Page 62 of Prince Charmless
“Don’t act like you’re above me.” Jamie puts a finger to my chest, but I slap it away. “You look very good pretending to be all chummy out there. I always used to say we had the same job.” He smiles with what are probably veneers.
“I don’t remember you saying that.”
Jamie grimaces. “You never remembered anything.”
“I guess I never cared to.”
“You know, we can have it like the old times. Passionate and heated, yet loveless and noncommittal, just how you like it.”
Old times, meaning our pre-blackmail era.
“How is it possible you’ve gottenmorecrazy andmorewretched over the years?”
He squints. “Don’t think you can get rid of me yet, Your Highness. Gaël loves going to pretentious parties. He says it’s good for networking.”
He’s right. Now that they’re married, I’m going to have to see him at all the events I invite his rich husband to. I feel like throwing up. And not because of the alcohol.
I fill my fist full of Jamie’s lapel and shove him around the corner into a small hallway. “Do you understand how fucking evil it is? For you to hold it over someone? I couldn’t sleep for weeks because of you screwing with my life and to see you here acting like it was just a game?”
He cranes his head against the wall. “I honestly didn’t think you’d bite. It’s the twenty-first century, Taylor. No one gives a shit I’m gay.”
“How dare you say something that ignorant to my face. I’m not an actor, Jamie. I don’t come from Hollywoodland where ‘no one gives a shit’. Can you name me a royal that isn’t straight?”
He doesn’t say anything. He just blinks stupidly. I want to shake him so he understands my point.
“If I see you and your husband again, I will act cordial, I will say hi, but other than that, I don’t ever want you to speak again, do you hear me?” I think I meant to say ‘speakto meagain’, but just ‘speak’ works too.
He nods and swipes his cheek. I must’ve gotten my saliva on him.
It takes all my strength to let Jamie go. “You and Gaël have a blissful marriage,” I sneer as I leave the hallway.
Before reentering civilization, I take a deep breath and run a hand through my hair.Be cordial, be talkative, be the Prince of St. Claire. It shouldn’t be that fucking hard to be nice to people for a couple of hours.
As soon as I let go of the door to the greenhouse, I spot her. And she spots me. Melina’s instant smile is so innocent and genuine.God, she’s pretty.I can’t even describe it. She’s like the sunshine after Jamie’s hurricane of horribleness. Also, the sunshine that’s standing right next to my father. She’s been talking with him this whole time as I’ve been pointlessly fighting with Jamie like it’s circa four years ago.
I have to save her.
When I storm over to them, Dad opens his mouth to say something, but I ignore him and grab Melina’s forearm to pull her behind a bush.
“I’m sorry I left for so long. I got, uh—” I look back at the entrance, “distracted.”
“I’m fine,” she says.
I put my hands on her cheeks. “You are?”
She nods.
My fingers tingle against her soft skin as I gaze into the dark portals of her eyes. Why am I touching her face again?
I ball up my hands by Melina’s ears before walking past her toward a different set of doors. These ones are blocked off by a rope. Maybe they’ll lead to a better surprise. Some fresh air if I’m lucky.
“But I’d rather not be left alone again,” she calls.
I throw out my hands. “Then come with.”
“Are you mad at me?”
My heart sinks as I turn around. “Why would you say that?”
