Fawn’s fists clenched against her sides, and without meeting his gaze, she mumbled, “When I’m with you, the pain...fades.”
Ah.
“Look at me, Fawn.” He didn’t say anything else but instead waited patiently, knowing that she needed the time to accept that from here on, she could no longer run to Bennett when she was in trouble. Now, after the other man’s betrayal, it was Bennett she would be running away from.
When her eyes finally lifted to his, he asked simply, “Do you know why you don’t hurt when you’re with me?”
“B-because we’re friends?”
The prince smiled.
She smiled back.
Then the prince lowered his head, and before she realized what he was doing, he had already bitten her ear, whispering, “Friends don’t do this.” And his tongue licked the curve of her ear almost as if in emphasis.
She jumped back with a cry of shock, but the prince only shrugged. “You shouldn’t have done that!”
The prince only laughed. “I’ll do a lot more than that, and you’ll want me to do it.” He reached for her, and ignoring the way she stiffened, he tugged on a lock of her hair, rubbing the silky strands between his fingers.
His touch made her shiver, but still she forced herself to lift her chin, muttering stubbornly, “You’re wrong. I won’t want—-”
“You will,” the prince countered in a husky purr, “and I can even make you beg for it...because it’s how I’m going to make the pain fade.”
Her eyes widened.
“That’s why you don’t hurt when you’re with me, parthena mou. It’s because you’ve always wanted me—-”
“No—-”
“And it’s because you’ve never loved him as much as you thought—-”
“I’ve been with him for years,” Fawn cried out.
“Who the fuck cares? It’s about what he makes you feel, and the truth is, Bennett makes you feel nothing. If he had, then he would have been able to fuck you from the very first. But he didn’t. And yet when you’re with me—-”
“No!” She tried to cover her ears, but the prince swiftly lowered her arms back to her sides.
His gaze captured hers. “There’s no escaping the truth. I’m the one who makes you feel, Fawn. I’m the one whose company you only have to be in for a matter of minutes, and you’ll already be dreaming about how it feels to have me touch you. I only have to say a fucking word—-”
“How dare you!” Her voice shook, not from anger but from fear. He couldn’t be right. He couldn’t be!
“And I can get you to think about my co—-”
“Prince!” She found herself half-shrieking at him, unable to believe that their conversation could actually end this way.
The prince slanted an unimpressed look towards her. “Stop hiding from the truth. You want me—-”
“Stop saying that, please.”
“And I want you. I want you so much, my co—-”
“And that, too, please stop saying that—-”
“It’s just a fucking word.” The prince was torn between amusement and exasperation at the acute discomfort that colored Fawn’s face. “Why don’t you try saying it? Say co—-”
“Banana in your pocket,” she interrupted him rashly.
The prince choked. “What?”
Outraged at the way the prince looked like he was about to laugh his head off any moment, she gritted out, “That’s what you’re going to call it, okay? The banana in your pocket.”
When Fawn actually glared at him in the end, as if threatening to thump him if he said otherwise, the prince had to cough several times in an effort to control his laughter. After, he cleared his throat and managed to say levelly, “It will be as you wish.”
“I’m not joking,” she said sternly.
“I understand,” he murmured dutifully. “It’s, err, banana from here on.”
After shooting him one last warning look, she raised her chin, muttering, “That’s settled then.”
He checked his watch. “It’s getting late. Shall we head back?”
Head back meaning...it was time to leave her?
She forced a smile. “Okay.”
They turned around, and her heart started to sink as they steadily made their way back to the prince’s limousine. She waited for him to ask her again to be his lover, but when more time passed and he didn’t, she began to wonder if maybe it really was just a joke.
Did he not mean it?
“I can hear you thinking,” the prince murmured all of a sudden. He didn’t look at her as he spoke, and his pace remained steady and slow, his hands still delving deep into his pockets.
“I’m not thinking anything,” she lied.
“You are.” The prince’s tone was lazy. “And it probably has something to do with me, so just spill it, parthena mou. Whatever it is, I will answer—-”
“Why don’t you ask me to be your girlfriend?”
This time, it was the prince who stopped walking, and she nearly tripped over her own feet as she forced herself to stop as well.
The prince turned to her. “Are you saying you want to be my girlfriend?”
His bland voice made her feel wary and defensive, and she lifted her chin again. “Is that a roundabout way of asking to be my boyfriend?”
The prince said unequivocally, “No.” Surprised hurt flickered in Fawn’s brown eyes, and he made a conscious effort to keep his voice soft as he said, “It’s not you.”
“That’s what they always say.”
He almost smiled. “But in this case, it’s true. My life,” he said gently, “has no room for emotional entanglements.”
Fawn blinked at the prince. Emotional...entanglements? What did that even mean? Wasn’t that just another word for relationships?
“What we have is better than what you and Bennett ever had or could ever have,” the prince said quietly. “Unlike Bennett, I won’t betray you. I won’t make you any promises that I can’t keep.”
Before Fawn could answer, her phone, which she had shoved carelessly in her skirt’s loose pocket, started to ring. It was an assigned tone, and she took a deep breath when she realized who was calling her.
The prince’s gaze narrowed. “Is it Bennett?”
“Y-yes.”
“Then you better make your decision.”
“I don’t know what to decide.” Frustration underlined her tone. “You tell
