Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 116759 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116759 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 584(@200wpm)___ 467(@250wpm)___ 389(@300wpm)
Zac sauntered into the kitchen with a paper bag of groceries in his arms. “Great, you’re all awake. We ran out of milk, so I thought I’d—” He didn’t get a chance to finish the sentence because my fist connected with his face.
Between the surprise of my action and the force of it, Zac stumbled and fell on his arse, the groceries spilling everywhere. My knuckles throbbed as I flexed my hand, preparing to hit him again.
Zac got over the shock quickly, glaring up at me as he wiped at the blood seeping from his now split lower lip. “I take it Lily called.”
“Please tell me this isn’t true.” Harry was suddenly at my side. “What are you playing at?”
Zac got to his feet, kicking the groceries away. He shrugged insouciantly. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I flew at him again, but Harry bound his arms around me, yanking me back.
“He’s not worth it, Bas. Not worth it. And Lily didn’t believe him. Remember that. He didn’t win.”
Harry’s calming tone worked, and I shrugged off his hold, letting him know silently I wasn’t going to hit Zac again.
Zac, however, glowered. “Don’t tell me she’s so pathetic as to believe you?”
“Don’t be a prat, Zac. If he flies at you again, I won’t hold him back and he will kill you,” Harry warned.
Sensing my now ex-friend enjoyed watching me out of control, I took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “Why would Lily believe a lie? One that you apparently orchestrated.”
He shrugged, an irritating smirk curling his mouth. “What if I did?”
“So, you did?” Harry stared at him as if he’d never seen him before. “You sent Gisele into his room while he was sleeping and then took that photo?”
“Maybe.”
My fists clenched so tightly, one of my knuckles cracked. “Why? What the hell did I do to you?”
He leaned back against the kitchen peninsula, crossing his legs at the ankles in a relaxed pose that made me want to swipe his legs out from under him. “I thought Colette might do the trick, but apparently she fancied me this time around.” His eyes were hard with a fury I didn’t understand. “Then I saw Gisele following you around like a drunken moron. The girl has never heard no in her life. You pricked her pride, Bas. It was easy enough to convince her to slip into your room. It was nothing personal. Well, maybe a tad personal. My instructions came from a higher order than you. I struck a deal, and I was upholding my end of it.”
“Struck a deal?”
Zac grinned, as though he was delighting in what he was about to tell me. “With your grandmother. Princess Mary. She reached out to me. Requested I interfere in your relationship with Lily. Apparently, while she’s not as hung up as your mother on the idea of you marrying someone of noble blood, she does take offense to the idea of you being in a relationship with a girl who speaks publicly about her sex life on a dating podcast.”
His words had me stumbling back in shock and confusion.
My grandmother had put him up to this?
My grandmother?!
He chuckled. “How can you be so surprised? You’re a member of the royal family. Do you really think they’d welcome Lily Sawyer, sex advice podcaster, into their fold?”
Even as my mind whirred with the added betrayal, I focused on my ex-friend. “Why did you agree to do that to me? You know how I feel about Lily.”
“Because your grandmother made certain promises about inviting my mother into their circle. It would be quite the coup for her …” A vulnerable light entered his eyes. “I thought it would … well, never mind.”
He thought it would make his mother give a shit about him?
He’d tried to wreck my relationship because he didn’t get enough attention from Mother Dearest?
I was going to kill him!
“That’s not just it.” Maddie suddenly spoke up, stepping beside me. Her eyes were narrowed with distaste. “He’s in love with Lily. I’ve suspected it for ages.”
My head whipped back to Zac. “Are you?”
He glowered at Maddie.
I flew at him, yanking him to me by the shirt as I snarled in his face, “Are you in love with my girlfriend?”
Zac shoved at me, pulling at his shirt to no avail. “Let go of me!”
“Tell me!”
“Yes!”
I released him in abject surprise, not expecting him to admit the real reason for what he’d done.
His eyes were filled with such malice and resentment, I was momentarily stunned. “The golden child,” he spat. “Everything comes easily to you. You get everything you want. Even her. Did you know I saw her first? Had been working up the courage to talk to her for ages. Then you swooped in. And the fuck of it all is that you might not have cheated with Gisele last night, but you will one day. You’ll hurt her. And I would … I would never hurt Lily.”