Total pages in book: 115
Estimated words: 107763 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 107763 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 539(@200wpm)___ 431(@250wpm)___ 359(@300wpm)
“What an absolute failure this all was.” All this effort to create the perfect week for my love story ruined. Mama had taken care to plan everything to work in my favor and yet because of one man…“One despicable prince. Truly, Hathor, your luck is impeccable. Of all the princes you could have accidently come across, you met him. Aphrodite meets a passionate romantic who has desired her for years, Verity meets a charming thinker with a heart, who tends to the sick. Me? I meet an obnoxious impudent rake in a blue coat.”
I laughed because it truly was not fair! I looked up to the stars. “Whatever did I do to deserve such a fate?”
“Hypocrisy might be my guess.”
I glanced back to see the man in question glaring at me again with those eyes of his. “For I believe you went on viciously lecturing about common decency, only to slander my name in the same manner.”
I moved off the railing, turning to him. “I beg your pardon, sir, but when was your name spoken?”
“My name was not clearly stated, but it was implied, for how many other despicable princes do you know?”
“I need not tell you, and if you cannot prove for certain you are the only prince I know, then there is no way for it to be inferred.” I huffed and lifted my head high. He cracked his jaw to the side and smirked. “Now, please excuse me, Your—”
“Another reason you might be punished is your cruelty,” he stated before I could walk away.
“I beg your pardon? Cruelty? And what malice have you suffered?”
“Not I, but Lady Emma,” he replied, frowning at me. “In order to rid yourself of me, you gave no thought to that girl’s feelings. You crafted a lie, forcing me to dance with her, even though I have no interest in her whatsoever.”
“You make it seem as though I forced you to propose to her; it was merely a dance—”
“Nothing is merely anything for a prince. Having been the only girl I danced with thus far, she will have the ire of all the other young ladies for the rest of the evening, especially considering I will not dance with anyone else.”
“That is you being cruel, not I!”
“You forced my hand!”
“You have come to weeklong festivities, part of which includes dancing. So surely you knew you were going to dance with ladies one way or another.”
“If you cannot prove that for certain, then there is no way for it to be known.” He twisted my words and threw them back in my face with a smirk upon his lips. He stepped forward. “I believe the way to solve Lady Emma’s problem is for you to be my next dance.”
“I would rather break my feet!”
“Break them then,” he snapped, stepping far too close, and when I stepped back, he stepped forward. So I took another step back and he another forward until my back was pressed against the railing and his body stood like a wall before me. For some reason my heart began to quicken. “Well, jump and break your feet, Lady Hathor, or do you need my assistance?”
His voice was softer and closer. I could strangely feel…feel something from him.
“You are a horrible man.”
“You are a horrible lady.”
“Am not!”
“You are so!”
“I dislike you greatly!”
He leaned in. “Likewise.”
Angrily I pushed his chest with all my strength, but as I tried to escape him, I rolled my ankle on a damn stone, making me fall into his chest rather than away from him. His arms were around me tightly, and I was so startled I froze. Before I could say anything, he lifted me up, his hands on either side of my waist, and sat me upon the railing as though I were a child.
“Are you all right?” He moved to check my ankle. “Does it hurt?”
I just stared at him.
“Lady Hathor?”
Blinking, I shook the clouds from my mind. “I am fine. You ought not to touch me.”
“Fine, I shall call for a doctor—”
“I do not need a doctor, do not be so dramatic,” I muttered, tucking my ankle behind my leg, embarrassed by it. “Do you always touch women so impertinently?”
He glanced up from my feet to meet my eyes. “And if the answer is yes? What shall you do?”
I did not have an answer, and I was not sure why I could not speak. I felt somewhat stuck. Stuck on the ledge, stuck in his gaze. Stuck…in this moment.
“Well, Lady Hathor, do you have no more curses to scream at me?” Once more he moved closer.
“Is this your method for ruining women?” I asked calmly.
“I beg your pardon?”
“Do you speak softly, lean closely, touching them freely, confusing their thoughts before you strike?”
“You truly believe me to be so villainous?”
“Yes.”
“Then as I said at dinner, a villain I shall be,” he replied. And before I could ask him what he meant, his lips were on mine.