Total pages in book: 34
Estimated words: 34243 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 171(@200wpm)___ 137(@250wpm)___ 114(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 34243 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 171(@200wpm)___ 137(@250wpm)___ 114(@300wpm)
They, too, were just like him.
Fooled by her act.
But this time, he wasn’t going to let the past repeat itself.
He felt her hand shake as he took hold of it and led her to the dance floor. The music shifted into another song, giving them the cue to start waltzing. This time, no microphones. Just the two of them, and a regulation six inches of space between their bodies.
Her palm was damp against his. Her other hand rested at his shoulder the way she had been taught—correct position, correct pressure—except her fingers kept almost-closing on the fabric of his coat and then easing off again.
“So...six years.” Her voice was strangled, not at all like the Tiara he knew. Then again, did he really know her?
“I tried to text you.”
“Did you?”
“I tried calling you, too...and that’s how I realized you blocked my number.”
“And that surprised you?”
“I was just thinking. Since you’re older, more mature, you could’ve given me a chance to explain—”
“You let a guy kiss you.”
She shook her head, and his lip nearly curled at this.
“It wasn’t like that—”
“It was exactly like that,” he said pleasantly, “since his mouth was on your fucking mouth.”
He saw her wince at his language, but he didn’t take it back.
“I...I know that’s not...what I’m saying is that I never saw him as a guy.”
He stared at her in disbelief.
“I know this will sound like I’m making things up, but at that time, I was such a mess, and I was thinking...a frog.”
He nearly stopped dancing. Was she really going to keep lying like this?
“That was all he was to me.”
She sounded so damn earnest.
“A frog.”
But it just had him gritting his teeth.
“And I was a girl kissing a frog—”
He was about to cut her off, to just stop it with all the lies—
“—to make the prince jealous enough to give her the words, the only words she wanted to hear.”
—when he realized what she was saying.
“You could’ve just said it,” she whispered.
“You could’ve asked,” he snarled.
“W-Why didn’t you just say it?”
“Why didn’t you say it first?”
The silence that followed didn’t surprise him.
Of course, there was nothing for her to say since all she had done was lie—
“B-Because I was too proud and terrified.”
The words caught him off guard, and her stilted tone had his grip on her waist tightening involuntarily.
“But n-not anymore.”
And that was when she did something that was not part of the program. Tiara digging her heels in, forcing him to stop.
“I know it’s six years too late,” she said shakily, “but nothing’s changed for me.”
Damn her.
Did she really think all she had to do was say those words like she meant it, and she would once again have him eating from the palm of her hand?
“I love you, Arkane.”
Damn her. Damn her. Damn her.
“I’ve always been—”
Arkane cupped her face and kissed her.
He kissed her to shut her up. Kissed her because he couldn’t bear hearing her lie to him again. But the moment he had another taste of her lips—
It was like...finding home again, even when he knew this was all a lie.
And when she started crying again as she kissed him back?
Arkane also knew that she believed all was forgiven, and everything was going to be fine.
But she was wrong.
Because this time, he was going to make Tiara fall for him fast and hard...before crushing her heart into pieces.
He would destroy her...the way she had destroyed him six years ago.
Chapter Three
YOU KNOW HOW OLD ROMANCE movies end, with couples running off into the night or something? These days, that either means they stole something, or it’s clickbait, and they’re actually going to have a divorce. Or other times, a killer’s on the loose, and yeah, turns out, that couple were just extras.
Yeah, that’s typical now. But back in the day when streaming wasn’t a thing yet?
Couples leaving hand in hand, walking away from the crowds?
It meant a good thing then.
And sometimes, it also meant it was raining, and they just needed to run for cover.
Like now.
It takes everyone by surprise, the sound of thunder and the flash of lightning on the digital screens—all artificial, but they’re so perfectly done that even Arkane places a hand on the small of my back, his touch fiercely protective.
“Ladies and gentlemen, your attention please,” our unseen host drawls from his secret place. “In a few minutes, it will start to rain in our ballroom. You’re invited to frolic in the rain or use the park-issued umbrellas now being distributed by our staff. Or, like our newly reunited lovers, you can run off into the night, with only the moon as your witness.”
A helpless laugh escapes me when I realize what this is all about, and the rest of the crowd joins me when the massive screens start playing a loop of famous movie scenes where couples do run off into the night.