Page 108 of Notorious Park Avenue Prince

“Go check on our prince.”

I aimed a wink at him and slipped out of the office, more determined than ever to track down East and make sure he’d arrived safely.

It wasn’t too difficult to find him. The rumor mill was in full swing as I headed through the halls of Astor, with news of the most notorious prince having finally shown his face after his father’s downfall.

It took everything I had not to turn on each and every one of the gossipmongers and tell them to shut the fuck up, but that wasn’t exactly the conduct someone in my position could engage in with no repercussions. So I bit my tongue and searched out the head of dark hair that was always so perfectly styled, and that included his clothes. Some of which West had packed tightly into the bag that had East about to stroke out when he saw how wrinkled they were.

Not that you could tell this morning. If I hadn’t seen the dark circles under his eyes for myself last night, I wouldn’t have guessed anything was wrong. He was just as put together as he usually was, surrounded by his friends like a protective circle no one could penetrate.

That made me stop short. Only West knew East and I didn’t actually hate each other, so I couldn’t just walk over there?—

What was I thinking? Of course I fucking could. I didn’t give a shit what any of those guys thought. It wasn’t like I’d do anything stupid, like kiss him in the middle of the atrium.

As if he’d heard my busy thoughts, East glanced up, and the steel barrier he usually kept up softened a bit. He curled his finger, gesturing me to come over, but I was already moving. West was the first one to see me coming, but then Travis followed his gaze and stepped out in front of me before I could get to East.

“I don’t fuckin’ think so,” he said, those kohl-lined eyes narrowing to slits. “He’s not in the mood for your shit and neither are we, so you can move along now.”

I went to step by him anyway, and the big, scowling one blocked me this time.

“Take one more step,” Daire taunted me, like he hoped I’d do just that.

East rolled his eyes. “Stand down, Reaper.”

This time it was Donovan who moved forward and held his hands up. “It’s not a good time, Zac. How about you give him a break, man?”

I looked to East and held my hand out. I didn’t even think, I just did, and he must’ve been on the same wavelength, because he took it and pulled me past his friends to be with him.

A hushed curse met my ears from one of his crew, but I didn’t bother to check who as I moved in close to East. I searched his features for signs of stress, but when all I saw was a slight smirk and raised eyebrow, my anxiety eased a bit.

“Taking a bit of a risk being seen out here with me, aren’t you,Zacharius?”

There he was, the leader of the Park Avenue Princes back in full swing, butthistime I didn’t want to strangle him.

“I don’t really care.”

“No?” East grazed his thumb over the back of my hand. “Who are you and what did you do with my uptight TA?”

“Uh, yeah,” Travis piped up. “I’d like to know that too. What the fuck is this?”

He gestured to our joined hands, and I let go. The last thing East needed was to be caught up in a scandal with a TA. But I’d needed that moment of contact with him, to hell with the gawking eyes around us.

“It’s nothing,” I said at the exact same time East announced, “It’s none of your business.”

“What do you mean it’s none of our— Wait, are you two…” Travis did a double take at how close we were standing, but before he could form another thought, West shoved him in the arm.

“Stop making a scene. That’s the last thing East needs.”

West then leveled me with a look that said,Get him the hell out of here.

Before I thought through the consequences, I reached for East’s hand again. “Can we talk?”

I wasn’t sure why I was so surprised when he nodded. But if that had my head spinning, his lacing his fingers with mine almost had me passing out.

“Lead the way.”

“Holy fuck,” someone said from behind us as we started to walk away from East’s friends. “Did he get a lobotomy during spring break?”

“Seems like he got poked and prodded withsomething, that’s for sure,” another said.

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