Page 51 of Bribed by the Billionaire Bad Boy

My stomach dips and twists in all sorts of horrible ways, but I force my way up to the stage, meeting Marcus there.

He smiles at me, the slightest bit tentative. “I guess it’s us tonight.”

I nod, offering some sort of confirming sound.

He clears his throat, pushes back his hair, and I can tell he’s getting into character. But it’s not going to work.

Don’t be stupid.

Clenching my fists, I take a breath. Kenneth doesn’t exist. It doesn’t matter who portrays him. The only thing that matters is how I respond. As Harriet. Because IamHarriet.

Relaxing my stance, I scan thisKennethfrom head to toe. Hair too light. Too short. His eyes aren’t the right color. But maybe it’s his expression that makes me the most irritated. It’s an easy sort of smile, untainted by the pressure surrounding him. I’m supposed to be irritated; he isn’t supposed to be smiling like that.

Doesn’t matter.

I’m not in love with the rich brat anyway, and this is just practice.

He caught me trying to steal from him. He cornered me. Now, he wants my skills, and he isn’t afraid to use blackmail to get them. Now not only have my wings been broken by a world that I have to fight just to survive in, someone with everything wants to clip them and use me.

“From the top of Act 1, Scene 3,” Mr. D’plume states.

We don’t have many props yet since the sets are still being made, but I pretend I’m in Kenneth’s office. Tall windows stretch behind him. There’s a chair on either side of his desk. He isn’t seated, and I refuse to sit.

“You have two options, little magpie,” Marcus begins,walking toward me—through his desk.

I tilt my head, then scoff. “Oh do tell. I’m just dying to know.”

Marcus’s smile spreads, almost like he wants it to look cruel. “Interesting choice of words.” Whirling on his heel, he lifts a finger and walks back through his desk. “Your first option is I turn you in to the authorities. It’s my understanding your promenades aren’t uncommon. What they choose to do with you may very well end in your demise.”

My smile is cool and refined, and I flourish a bow, lifting my arms high behind me. “The great Lord Kenneth bores himself with research on the riffraff in his new town?”

Marcus turns. “You mock me.”

I straighten, my head rocking with casual dissent. “Only always, my lord.”

He comes walking back through his desk and catches my chin in his hand, much too harshly, against his full palm.

I growl, baring my teeth, and Marcus startles just slightly before running through his next lines. “Your second option is far more appealing.”

“Oh?” I hiss.

Marcus smiles, and it’s smug. Kennethisn’tsmug. He’s confident and a gentleman. But here Marcus is, smug and harsh, pretending to be my Kenneth. “Become mine. I’ve a score to settle in this town, and seeing as you could nearly best me, I think you’d be perfect for the job.”

“You can’t very well keep me on a leash.”

He draws my face up closer to his, and something uncomfortable twists in my gut, almost asking me to break character, pull away. I don’t. He continues, “I want revenge; you want money. I’m willing to pay for your services.”

“Cut,” Mr. D’plume states, and I release a tight breath, stepping back in the instant he loosens his hold on me.

The relief I feel is odd, seeing as I normally only feel dreadafterI drop the armor of Harriet. I skim the audience as Mr. D’plume mentions something to Marcus about adding more expression to his words, and I find Kenneth.

My Kenneth.

My heart lightens, but before the sight of him can fully ease my nerves, I scowl. He abandoned me here. Of all the rude things Lex is capable of, abandoning me is at the top of the list.

“Ms. Armont, if you would?” Mr. D’plume calls Agatha up to the stage to work with Marcus on the scene, and she shoots me a snooty glance as she passes, but I don’t care. I even roll my eyes on my way down the steps as I head toward Lex and fold my arms.

The scene starts, neither Harriet nor Kenneth present on the stage. I block it out.