Page 92 of Spearcrest Prince

“Is that why you’re leaving, trésor?” He brushes his lips against my cheek. “Because of my behaviour? Have I been bad? Are you very angry?”

“Why should I be angry?”

He pulls away, bracing his hands against the tree trunk, keeping me trapped close to him. “You have every right to be angry. You just saw your fiancé—your future husband—kiss a beautiful girl right in front of you.”

You’re not my future husband, I long to say right to his face. You’re not my future husband, and in a few months, you won’t even be my fiancé.

But where my heart screams for revenge, my mind whispers caution.

“We have a deal,” I say with a shrug. “We agreed to be allies, didn’t we? Wasn’t that the point? To play along but keep our freedom?”

“That alliance is bullshit,” he hisses, his tone suddenly dark and seething. “It’s bullshit, and you know it. You knew it even when we made our so-called deal. I’ll fight every fucker in this school—every fucker in this world—before I let anybody else have you.”

“Oh!” I burst out into a cold, incredulous laugh. “You’re jealous, now?”

“No,” he sneers. “Youare. You’re just too proud to admit it. Too proud to tell me you don’t want me to kiss other girls, too proud to ask me to kiss you instead.”

“Hah! You’re so deluded you’re not even living in the same world as the rest of us!”

“At least I don’t act like I’m above the rest of the world!”

“I don’t act that way.” I glare at him and clench my fists, resisting the urge to punch him. “You’re just projecting your childish insecurities onto me.”

“My insecurities?” He throws his head back in a laugh. “You must be joking. What insecurities? My life is perfect.”

“Your life is only perfect as long as everybody around you believes it’s perfect. You’re so obsessed with everybody else’s perception of you that you barely exist as a real person.”

“Is that what you tell yourself to make yourself feel better?” He gives me a cold smirk. “That you don’t care what everyone thinks? Is that why you dress like a clown even though you’re richer than everyone around you? Mock the upper classes when you only got engaged to gain a three-hundred-year-old name? Is that all because you don’t care?”

“I’m not rich.” I straighten myself, gathering all my dignity to spit at him, “And I didn’t choose to be engaged to you.”

“No, and yet you’re here. You didn’t choose this engagement, but you still moved schools, left your entire life behind to be here. You didn’t choose this engagement, but you’ve not made one attempt at breaking it. You didn’t choose me, but you still fucked me.”

My face erupts into flames. His cheeks, too, are darkly flushed. His chest is pressed to mine, the hammering of his heart clashing with the hammering of mine.

“So I slept with you,” I say coldly. “At least I have the courage to admit why.”

“You’ve never admitted shit,” he retorts. “You think you’re so brave and honest, but you lie more than anybody I’ve ever met.”

“Oh,I’mthe liar?” My entire body shakes with anger. “I know why I came here tonight, and I know why I’m leaving. But you? You tried to forbid me from coming with someone else, and you beat up the only person to actually ask me out. You’ve even made the effort to bring a girl from my class and kiss her in front of me. And yet you’restilllying to yourself about why you’ve done all these things.”

This time, it’s his eyes which widen in shock. This time, it’s him dropping his arms from around my head, stepping away from me, putting distance between us.

“I’m not,” he says thickly.

“Go on then, Séverin Montcroix—prince of truth. Why don’t you tell me why you did all these things?”

“Because—because you’re my fiancée, and—”

“You don’t care that I’m your fiancée, remember?” I step into him, invading his space. My chest brushes against his, and an involuntary shiver claws through me, stiffening my nipples and sending goosebumps rippling over my arms. “You didn’t choose me either. You didn’t want me either. Right?”

“Right.”

“So then—why? Why not let me come to the party with someone else? Go on. Say it.”

“Pembroke didn’t want to bring you to this party because he wanted the pleasure of your company, Anaïs, he—”

“You asked me to say no to anybody who asked,” I point out, tilting my head. “So that’s another lie.”

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