umm, on my way...back.” She managed to catch herself from saying ‘home’ as well.
Silence.
Where are you? What are you doing? Why did you break your promise?
Those were the questions she wanted and needed to ask of him, but in the end, she couldn’t.
She had no right to.
And so she asked finally, “Is everything alright?” It was the safest question she could ask.
“Shouldn’t I be the one asking you that,” the prince murmured evenly, “since you were the one who met with Bennett today?”
Her brows furrowed. Was that why the prince seemed so distant? Was he wondering if something had happened between Grant and her? Or was he worried that she had confronted Grant and admitted the truth about them?
Her teeth sank in her lower lip. From the very start, the prince had told her he could only be Fawn’s lover behind Grant’s back. Did that mean if she were not—-
Don’t go there, Fawn.
“Is it that bad?” the prince demanded sharply when it took Fawn too long to answer.
“N-no,” Fawn forced herself to answer. “But things didn’t turn out the way I expected.” She paused then added lamely, “I also didn’t expect your bodyguards to be at the meeting, too.”
“Were they not enough to keep you from feeling alone?” the prince quizzed.
She almost took her gaze off the road to gape at her phone. She had not seen that coming at all, but now that she knew why the prince had all those bodyguards around –
It made perfect sense.
And it was another example of how easily – Holy sweet God, but he made her happy so, so easily.
“Should I have sent another dozen instead?” the prince was asking, prompting her to release a slightly stunned giggle when she realized that he was perfectly serious.
“Prince!” And just like that, she went from wanting to cry to wanting to laugh out loud. “Be serious.”
“Two dozen more then?” But this time, the prince’s smile was evident in his tone, and she relaxed even more at the sound of it, her tight grip on the steering wheel easing.
“They were more than enough,” she managed to say once she was sure she wasn’t going to cry. “They definitely...helped.”
“I see.” The prince paused. “But they weren’t enough to keep you from hurting.”
Oh.
“Did Bennett or his slut do something to you?” the prince pressed.
“Grant s-seemed different,” she whispered painfully. “The other girl...she was shouting at him in front of everyone, humiliating him, and he didn’t do a thing. Today’s presentation should have been simple for him, and he m-messed it up. He wasn’t himself, and I just...”
She swallowed. “Do you think G-Grant knows?”
“If he does,” the prince countered calmly, “don’t you think he should be the one feeling guilty instead? He cheated on you first.”
“But he doesn’t know that I saw him—-”
“But he knows you,” the prince pointed out silkily. “If he suspects you of doing the same thing, he would know that you wouldn’t have become my lover without a valid reason.”
Even knowing that the prince’s words made perfect sense, she still couldn’t shake off the feeling that something was incredibly wrong with Grant—-
She remembered how weak he sounded, how lost—-
“Should I start feeling jealous, parthena mou?”
The unexpected question completely threw her off, and it was a good thing she had just driven past the automated gates of the prince’s compound or she might have ended up in an accident. “W-what are you talking about?”
“It almost seems like you miss Bennett’s attention,” the prince drawled.
She turned red. “I d-do not.”
“Then let’s stop talking about Bennett.”
She bit her lip, telling herself not to push it, but in the end she couldn’t help herself. “Are you jealous?”
“Extremely.”
Fawn made a face at the prince’s dead serious tone. “Yeah right.”
She shook her head at herself.
You’re so full of it, Fawn Cornwall, thinking that the prince could get so jealous over you.
“Ye of little faith,” the prince sighed out in mock hurt. “If only I had the time to go over there to show you just how possessive I am about you, I would have.”
The too-sweet words had Fawn sucking in a breath, and she desperately warned herself, Don’t do it, don’t do it—-
But her heart proved too stubborn, and it still ended up skipping a beat.
And another.
And another.
And another, again and again, until she had no choice but to temporarily pull over.
Fawn bowed her head, her temple bumping against the steering wheel.
He made her so, so happy.
If only she had the right to make him just as happy.