Shrugging, I downed my whiskey, feeling the burn all the way down my throat. “Maybe. It’s what we do. It’s what our families do. The one with the most power will come out on top.”
Anna stared at me for a long moment. “Is that all you want? To be on top?”
I knew she wasn’t talking about my sex position preference. I placed the glass on the table, a frown on my face. She couldn’t understand the need to be on top, to never have to worry about others looking down at you. You reigned supreme. “Yeah, Anna, it is.”
Anna sighed. “All I have ever wanted is to just live. I don’t care about the money or prestige. I just want to have my own life, where I don’t depend on anyone.”
“Yet here you are, likely wealthier than most people at the academy,” I argued, a part of me wishing I just wanted to live. She was so naïve when it came to my world, to what would be her world, and I knew she would struggle without my help.
Well, maybe not just my help, but I liked to think of it that way.
“Yeah,” she said, tucking her legs underneath her and cradling her wineglass in her hands. “Still, I feel the same inside. I don’t imagine you understand any of what I am saying.”
“No,” I answered darkly, standing to refill my glass. “But I do know that you aren’t like the rest of them. You have to learn to be like us, Anna, if you want to survive this, and I don’t mean that shit that Arthur is teaching you.”
Without waiting for a response, I stalked over to the bar in the living room, grabbing the sifter of whiskey and pouring a healthy swallow. Anna didn’t understand the shit we went through, how the outer skin had been thickened over the years so we wouldn’t get ourselves hurt.
So we wouldn’t feel.
Her hand landed on my arm and I looked up, catching her eyes. “Come with me,” she said, tugging on my arm.
I arched a brow. “What are you doing, Anna?”
“I’m showing you what it’s like not to be a king for a little while.”
I allowed her to tug me away from the bar and to the coatrack, where she handed me my coat. “Come on, Royce,” she said as she shrugged into her coat. “Unless you are afraid of what I might do.”
I shrugged on my coat, my curiosity piqued. “I am afraid of you, Anna.” I was. She was too good for this. She was going to be a broken person at the end, nothing like the woman I saw before me now. There had been a time I wanted to destroy her, but now I wanted to just keep her away from what was to come, to breathe in her innocence just a little longer.
She laughed, brushing off my words, and opened the front door, where the storm had abated some. There was still snow coming down, but not in the same swirling mass as before.
Anna went straight to the small patch of grass that served as the front yard, dipping her hands into the snow. “Have you ever had a snowball fight?” she asked, packing the snow into a ball with her bare hands.
“You shouldn’t be doing that without gloves,” I answered. “Your fingers are gonna fall off.”
“Not for only a few minutes,” she answered before launching the snowball at me.
Chapter 12
Anna
I watched as my snowball sailed through the air and hit Royce square in the chest, seeing his look of surprise. After his talks about not having a real life, I wanted to put some realness into the king, though by the looks of it, he wasn’t expecting me to launch a snowball at him.
I laughed as his eyes darkened and he scooped up his own handful of snow, throwing it at me. His aim was off, but I dodged it anyway, attempting to make another. “You need to work on your aim, Royce!”
“That was on purpose,” he said lazily before he charged me.
I squealed and tried to run away but he tackled me about the waist, pushing us both into the snow. The cold seeped through my clothing as Royce flipped me over, his face looming over mine. There was a smug grin on his face and my breath stuttered in my chest as I took in his handsome profile.
Too bad he was a king. “That wasn’t fair.”
“Kings are never fair,” he stated, his hands pinning my wrists into the snow. “Do you yield?”
A snowflake landed on my face, then another. “Yes, I yield before I freeze to death.”
Royce got off me and helped me to my feet, his hand gripping mine. “Come on, you crazy fool. It’s fucking cold out here.”
I allowed Royce to lead me back into the warm house, shivering as I removed my coat. My workout clothes were soaked through and so were Royce’s, the outline of his muscular body on full display. He turned to me, his eyes narrowing. “You’re shivering.”
“You pushed me into the snow,” I argued, my teeth chattering.
He chuckled. “I did, didn’t I?” His hands touched my upper arms, flashing me a smile. “Then it’s my job to make you warm.”
I swallowed hard as he stepped closer. “What are you doing, Royce?”
He lowered his head to my neck, nuzzling it with his cold nose. “What I’ve been wanting to do for a long time.”
I pressed my hand to his chest, pushing him back. “We can’t do this. I’m not fighting off another king and his claim to me.”
Royce
