Page 53 of Gilded Princess

I huff with a roll of my eyes. “Just some asshole Matteo’s friends with.”

She quirks a brow. “Girl, I felt that sexual tension through the phone line however many miles away I am from you.”

I feel my face warm and shrug. I was trying my best to not ogle the man, but damn, did he make it tough.

Lainey’s eyebrows meet her hairline. "What about Matteo?"

I tip my chin up and look down my nose at her, a smirk on my lips. "Yeah, well, maybe I picked up a reverse harem novel after you told me all about your situation. And if you can do it, I thought I might try it. And what better time than when I'm cooped up in a safe house with some hot guys?”

Chapter Twenty

MADDIE

Her abrupt laugh is the balm I didn’t know I needed. I join her, both of us laughing like a couple of school girls.

“You’re too much, Maddie.”

I mock-gasp. “Me? I’m only trying to follow in your footsteps.”

Lainey opens her mouth, but someone calls her name before she can say anything. She glances behind the camera with a roll of her eyes. “Hang on, Maddie. I’ll be right back.”

She must set the phone down, because the next thing I see is what looks like a ceiling. Despite straining my ears, I don’t hear anything on her end. I’m sort of dying to see what her relationship with those boys is really like, you know, when they don’t think anyone is watching.

I let my mind wander back to the whole idea of me entertaining something with multiple men.

It wasn’t something I’d really thought too much about beyond the pages of the books I read. But I can’t deny the lure of having a harem of men—especially if it’s anything like Lainey’s shared.

If being plucked off the street like a cheap slice of pizza has shown me anything, it’s that life is short.

For years I’ve done everything expected of me.

I’ve volunteered for every charity function, navigated the shark-infested waters of high society, weathered all the hateful comments spewed by arrogant boys playing as men. I put my sister and cousin first in almost everything. I’ve played wingman to my own mother while she prowled for men closer to my age than hers, for goodness’s sake.

And I did it all with a fucking smile on my face.

I’ve lived my life according to others—for others—for years. Shame licks at my skin when I realize that I would’ve continued to live that way had a psychopath not intervened.

How ironic is that?

What kind of person does that make me if I feel gratitude for the man who kidnapped me?

I don’t even remember a time when I wasn’t this way. A people pleaser.

But something has changed inside me since that moment I was dragged to a shitty van, kicking and screaming.

I’ve sacrificed so much for so many, and in a cruel twist of events, no one was willing to sacrifice five minutes of their time for me.

No one.

And that might be the hardest pill to swallow right now. I’m not naïve. I know there are terrible people on this earth. With how many people live in the city, the odds of some of them being awful humans are high.

But I didn’t expect everyone to look the other way—or worse, be indifferent. I’d like to think that if the situation were reversed, and I saw some girl being taken, I’d do something. Get help.

I know in my heart if Mary or Lainey were there, they would’ve stepped in. But they love me.

And I also know that they’ll support me in my choices—whatever they may be.

Well, Lainey will.

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