“Madame Delavigne,” I said as politely as I could, under the circumstances. “I hope you are well?” I uncurled Angelique’s fingers from the fabric of my jacket and discretely tugged myself free.
“Couldn’t be better, Prince,” she murmured smoothly as she brushed air kisses past each side of my face. “Although I saw your little friend backstage. What a strange creature. Babbling about your bank account and the size of your manhood. Tres vulgaire, darling. I do hope this is just a passing phase of yours.”
I set my jaw and didn’t comment.
Angelique rolled her eyes and gave a little snort. “I was just about to tell him the same thing, Mom,” she said. Her hands were back on my arm. “Meanwhile, the naughty boy hasn’t returned any of my calls.” She pouted at me. I ignored her and looked back at the stage.
“Don’t pester the poor man, Angelique,” Sophia tutted at her daughter. “They all need to get such things out of their systems from time to time. He’ll be back before you know it.”
I finally shook my head at how ridiculous this conversation was. I was standing right in front of them, for God’s sake!
“I have no intention of getting anything out of my system, Sophia,” I said coolly. The woman was a gold digger of the worst type. If her daughter ever had any redeeming features, they’ve been consumed by their overwhelming need to climb the social ladder. Sasha may have had a checkered past, and she may have hidden things from me. But there was an honesty to her that these women would never understand. We still needed to talk, though. This fucking shitshow couldn’t be brushed off without a proper discussion. Half of which needed to focus on honesty and openness, and the other half had to be about how dangerous this had all been. She could have been in so much shit if she’d tried to fix it alone.
“But you will see reason, won’t you, darling?” Sophia was going on. “You and Angelique are simply perfect together. Don’t you agree?”
“No!” I said sharply. “And I doubt Dmitri Sysenov would either.”
Sophia waved her hand dismissively, although I noticed that Angelique had grown tense. “That’s nothing, darling. A dalliance. Angelique has seen the light now, haven’t you, darling?” She turned to Angelique. Her daughter’s smile was radiant. And yet, I sensed it was forced, somehow.
“A dalliance, Sophia? They’re engaged. I think it’s more than a dalliance, don’t you?” I struggled to keep my voice even.
“It was a mistake,” Angelique broke in. She curled her fingers more firmly around my bicep and pressed herself against me. “It was only ever you I cared about, Prince,” she murmured into my ear.
“You mean the wedding’s off, Angelique?” I asked. I tried to keep my expression neutral, but it was hard not to raise an eyebrow.
“I was just trying to make you jealous, darling,” Angelique laughed lightly. It was all an act, though. I could see right through her.
On the stage, Sasha was still bathed in light. Skin pearlescent, perfect curves on display. Her hair was a cascading waterfall that provided some modesty, but there was little left to the imagination. I had a sudden recollection of her standing like this for me barely two days before. My Venus.
And I had no doubt that she’d been scrutinized from head to toe by these two. The lights dimmed, and the crowd applauded as she disappeared from sight. I wondered if she would linger backstage and considered going to find her.
“We were good together, darling. Don’t you remember?” Angelique said.
I turned back to Angelique. “No,” I said firmly. “We were not.” The more I thought back to our time together, the more I realized how wrong it all was. We may have fucked like animals, but there was no love there. No real connection.
“Oh, come on, Prince!” she snapped, true colors finally surfacing. “Don’t try to pretend you didn’t care about me. I could make you hard with just one look. You don’t need your little whore for that. Don’t fool yourself into thinking she can give you what I can.”
I yanked her hand away from my arm and put distance between us. “Yes, I cared about you, Angelique. I’ll never deny that. But ‘my whore’ has nothing to do with us, and she never will.”
“Alec?” The word brought our conversation to a standstill, and I spun around to face it. Sasha was standing behind us, pale and beautiful in the floating dress she’d worn on stage. She must have seen me and come straight over.
“Your whore?” she said to me. Her cheeks were growing pink-tinted, and I sensed rage brewing. Angelique had pressed up beside me again and was trailing her scarlet nails around the back of my neck. “Get your hands off him!” Sasha snarled at Angelique, who blatantly ignored her and brushed her lips against my cheek.
“The whore has a temper,” she murmured into my ear.
“Sasha, I—” I began.
Her hand came up and connected with my cheek. Around us, everyone had stopped talking.
Fuck!
She stared at me for a long second, then turned and rushed out of the room.
“Oh my. Trouble in paradise?” said Sophia, smirking. Angelique’s face was lit with cruel satisfaction. The expression barely flickered when I pushed her away from me roughly.
“Who’s Alec?” Angelique asked. Fuck. We’d spent over a year together, and she never even learned my name. I didn’t bother to answer.
I was running out after Sasha.
