Page 12 of A Girl and HER Prince
“Yeah totally.” Luvvy’s relieved voice was almost musical in her rush to comfort her friend. “It’s more than fine! We can do our ownOdysseytour anyway.”
Sudden jealousy fired through him. The one person in this group who might actually enjoy the literary theme of this trip was just waltzing off his ship with Deedee, and now he’d never get to see Luvvy’s funny, sassy reactions or—or see her again.
For some strange reason, he cared. A lot. Ugh, he was making the right call. Shedefinitelyhad to go.
Achilles waved goodbye to the camera.
Deedee crushed Venice in a bear hug, ripping his attention away from Luvvy. “It’s too bad we can’t go with you,” she said lightly, then bent closer to his ear, “I wonder what your father will say when I put up the footage from our Tirreoy trip?” And with those earth-shattering words, she slipped away.
She’d said she destroyed that!
Venice seized Deedee’s arm before she got too far. “You stay on one condition,” he said. His harsh voice felt like it belonged to someone else. Luvvy made a sound of surprise behind him.
Yeah, he was really doing this.
Deedee straightened in excitement. All traces of tears were gone like they’d never been there. For a fleeting second, he wasn’t sure if she’d been truly worried about him turning her away, but then again, she’d known she had the upper hand the whole time.
It was critical the world never see how he’d let his disgust show when they’d trespassed his uncle’s properties in Tirreoy or when he’d seen the consequences of what that tyrant had done to the people who rotted in poverty and filth.
He’d been so angry when she’d filmed that! Everything spilling from his mouth had been careless and hasty and easily taken out of context as him hating on his country and people. No one would take his father seriously again with footage like that floating around.
Deedee grinned from ear to ear like she hadn’t just delivered the final killing blow of her betrayal. “What conditions?” she asked breathlessly.
He swallowed. Maybe hewasthe idiot she thought he was—one look at her angelic friend and he was stumbling all over himself, and yet he was about to let Luvvy on his yacht with his ex? If she was the “good girl” that she looked like, she shouldn’t be here at all, not with the desperate and reckless mood he was presently in.
His fingers tightened over Deedee as the rash words left his mouth: “If I let you stay, you don’t mention me on your channel from now on. As far as you’re concerned, I don’t exist.”
“Like you do to me?”
He steeled himself against her accusation. He couldn’t deny it. “If that’s what it takes.”
Her lips pursed. “Fine.Afterthis trip you’re dead to me.”
Achilles swung around to him with a mocking scoff as it became abundantly clear that Venice had given in yet again.
But Venice wasn’t about to let Deedee get away with another thing. “And while you’re on my ship, no cameras, no footage, nothing.” He needed to lay down the ground rules before everything his father feared came true.
Deedee looked indignant that he’d even suspect her of doing what she did for a living. “I wouldn’t think of it,” she said.
Wouldn’t she, though? That camera phone that Luvvy held was still on.
“And Deedee…” He had to make sure that she wasn’t getting the wrong idea. “We’re not getting back together again.”
She nodded, though her long lashes lowered as she pointedly stared at where he still clutched her arm.
He snatched his hand back and did his best to ignore Achilles’s eye rolls. “It’s a short trip,” he said. “Only a week.”
“A lot can happen in a week,” Deedee said with a mean smile.
Venice really hoped that wasn’t another threat. His eyes narrowed on her. No one could hear what he’d said in Tirreoy. “Destroy that footage.”
Deedee nodded like it was no big deal and broke from him to link arms with Luvvy, reclaiming her camera phone from her friend.
Now that Luvvy wasn’t looking through that lens, she stole a glance at Venice. That same spark of awareness exploded through him, leaving him a disjointed mess.
He steadied his shoulders. If Achilles noticed Luvvy lit Venice up like a forest fire every time she looked at him, he’dneverlet him live it down, but it was worse than that, far worse. This angel was different than any of the socialites he’d let on his ship and no matter how much he told himself she was in on this too, the more her genuine gaze drew him in. Venice had just invited a keg of gun powder to the party.
He’d better control his runaway emotions and fast. Once upon a time, he’d thought Deedee was fascinating too.
