Page 29 of A Girl and HER Prince
Livvy’s stomach tightened as she took in his affectionate eyes. Interest emanated from his expression as surely as the warmth she felt at his close proximity. Water from his hands dripped against her knee. Somehow he’d found his way back to her side again, causing more damage to her rushing pulse.
Nothing about this was real, was it?
Deedee knew. Venice knew. Achilles knew. Livvy was the only one who’d been fooled into believing, if even for one reckless second, that he’d been sincere. Her cheeks burned.
“Or are you going to let me call you Luvvy forever?” he asked under his breath.
Her fingers itched to put him in his place.
… and if she went along with this then his revenge against Deedee would be complete, along with settling the score with Livvy too. He thought she was just as complicit in this arranged dinner as her friend.
She had to see this for what it really was—he’d toy with her while plucking out the rest of Deedee’s heart, who couldn’t seem to quit now that she’d been bested.
Deedee smiled tightly. “We could play a game of our own,” she told Achilles. “I still need to show you those lights off the coast of Chios before we leave for Athens in the morning.”
“We don’t have to leave Chios right away,” Venice said. “I still need to show Livvy her place.”
Livvy groaned. That was it! No way was she was going to step into Deedee’s shoes—they were only at different levels of this torturous game. Livvy was smart enough to know that her inexperience at love would not let her come out a winner against this jaded lot.
She’d be broken.
Shaking her head in disgust, Livvy stood, so that she was out of reach of Venice’s hands. “It’s late, Deedee. Time to turn in.”
“You sure, Luvvy?”
With difficulty, she stopped herself from fighting her new nickname. Venice stepped back in the Jacuzzi, his brow arching up at her as if he dared her to another match.
The tiny basketball rolled up against her bare feet. “Find yourself a new sparring partner, Aeneas.” She kicked the overinflated toy back at him.
He caught the ball one-handed, and she ignored the spark of challenge in his eyes as she turned away. Livvy gathered Deedee by the elbow so they could rush back to their cabin.
She ignored Achilles’s sputtering laughter. Venice was already telling him to shut up through his own chortles even as she hurried out the door propped open to keep it from locking on them again. Livvy didn’t even want to know who Deedee had to bribe for it to lock behind them like that.
As soon as they were in the elevator and out of earshot, she let her friend have it. “What were you thinking?”
“Save me the lecture!” Deedee said. “It would’ve worked if you hadn’t come poking your nose around my territory.”
“Me?” The accusation stung, it was so unfair. “I was trying to warn you.”
“You should’ve warned yourself,” Deedee yelled. “Don’t believe a thing Venice tells you by the way. His heart is stone.”
“Then why do you keep trying to get at it?”
“I want him to feel what I feel,” Deedee exclaimed. “For once in his life, I want him to feel something more than justdarkamusement.” She made a sound of frustration. “Oh, you’ll see for yourself soon enough. He’s closed his heart forever. I know it came from that revolution. He lost his stepmother in that—Bris’s mother, but he thought of her as his own; he admitted that anyway… barely. I had to dig the truth out of him with a pickax. By the sound of things, it was a brutal war. Achilles’s parents died too…”
Livvy’s heart dropped at the horrible story. “That’s terrible.”
She shrugged. “They barely remember any of it.”
The elevator reached the bottom deck and Deedee flew out into the hall. Livvy had to run to keep up with her. She realized that she’d forgotten her swimsuit cover upstairs. No way would she be returning for it.
“Either way, I guess those things have a way of sticking with you,” Deedee said, “and now honestly, I think Venice has troubles getting close to anybody. I’ve never seen him cry. Not once.”
No doubt she’d tried.“You just need to stop,” Livvy said. Venice’s tragic background madeherwant to cry, and provoking him every chance they got wasn’t going to make him open up. This was Deedee’s excuse to keep pestering him anyway. “He’s got problems, but… it’s really time to move on.”
Deedee rolled her eyes and fumbled with the door handle of their quaint little cabin before sliding inside. The ocean flowed past their window in a stretch of glittering silver against the moonlight.
The heavy slam of the door echoed behind them. “My plan worked by the way,” Deedee said breathlessly. She leaned against the heavy wooden door with a big smile. Her blue eyes, weighed down by black liquid liner, caught Livvy’s in an excited stare. “I don’t care what kind of disaster you thought that was—we got his attention.”
