Page 14 of Prince of Control

Feliks nods his agreement. “We made the Titan House parties look lame last year.” Titan House is a male-only society house. Half of the football team are members, and the rest of the members are legacy–their membership insured through bloodlines that go back to the school’s origins.

Before Baranov House took over Thornecroft’s social landscape, they ruled the school with alpha male-oriented elite parties that attracted the most popular sorority girls.

I nod. I can handle whatever they bring. I expected trouble and have planned for it. “Okay. Try to figure out how they will hit us. I’ll grease all the right wheels before our party.”

“So back to this wedding. Do you have a ring?” Lili demands.

I wince. A ring. That would be a good plan for a wedding ceremony. Especially one we’re trying to make look legit.

I mean, it will be legit. By tomorrow night, Lara Turgeneva will be my wife.

Dark satisfaction floods me at that knowledge, but I tamp it down. Legally binding Lara to me is just the first move in this battle. There are too many unknown variables for me to celebrate my victory just yet.

“I’ll get a ring. And I’m going to be at the ceremony,” Lili says firmly. “How do I pay for it? Should I use Dad’s Amex?”

“No.” I reach in my pocket and pull my Gold Card out of my phone case to hand to her.

Lili inspects it and shakes her head. “You have your own Gold Card. I… don’t even want to know what’s going on over here.”

“No, you don’t,” Leo says, just as protective of my little sister as I am.

“I’ll pick you up for the ceremony,” I tell her.

“I’m coming too,” Leo says.

“Me too,” Zoe says.

Anya raises her hand, like we’re doing a head count. Phoenix and Anders also raise their hands.

“We’ll have football practice,” Alex says apologetically, tipping his head toward his younger but even larger brother.

“No worries,” I say. “It wasn’t really supposed to be a thing.”

“Isn’t it though?” Lili challenges me. “You’re getting married. And I know you’re doing your stoic, hard-to-read thing, but it seems to me like…” she pauses and raises her eyebrows, letting anticipation build.

“Like what?” I cut in when it drags on too long.

“Like you’re into it.”

Chapter Four

Lara

It’s still dark when I wake, and for a moment, I don’t know where I am. Then it all rushes back to me with a sick feeling.

I’m in the United States. In the bedroom of the man I’m supposed to marry.

My eyes fly open, and I scan the bed. Is he in here–with me? The jetlag made me crash last night, so I slept like the dead until now, when my body decided it was time to be awake. I never heard Benjamin come in, if he did.

I hold my breath and listen, but I can’t tell if I’m alone. I reach for where I left my phone plugged in beside the bed. A paper slides beneath it. A paper that wasn’t there when I went to bed.

I hit a button on my phone, which shows me it’s four in the morning here. No wonder I’m up–it’s long past the time I’d be awake in Paris. The paper under my phone is a printout of my class schedule.

Because that’s not intrusive. Not at all.

I mean, it is helpful, but there’s also something creepy and controlling.

Did Benjamin move my phone, too? Was he trying to check my messages?