Page 39 of Vengeful Princess

Possibly.

“We should probably go,” Landon admitted as he glanced at his watch. I suppressed a sigh of disappointment. As much as I hated to admit it, being here was a lovely escape.

“Sure.” I stood to leave, but Landon reached out for my wrist.

“Before we do, I’d like to show you my mom’s collection of deadly plants. She’s really proud of them.”

Color me intrigued. This I had to see. Landon took my hand and led me between two towering palm trees. The plants back here were lush and fragrant, the humid air heavy with perfume from a large shrub covered in clusters of pretty pink flowers.

“Oleander,” Landon explained. “It’s one of the most poisonous plants in the world. Eat this plant and you’ll suffer from seizures, drowsiness, and then death.”

“Interesting.”

“Don’t go getting any ideas, you psycho,” Landon warned with a smirk. He pointed to a large plant with star-shaped leaves and red flowers. “The castor bean plant, where ricin comes from.” We walked on. “Belladonna,” he said, showing me a small plant with reddish-purple flowers. “Angel’s Trumpet. Amazonian tribes use this one as a hallucinogen, but in larger doses, it’s lethal.”

“Is your mom an assassin?” I asked, totally serious. If I had these plants growing in a greenhouse, they’d see a lot of use. The possibilities were endless. It made me smile to imagine Torrance suffering from fatal seizures after ingesting some oleander.

“No, she just gets a kick out of dangerous plants,” laughed Landon. “I keep hoping she’ll experiment on Dad, but no luck so far.” He grinned, but there was a distinct lack of humor.

“Is your father…” I hesitated, unaccustomed to sharing personal information, but something told me we had a lot in common. It seemed prudent to choose my words carefully. “An unpleasant person?”

“So tactful, Thea.” Landon chuckled softly before reaching out to tuck a stray lock of hair behind my ear. He tugged me forward, and we sat down on a bench nestled between two spiky green shrubs. I hoped neither of them was deadly because one had just stabbed me in the arm.

“My father has certain expectations of me. I’m his son, so he wants me to take over the family business empire, marry some well-bred young woman, and be his puppet.”

“And that’s not what you want,” I concluded.

“Honestly? I have no clue what I want from my life, but I do know it doesn’t involve sitting in boardrooms negotiating with crusty old men or marrying a girl of my father’s choosing.”

20

Landon

Asking Thea to lunch had been a last-minute decision. Ever since I’d bumped into her while playing soccer, and she’d reluctantly taken my number, she’d mostly ignored me. If I was insecure, her blatant dismissal would have seriously hurt my ego.

But I knew women better than anyone, and I could tell she was fighting her attraction. It was only a matter of time before she gave in to the chemistry between us. Seeing her looking so tired stirred something in me.

I wanted to eliminate whatever was causing the pinched look on her face. From experience, I knew there was one thing guaranteed to make Thea feel better: Florrie’s cooking.

And since my parents were not around, today was a good day to go home for a couple of hours. Florrie always complained I didn’t visit enough.

Still, I hadn’t expected Thea to agree to anything. I figured she’d give me the brush-off like always, so when she climbed into my SUV and we left campus, I could barely contain my delight.

Talking about my father was doing nothing for my mood, however.

“I’d rather not discuss my dysfunctional home life,” I told her. Her gaze softened as she stared up at me.

“I can relate,” she admitted, which surprised me. This was the first snippet of anything real she’d given me. I wanted to dig deeper, find out what made her tick, and why she was here, in Scotland, but something warned me not to push.

Trust took time to build, and until she trusted me, I doubted she’d reveal much of anything.

“Let’s not talk about our parents. In fact, let’s skip the conversation entirely.” I leaned in, expecting her to shove me away, but although her eyes widened a fraction when she realized I was about to steal a kiss, she didn’t stop me.

Her lips were soft and yielding. At first, she barely responded, and I thought for one horrible moment I’d made a dreadful mistake. Maybe I’d misread her completely. Maybe she wasn’t into me at all. Then it was as if a switch had flicked in her head for her small hand grasped my shirt and she began to kiss me back.

The kiss deepened, and I groaned at the feel of her soft breasts pressing against me. She had amazing tits, and fuck me, I wanted to taste them so bad.

I broke the kiss and watched, entranced, as her tongue flicked out, moistening her plump bottom lip. Both of us were breathing heavily. Knowing she was just as aroused as I was gave me confidence that my next move wouldn’t spook her too much.

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