Zach sat down, but that only spiked the tension higher. Nolan glowered across the table, and Mattie all but pretended he didn't exist.
"Mattie," Zach said quietly, talking to the side of her face, seeing as she refused to look at him. "Come on, we need to talk. You can't just pretend it didn't happen. We need to discuss—"
"Shut the fuck up, Zach," Mattie hissed, cutting him off with a vicious glare.
His brows arched, and I had to hand it to him... he had balls. "No. If you won't talk in private, then we'll do it here in front of your friends."
I spluttered a shocked laugh, then covered it with a sip of my wine when Mattie shot me a look. But come on, Zach was seriously taking his own life in his hands.
"Fine," my friend snapped, her jaw clenched and her eyes flashing with fury. "But not fucking here." She grabbed him by the wrist and dragged him out of his seat, then stalked out of the dining room with him tight on her heels. Like a puppy. Too freaking cute.
I grinned until Nolan glared at me, then I quickly wiped it away.
"You're not seriously supporting that mess, are you?" His scowl grew. "She deserves better than him."
I gave him an easy shrug. "Yeah, she does. But she likes him, whether she admits it or not. So just let her figure it out. If he hurts her, I'll cut his dick off. Deal?"
Nolan still looked all kinds of mad but gave me a short nod. "Deal."
For some time, we just enjoyed the meal as friends. Rafe and I had been late enough that we'd missed the official speeches but not so late that we’d missed the food, so I got to enjoy a full dinner.
When the dean announced the string quartet and invited people up to dance, I was feeling blissfully happy. Too content, some might say.
Rafe's snarl and glare gave me a heads up a second before a familiar hand rested on my shoulder.
"Violet, would you care to dance?" Alex asked, his voice smooth and devoid of the malice I'd grown used to from him. I shrugged off his hand, but he didn't let it deter him. "I feel like our conversation was cut short earlier. Perhaps you could elaborate while we dance?"
Rafe shot halfway out of his seat, but Jordan was closer and shoved Alex away faster than I could scramble out of my seat.
"Stop it," I hissed, wiggling myself between Jordan and Alex as they stood toe to toe, posturing. "Stop it, both of you. This is not the kind of scene we need right now."
When neither one of them backed down, I gave Jordan a firm push in the direction of the table. "Sit down. Alex isn't going to rape and impregnate me in the middle of the dance floor."
A furious snarl came from Rafe, and I rolled my eyes. "Yes, Alex, let's dance before you get your stupid ass killed over a dick-measuring competition."
The Australasian King gave me a smug smile. "I think we all know I'd win that contest anyway."
I snorted a laugh. Like a legit laugh. It was funny. "I think I'm the only one who could judge that, Alex, and believe me... you wouldn't." From the corner of my eye, I caught Rafe and Jordan shoot each other a smirk. With a sigh, I jerked my head to the dance floor. "Come on, then."
Before either of my princes could object any further, I made my way across the dining room. If Alex was smart, he'd follow.
"So, I take it you're fucking both of them, then?" my ex-boyfriend commented in a quiet voice as we reached the other dancing couples. His hand rested lightly on the small of my back, and I turned around to face him.
I arched a brow. "What do you want, Alex? I thought we said everything we needed to say earlier."
He smiled that panty-melting, golden-boy smile of his. That fucking smile that’d sucked me in from the first time we’d met. "We did. But I missed you, Violet. Tomorrow morning we all fly out to the Cayman Islands for the monarchy vote and then..." He trailed off with a sigh. His hands gripped me in a perfect dance hold and he led me around the floor with practiced ease, but his mind was a million miles away.
"And then what, Alex?" I prompted when he didn't continue. It was bound to bite me in the ass later, but a tiny part of me still cared about him, still believed he could be better than he was.
He gave me a sad smile. "Then I go back to Sydney and become the ruler of my kingdom. Alone."
I frowned. "What about your sister? She's there with you, isn't she?"
Alex shook his head. "Not what I meant, Violet."
I knew that. But it was an uncomfortable subject, so I was dodging it.
"Alex, I told you earlier. We were never a match; it was all the Society meddling." I tried to keep my rejection soft because I needed him to vote our way at the meeting. I couldn't risk pissing him off when we'd come this far, but at the same time, I never wanted to lead anyone on.
"Maybe not a genetic match," he replied, staring into my eyes in a way that made me feel all too sorry for him. "But you're my match in every way that counts. I really fucked things up with you, and I'll regret it for the rest of my life."
Unease pricked at me, and I searched the room for a convenient excuse to end our dance. What I saw instead gave me chills, and I tripped over Alex's foot.
"Whoa, are you okay?" he asked, catching me before I could make a total idiot of myself.
I shook my head, feeling my pulse race. "No, I just..." My gaze scoured the dance floor, but people were moving too fast for me to get a clear lock on anyone for long. "I thought I saw someone."
"Someone you don't want to see?" Alex questioned, frowning at me in concern. I wasn't paying attention, though, my eyes searching the crowd of dancers until I locked on a familiar head of ice-blond hair.
Furious and shocked as hell, I wrenched free of Alex's grip and pushed my way through the crowd to confront my sensei. How dare he?
"Uriel," I snarled, clapping my hand down on his shoulder and spinning him to face me—to fucking fight me—but then faltered. "Oh, I'm so sorry," I apologized to a man who was most definitely not the leader of the bad-resistance. "Sorry, I thought you were someone else."
The man frowned at me, but I mumbled more apologies and backed away before I could cause more of a scene. I bumped into someone, but it was a familiar, comforting warmth that encircled me before I panicked.
"What just happened, Violet?" Jordan murmured in my ear, then gently spun me around to seem like we were dancing. "Did Alex try something?"
A looming shadow a few feet away told me Rafe had jumped up to help too, but Jordan had just reached me first. I got the feeling the rest of our lives would be a series of ongoing competitions between them, and I kind of loved it. It gave me insights into their friendship. Their brotherhood.
I shook my head, my cheeks flaming with embarrassment. "No, not at all. I just thought... ugh, I thought I saw Uriel. But it was just some other blond dude, and now I feel like a paranoid idiot."
Jordan's mouth pursed in thought as he gently guided me through a simple waltz. "You're not paranoid at all," he told me in a serious voice. "I don't blame you for seeing that fucker in every shadow; I have been too." A darkness filled his eyes for a second. "But it's only a few more days. Once this vote goes through, and it will, then he loses all his power."
I nodded, but my stomach was all in knots. "I hope so," I whispered.
"You know what you need?" Jordan murmured, a smile crossing his lips as he twirled and dipped me.
I couldn't fight the small answering smile creeping over my own face. "What?"
His cognac eyes sparkled with mischief. "A distraction."
And just like that, he danced us straight out a side door, then grabbed my hand and started running down the staff corridor we were in. By the time he’d found a tunnel entrance and pulled me inside, I was laughing uncontrollably.
"Jordy, what the hell?" I asked between bouts of laughter. "You're going to get us in trouble! What if Rafe—"
"Shh," he replied, smirking as the secret door slid closed behind us. He hit a button to turn on a light, revealing we were totally alone. "Rafe was watching; he knows you're safe with me. Besides, we'll be quick... right?" The wink he gave me, though, promised he had no intention of being that quick.
Jordan was usually the levelheaded one. So if he was throwing caution to the wind, then who the hell was I to argue? My arms snaked up and around his neck, our lips meeting as his hard body crushed me against the wall.
That session with Rafe before dinner had left me all aching and needy, though. As hot as it was to make out with Jordy in a secret corridor, I wanted more. I wanted him to fuck me fast and dirty, then go back to the formal dinner with the evidence still clinging to us both. Yeah, I was a bit messed up, but so what?
"Jordy," I groaned, hitching my leg up around him and finding my long skirts in the way. "Ugh, fucking dress."
He gave a warm laugh as his hands gathered up the excess fabric. "Here, let me help," he so gallantly offered, pushing my dress up to my waist and boosting me up with strong hands under my thighs.
My back against the wall and Jordan's hands on my bare thighs, his hard length grinding me through our clothes... yeah I was going to come way too fucking quick. Then again, we did have to get back before too many people noticed we'd disappeared...
"Violet," Jordan murmured, kissing along my jaw, "I hadn't intended to take things this far. Or fuck, maybe I had..."