Page 84 of Tarnished Reign

I bet they were. So that I couldn’t use them. Dimitri and his controlling ways.

I hand her the phone while rage consumes me.

Everyone is telling me what I feel, what I should do. Sian is saying I can’t like Dimitri. Dimitri is saying I can’t truly want to look after Cade.

Not one of them has given me the respect of listening to me. What I want. What I need.

I decide that for the next few days, I’ll avoid Dimitri, and when the party is finished, and we leave this yacht for his house, I’ll find a way to escape.

21

DIMITRI

The party planning is well underway. The food is being delivered soon, and then all we have to do is get dressed up and welcome the finest scumbags in the city.

I’m impatiently scouring the damn yacht looking for Adriana. She’s been avoiding me since our fight. She’s pretending she’s not, but she fucking well is. Last night, she curled up faced away from me, denying me her body, her touch. She says it is because she has cramps. Bullshit.

This morning, she found a hidey hole to curl up in, pretending to read a book.

I finally find her in the back of the boat, on the deck for a change. She’s sitting behind the living room, on a narrow part of the deck where the rest of the crew and my men can’t see her. I’m sure there’s a name for this part of the boat but not being a yachting person, I’m fucked if I know what it is.

She’s reading again. As I walk over to her, I pause and watch her. She’s squinting and holding the book nearer, and then farther away.

“You look like you need glasses,” I say.

She jumps a little and glances up. “I do.”

“So why don’t you wear them?”

“Because my kidnappers didn’t think to bring my glasses,” she snaps.

I sigh and shake my head. “How long is this mood going to last?”

“I don’t know. How long until this charade is over and I can go home?”

“You can’t go home.”

“Well, I can’t stay with you. Not without Cade.”

Jesus, not this again.

“You barely know him.”

“Would you say that to someone who had a puppy?”

“What?”

“If someone had a pup, and then after, say, six months they had to let it go, would you say, ‘oh, that’s fine, you barely knew it.’”

“You cannot compare the responsibility of a child with a puppy.”

“I can, and I did.”

She stands and sweeps by me.

“Make sure to be ready by eight.”

“Yes, your highness.”

---