Page 52 of Fake Fae-Ancée

…a totally bonkers plan anyway. That she should now live here was not good.

Not good at all.

I had just come to terms with the fact that it was over.

A few weeks before — we had been in France on some spontaneous rescue mission — Kai had told me to go fuck myself and leave her the hell alone. She had told me that many times before, but that one time had been one time too many.

It had finally clicked.

Some people needed five years to accept that their wife doesn't love them anymore. And just when I was finally ready to accept it, fate threw us together again.

Hilarious.

Disastrous.

How was I supposed to keep it up? Her hand in mine earlier had caught me cold. And then hot. My body still hungered for her. A miracle I hadn't thrown her over my shoulder caveman style and dragged her into my bedroom. Bear growled, pacing in my mind and demanding to come through and do just that…

"Your Royal Highness?"

I swiveled in my chair, blinking at my butler. No idea how long Bates had been standing in the door, asking for me. He wore a drily amused expression.

"You should come, Your Royal Highness. Trust me, you don’t want to miss this."

Yuri

The living-room had been transformedinto an outright fashion studio, with mirrors and spotlights and everything. Assistants and other minions were running to and fro doing who the hell knew what, and in the eye of the storm, swaying on a small podium, surrounded by two seamstresses fiddling with fabric and needles — was her.

I stopped dead in my tracks. The needle from my mental record was ripped away with a deafening scratch.

"This will never work!" the figure on the podium said, turning around.

The first impression people had of Kai usually was either her laughing her ass off or punching you between the eyes. Or both.

Now, I tried to wrap my head around the updated and utterly transformed knockout version of her standing right in front of me.

They had shoved her into a ball gown made of pale green fabric, with a flared skirt that most likely wouldn't fit through any door. A dress that reversed her, making all her hard edges soft, letting her form flow where the onlooker’s gaze would otherwise bump. A dress that made her less dangerous. Or dangerous in a completely different way.

She just tugged at the corset that hugged her upper body in an interesting way. My gaze traveled along the curved line of her silhouette, her bare shoulders, her arms that gestured wildly, flailing through the air as she rapped at the seamstress.

Her hair was different, too. It took me several seconds to realize that her side cut was gone. However those fashion nuts had done it, Kai's hair was now a long, silky curtain of midnight blackness cascading over her one shoulder, all the way down to the curve of her hip....

"And what are you staring at?"

Kai glowered at me. I blinked.

Why was it so damn warm in here, all of a sudden? I tugged at my collar while inside my mind Bear was perking up mental ears, giving a sniff.

Her scent was there, too. Omnipresent and sweet and so much her.

I whistled my body to order. There was no reason to get overexcited. It was only Kai. And she and I would part ways as soon as this was over. There was no reason to get worked up over a simple ball gown.

"You look... good?" I tried cautiously.

"I look like a circus horse," she said, gesturing down at herself, causing the seamstresses to duck aside.

The corners of my mouth twitched. She was right. This would never work. Our ruse would be blown as soon as Kai opened her mouth. And yet... I shouldn't be enjoying this. Her standing in my living room, yelling at seamstresses. Or her looking at me like she was just thinking of seven different ways of turning me into confetti.

Well, at least she was looking at me...

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