Filed To Story: Spit or Swallow: Kiss Of The Basilisk
Leo frowned. “Why?”
“Because…”
She could come up with nothing to say. There was no logical reason why she would need to check on her teacher, and they both knew it. But the fact remained that she had to see Caspen. So she said the only thing she could think of. “I’ll be right back, Leo. I promise.”
Leo was still frowning. It was a long, weighted moment before he responded. “Of course. Take your time.”
Tem didn’t give him a chance to change his mind. She extracted her fingers from his, pushing through the door and back into the ballroom. Caspen’s tall frame was at the edge of the crowd. She ran for him, not caring who was in her way.
“Caspen!”
He turned, his expression unreadable.
“She will satisfy you?” Tem hissed when she reached him, disguising her hurt with anger. “How could you say that about me?”
Caspen let out a humorless laugh. “I did my duty, Tem. Nothing more.”
He turned away, but Tem grabbed his arm. “Your duty? Is that all I am to you?”
Caspen whirled around, closing the distance between them in half a second. “You know very well what you are to me, Tem. But my hands are tied.”
She glared up at him. “Actually, it’s my hands that are tied.”
Caspen’s eyes narrowed. “Are they? You are his future wife, are you not? Such an esteemed position is hardly a burden.”
Tem stepped back as if she had been slapped. “I said that to defend myself,” she whispered. “And it’s just a fact. You know it is.”
“The only fact is that he wants you. Even more so now that he senses a challenge from me.”
“Senses a-“
“And if he thinks he can take what is mine.” Caspen cut her off, leaning even closer. “He is wrong.”
This time when he turned to leave, Tem let him.
The sounds of the ballroom became a dull roar as she closed her eyes. Caspen hadn’t said Leo’s name-not once. Perhaps it was a way to degrade him-to undermine the hierarchy the royals insisted on enforcing. Jonathan’s and Christopher’s statues flashed suddenly through Tem’s mind. She would not allow that to happen to Leo. Not ever.
Tem opened her eyes.
There was Gabriel, laughing with a butler. There was Vera, pining after Rowe. Nobody in the crowded ballroom knew what Tem had just endured-what Caspen had done and was capable of doing. It was becoming too much for Tem to bear. She could not continue to carry such secrets alone.
Somehow, she found her way back to Leo. He looked up as she entered the room.
“What was that about?” he asked. He had a funny expression on his face, as if he were trying to figure something out.
“Nothing,” Tem said automatically. It wasn’t her best, but she had nothing left to give.
Leo stepped closer. “I’d rather you didn’t lie to me, Tem. Remember?”
Tem sighed. Of course she remembered. But she also couldn’t tell Leo the truth. So she said, “I’m just tired. It’s been a long day.”
She knew he didn’t believe her.
“Is he always like that?” Leo asked.
“Like what?”
“A bit of a brute.”
“Caspen is not a brute.”
The words came out sharper than she’d intended. Leo raised an eyebrow at her tone.
“Have I offended you?”
“You insulted someone I care about.”
Too late, Tem realized it was utterly the wrong thing to say. The look of pure disgust on Leo’s face was exactly the one Rowe had given Caspen earlier.
“You care about him?”
Tem tried to recover, reaching for his arm. “I just don’t think he’s a brute. He prepared me for you after all. Don’t you think we owe him our gratitude?”
Leo jerked out of her grasp. His voice was flat when he spoke again. “Preparing you for me is his duty. I owe him nothing. And neither do you.”
“Leo…” she started, but he shook his head, and she fell silent.
He stepped closer. His gray eyes were shards of ice. “Is this why you won’t fuck me? Because of him?”
Tem’s mouth opened, then closed.
In the silence, he studied her.
She didn’t dare speak. Leo was smart; he would not be fooled by words. Tem had no choice but to let him come to his own conclusion. When the prince finally spoke, his voice was a quiet murmur of realization.
“He means something to you.”
Tears began to form. Tem was being pulled in a direction she had no control over-being forced to reveal something she had never intended to reveal. Everything was coming to a head right now, and there was nothing she could do to stop it.
There was no point in lying. Leo would see right through it if she did.
So Tem whispered, “Yes.”
True hurt and disbelief flashed across Leo’s face. “How much?” he asked.
“How much what?”
He leaned in so she couldn’t look anywhere but at him. “How much exactly does he mean to you?”
Tem couldn’t believe this was happening.
“He…” she started but had no idea how to put it into words. How much did Caspen mean to her? A lot. But she couldn’t say that to Leo.
Before she could come up with an answer, he was already asking a far worse question. “Do you love him?”
She needed to lie. That was all there was to it; she needed to conceal the truth, just this once. But Tem couldn’t do it. The more she tried, the tighter her chest became. It was like trying to speak through a suctioned tube. She could barely get the word through her teeth: “No.”
Leo’s entire body was rigid. Tem wanted to reach for him but didn’t. There was nothing to say-no way to fix this. She knew without a shadow of a doubt that she’d just set something in motion that couldn’t be undone. For a moment, Tem was afraid Leo might scream at her.
But then, inexplicably, he softened. His shoulders slumped as his eyes dropped to the floor. It was a long moment before he spoke, and when he did, his voice was hoarse. “Am I to share you?”
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.