Page 95 of Reckless Royalty

“Oh, he did,” Chiara interrupts, her eyes gleaming with mischief. “That was like,‘claim your territory’levels of possessiveness. The way he growled your name? Chills, babe. Absolute chills.”

I can feel my face heating up again, and I duck my head, trying to hide my blush. Mihai does care about me—I know that much—but hearing all of them talking about it so openly, makes it feel even more real.

Now I really can’t tell them about what happened this morning.

“Wait! Wait, hold the fuck on!” Chiara shrieks, looking at me with wide eyes. “Did you just talk?!”

Oh. Whoops, I forgot to tell them.

“Uh…yeah? Hi?” I say, grinning. “It’s a recent development.”

“Recent development, my ass!” Marina says and moves close. “When did this happen? How?—”

“Why do I feel like Mihai is the reason for this?” Chiara says with a wicked smile as she wiggles her eyebrows. “Tell us how he got you talking again.”

I open my mouth to speak, but nothing comes out, so I close it again while feeling like a guppie.

Cat rolls her eyes, but even she looks amused. “Leave her alone, Chiara. She’s already as red as my shirt.”

Chiara plops down next to me, her grin widening. “Okay, enough about Mihai and his knight-in-shining-armor moment. Let’s talk about my idiot stepbrother.”

Her gaze shifts to Cat, and our attention snaps to her as well like she’s just dropped a bomb. Cat immediately looks uncomfortable, her cheeks flushing as she avoids our gazes.

Cat groans, throwing a pillow at Chiara, but she dodges it with practiced ease. “Nope, not getting out of this one, little miss secret-keeper. Spill. Now.”

Cat covers her face with her hands. “Do we have to?”

“Yes,” Chiara says firmly, pulling Cat’s hands away from her face. “Because if you don’t tell us everything, we’re just going to keep guessing, and you know how creative I can get.”

Marina smirks. “She’s not lying. Chiara’s imagination is a scary place.”

Cat sighs, clearly resigned, and leans back against the headboard. “Fine. But only because I know you’ll bug me until I do.”

“Damn right,” Chiara says, nudging her.

Cat hugs a pillow to her chest. “What do you want to know?”

“Everything,” Marina says, scooting closer. “Start with why you’ve been hiding this from us. You’re Cat Cunningham. You don’t keep secrets this juicy.”

Cat’s cheeks darken further, and she buries her face in the pillow for a moment before looking back up. “It’s not like I planned this, okay? It just… happened.”

Chiara’s grin widens. “Just happened, hmm?”

Cat takes a deep breath, her hands twisting nervously in her lap as she looks at Chiara. “Alright. So… I told you Nikolai and I have been a thing, sort of, since he kept pushing me during the Day of Silence last year.”

Chiara nods, her expression softening. “Yeah, you mentioned that.”

“Well, it didn’t just stop there,” Cat says, her voice faltering. “It just… kept happening. Little things. It was just… fooling around.”

“Define fooling around,” Marina presses, her eyes gleaming with curiosity.

“Marina!” I hiss, smacking her arm.

“What? It’s a valid question,” she says, completely unapologetic.

Cat sighs, her fingers fidgeting with the pillowcase. “We kissed. Slept together a couple of times. I always had a crush on him, but I thought I could handle it, you know? Keep it casual.”

Marina snorts. “That never works.”

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