Crown of Lies

Too late now.

“Elle is mine. In fact, I’m taking her home right now. My home.” He pushed me forward, deliberately forcing Greg to the side so we could pass. “We’ll just say our goodbyes to the others.”

Greg spluttered something I didn’t hear.

I turned to Penn. “What do you mean the others?”

“The reunion you’re here with.”

How does he know that?

It added to all the other questions I had about him. All the ponderings and wonderings and itchy uncertainties he invoked.

Was it coincidence at Belle Elle or manipulation that he’d been there when I’d done my rounds?

Was it luck he was here tonight or careful planning?

Would answers to those questions change what I was about to do with him?

That was one question I didn’t want an answer to.

My heart raced, already out of breath with what I’d agreed to participate in. “Let’s just go. I’ll call them tomorrow with my apologies.”

“Oh, silly girl.” He laughed. “The moment you said yes all your choices became void. This is my game now.”

Chapter Seventeen

“YOU MUST BE Chloe.”

“I am.” The girl who tormented me in high school simpered, tossing her red hair like a high-strung model. Her green dress complemented the tan she said she’d earned from the Caribbean last week. Her gaze sank into Penn as if he were some prize to be won. A prize she’d very much like to taste.

Penn pulled me to his side, feathering his hand up and down my arm. Such a simple touch, but it bruised with claiming and domination.

“I believe you know my partner, Elle.” The mastery of his voice and damning sentence locked my spine and made Chloe jolt.

“Wait, partner?” She blinked. “I thought she was with Greg.” She glowered at the way Penn found subtle ways of touching me. Her eyes found mine, hot with jealousy.

I’d never seen that grisly emotion on her face before. She believed I was beneath her to ever covert what I had.

Not tonight, it seems.

She sniffed. “You got two men now, Ding Dong Bell? A little greedy, don’t you think?” Her giggle was forced and fake.

For a moment, I’d been proud to earn her cattiness. Penn was the type of man any woman could appreciate and desire with his crisp suit, unreadable eyes, and aloof handsomeness.

But that damn nickname stole everything, hurtling me back to the school hallways as if I’d never left. I wanted to sink into the ground and never reappear.

I waited for Penn to mock me, just as Greg had. I tensed for him to snicker and roll his eyes at my misfortune. But he stood cold and primitive, a velvet purr falling from his mouth. “That’s an unimaginative slur to call a friend, don’t you think?”

Chloe fluffed her hair. “Oh, Elle knows it’s in affection. Don’t you, Bellie?”

I didn’t respond.

Penn did, though. “Unoriginal nicknames are a sign of low intelligence.” His snark cut through her tartness with an axe. “And in answer to your condescending question...Elle only has one partner. Me. And believe me, I’m all she’ll ever need.” His eyes smouldered with decadent chocolate. “I’ll make sure of that.”

His caresses turned heavy with guarantee. He danced the line of appropriate and wicked, deliberately stepping over it to antagonize those I had no wish to antagonize.

I wasn’t petty or prideful.

I wanted to leave.

I opened my mouth to reply, but Penn squeezed me, keeping me silent. His touch was a hot poker controlling me and making me wet in equal measure.

The other girls from school slowly looked up from their conversations, paying attention to the tense standoff while trying to appear uninterested.

They didn’t fool Penn or me as he smiled his signature sexy smirk and grabbed my chin. His lips planted on mine in a brutal kiss, marking me, consuming me as his tongue stole my arguments and his power pinched my remaining breath.

He stupefied me.

He bewitched me.

The instant I released the tension in my spine, he let me go—as if he’d deliberately kissed me to keep me out of my head and in my body with him.

“Are you going to tell them the good news, or shall I?” His authoritative tone blended with a dark flirt.

I blinked. “Tell them what?”

I was one step behind.

I couldn’t catch up.

I’d never been that way before. I’d always been the boss—always leading. I didn’t know if I liked being a follower.

“Tell them you’ve decided to let me own you.”

“Wait, what?” Chloe’s mouth hung open. “What does that mean?”

I shook my head, rubbing the sudden goosebumps on my arms. Penn said we were playing a game. Yet I didn’t know the rules or what was expected. To verbalize it in such crude terms in front of the bitches from my past wasn’t appropriate.

My forehead furrowed.

He answered Chloe before I could. “We met a few days ago, and it was love at first sight.” He dragged me close. “It took some convincing but Elle has agreed to give me a chance.” He glanced at Chloe, filling his pretty face with ardent satisfaction. “She said yes.”

“Yes to what?” Frankie appeared, eyeing Penn from his black shoes to his five o’clock shadow.

“Yes to marrying me.”

The world screeched to a halt.

Wait...what?

“No, I—” I flinched, trying to tear myself from Penn’s embrace.