Page 5 of Crown of Thorns
“That’s the third time you’ve claimed that I’ve been unfaithful, hen, and I have to tell you that it’s starting to piss me off.”
“Then don’t lie to me,” I yelp. “Just stop denying it.”
“I wouldn’t,” he says, and I raise a brow because we both know that the elephant in the room is that he’s lied to me countless times. “Not about that.”
“I saw you with her.”
“No, you bloody well didn’t,” he snaps.
“You were sitting on a sofa with your back to me and she was on her knees…” I trail off and avert my eyes, not wanting to voice what I saw.
“I don’t know who you saw but it wasn’t me,” he says. “I don’t even know what woman you’re accusing of sucking me off.”
Rage fills me entirely and a hazy red film coats my vision. I won’t let this man push me around anymore. He wants to deny fucking his bitch of a stepmother, then he can go ahead. But I know what I saw. I let the slimy feeling surface, recalling the way she smiled at me as her lips wrapped around his fat cock, knowing that it was killing me to see him give himself to her.
“I saw your broad shoulders in a silk shirt over the top of the sofa back, and your black hair mussed from her fingers running through it. And then I saw her wink at me and smile, knowing she’d won a game I didn’t even know we were playing. And then she…serviced you. I know it was you, so you can’t tell me that it wasn’t.”
“And who is it that you’re so sure I’m fucking?” he snarls at me.
“Your stepmom, you sick bastard.” I can barely get the words out. How could he be so depraved as to fuck the woman who held space in his father’s bed for so many years. I know there was a huge age gap between Saoirse and the king, but still… That’s a line that, once crossed, could never be recovered.
She wants to remain the queen and has made no bones about it. And the only way to accomplish that is to marry the new king instead of going off into the night and moving into the dowager estate like she should if she were a decent human being. She’s alsonota decent human being, so what do I know?
Just as quickly as our fight started; the tension clears the room. Rhys throws his head back and laughs until he finally pulls himself together and drops his face into his hands and groans. I’ve clearly boarded a train to crazy town, and no one told me.
“Fucking Taylor,” he says.
How did we jump from his stepmom to his brother? It might be the concussion but I’m not making the leap with him.
“Huh?” I’m going to need someone to explain some things to me. And a nap. Definitely a nap, because this is all way too much for my bruised brain to handle right now. Or, you know, ever.
“Taylor has been fucking Saoirse for over a year,” Rhys says matter-of-factly.
“Ew.” I shudder. “That’s disgusting.”
“My thoughts exactly,” he says before taking myhand in his. “I wasn’t a monk before I found you, but now that I have, it’s only you who I want. It’s only you who I will ever want.”
“I’m glad you didn’t cheat on me,” I tell him. “But it still doesn’t matter.”
“It fucking well does matter when I tell you that I’m really in love with you,” he growls.
I let out a frustrated sigh. Saying he loves me now is nothing more than another ploy to keep me where he wants me.
“It does matter, because someone wants me dead, Rhys. I can’t be here anymore,” I say, trying to rationalize with him. He has to understand what’s really at stake.
“It was an accident—” he starts.
“It wasn’t,” I tell him. “Something wasn’t right in the car. We all knew it. But before that was the vipers.”
“What?” he asks, his focus zeroing in like a laser.
“Someone filled my bed with snakes while you were gone, Rhys. I can’t live like this. I’m not safe.”
“You’re not safe alone either. The world will know who you really are soon enough, but the Golden Serpents clearly already know who you are.”
“They just want me away from you—” I start. If I go away, if I’m no longer on the island, I’ll be safe and so will he. He has to be.
“No, darlin’,” he says gently. “They don’t want an alliance between me and your uncle, Matteo. But it doesn’t matter because you’re an heir of the Guardiansof the Crown.”
