Destroyed Destiny (Crowne Point 4)

Something crackled and popped between all three of us.

Something wrong.

West exhaled, shaking his head at me. “My darling mistress, I keep finding you in the most compromising positions.”

For a moment, it looked as if West was going to force me back to him, but then his attention landed on Grayson.

“Are you ready to talk?”

West and Grayson shared a look, and again it was as if they were speaking in a silent language.

Grayson turned to me. “Neruda.”

I love you.

Without so much as a second look in my direction, Gray closed the distance between them. He placed his hand to West’s chest and shoved him out of the room, slamming the door shut behind them.

My prince and my villain, alone together.

Leaving me with our tangled sheets, and the prickly reminder: two jealous men who refused to let me go and also refused to share me, a single shaky truce between them, and only one happily ever after up for grabs.

The stakes? Well…other than death?

Our already fragile hearts.

Twenty-Five

GRAY

War makes for very strange bedfellows.

Words my grandfather used to say echoed in my head as I was caught in a staring match with West du Lac, fighting the urge to pummel his face into the fucking wall.

“You know if you kill me now it’s just straight-up murder, right?”

“Debating whether or not I give a shit,” I said lightly, scratching my pinky along my bottom lip. “I made a promise to Story, about what I would do to you if you hurt her. I don’t like breaking my promises to her.”

“I haven’t laid a hand on her.”

He’s been hurting her in other ways.

Fucking with her head.

Her heart.

He seeded the briar in her chest.

But, I knew if I told him that, he’d see it as a win.

So I stayed silent. It was only us in the sitting room now, with just the crackle and burn of the fire for light.

“You said I’d need you. At this point, I see no reason to trust you. So let’s not trade in trust,” I said. “Let’s trade in secrets.”

A secret for a secret…

I gritted my jaw at the unwilling memory, waiting for him to speak.

West grinned. “Good idea. You go first.”