Page 131 of Collared by the Vampire Prince

I release a shaky breath and finally look up.

“You can tell me,” she urges. There is something almost desperate in her eyes now.

I hold her gaze for a moment longer, letting the silence stretch.

And then—

“He kissed me,” I whisper.

She freezes. “What?”

I lift my chin a fraction higher. “He kissed me.”

The colour drains from beneath the powder on her face. Then her fangs flash.

“You’re lying,” she says through clenched teeth.

“I’m not.”

“Why would he want to kiss you?” Her gaze drags over me in a brief, scornful once-over.

“I don’t know. I didn’t want him to.”

“What kind of kiss?”

“Victoria—”

“On the mouth?”

“Yes. On the mouth.” Heat rises into my cheeks despite the lie, because I can picture it too clearly: Nathaniel in my room, one hand cupping my face, his mouth covering mine before I can turn away.

Slow. Warm. Unhurried.

My pulse trips.

“It was…slow.” I swallow, unsettled by how vividly I can imagine it. Then I remember myself and draw a sharp breath. “He took his time. But I told him he shouldn’t. That I’m only a wolf. And he has a fiancée. But he only laughed. Then he kept kissing me, and—”

“And then he fucked you.” She spits the word, but the fury has gone brittle. For the first time, she doesn’t just look angry. She looks wounded. And suddenly I understand. Nathaniel has never kissed her like that. Perhaps he has never kissed her at all.

“No,” I say softly, driving the point home. “He didn’t.”

Her lips part in shock before she presses them together again. There’s an awful moment where her eyelashes flutter and she looks away with a sniff that makes me want to take it all back. To simply confess and tell her the truth.

Then her eyes narrow.

“Yesterday you told me Nathaniel wanted me to see you with those flowers.” Her voice sharpens. “Was that another one of your sick little games?”

My stomach tightens.

I have pushed too far.

“No.” I shake my head quickly. “I thought he was trying to make you jealous. I thought that was all it was.”

“And now?”

I hesitate, as though I am afraid to say it.

“I think he wants you to give up on him.”