“Do you have a moment?”

I raised my eyes to his, letting panic wash over me for a second.

“No,” I finally replied, finding Zara’s hand beside mine and holding onto it tightly. She squeezed me in response and glared at the man who had approached us. “I don’t, in fact.”

“Please, Amber.” He raised those soulful gray eyes to mine and I fought back the revulsion mixing with a strange burst of need in my belly. “I just need a few minutes of your time.”

“She doesn’t want to be alone with you,” Zara cut in with an icy glare. “I’m sure you can understand why.”

“I do,” he nodded, his face somber. “But I want to make it up to your friend. I just want a few minutes to say how truly sorry I am for what happened.”

“For what happened?” I asked with my eyebrows knitting together. “You mean what you did.”

“Yes,” he admitted. “For what I did. Please, Amber. Come with me.”

I looked across the room in search of Olivier and found him in the middle of a conversation with the twins who’d just been eliminated. Anger surged deep inside me and I found myself giving Bruno a nod before I could really think things through.

A relieved smile lit up his face and he told me to meet him outside in a few minutes. Once he was gone, Zara turned to face me with a worried expression.

“Amber, are you sure this is a good idea?” she asked, worried. “I don’t think you should be alone with him. He’s already proved you can’t trust him, and I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“I’ll be fine,” I said, giving her a reassuring smile. “I promise. Don’t worry about me.”

“But…” Zara stared at me, biting her lip. “Don’t you remember what he… did to you?”

I did. I remembered all too well.

I’d spoken to all the other girls after the challenge and found out Bruno hadn’t touched any of the others inappropriately. It only served to confuse me more.

Why had he touched me, if it wasn’t part of the challenge?

He’d scared me so much, and for what? Just to get back at his brother?

Zara was the only one I’d told about our time together in the library, too worried about the gossip and repercussions to share it with anybody else. She was understanding and vowed not to leave my side whenever Bruno was around.

And here I was, already running after him like a stupid lamb following the wolf…

“I’ll be right back,” I told Zara, smiling at her and patting her hand. “Please try not to worry. I promise I’ll be fine. Wait for me here, okay? Don’t follow us.”

“Okay,” she nodded with a worried glance at Olivier. “Won’t the Prince… you know, freak the hell out?”

“Not my problem,” I shrugged. “I’ll see you in a little bit.”

I left Zara standing in the ballroom where she was joined by the other girls while I left the room. I descended the grand staircase until I reached the front doors, where two servants opened them for me and I stepped out into the winter chill of the night.

“There you are.”

I turned to face him, my breath escaping in white puffs of smoke.

“Hi,” I said, feeling more timid than I had since my arrival in Luxuria. “Where are we going?”

“Nowhere far.” He stepped out of the shadows, his sharp features overshadowed by those eyes, stormy as ever. “Take my hand.”

I stared up at him. He towered over me. His scent was thick in the air, clean, sexy masculinity.

My legs are trembling, I noticed absent-mindedly. My cunt is wet.

I blushed at my own thoughts and took the hand he had offered me. He helped me down the stairs, and I watched my step in the high strappy heels I was wearing. I struggled on the pebbled driveway and he grinned at me, stepping in front of me. His presence wasn’t menacing for once. I couldn’t look away from his eyes.

“Need some help?” he asked gruffly. Before I could answer, he grabbed me and held me in his arms, smirking down at me. “Come on, little girl.”

He carried me to a small pavilion in the gardens, lit up with fairy lights that gave it a magical feeling. As he set me down on the marble ground, I couldn’t help the smile tugging at the corners of my lips.

What’s wrong with me? I thought. He’s a fucking freak. He tried to feel me up!

Yet the warm, tingling sensation in my stomach wouldn’t go away.

“I wanted to apologize to you about what happened with the last challenge,” he said, gripping the rail on the pavilion fence. He was turned away from me, but I could see how his knuckles tightened against the wood. “I shouldn’t have done what I did.”

He turned around and stepped closer to me, his eyes on mine.

“Sometimes I have to obey orders,” he said. “Even though I don’t want to. I’m a royal subject here. I don’t have the same rights as Olivier. Do you understand, Amber?”

I stared up at him, “Are you saying what I think you’re saying?”

He sighed, looking away. “She’s not all that bad, little girl. She used to be just like you.”

“She’s a royal bitch,” I spat out.

“Careful,” Bruno chuckled. “She is still the Queen, and she has eyes and ears everywhere.”

I rolled my eyes just as he took a step closer. Dangerously closer. My breath hitched in my throat and I stared up at him through thick black lashes.

“So, she made you do it?” I asked in a low whisper.

“You could say that,” he growled out. “But you know, you can’t just blame her. I was more than happy to be a part of her devious plans.”

“Why?” I blurted.

“Why?” he scratched his chiseled jaw and my eyes followed the movement of his fingers. “I suppose I want her approval.”

“Why?” I asked again.

“Because I want to beat Olivier,” he said, his eyes burning with silent fire. “Don't you understand, little girl? I want to beat him in every way possible. I want to have what’s his. I want his property to be my own.”

My cheeks were burning up, but I couldn’t look away from him, not even when he raised his finger and gently touched it to the heat in my face. It moved over my lips, parting them. I held back the gasp that so desperately wanted to escape me.

“I want his pretty, young little toy whore, too,” he breathed. “I want her all to myself.”

"Stop," I managed.

"No." His voice was so deep. Troubled. "You love it when I'm bad."

“Why do you hate him so much?” I demanded, my heart beating into overdrive.

He smirked at me, “You won’t believe me if I tell you now. And when you find out, you’ll long for the time you had no idea about my little brother’s darkest secret.”

Once again, he left no room for a response. He took half a step closer, his lips lingering less than an inch from mine.

“Ask for it,” he muttered, and I whimpered at his closeness.

“W-What?” I whispered.

“Ask for me to kiss you,” he said.

I shook my head wordlessly and he started to pull back. My hand flew out, my fingers wrapping around his wrist.

An electric current passed between us.

Again.

Fuck. No.

“Kiss me,” I whispered, my mouth remaining open in a silent plea for him to do it.

He did.

It took him less than a second to close the distance between us. His lips left no room for me to breathe. He enveloped my mouth, his tongue slipping against mine in a flash. He kissed me like he was paying me for it. Like he could do anything he wanted to me, knowing I wouldn’t say a word about it to a soul.

My hands found his chest and I tried to push him back, but he grabbed my wrists and held them to his pecs. Slowly, I stopped fighting it. I let my body fall into the submissiveness it knew so well.

“Fuck,” I whispered against his lips.

I felt him smirking. Biting. Fucking forcing me to give him more and more, my body submitting as if it was what I was meant to do all along.

“Amber…?”

We froze. He pulled back a moment too late. A moment that meant we had been seen.

He turned around first, facing the girl staring us both down. She was shocked, and I watched her face turn from stunned silence into angry surprise as she faced us.

“I…” I started.

“Mademoiselle Safiya,” Bruno said coolly.

Without so much as giving her another glance, he collected me in his arms again and carried me over to the front door. Safiya followed behind us. I could feel her seething glare on the back of my neck.

“I’ll see you ladies inside,” he told us, bowing before disappearing into the house.

Safiya and I stood in front of the doors, with me blushing and her letting out a huff of air.

“I… Safiya, I’m sorry,” I managed. “It wasn’t what it looked like, I–”

“It’s fine, Amber,” she replied with a cool smile. “We all have our reasons for being here, right?”

“No, I…”

“Save it.” She held up a hand to silence me. “I don’t really want to hear your explanation.”

“Okay,” I managed. I felt defeated. Numb. Angry at myself. “I’m sorry, Safiya.”

“It’s fine.”

She knocked on the doors and the two servants on the other side opened them for her.

“Oh, Amber?”

She turned around to face me one last time. I investigated her gaze, realizing for the first time just how calculating her eyes were. “You owe me one.”

The ballroom was warm, too warm. It made me feel dizzy, and it wasn’t a good combination on top of the three glasses of champagne I’d downed.

My new stones glistened in their collar and I felt several pairs of admiring eyes on me, but I didn’t care. I just wanted the night to be over already.

I’d tuned out Zara’s conversation with Camellia next to us, focusing on the crowd. I tried to spot either Bruno or Olivier but couldn’t see either of them.

“You seem distracted today,” Camellia teased me, and I responded with a tense smile.

“She’s a woman in demand today,” Zara giggled. “First Bruno, and I bet Olivier will come find her any second. Right, Amber?”

I nodded, my eyes guiltily connecting with Safiya’s. She was staring at me across the room, her expression a mix of sadness and disappointment. I felt her eyes burning into my skin, and I couldn’t hold the weight of her gaze.

Horrible thoughts consumed me, reminding me of just how much I’d fucked up.

I was everything Bruno had called me.

A toy.

A whore.

I’d wanted him to kiss me.

And I begged him to do it.

“Amber,” Zara said, motioning to the entrance to the ballroom. “I think he’s looking for you.”

I turned around, nearly bumping into Olivier who’d crossed the distance between us in mere seconds.

“Amber,” he said roughly. “I haven’t seen you all night. Where were you?”

“Around,” I managed.

I felt guilty now for avoiding him. I’d thought being felt up by Bruno was his idea, part of his plan to make me the perfect wife. Now I knew it was the Queen and Bruno working together to widen the gap between the Prince and myself.

And it’s fucking working.

“Come with me,” he said, gripping my arm. It was too hard for comfort and I yelped at his touch.

He didn’t even flinch.

“We’re leaving, Amber. Now.”

He pulled me away, so hard I stumbled in my heels. In a flash, everyone’s eyes were on us, and I picked myself up, flushing to the roots of my hair. Before I was even up, another strong figure appeared next to me, pulling me to my feet.

“Let go of her,” Bruno hissed. “You’re hurting her.”

“You’re intruding,” Olivier snarled. “Amber, come on.”

“Don’t,” Bruno muttered in my ear. “He’s drunk.”

I pulled free of both, wrenching my arms aside and blushing at the thought of the whole room watching. It was a scene I didn’t want. I could already imagine the Queen’s quips about this turn of events.

“Let me breathe,” I demanded when they both crowded me again. “I need to breathe. Just let me go.”

“Amber,” Olivier growled, and his half-brother repeated the same word, albeit in a slightly less threatening tone.

“Let go of her!” Safiya appeared in front of me like an unlikely savior.

She took my hand and I only realized then I was shaking. She led me away, turning around to spit out, “You should both be ashamed of yourselves.”

She gave me a compassionate look and a huge weight fell off my shoulders.

Despite everything else hanging in the air, I knew I’d made one true friend in the competition.