Page 1 of Court of Rivals
1
Harper
“Eat a bag of dicks!”I shout at the asshole who had drunkenly knocked into me, sending all the apples in my basket scattering all over the ground.
Billy, the town drunk, blinks stupidly back at me. “S-sorry, Harper,” he slurs.
“Don’t be sorry, stop doing this to yourself!” I grumble at him as I kneel down and begin scooping apples up and putting them back in my basket.
Still, I guess this is better than that time he ran into me completely naked…
It’s midday in Pennyvale and everybody and their dog is out. I know damn well that constantly having to weave around people is my own fault for not getting into town sooner, but it couldn’t be helped. I’d been helping my mother all morning with a boy who’d fallen from a tree and broken his arm. It was a bad break, so it’d taken a lot of work just to save his arm.
Now, I’m exhausted, and want to just get out of here as fast as humanly possible. The quiet of the woods is calling me, as is agood book, and I’m eager to answer that particular call. Luckily, I have just about everything on my mother’s list. The last stop is the baker.
Heaving my bag back onto my shoulder and grabbing the basket full of apples, I head around the blacksmith’s shop and instantly run head first into yetanotherperson. This time it’s someone tall, broad, and all too familiar.
My heart drops.Tesson.
I don’t want to look, gods, I don’t, but my eyes find his, dark and glinting, with that smirk that hits me harder than the collision itself.
Tesson is Lord Montclair’s son. Every girl in the village desperately wants to marry him. Every man, woman, and child thinks the gods themselves blessed him into being as the perfect man.
Everyone, that is, except me.
I hate him.
I’m also betrothed to him.
“Hello, Tesson,” I manage, swallowing around the lump in my throat.
His smirk widens as I step back, creating space between us. “Hello, Harper.”
I start inching around him. “Well, I have a lot of things to do today–”
“You know, I’m beginning to think you don’t like being around me.” He doesn’tthinkit. Heknowsit. I’m not allowed to admit it, to say the words, in fear of what his father would do to my family, but we both know down to our cores that I want nothing to do with him. That he disgusts me.
“I’m just busy,” I lie.
As I continue to slide around him, he steps into my path. “Too busy for your betrothed?”
He sweeps a hand through his short brown hair and shakes his head a little. I hear a passing woman literally gasp, fluttering her lashes at him as she walks by us. It’s sick, this power he has over everyone. This mask he wears so carefully.
“What do you want?” I ask, careful to keep the venom out of my voice.
He reaches forward and grabs ahold of my arm, tightening his hold to the point that it’s painful. “Just to talk to you. I haven’t seen you much lately.” Then, he’s hauling me into the alley between the blacksmith’s shop and a clothing shop. “How have you been?” he asks lightly.
“Fine,” I manage.
There’s a flicker of anger in his eyes. A moment of truth. A slipping of the mask. I swear he only shows his true self with me, when we’re alone, because he knows no one would believe me if I told them what he was really like. That he has a soul as black and wicked as a demon’s.
“Why are you so cold to me, Harper? I’m the son of a lord. I’m wealthy and powerful. I could’ve chosen anyone to marry–”
“So choose someone else,” I tell him softly.
He throws back his head and laughs, like a villain in one of my stories. When his gaze lifts toward the blacksmith’s roof, mine follows, tracking the subtle shift until I spot what’s caught his attention: a bird's nest tucked into the corner. Inside, pale white eggs gleam. Some of my unease fades at the sight of the pretty eggs. I have no doubt they belong to love birds.
“There’s no one else for me. From the first moment I saw you, I knew you belonged to me,” he tells me casually, like I’m a thing to claim instead of a person. “Being connected to me has helped you and your family in countless ways. You wouldn’t want to lose all of that, would you?”
