“But I can’t seem to find any hot women, and politics says I have to follow my sister.”
That lying fucking cow.She wanted me in the Whisper Club and we both know it.My eyes flash at her crass confession and not-so-subtle insult.Something shifts; my mind wanders back to the club, and the way she was so clearly a dom.I’ll bet she’s butt hurt.Probably wants to punish me with a bit of degradation.My clit throbs, my skin pimples with gooseflesh.
She tilts her head at me.“What was that?”she asks.
“What was what?”
“I’m asking you.Your heart rate increased, blood is pooling beneath your skin and?—”
Her eyes drop to my crotch.
My mouth parts, a little sharp breath escaping.How dare she stand there and read me like this.I grit my teeth and lean into her, lowering my voice to barely above a whisper.
“You tell anyone you saw me in Sangui City, and I’ll make your life a living hell.”I draw back and give her my own sinister little smile.I can play bitch with the best of them.
She chuckles.“Oh, Princess.We both know you have way more to lose in this situation than me.There’s no need to be a brat about it.”
But that’s the thing: I am a brat, and she fucking knows it.
She shoves past me and follows after Octavia.I am left entirely flustered, unsure whether she was rude, a tease or a flirt.Maybe all three?What an arsehole.I can’t work out if I hate her or if I’m attracted to her.
My bodyguard approaches.“Ma’am, I must ask if there are any other people I should be concerned about?It seems there are a couple of people in here who have taken issue with you,” he says.I glance at his name tag on his jacket.There are so many guards in the palace at the moment I can never distinguish one from another.
I snort.“Well, Marcus, I’d be hard pressed to find someone in here who doesn’t have some kind of beef with me.Haven’t you heard?My speciality is pissing everyone off.”He gives me sad eyes, and I want to nut him.“I don’t need your pity.”
I march off into the bar, only to come face to face with Blane—my ex.Really?Can I not get a break tonight?
“What do you want?And how the hell did you get in here, anyway?”I say, zero patience left in me.
“You owe me a carriage.”
“No.You were the one who lost it in a bet.That’s nothing to do with me.”
He leans toward my face.“Only because you insisted I play.”
This time, Marcus appears and shoves him back.
Blane is one of those clean-cut, overly groomed men.No wonder we were doomed to failure.Not my type at all.
I shove a hand on my hip.“I didn’t force you.Our choices are our own.”
I stroll away until he says, “It’s not like you can’t afford it.Just take it from the royal coffers, for fuck’s sake.”
There’s nothing I hate more than being used for the crown’s purse strings.
I turn to face him.“Maybe if you stopped sucking off daddy just to access your trust fund and, oh, I don’t know, got a fucking job, you’d be able to afford your own carriage instead of trying to bleed me dry.”
“Bitch.”
I smile and step away.He must lunge for me because there’s a scuffle and clunking sound and then the echo of him shouting as he’s escorted off the premises.
Tonight is testing my patience to the limits.I know I’ve had a few issues with people recently, but, for once, I’m actually trying to behave for Mother and Morrigan.It feels like gang-up-on-Pen night.
I reach the edge of the bar and take two glasses of champagne off the closest server’s plate.I neck one.The fizz makes my throat sting and my tummy bloat.I swallow down a belch and sip the second glass in a far more lady-like manner.
Mother is with Morrigan and the vampires in the middle of the room at the central table.Gabriel seems more interested in whatever he’s reading than what’s going on around us.Though I notice that he’s sat himself next to Lady Antonia’s son, who is obscenely intelligent.And, it seems, sporadically engaging Gabriel in conversation.
Red, Octavia and Xavier are all chattering away with Mother and Morrigan.Dahlia, though, I can’t see.I scan the room until I spot her at the bar, drinking and talking to Carmen, a girl with a figure to die for.
