“Why…” Her tears were brimming, ready to crest. “Why are you doing this?” She didn’t understand. Why was he saying all this, throwing these words at her like they were daggers?
The gold flashed in his eyes. “Because I am done seducing you.”
Her heart squeezed. She couldn’t get a breath. “You said you would die...”
“I lied, Arabella.” His eyes flashed gold again. His voice rose. “All of it was lies. All of it. Straight through from the beginning.”
She braced her hand against the wall, her chest so tight she could barely speak. “All of it.”
“Yes, it was all nothing but lies.” His lips twisted into bitterness. “Now leave before I—”
Hope surged in her heart. “Before you what?” she asked, eyes wide.
He didn’t answer, just glared at her, anger clouding his face.
She flailed for something, some reason she couldn’t leave. Not right now. Not immediately walking out the door. How could that even be possible? He’d been making love to her moments before, pressing her up against the wall… “If I leave, I might tell people about you. About dragons and fae and… and… your treaty.” As threats went, that was all she had. It seemed so empty and cold, but they were throwing ice daggers at one another, and she had nothing else.
The anger cooled into a hard look, like lava solidifying into volcanic rock. “Go on. Do it. No one will believe you, and they’ll never find us, regardless. Don’t you see, Arabella? That was just one more lie I told you to keep you here. One more manipulation to make you fall in love with me. I never needed to love you. I only needed you to love me.”
The floor seemed to sway under her feet. “But I did.” The tears crested and fell, a hot mockery of her feelings spilling out for him.
“I’ll have Cinaed bring a car to the elevator.” The cold tone of his voice shattered what was left of her heart. “You know your way out.” Then he turned his back on her and strode down the hall to his bedroom. The door opened with a flick of his finger and then closed behind him.
He was gone.
Or rather, she was gone. Evicted. Fucked in the hallway, one last time, then sent on her way with her heart in her hands, smashed into a thousand pieces.
The dull shuffle of her feet on the carpet was the only sound she could hear. It haunted her down the hall. The clang of the metal spiral staircase rang out her departure. More shuffling, then the front door. She paused there, looking back at the apartment. There was nothing of hers here, not even her phone.
It was all nothing but lies.
She managed to reach the elevator before the first sob hit. She missed the car the first time and had to call it again. By the time it returned, her anger was fighting through the dull haze of pain. She swiped at her tears and punched the “G” button for the garage.
As the elevator carried her down, her anger just grew. Who the hell did Lucian Smoke think he was? A prince among dragons? He was just a rat-bastard like every other man who had lied to her and bullied her and manipulated her. Every single one of them had used her for their own sick purposes and then abused her when it was convenient to do so. When she no longer fit inside the tiny box they had constructed for her to live in.
The elevator dinged. She stormed out as soon as the doors opened.
Cinaed was already waiting by the car, shoulders hunched, peering at her like he felt guilty for doing his prince’s dirty work in hauling away the little human trash, now that the prince was done with her. Lucian had been trying to seduce her all along? Well, he succeeded wildly in that! She fell right for it, like the fool she was for rat-bastard men of all species. And what was this bullshit about a treaty? More lies? And then, topping it off with some fucking abuse, he tells her she’s not good enough to be his mate?
Well, fuck him!
She reached the stretch limo with Cinaed standing by the passenger door. “Fuck Lucian Smoke!” she screeched, jabbing a finger at him.
He winced. “Yes, Ma’am.”
“Don’t yes, Ma’am me, you asshole! You were part of this!” She didn’t know why she was raging at Cinaed… except he had to know she was being played. Every dragon in the keep had to know it.
“Yes, Ma’am.” Cinaed held the door for her.
She stared at the inside of the car, but her body wouldn’t move. Instead, she yelled some more at Cinaed. “And another thing! Stay the hell away from my friend, Rachel! I don’t want any of your dragonkind coming around and ruining her life.”
“No, Ma’am.” He looked terrified like he was trapped in a cage with a monster.