Page 48 of A Queen and HER Bad Boy (Spies and Royals #4)

Chapter Twenty-Four

“ F ather?” Bris noticed the calculated coldness play across his rigid face as he watched her. Would he never look at her like a daughter?

The study felt suffocating despite its grandeur.

Heavy burgundy drapes blocked most of the afternoon light.

The massive oak desk dominated the room, its surface polished so that it mirrored the oil paintings behind them of stern-faced Tyndarian ancestors watching from gilded frames, their eyes seeming to judge her every move.

She swallowed, gesturing at a mahogany chair with ornate golden embellishments that looked more like a throne than comfortable seating. “Please sit.”

“I’d rather not,” he said.

The rejection stung more than it should have.

Even this small gesture of courtesy was denied her.

No way would she take a seat before him like a wayward child.

Pretending that this was just another business meeting, she pointed to the papers on the table.

“Okay, well… we have drawn up emergency relief plans for the flood cleanup. We thought we could start at the village center, provide medical supplies and temporary housing to the displaced fam—”

“I didn’t come here for flood cleanup.” The ice in her father’s dangerously low voice froze her to the spot. “You think just because you’ve been here for longer than a month that you know everything now?”

His words were like physical punches. The dismissal, the contempt—it was all there in his tone. She felt herself shrinking back into the sad little girl who’d spent her childhood trying desperately to earn just one word of approval from this man.

“I thought we could at least set aside our differences to help our people,” she said.

“I see how you watch him!” he snarled, dropping all pretense about why he’d summoned her. He could only be talking about Achilles. Her stomach clenched. “You’ve turned into a pathetic schoolgirl!”

The accusation hung in the air like smoke. Heat flooded her cheeks as she realized how she’d betrayed their love with a look. Her father had read everything she’d tried to hide in her face.

“I told you to put him under your thumb, not the other way around. You haven’t done something so stupid as to fall in love with him… have you?”

The question felt like a trap. Every possible answer seemed to lead to disaster. Her throat closed up, words dying before they could form. In the heavy silence that followed, she could hear her father’s breathing, could smell his expensive cologne mixed with the musty scent of old books.

She didn’t know how to answer without betraying what she shared with her husband, but apparently her silence was enough to make her father’s face twist into an expression of such fury that she instinctively stepped backward.

“I thought of anyone, I could trust you to have some sense where Achilles is concerned… you think he will be loyal to you? He will betray you the second your back is turned. Don’t fall for his pretty words and wandering hands.

My spies have told me of Charisse and how they’ve been carrying on. ”

The name made her cringe. Charisse. Beautiful, sophisticated Charisse with her perfect pedigree and family fortune.

Yes, Achilles couldn’t leave her alone, but that was before…

before he’d told Bris he loved her, before he’d nearly died protecting her.

And she couldn’t say any of this or risk her father tearing apart her fragile hopes.

“What? Has he been pawing at you with his sugary promises?” Chises Mnon demanded, advancing on her until she could see the gold flecks in his hawk-like Tyndarian eyes, could feel the heat of his anger radiating from his substantial frame.

“And you actually believed anything coming from that lying mouth? He’s just like his father!

Don’t make the same mistakes I did! Achilles will betray you too…

he only thinks of you as a spoiled little girl! ”

Each word was carefully chosen to wound.

Her heart felt like it was being slowly shredded, piece by piece at the thought of Achilles secretly despising her, of finding someone better.

Achilles had never lacked partners, and as her father’s cruel reminder suggested, she wasn’t exactly the best of them.

And still she fought back, “Well, that is a fine speech from someone piling praise on him for saving my life.”

“Ha, my dear, he’s not the only one who can play at being nice.”

“He might be wild, yes! But he’s proven helpful The last few days have been spent trying to keep the flood from completely destroying Ilion.”

“Ah yes, you know what kind of man he is… after a few nights of him stroking your vanity! Achilles hasn’t changed from the sneering rebel that used to drag Venice to wild parties and get him drunk. Do you know what he’s been doing with Charisse behind your back?”

“No!” The word escaped before she could stop it, raw and desperate. She pressed her lips together, but it was too late.

Her father’s smile was predatory as he went into horrible detail: “He’s been calling her every night since you’ve been here, telling her how trapped he feels, how this marriage is a prison.”

“Every night?” He was lying. He’d hardly left her side this week. “That is impossible!”

“Why? Has he been with you the whole time? Is that what you’re telling me?”

Only now, after they’d come to an understanding.

Her lips pursed to stop from admitting that, even as her father’s words poured into her ears like poison: “My sources say he promised to find a way out of this arrangement so he could run away with Charisse. He told her that you mean nothing to him—that you’re just a political convenience he has to endure until he can figure out an escape. Don’t believe me?”

She didn’t… couldn’t… refused. Her father took out his phone and shoved it at her —“I want out…” It was Achilles, his voice, his growled laugh coming through her father’s phone as it played out his conversation.

Maybe a deep fake—she’d heard AI could do that now, and yet…

his humor was solely his, including his wit as he accused Charisse of dangling herself at him like bait: “ We have to be completely discreet. Bris can’t know what we’re planning.

I stole the last piece of pizza tonight, and she wouldn’t even fight me for it. ”

No, no, that was him! Her vision blurred, and for a moment she thought she might be sick right there on the fancy palace rug.

But some small, desperate part of her resisted—surely this was taken out of context, surely Achilles didn’t mean it, even as she listened to him go on: “I doubt she’ll have me after this .

I’ll be free to do whatever I want after she throws me out to the curb. ”

Charrisse’s soft answer grated on her nerves. “I’ll be waiting to pick you up. I’ll be waiting to catch you when you fall. I will always be there for you, no matter what happens.”

“Thanks Charisse.”

They’d both been angry beyond reason for being forced into a loveless marriage.

That’s why… that’s why…. And the pain choking her throat wouldn’t listen to logic, even while she knew she had to pretend one last time that none of this hurt.

“Father, the way that you carry on… why did you allow us to marry if you were concerned about his wild streak?”

“Do you think I care about his latest flings? You are to keep him in line… not the other way around.”

She pushed steel into her spine, drawing on years of practice at hiding her true feelings. A smile, forced and bitter, somehow sprang to her lips. “Ha, well, it seems I’ve fooled you as much as I fooled him! Please, do go on about how lovesick I am.”

For a moment, uncertainty flickered across his features. Had she managed to convince him? But then his eyes narrowed. “Don’t try to pull the wool over my eyes, little girl. You let him fire Phoenix on a whim. Deny it if you can.”

The accusation hung between them. She remembered that moment—standing in their doorway, seeing Achilles’s fury, making the split-second decision to support her husband.

It had felt right then, like the first real choice she’d made as one ready to be queen.

Now it felt like evidence of her weakness…

to an outside observer. And yet, Phoenix had overstepped his bounds.

She shrugged under his glare. “What was I to do? Allow my husband to believe that he was less than a servant? Sacrifices were made. Phoenix had to go.”

“Well…” The intimidating Chises Mnon seemed to understand the wisdom in that.

“Perhaps some good will come of it—your strategy might’ve made you the next target for that boy’s wandering eyes.

I can admit that. My sources tell me that you now share the same bed.

And I’d be blind not to notice how Achilles watched you today, like an adoring puppy.

You haven’t been completely unsuccessful… ”

Despite everything, her treacherous heart leaped.

Her father had seen it too—the way Achilles looked at her, the tenderness in his dark eyes.

It hadn’t been her imagination, hadn’t been wishful thinking, despite her father’s efforts to cheapen what was between them…

and still how could she deny her own ears?

“Let’s see how long you can hold his interest.”

The casual cruelty of using his daughter as a honeypot made her flinch. Why did none of this feel real? And still what choice did she have but to let her father talk, let him believe that their love was a common political maneuver?

“I need you to extract information from him while you still hold his attention. The Myrdons are planning something big—Aggie Mnon is only a distraction. His brief liberty was proof that they’re working with someone with an astronomical bank account to make your rule…

uncomfortable. Now, can I trust you, my dear?

You won’t throw a childish temper tantrum when I tell you the truth? ”

What could she say to that? No?