I left, my heels clicking on the tiles. The crimson silk dress I wore clung to every curve on my frame, and I was hyperaware of their gazes sticking to me as I walked away.
I told the bartender to make three specials and went to get coasters. Two were from the regular pile, but the third I slipped from a separate shelf. I’d hollowed out the cork and fed in a slender wire, curled neatly inside. It had taken a lot of attempts, but I’d finally made one that looked identical to a regular coaster, yet did a good job of recording conversations.
I switched it on and grabbed their waiting drinks from the bar.
“Duchess’s special,” I said when I returned, serving them with a smile. “The show will start in about half an hour. I’ll be checking in on you, so don’t hesitate to let me know if you need anything.”
“Sure thing, sweetheart,” Dax crooned.
The next guests had arrived, and I went to greet and welcome them as well, but my mind was distracted by Prince’s unexpected arrival. He was the last person I’d expected to see stepping out behind Dax and Madison. His older brothers both lived and worked in New Oxford; Romeo ran the Crimson Palace’s nightclub, and Felix was in finance; but Prince had been working in Boston for years. I didn’t know it was in the plans for him to return, and I didn’t like surprises.
As if summoned by my musings, Prince slipped into the seat behind me at the bar. “Laurel.” His voice had lowered to almost a purr, and his blue eyes held mine. “It’s so good to see you again. Now it really feels like I’m home.”
“I bet you say that to all the ladies,” I teased.
“No, I mean it!” He gave me a lopsided grin. “Seeing youmakes me feel like I’m an awkward teenager again. But that might be because you’re breathtakingly beautiful.”
I smiled, despite the bitterness rising to the surface within me. It hadn’t been five minutes, and he was already trying to flirt. Typical.
“I can think of one very awkward teenage moment,” I said before I could stop myself. He froze, his fingers twitching on the counter as his cheeks reddened slightly.
“Oh, fuck,” he said with a groan. “You found us that night, didn’t you? I wondered why you didn’t come back, after…”
“Well,” I said, examining my nails and arching an eyebrow. “It’s not every birthday that you walk in on the boy you like kissing yourbrother.”
“Shh!” he hissed, gaze darting around, probably to see if my father was nearby. “I’m sorry, okay? But what was I supposed to do? You were being such a tease, getting me all hot and then running off to the bathroom. It’s not like I was going to saynowhen he came on tome.He was just as hot and a whole lot less frigid.”
Anger burst through the dam in my mind, and I wanted to fucking scream at him. I’d been afrigidfifteen-year-old trying desperately to impress the seventeen-year-old who should have known better.
I blinked, realizing Prince had said something. “I’m so sorry, I missed that,” I said, trying to get my anger under control.
“I was just saying, it’s such a shame what happened to Julius. Though, in hindsight, it was kind of obvious he was…y’know.”
My back stiffened at his tone, my hackles rising again. “He was what?” I said icily.
Prince raised his eyebrows and gave an airy laugh. “Disturbed,” he said, waving a hand dismissively.
Warning bells went off in my head as my temper flared. Instincts honed by years of pain told me this was the point when I should have conceded, when I should have fluttered my lashes and laughed.
But I didn’t.
Maybe I couldn’t, even after all this time.
“What gave you that impression?” I said instead.
“Laurel, you’re not serious?” Prince was finally clueing in that I very much was serious. “Y’know we alphas can’t always help who we want to fuck. It’s all pheromones, and a hole's a hole. But that’s very different than wanting to wear nail polish and shit.”
“Wearing nail polish has nothing to do with beingdisturbed,” I gritted through my teeth. He was such a fucking hypocrite. Sure, he got a free pass to be pansexual because ofpheromones, but blurring gender norms was apparently a step too far.
Prince snorted, and my temper flared higher. I stepped closer to him, looking him right in the eye. “We both know he was twice the alpha you are. He would have wiped the floor with you.”
Prince’s lips curled slightly.
