Page 23 of Vengeful Princess

“Jesus.” Camilla Bale-Lyon was a vacuous blond troll. I’d seen her at various events over the years. One gust of wind and she’d fall over. She seemed to subsist on lemon water and lettuce, just like her mother, but her mother’s family had close links to the king and her father owned a multi-national business Lucian had had his eye on for years.

“In return for selling off his son, Dad gets a seat on the board of Bale Industries, plus access to the Royal Family. He couldn’t be more happy.” The smile he threw me was more of a rictus. “He doesn’t even care about grandkids, not that Camilla could have kids, anyway. The bitch doesn’t eat enough to sustain a pregnancy.”

“So you wouldn’t have to fuck her? It would be a marriage in name only?”

Cassian collapsed backward on my rumpled bed and closed his eyes.

“I should be so lucky. We both know Camilla wants me. She’s been stalking me for years. If I don’t play the role of a loving husband, she’ll kick off, her father will be pissed, and thenmyfather will punish me.”

He had a point. Camilla had followed him around at every event they both attended, mooning after him like a cat in heat. She was always there, rubbing her emaciated body all over Cassian, staking her claim.

Before his father made it clear Camilla was in Cassian’s future, Cass had treated Camilla like a nasty case of herpes, even going so far as to make out with other girls in front of her. Nothing worked. She’d screamed, cried, and still come back for more humiliation.

I suspected it was because she knew Cassian was her end game, even if he chose to stick his head in the sand and his dick in every other woman he could find.

“What are you going to do?”

“What can I do? Dad has this all sewn up. He may even have signed a contract with Camilla’s father. I certainly wouldn’t put it past the old bastard.” He sounded utterly defeated. My heart sank. He was my best friend. The last thing I wanted was to see him forced into a marriage of convenience to suit his evil father.

“Jesus, who died?” Landon stood in my doorway guzzling down a protein shake. As usual, he wore nothing but a pair of athletic shorts. From the light sheen of sweat coating his golden skin, he’d been out for a run.

“Me.” Cassian sat up and rubbed his eyes. “Anyway, enough of my troubles. I have a lecture to go to and you need some sleep.” He fixed me with a hard stare. “The girl from last night is irrelevant. I don’t care who she is and why she’s here, so don’t go falling down a rabbit hole.”

“Sure,” I lied. It was too late. I was already obsessed, but he didn’t need to know that. Not with all the Camilla shit hanging over him.

Cassian walked out with Landon trailing after him, asking a million questions. I heard him utter some choice curse words about Camilla before my bedroom door closed, sealing me away from the rest of the apartment.

On-screen, my program continued spitting out small nuggets of information, but none of it was relevant. I needed to get closer to my target. It was the only way to figure out who she was and why she’d come here.

12

Thea

The lecture theater was half empty when I arrived for my scintillating class on ethics. If I could have skipped it, I would have, but I’d been warned I needed to act like a legitimate student. Which meant attending classes and submitting work on time.

Why couldn’t he have signed me up for an English Literature degree? Even history would have been better than this bullshit.

More people strolled in and the seats around the cavernous room started to fill up. I sat back in my corner and concentrated on doodling in my notepad, not wanting to appear friendly in the hope everyone gave me a wide berth.

Once the lecture began, I planned to snooze for a bit. It had been a long night, and I hadn’t slept well, thanks to all the adrenaline in my system. Torrance’s early morning wake-up call hadn’t helped either.

It was his way of reminding me I was here to do a job. Dad still hadn’t given me any details of what he expected. Whenever I asked, all he said was ‘get close to Cassian Forsyth’, whatever that meant.

I was hoping to bump into him this morning, as he had the same classes as me.

By the time the lecturer coughed and introduced himself, the room was full and there was no sign of Cassian. Great. I’d dragged myself out of bed for nothing. I could have downloaded the lesson plan from the online portal and gone back to bed if I’d known he wasn’t coming.

Just as the lecturer began to drone on about a topic I cared little about, the door swung open and Cassian Forsyth strolled in. My mouth fell open in surprise.

I’d seen Cassian at the party, but only in passing. He didn’t look as polished this morning as he usually was in the photos I’d spent hours staring at, but my god, he was gorgeous.

Wavy strands of caramel hair curled over his collar as he scanned the room, searching for a seat.

“So glad you could join us, Mr. Forsyth,” the lecturer sniped, but Cassian showed no signs of being embarrassed about his lateness. He ignored the man and moved toward the steps, sweeping past a brunette girl who leaped up to indicate she had a spare seat next to her.

Silly bitch.

When he reached the top tier of seats, his eyes fell on me. To my surprise, he headed in my direction.What the fuck?Sure, I had hoped for a meetcute, but I’d have preferred it on my terms. The thought of sitting next to him for two hours made me deeply uncomfortable. But it seemed that choice had been taken away from me.

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