Page 33 of Brutal Prince

“Yeah?” she asks warily.

“You’re going to tell me what his story is. Now.”

Addy shifts as if the question makes her uncomfortable, and then gives a half-hearted shrug. “He’s bad news, Indi. Just forget—”

“Bad news how?”

Addy purses her lips around her energy drink’s straw.

“Like, he may look like a fucking god, but he’s the spawn of Satan.” Addy lifts a perfectly plucked eyebrow. “Prince Briar destroys everything he touches.”

I lean away from her. “Personal experience?”

Addy sniffs, throws a glare in Briar’s direction, and then turns her back to their bench. “He dated my friend, Jessica.”

I point at her energy drink, and she hesitates before handing it over. I take a sip, grimacing at how sweet it is, as she carries on talking.

“They’d been going out a few months already. Jess said he wanted to get serious, you know — sex? — but she wanted to take it slow.”

My eyes go to Briar. He looks serious as anything, eyebrows drawn together and staring at his cellphone as his subjects make high fives and give each other fist bumps around him.

“Guys do that,” I say dryly, thinking back to every single relationship I’ve ever had. It didn’t matter how many times you said ‘no’, or how creative you got in telling them, they’d keep pushing and pushing and pushing.

I was tempted more than once to lose my virginity just to get it over with. I mean, sex has to be fucking amazing if guys are so hard up about getting laid all the time, right? Obviously I’m missing out. But it was never the right time, the right place, the right guy.

Story of my life.

Damn, but she wasn’t kidding about Briar looking like a God. The day turned out warm, so he’s only wearing his school shirt and a slightly loosened tie. He has his sleeves rolled up to the middle of his lower arms, setting off his dark tan. As I watch, he rakes the fingers of one hand irritably through his long, sandy-blond hair, mussing it up even further.

He should be gloating about the prank he pulled. The one currently circulating through the entire school’s mobiles. Instead, he looks frustrated.

What could possibly piss off someone like Briar? I mean, does he not have enough rooms in his massive house? Because he’s got to be super-wealthy to dare be so fucking arrogant. Maybe there aren’t enough horses in his car’s engine? Or is it because he’s finally realized he’s an asshole and no one will ever love him?

“We were at Briar’s birthday party…”

I look away reluctantly from Briar, fixing my attention back to Addy. From the tone of her voice, she doesn’t want to be having this conversation. She starts fidgeting with the straw wrapper, and I hand her back her can.

“What happened?”

“Everyone was drunk.” Her eyes dart up to mine. “A lot of them were doped up too.” Then she sighs and tugs at her straw. “I left at like one in the morning or something. Only Briar and his crew and a few of the cheerleaders were still around.”

Addy gets a faraway look in her eyes and nods. “Dylan gave me a lift home.”

“And Jess?”

“She stayed. I didn’t want her to, tried to talk her out of it, but she was so drunk she wouldn’t listen to me.”

Addy grows quiet, and it takes everything I have not to press her to continue. After a few seconds and another sip from her can, she goes on in a low, barely audible voice.

“She called me in tears just before noon the next day.”

My breath stalls as my gaze darts back to Briar. He’s not looking at his phone anymore — he’s looking straight at me. My skin flashes ice-cold, but as much as I know I have to look away, I can’t.

“Said something had happened. That I had to come get her.”

Even across the cafeteria, the weight of Briar’s gaze pins me to the spot. I lick my suddenly dry lips, and he tilts his head just a little to the side, as if fascinated by this. He smiles at me, and those words he spoke in our Psych class come back to me like the whisper of a nightmare.

Everyone bows to the prince.

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