I chuckle, smiling like the fool she makes me. “Me? You’re the one who picked up.”
“Because I knew you’d keep calling until I didn’t.”
My finger runs over my screen. “Smart girl.” Why do I feel better when I look at her? When I hear her voice? Why does my world fit and my insides click into place when that happens? She’s going to ruin me for any future I might have otherwise had. It’ll always be her. No matter what. Even if she betrays me, I’ll still want her. How fucked up is that?
“I already used your vibrator tonight, so no show for you.”
My lips twitch. “Believe it or not, I was calling to talk, not video fuck you. Did you think about me while you used it?”
“No,” she answers quickly, and I frown before I can stop it.
She giggles. “So down bad, Your Highness.”
She has no idea.
“You did, didn’t you?”
She sighs, but she’s smiling, her expression light and sweet. “I might have.”
“Then I’m sorry I missed it.” I walk back inside and over to my bed to sit on the edge, my elbow on my thigh, the phone in front of my face. “I’m coming home tomorrow.”
She sucks in a breath. “Your Highness, we need to talk.”
I nod. “We do.”
“Then you know we have to stop this. I realize I’ve said that a hundred times, and each time I give in, but I…I can’t do it anymore.”
“Because you’re starting to have feelings for me?” I don’t know why I ask her. It won’t help me. Or maybe it’ll be everything I need to know.
“Because we both know this isn’t going to end well. We have something. I won’t deny that. But I have to start thinking about my future and what I have to do for that.”
“You’re telling me I don’t enter into that equation.”
She laughs. “You’re the prince of Messalina, and I’m a palace servant. I think we both know what this is and what this isn’t between us. There is no glass slipper. There is no happily ever after. It’s not a fairy tale.”
She’s likely right, but that doesn’t stop the way my stomach knots, and my chest feels like someone is poking it with a million needles. This isn’t the kind of feeling that will dissipate with time or be eased with alcohol or placating words. This is heartbreak, and it sucks.
“You could choose me,” I say, the words escaping, but I don’t retract them either.
She releases a shaky breath and looks up at her ceiling, away from me. Her chin quivers. She feels this too.
She clears her throat and returns to the camera. “I can’t. I don’t want to.”
“Yes, you do. You’re a terrible liar.”
“Please don’t make this worse. Please let me say goodbye.”
I don’t want to. Goodbye is final. Forever.
“You’re not going to tell me your secrets either then,” I surmise.
“The world’s not so black and white. My story isn’t a good one. I’m not a good person for you, Your Highness. The best thing I can do for you is to let you go. The best thing you can do for yourself is to let me.” She sniffs and wipes under her eyes and nose. My girl is crying. She’s breaking before my eyes, but she’s still telling me goodbye.
“Marcella, the glass slipper will fit. There is a chance.”
She sobs and bites into her lip to stifle it as tears drip from her eyes. “Please, Rowan. Please. I don’t want to hurt you. Not any of you. I don’t care about you that way. Not at all. For me, itwas sex. I’m sorry if I made you believe otherwise. We had some fun, and now that’s over. Let me do the right thing for once.”
I blink, my stupid eyes burning. She’s lying, and I don’t know why. It’s insanely obvious. You don’t cry if you don’t care, and she always fights her tears. Always. But she’s more than crying. She’s distraught. It wasn’t just some fun. It was a hell of a lot more than that.
