Page 105 of Underground Prince

It was a lot of marble and leather, the sharp scent of newness still present in the air. The couches seemed barely lived-in, with no telltale curves and divots where a person might lie for a while. It was also cold, with all the tile and lack of plushness, and I thought maybe this wasn’t his sanctuary after all.

“Are you hungry?” he asked as he swung left into the open kitchen.

I nodded, afraid to speak. I didn’t want to make myself more vulnerable than I already was.

“Take a seat,” he said, before digging through his freezer. “I hope you don’t mind nuked nuggets.”

“Try broiling them after baking them.”

As I was afraid of, my voice didn’t sound like the one I’d been crafting this past year and a half. It was rough and quiet and had holes that Theo, if he tried, could easily poke through. To cover, I slid off the stool and went to him, asking, “Cookie sheet?”

He pointed below the oven, and I found it as well as the nuggets, pouring them onto the sheet and setting the oven temperature. “Crispier this way,” I said as explanation.

“I wouldn’t have thought of that,” he said, and everything in me wound tight at his proximity, much closer than I thought.

“Verily and I’ve had many a late night where our food is forgotten,” I said, still busy sorting the chicken into a flat layer. “And then an hour later we’re freaking out and starving so we throw everything under the broiler and hope it doesn’t burn. Ketchup, though. There’s nothing it can’t save—”

He hooked my elbow, chicken pieces flying from my hands. My lower back hit the oven. “Look at me, Scarlet.”

My gaze bounced, blinked, spiraled until I lost the control to avoid and reached his caramel eyes.

His hands came across my cheeks, soft yet calloused. “First time I saw you, with the quick smile and faster mouth, finding you fighting rather than cowering, you were, are…ethereal. I can’t believe you exist.”

I clasped his forearms, instinctually pushing him away. “Theo, I…”

“I know. Compliments are shit. But that’s not what I’m aiming for. I wondered for so long what it was about you that I couldn’t shake—was it your wit? Your complete luck with survival? The idea that you could walk into any situation and stroll out fine? I didn’t know. Until tonight.”

He let go, choosing to rest his hands against the stove on either side of me, so his lips were closer but his mind would be more sane. I knew this because I felt the same way.

“You told me about your loss, and I’m not going to placate by saying I’m sorry for it. I’m sure you’ve heard it enough,” he said.

I made a sound through my nose, an acknowledgment. “It’s because people don’t know what else to say. They’re trying to be nice.”

“Nothing will erase the feeling of her leaving you.”

My eyes seared, and I blinked rapidly.

“Losing her is untouchable. It’s in you, forever, no matter what anyone on the outside tries to do,” he said.

I nodded. His words hit deep, so close to where she lay, inside my heart.

“And finally, tonight, I understood what it is about you that I’m tied to. There is darkness inside you, Scarlet. A different shape from my own, but the same shade of torment. I can’t prevent this kind of connection, but I can’t keep you, either.”

I inhaled a small gasp, understanding dawning. “Do I get a say in this?”

He pushed off the stove, giving me his back. “We’d feed off our shared misery. We’ll destroy each other.”

“You can’t know that when we haven’t even tried.”

He turned his head, but only so his profile showed. “There’s too much at stake—”

I flipped off the oven with a quick spin of the dial and the noise caught his attention.

I strolled toward him, peeling off the straps of my dress. “Then resist me.”

“Scarlet—”

“You think we’ll be bad, make poor decisions, run our good selves off a big old cliff and end in a fiery explosion, right?”

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