Page 64
Story: Princes of Legacy
Effie squawks. “Fucking asshole,” and I wince. Pace is going to kill me.
“Tonight,” Wicker says, snagging a single-stemmed white rose from a passing tray, “he’s your opponent.” Wicker tucks the rose behind my ear, grinning. “To the victor, Red.”
God,I hate this guy.
Hate him.
From the second I sit down at his table, just me and him, he does nothing but glare at me. No barbed words. No insults. Justglares. All around us, the rest of the frat seems chilly but at least happy enough to indulge the pretense. I’ve already been to four tables and it wasfine. Loeffler was stiff, but still greeted me. Baxter stumbled around a flaccid attempt at conversation about the nursery construction. Decker even shook my hand.
Not Tommy.
He sits in front of me with his arms crossed over his chest, looking like a sulking schoolboy. It’s a shame Pace took Effie back when the food was being served. She’d tell this prick what’s what.
He hasn’t even touched his food.
I get a good three minutes into this glaring contest before I break. “Whatis your problem?!”
His lips pull back into a menacing grin. “The email said I had to be here. It didn’t say I had to make conversation.”
I look over my shoulder, making sure none of my Princes are around before I hiss, “Why are you such a jerk?”
“Why are you such a bitch?” he snaps back.
“Maybe because my back hurts.” I lean against the back of the chair, trying to stretch out my spine. I’ve been on my feet all day trying to pull this whole thing off. “Or it could be that you’ve been nothing but an asshole to me since I stepped foot in East End! What’s your excuse?”
“Don’t pull the pregnancy card on me, Sinclaire.” His eyes shift wistfully from his empty glass to the bar across the room. “You really want to know?”
“Enlighten me.”
“You assaulted my girlfriend with a frying pan.”
I roll my eyes. “She tried to fuck my Prince.”
He looks distinctly unimpressed. “Everyone on the Court tries to fuck the Prince. It’s tradition. You’d know that if you belonged here.” The last part is laced with venom. Good. It’s time to hash this out.
“Well, where I come from, if a girl tries to fuck your man, you kick her ass.”
“Of course they do.” He snorts. “Barbarians.”
“Oh, I forgot,” I glare at him, “real class means strapping girls down and coming on their faces, right?”
“See, this is the problem.” He straightens up, resting his elbows on the table. “Heather, and all the other girls you took the title from, never would have been in the situation for a Royal Cleansing because they would have given anything to become Princess. And if they required punishment, they would have taken it with humility and grace. Everything with you is so goddamn dramatic. It’s all one fight after the other, and now you’ve got the Ashby brothers so cuntstunned they can’t fucking see straight.” The muscle in the back of his jaw tics. “If you don’t want to uphold the duties of Princess, the good and the bad, then maybe you should go back to your shitty West End gutter.”
That little speech does nothing to adjust my attitude toward him. In fact, I’m one step from going full Whitaker Ashby Gender Reveal tantrum on him, but instead of throwing cake, I quietly explain, “I’m not going back to West End. I’m the Princess and I’m carrying the heir to this kingdom, which means there’s no going back. Not for me, and not for you. So here’s what’s going to happen.” I take a deep breath and hope that Lex isn’t monitoring my blood pressure right now. “You’ve got ten seconds to look me in the eye and tell me what your goddamn problem is so we can fix this.”
He glares at me.
“Ten,” I start. “Nine. Eight…”
Finally, he snaps, “You’re the reason she left me.”
“Heather?” I ask, dumbfounded. “You’re really broken up about being dumped by the same girl who was trying to fuck Wicker a few months ago?”
“She’s on the Court,” he grinds out. “It’s trad?—”
“Tradition, yeah yeah.” I sigh, rubbing my forehead. “Look, I’m sorry Heather broke up with you.” From the aggressively skeptical scowl, it's obvious he’s not buying my apology. I insist, “I actually am. Believe me when I say there are no two people better suited for each other.”
“She blocked my texts,” he confesses, looking away. “And when I went by the house, she had one of the other girls tell me she wasn’t there, but her car was out front.”
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128
- Page 129
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 133
- Page 134
- Page 135
- Page 136
- Page 137
- Page 138
- Page 139
- Page 140
- Page 141
- Page 142
- Page 143
- Page 144
- Page 145
- Page 146
- Page 147
- Page 148
- Page 149
- Page 150
- Page 151
- Page 152
- Page 153
- Page 154
- Page 155
- Page 156
- Page 157
- Page 158
- Page 159
- Page 160
- Page 161
- Page 162
- Page 163
- Page 164
- Page 165
- Page 166
- Page 167
- Page 168
- Page 169
- Page 170
- Page 171
- Page 172
- Page 173
- Page 174
- Page 175
- Page 176
- Page 177
- Page 178
- Page 179
- Page 180
- Page 181
- Page 182