Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 94782 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94782 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
“What for?” I demand.
Hayes blinks as if he can’t imagine how I could ever question the king’s requests. “I’m not certain. But he asked that you come now.”
The threat is left unspoken. There will be consequences if I don’t go. Consequences I’m not prepared to deal with. If I don’t show up, my father isn’t above sending a pair of royal guards to drag me to the palace to present me before him. This is just one way he likes to remind everyone he’s in control. He’s the king, and whatever he says, we all must do. For thirty years, he’s controlled my life. And I’m officially fucking over it. But every time I consider the alternative, I think of my mother.
Hayes signals for the driver to take us to the palace, and I lean my head against the seat and imagine Ella back at my estate. Locked in her room, naked and waiting for me. I picture her on her knees, worshiping me, and for one second, I can pretend that it isn’t all fake.
For one blissful second, I can even admit that it felt real. When she looked up at me, so innocent and uncertain, I saw something in her eyes I’m convinced I’ve never seen before. She wanted to please me. Not for the money. Not because I’m using her for my own twisted purposes. But because there’s something so inherently good in her, it feels like she can see right through me.
Delusion. That’s what it is. She’s doing this because I’m a sick fuck who saw the first opportunity to capitalize on her, and I took it. I would be a fool to believe otherwise, and it’s something I can’t even consider. Two months. That’s what we have together. Two months to use her and wring every ounce of pleasure out of her until I let her fly away. It’s the only way this can ever work.
The car pulls to a stop, and a guard opens our doors. Hayes walks beside me, silent, ensuring that he delivers me to my father’s office just as he said he would. The palace is quiet today, and I wonder if my mother is entertaining Lavinia and her sniveling relations elsewhere. It’s a notion that makes me irrationally angry, considering how frail she already is. I don’t want her spending time with them. I don’t want her getting attached to women who are merely attempting to scheme their way into the palace. But I also know my mother sees the best in everyone. That’s the only way she’s managed to stay married to my father for all these years.
“Enter,” my father commands after Hayes knocks and announces our presence.
“I’ll wait for you in the parlor.” Hayes bows and dismisses himself as I open the door and step inside.
My father is at his desk, and his face is pinched as he studies the document in front of him. I take a seat across from him, waiting silently for several moments before he finally spares a glance at me.
“I’ve rescheduled some of your engagements for the coming weeks,” he says.
“Why?” I stare back at him with dead eyes.
“I want you to focus on your guests,” he decrees. “Specifically, Lavinia. You will have three dates with her each week. This is non-negotiable.”
My jaw flexes so hard my teeth ache. “No.”
“No?” My father arches a brow at me. “Do you forget who you’re speaking to?”
“I know exactly who I’m speaking to.” I challenge him. “And I refuse to spend time with that woman. She is a liar, and a schemer—”
“As are all the women you will encounter in your position,” he cuts me off. “You need to learn to make the most of it.”
“You speak of things which you can’t possibly understand. My mother was never like that.”
“Your mother and I married out of duty, and you will do the same. I have given you ample time to find a partner, and I refuse to wait any longer.”
“You fail to understand that I haven’t found a partner because I don’t want one.”
“Enough.” He slams his fist down onto the desk, rattling the contents on top of it. “I will not be challenged on this, Thorsen. You have an obligation to this family, and your country, to set an example. It’s far past time you settle down and show the world you are capable of committing to your royal obligations and a marriage. Your image of a brooding, miserable bastard can no longer be tolerated by me or the media.”
“And if I refuse? What then? Will you dress Calder up and parade him around for the masses instead? Find him a wife? Or perhaps you’ll suggest that Lavinia is perfectly suited to him as well?”
“You want to know what happens if you refuse?” he snarls. “I will forbid you from the palace grounds, and your mother will be none the wiser. I will cut off all contact between the two of you, and she will spend the last of her days wondering how her son turned out to be so pathetic—”