"Violet," Jordan said, seeing me first. His gaze shot to Alex, and his brow dropped in a scowl. "Are you okay?"
"Of course she is, Jordy," Alex answered for me, and I seethed. Men who spoke for their partner always gave me the icks.
Jordan cast a quick, disgusted sneer over Alex, then turned his gaze back to me, his eyes softening. "Violet, I was asking you."
The implication was clear, and based on the way Rafe folded his strong arms, he was backing Jordan up. If I gave them the word, they'd rescue me from whatever Alex was up to, no matter what the cost.
"I'm fine," I replied with a sigh, "just looking forward to disinfecting my skin later. Hey, how are you going on that project?"
Jordan's brows lifted slightly, and the corner of his mouth curled in a knowing smile. "Really good, actually. I'm hoping to get it finished this afternoon."
Hope flared, and I bit my cheek to hold back my gleeful grin. "That's great! Hopefully it won't take long to get the results."
"As fun as it is to make idle chitchat with people I despise, we have somewhere to be. Come on, babe." Alex gave my waist a firm tug, and I reluctantly let him lead me away.
Neither of us spoke for a few minutes, me because I didn't care to make conversation with him. Ever. About anything. It was a waste of breath.
"Since when did you and Jordan work on projects together?" Alex demanded when we reached the male dorm wing. "You're not even in the same year."
I rolled my eyes. "So? I'm not in the same year as you, yet suddenly I'm taking 300 level courses."
He narrowed his eyes at me, suspicious. We were out of sight of the dining room and most of the students, but still, he kept a possessive hand on my waist. I didn't even bother trying to peel him off me because he'd probably pull some bullshit excuse out.
"Violet, if I find out that someone else has been putting their hands on my property," Alex told me in a scary calm voice, "I'd be inclined to cut those hands off at the wrists. Don't think to underestimate my reach."
It was almost laughable. Here I was worried he somehow knew Jordan and I planned to frame him for breaking into a highly classified server and stealing the data files. All he could think about was whether some other guy had been warming my bed.
"I'm not your property," I spat in reply as we reached Alex's dorm room and he opened the door. "What are we doing here, anyway?"
Instead of answering, he just shoved me into his room and slammed the door shut behind him. The only thing that saved him from a broken nose and knee to the balls was the fact that he didn't lock it.
"Get in," he ordered me, nodding to his huge bed. His hands worked his tie, loosening it and tugging it off before starting on his shirt buttons.
I shook my head. "No way. I thought I made it pretty fucking clear I'm never sleeping with you again, Alex."
The look he gave me was like I'd just farted out my mouth. "Get in the fucking bed, Violet, or Matisse and Nolan will pay for your disobedience."
I blinked rapidly, feeling the sting of his threat like a physical blow.
Fuck me. Why'd I have to go forming friendships? I knew better. Friends made you vulnerable. They gave your enemies leverage where otherwise they might not have any.
Alex smiled the kind of smile a shark might give a clown fish. "Now you're getting it. I may not be able to touch those other two lovesick fools—yet—but the Guays are way, way, way down the ladder. Easy to crush with one’s boot."
And there it was. He couldn't touch me because I had no property, no title, no political aspirations and he wouldn't stand a chance in a fair fight. He couldn't touch Jordan or Rafe because, right now, their kingdoms were more powerful than his. But Mattie and Nolan? They were sitting ducks. Collateral damage. Fucking leverage.
God damn it all to hell.
But still, where did that leave me?
"I'm not letting you fuck me," I finally replied, looking carefully to the side as he stripped his shirt off.
The coy smile on his face as he approached me, shirtless, was the same one he'd used on me a hundred times. The same smile that used to make my stomach flip and my heart race. The one that said I was his whole universe and no other woman could ever compare.
"Come on, Violet," he murmured, sounding... sincere? "Do you really feel nothing for me, anymore? We were in love not so long ago. Those feelings don't just disappear overnight." He reached up and gently stroked some hair out of my face, just the same way he'd done when we'd been dating.
Damn him. Memories assaulted me, pausing my need to murder him.
He seized the moment, untucking my shirt from my skirt and flicking several buttons open before I snapped myself out of it.
"Stop it!" I snarled, my hand cracking across his face when he tried to unzip my skirt. "It was fake, Alex. All of it was fake. You were sleeping with Claudette, for fuck’s sake!"
I backed away from him, tugging the sides of my shirt closed even as I shook with pure rage. It was mostly at him, but also at myself for that brief moment when I’d let those memories back in.
"We all make mistakes, Violet," he replied, not looking apologetic in the least. "Let me make it up to you..." He reached out, and I smacked his hand away.
Alex's ocean-blue eyes flared with anger. I braced myself for a fight, but it never came. Instead, his palm reader flashed and blipped with an incoming call, and he froze.
"Get in the bed," he barked at me, his whole demeanor shifting into aggression and menace. "Now. Or I'll get Mattie expelled."
There was no way in hell I'd let him rape me, but something else was going on here. He almost looked afraid as he swiped a hand through his blond hair and stared down at his wrist, so I did as he instructed.
When I was sitting against the headboard, he slid in beside me and tugged me sharply until we were flat on our backs, sharing a pillow. Then he answered his call.
The holographic image that projected from his palm reader into the space before us made me almost swallow my own tongue, and a chill of dread settled over me. If I'd had any doubts that this ballot bullshit was bigger than the two of us, this confirmed it.
"Mum, Dad," Alex greeted the gorgeous, golden-haired couple on the image, "you kind of caught us at a bad time..." He gave his parents a sly grin, implying that we'd been fooling around when they called.
Bile churned in my stomach, and I could feel how pale I must have gone. Hopefully they just chalked it up to a bad hologram signal or intimidation at meeting the King and Queen of Australasia for the first time.
"So I see," Alex's father, King Steve the Fourth, grinned lasciviously. It was gross as fuck, considering I was supposedly in his own son's bed right now. "This must be the mysterious Violet. She’s even more beautiful than you let on, son."
"Oh," Queen Sheila gushed, pressing a hand dramatically to her chest. "Oh, you two make just the most gorgeous couple. Oh, honey, don't they look good together?" She pawed at her husband and then turned back to us on the screen. "You two will make just the most beautiful babies, I can already tell."
My whole body stiffened, and I would have bolted out of the bed had Alex not snaked an arm around my shoulders to hold me still.
"Mum, you're embarrassing my girlfriend," Alex chuckled, and I swallowed the rage and frustration and disgust threatening to engulf me. I couldn't afford to lay it all out there, though. Not if the king and queen of our world’s third most powerful kingdom were in on the whole thing. I needed to play it smarter than that.
"Oh nonsense, darling. I'm sure Violet is just dying to start a family with you. It's what every little orphan girl dreams of, isn't it? Becoming a princess?" Alex's mother bubbled with excitement, seemingly totally oblivious to the insult in her words. Me? I was fucking stunned speechless. Was this bitch for real?
"Mum, seriously," Alex chastised, and I almost believed that he was embarrassed for me. Almost. Damn, his acting skills were good. "Do you mind if I call you guys back later? Violet and I are late for our economics lecture." He affectionately pressed a kiss to my head, reinforcing the idea that we were late because we couldn't keep our hands off each other.
"Of course, son," his father replied with a smug smile. "We'll let you get back to it." Wink. Ew. "And Alex? The clock is ticking. Don't disappoint me."
Alex's frame tightened beside me, but his relaxed smile didn't slip even a fraction. "Of course, Dad. I'm working on it." Without waiting for his parents to reply, he ended the call and let out a long sigh.
“What. The. Fuck. Was. That?” I asked him, shifting out from under his arm and trying really hard to contain my shock. "The clock is ticking? That better not mean what I think it means."
Alex remained where he was, reclined against his pillows, shirtless, with his arm tossed above his head. Fucking hell. It should be illegal for the bad guys to be so gorgeous.
"It's exactly what you think it means. Dear old Dad wants me to get you either locked into a marriage contract, or better yet, pregnant, before the end of the school year."
I barked a sharp laugh because it was either that or… I didn’t even know. A mental breakdown?
“It’ll be a cold day in hell before I ever let you stick your dick in me again, Alex,” I informed him with total sincerity. I scurried off the bed and rebuttoned my shirt with shaking fingers.