Playboy Princes: A Dark College Romance(43)

If anything, that made me panic harder. I licked my dry lips and shot Rafe an accusing look. He talked about me with his parents? What the hell had he said? That I was some annoying, gold-digging slut chasing after a prince and a title? I mean, obviously not. They wouldn't be treating me so kindly if that had been the case, but... I doubted he had been gushing over some girl he was into. Rafe and me... we were just sex. Right? Friends with benefits at best.

"Why don't you give us an abridged version of events, Violet?" Jacinta suggested, coming over and setting a tray of small glasses on the table. They were all filled with a clear liquid, and when she handed me one, I could smell peaches.

"Uh..." I looked to Jordan and Rafe for reassurance, but both of them were casual and relaxed. Trusting. Not only were they confident that Felipe and Jacinta were the kind of people we could trust implicitly, they also trusted me to speak for myself without my boyfriends chiming in.

It was refreshing.

I sucked in a deep breath. "Okay. Abridged version." To collect my thoughts, I took a gulp of the drink, then started coughing as it burned the whole way down my throat. It was deceptively potent, but exactly what I needed to get this story out in the open.

Keeping my eyes locked on the table between us, I started telling them everything. The ballot, meeting Alex, the creepy nurse and the forced IUD insertion. I glossed over the whole relationship I'd had with Alex, back when I’d thought we were in love. I also glossed over the relationship I'd had with Rafe—the one where he was nasty as fuck to me and I took every opportunity to piss him off more.

When I came to the part about overhearing Alex and Claudette, my voice hitched, but a warm hand grasped mine, providing silent strength. So I continued. Only after I got to today, with Alex's parents demanding to meet me, did I trail off and swallow the rest of my peach-flavored firewater.

No one spoke for a moment, then King Felipe made a thoughtful sound and turned to Jordan. "Tell me more about this virus you created. Can you be sure it won't be traced back to you?"

"Yes, sir," Jordan answered with complete confidence. He then went on to explain the more technical specs of his design—details that Felipe seemed to both understand and be interested in—while I tried to calm my body down from the brink of panic.

"Here," Rafe murmured, his voice a soft rumble as he released my hand and passed me another glass of liquor. He took my empty one and replaced it on the tray, while his mother watched us curiously. "You okay, Cinderella?"

"Mm-hmm." I nodded. My cheeks were warm, and for the first time I didn’t care about the stupid nickname. At some point it had stopped being an insult and was now almost a term of… endearment—something his mom seemed to notice too, her gaze lingering longer on us than was comfortable.

Jordan continued his discussion with Felipe about the virus, the hacking, the data... but something kept bugging me—the one part of my story that I'd left out, and I was dying to ask the guys more about it.

The Resistance.

Rafe and Jordan had said they were part of the group to keep an eye on happenings for their parents, but since no one had mentioned it out loud, I wasn’t sure how much their parents actually knew. On instinct I’d decided it was safest not to say anything, no matter how much I wanted more information.

But then King Felipe was the one to bring it up when he asked, “Any new intel about the Society?”

Despite my slightly fuzzy head from the potent drink, I was paying very close attention now.

Rafe stretched his long legs out, relaxing into the couch. “Nothing new from my last report. Their attacks are ramping up, but it seems to be an extremist wing that’s taking some matters into their own hands.”

“Any truth to the rumor that they’ve developed a new version of the natural disaster technology?” Queen Jacinta asked. She was nothing like Alex’s mom, in that she was smart, shrewd, and contributed plenty in the small political discussion I’d been privy to.

Jordan and Rafe both shook their heads. “Nothing in the official channels,” Rafe said.

The king and queen didn’t look reassured by that, and I wondered if a natural disaster technology was good or bad. I’d have to remember to ask about it later.

The conversation moved on to less heavy topics after that, and around halfway through my third peach drink, we wrapped everything up.

"Leave it to me," King Felipe told us with a decisive nod. "I'll do some investigation of my own. In the meantime, I'm sure it goes without saying that I don't want either of you to leave Violet alone at the academy? I get the feeling Steve has something more up his sleeve, and he needs Violet and Alex to make it happen. Nowhere is safe outside these palace grounds. Understood?"

Both Rafe and Jordan nodded their understanding, and I let out a small sigh of relief. There was something so... comforting, knowing we weren't tackling this alone. We had support. Powerful support. This wouldn't just be a case of three teenagers toppling corrupt kings, and thank goodness for that. Those stories were a bit too far fetched, even for a girl living her own fairy-tale adventure.

"Raffa!" A high pitched squeal pierced my ears, and Jordan hauled me out of the way just in time to avoid going down in a tangle of limbs with Rafe. His twin siblings piled on top of him like puppies, and the sound of his laughter touched my soul.





Chapter 32





The next few days passed all too quickly. Queen Jacinta had extended her invitation for the rest of the week, but we all had to return to the academy by Friday, ahead of the Spring Ball on Saturday.

"Is it terrible that I don't want to go back?" I asked Mattie as we changed into our swimsuits in the room we shared. Despite the Swiss palace being enormous, they had very few unused rooms due to the fact that they provided accommodations to all their household staff and security teams. It was surprising, in the best way, and something that I would forever admire Jacinta and Felipe for. It was a measure of their generosity, and seemed to have a very positive impact on their employees’ attitudes.

“It’s understandable,” she said, adjusting the straps on her eight pieces of string masquerading as a swimsuit. We’d had a bunch of clothes and toiletries provided to us, and Mattie had wasted no time grabbing the designer-and-skimpy line of options. I’d gone with more casual.

I mean, I was wearing a bright red bikini, but it covered all of my tits and most of my ass. Mattie could not say the same.

Throwing on coverups and flip flops, we left our room and followed the path that led down to the private springs we’d been using. This was for the royal family only, and we hadn’t run into anyone else in the times we’d used it.

“How is it that Rafe is such a prickly bastard,” I wondered aloud after thinking about it constantly over the last few days, “and yet he has such a wonderful family? I honestly expected them to be monsters, creating that little ball of delight that is their son.”

Not that Rafe had been anything less than amazing during our time here, going all out to make sure we were having a great vacation. But who could forget those first few months of asshole attitude? There had to be a reason someone was like that.

Mattie’s lips twitched, and she took a moment to look around to make sure we were alone. “His parents are wonderful,” she said softly, “but his grandfather was not. When he was the king, this land was vastly different, and… Well, it’s not my story to tell, so I won’t say much more. But just know that this family has been forged in fire, and that’s why they carry their strength so elegantly.”

I swallowed hard, all of a sudden feeling sick that I’d judged Rafe so harshly for his actions and attitude. Mattie didn’t exaggerate things like this. She also wasn’t overly dramatic. And that meant…

Fuck.

“The twins?”

They were incredibly cute and funny, and I adored hanging out with them. Lucy-Liun was legitimately a mini, female version of Rafe, and she obsessively loved her big brother, hanging off him all the time.

Jean-Luc was like Rafe too, especially in personality. He was reserved and protective, keeping an eye on his sister, even when no threats were around. They were very grown up for only being eight years old. And that added more dread to what was already accumulating in my stomach.

“They were too young,” she said simply. “Rafe and his father copped the worst of it. The crown heirs.”

I tried to remember when the grandfather had died, passing the throne on to his son, but it wasn’t immediately coming to me. Clearly within the last twenty-one years since Rafe was that old.

“Should I ask him about it?”

Mattie looked torn, and we both fell silent as we reached a set of doors that were opened for us by two uniformed guards. The chill of the outside air hit us, and since the sun had almost completely set, it was only getting colder by the minute.

“Quick, we need to get our asses in the water before we freeze,” she gasped.

Our pace picked up, flipflops slapping against the gorgeous travertine floors that lined the outside of this area. I heard the catcalls of the guys before we reached them, and it was with no surprise I found Nolan cannonballing off one of the large, rocky overhanging’s.

These natural springs had not been altered from what had been built into the land by nature itself. The castle had been molded to fit around them, and they were beyond spectacular. The sight took my breath away, forcing me to stand there in awe until I got too cold and had to move forward.