Page 40 of The King's Fake Bride

“Oh, we’re definitely going to get caught.” She leans against the glossy black bar top as the bartender slides four shots in front of us and two slices of lime. “Xander is probably going to kill me for this little stunt, but I think it’s worth it.”

Grinning, I grab one of the shots and throw it back before biting into the lime. “If we’re going to be given hell anyway, we may as well have a good time.”

“Here’s to that!” She takes her shot and throws it back.

We take the other shots together before going to dance.

I run my hands over my body to the music, letting the beat take me away. My hips sway in time with the rhythm, the bass rattling my bones.

The longer I dance, and the more drinks Daphne brings over, the less and less I feel like myself.

I’m no longer the woman who’s spent so long holding herself together that she forgot to have fun along the way.

I don’t have to worry about walking into a toxic kitchen environment and wishing that the day would be over just so I could go home and do it all again the next day.

No, I get to dance in a club, laughing with strangers as we jump to the beat.

Daphne grins as she gets on a table, holding out a hand to me.

My eyes go wide. “What are you doing?!”

“Time to cut loose a little!” she shouts to be heard over the music. “Get up here and have some fun.”

I take her hand and climb onto the table with her, laughing as she spins me around, my back pressed to her chest as we dance.

Our hips move in time, hands above our heads.

It’s only when a cold breeze fills the bar and I look at the door that time seems to stop.

CHAPTER 15

XANDER

What does she think she’s doing?

This isn’t the way a queen would act.

Those are the two thoughts that rotate through my mind as Amy stares at me from the top of a table, a dozen people gathered around the base. She keeps dancing with Daphne, and I don’t know whether she can see me or even register that I’m standing in the club with her.

And even though I know it isn’t how a queen should act, and that Jorge is definitely going to have something to say about this when the story hits the media in the morning, I like this side of her.

It’s the side of Amy that the crown will eventually smother if Jorge has his way.

I keep my head down as I weave through the bar, my ball cap casting enough shadows between strobes of the light to keep me hidden.

When I stop at the base of the table, Amy is in the middle of dropping into a crouch. Her legs straighten, and she slowly pulls the rest of herself up, laughing as Daphne grabs her by the hand and twirls her around on the tiny tabletop.

“Amy, we need to talk,” I say, trying to keep my voice even as I reach for her.

I don’t know whether to laugh or scold her, but she makes the choice easy when she kneels in front of me, reaching for the knot in my tie.

Her eyes warm with lust as she looks at me. “You should loosen up and have some fun sometimes too. When was the last time you had fun?”

My hands close over hers before she can pull the tie loose. “You know this is going to be all over the internet tomorrow, right? We’re going to have a media storm on our hands. I don’t want you to have to deal with people insulting you and saying whatever they want about you behind the safety of their keyboards.”

She shrugs, leaning in and skating her lips over mine. “They’re already talking about us. We may as well let them have their fun, and we can have ours.”

Joining her is more tempting than ever as she slips my tie off and loops it around her thigh, knotting it into a makeshift garter beneath the hem that seems to keep climbing higher up her leg.

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