Total pages in book: 101
Estimated words: 94782 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94782 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 474(@200wpm)___ 379(@250wpm)___ 316(@300wpm)
“Do you care so little about this country?” I swipe at the tears that are already starting to spill. “Is that it? Are you such a wretched man that you no longer have a heart?”
He flinches at my accusation, and I’m well aware I’m probably about to get tossed out on my arse. But it’s clear I’m getting nowhere with him. And now, our time is almost up.
“Thank you for nothing.” I stand and glare at him. “I think I’ll just excuse myself now—”
Before I can even blink, his hand whips toward me and latches around my wrist.
“I haven’t dismissed you yet.” The unmistakable accent that does not belong to Prince Aston sends a shiver down my spine. “Now kindly, sit your ass back down.”
5
Thorsen
The petite beauty shrinks back into her seat under my command, her expression morphing from one of horror to despair when she recognizes that I am not her beloved British prince.
The entire evening, I’ve been listening to women drone on and on about themselves, scarcely bothered that I never said a word myself. They presumed me to be whoever they wanted in their imaginations, running wild with offers to bake my favorite treats, attend upcoming events, or do my bidding in the royal bedroom. It left me contemplating throwing myself off the palace roof just to get it over with.
And then she came along with her sky-blue eyes and champagne hair and a pair of pouty lips she wielded like a weapon. She was captivating, but I suspected beneath her nerves, she didn’t have the faintest idea about it. There was something different about her, but I couldn’t figure out what it was. She smelled like sunshine and wildflowers. Freedom. An escape from the monotony of my everyday life. When I looked into her eyes, I found myself getting lost there. Maybe it was the passion with which she spoke. Or maybe it was her complete honesty that she had no intention of snagging herself a prince tonight. Regardless of what drew me in, I was suddenly hyper-focused on everything this woman had to say.
When she confessed that she came here with an ulterior motive, the first spark of life I’d felt in months nearly suffocated. I anticipated she was about to propose a scheme in which she would lead me by my dick. But instead, she blurted out the most ridiculously impassioned speech I’d ever heard. About a charity, nonetheless. And while I sit here, trying to make sense of what’s happening, I still can’t find it in me to accept she could be that selfless. If I am to believe her, she came here with the sole intention of gaining support for her furry friends.
“Your Highness.” My line facilitator steps forward, subtly nodding at his watch. “Time is up.”
“Time’s up when I say it’s up.” I shoot him a withering glare and turn my attention back to the mysterious woman in front of me.
“I should go,” she says, trying unsuccessfully to excuse herself again.
“No, you won’t.” I squeeze her wrist in my grip. I don’t know why I’m still holding onto her, or why I can’t seem to stop staring at her. People are starting to take notice, and it makes me irrationally angry. I’m the prince who everyone loves to hate. The man the media can never print a kind word about. And now she’s making a spectacle of me in front of the entire room.
“You came in here and presumed me to be someone else.” I lean into her, my voice low and dark. “You accused me of being wretched and heartless. And now you think you’re just going to walk away?”
“I didn’t know,” she whispers. “I thought you were Prince Aston.”
“That isn’t an apology,” I muse.
“An apology?” She blinks, startled by the notion. “Why would I offer you an apology? You’ve been rude to me from the start. You couldn’t even deign to speak to the likes of me, and now you want an apology for observations that were only the truth? Do you think I don’t know who you are?”
My spine steels at her remark. Has my accent already betrayed the truth?
“I may be nobody in your eyes, Prince Thorsen, but I’ve seen what the media prints about you. And having made your acquaintance, I am now convinced it is all true. You really are as heartless as they say.”
My hand falls away from her, but inside, I can’t temper the rage churning in my gut. I should be accustomed to it. Every day of my life, I have heard nothing less, but from her, it burns worse than all the others, and I can’t understand why.
She stands up again, not bothering with a curtsy this time. “Excuse me.”
When she rushes to the exit and down the corridor, I’m not thinking clearly as I give chase. My security detail attempts to stop me as I wade through the crowd, but my focus is on the blue dress slipping out the palace doors.