Page 49 of In Love with a Ruthless Man

Images she had unconsciously tried to bury resurfaced.

She choked out bitterly, “I can’t stop seeing themfuc—-”

A finger on her lips cut her off, and Fawn froze. A second later the prince was peering down at her, and all of a sudden his classically handsome face filled her entire vision.

“Don’t do that,” the prince murmured. “While I admit to having fantasized about hearing you say dirty words, I don’t want to hear it if they’re for another man’s sake. You understand this, don’t you,parthena mou?”

She nodded, and a familiar, drugging sense of heat enveloped her body as the movement caused her lips to rub against his finger.

Oh.

The prince straightened, and as soon as her lips were freed, Fawn immediately wetted them, feeling like they were suddenly too dry. She swallowed, noticing the way the air around them was charged with sexual tension, something she had never felt with Grant.

When she looked at the prince again, it was to realize he was staring at her mouth, and she mumbled, “No.” A kiss was just going to confuse things, even if she was sure it was the one thing that could take her mind off—-

Stop it, Fawn.

His eyes were laughing at her. “What do you mean no,parthena mou?”

“You know exactly what I’m saying, and—-” She looked at him suspiciously. “What does that mean anyway?”

The prince was visibly surprised. “You truly don’t know?”

She shook her head. “I didn’t think it was right to look it up,” she said awkwardly. “If I did, it would mean b-betraying Grant.”

His jaw clenched as he forced himself to smile. “I see.”

Grant Bennett, you lucky son of a bitch.

Thankfully, the man was enough of an idiot to not realize what he had.

“If you want to know, look it up.” She started to take her phone out, and he shook his head, murmuring, “Not now.” He took hold of her hand then, and ignoring the way her body jerked, he entwined her fingers with his.

“P-prince.”

Gazing at their entwined hands, he asked steadily, “Do you still love him?”

The fingers in his hold tensed, and with it he already had his answer.

Grant Bennett, you fucking idiot.

“I wish I could say I stopped loving him the moment I saw him—-”

“Fucking another woman,” the prince spelled out in a hard voice. He saw her flinch, and he bit back a curse. “I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay.”

But they both knew it was not.

He had been an insensitive ass, and they both knew that, too.

Dragging air into his lungs, he said slowly, “Up until I was eight years old, I was raised in an environment where weakness of any kind was beaten out of you.”

Fawn was stunned. “I didn’t know. I’m s-sorry.” But now it was beginning to be clear to her that the rumors about the prince – which she had believed were just rumors – had more than a grain in truth in them.

“I’m the one who should be sorry, and I’m only telling you that because I didn’t want you to think I was a complete ass.”

“U-understood.” Fawn gave him a studious nod. “And you were successful.” Managing a smile, she said, “Now, I just think you’re half an ass.”

---