Feral King (The Dominant Bastard Duology 1)

“Yeah, the ring. And don’t try to tell me it was your grandmother’s or something.”

He smiled, which seemed mean and unnecessary. “No. It wasn’t my grandmother’s.”

Pain twisted through her. She couldn’t believe she’d let herself hope for some sort of serious second chance for them to be together.

She’d let him go too easily last time. They’d both been so busy, and he’d been working so many hours, she’d assumed he was sniffing around other girls and cut him loose to roam free. She was going to be gone for years, and he couldn’t ditch his grandmother and follow her to Julliard. He hadn’t really argued with her about it when she’d suggested they end things. Besides, she’d been serious about her studies and Julliard wasn’t exactly a party school. Her professors had given no fucks about students’ long-distance relationships.

She hadn’t realized that when they broke up, she was cutting her anchor. Eventually she’d pulled herself together, but she’d never found anyone else who made her feel the way he did. When she’d come back to town she’d wanted to look him up, but was afraid he’d be happily married with a zillion beautiful kids.

One chance meeting and one night together and she’d let herself dream. Stupid girl. Even now she almost wanted him to tell her a better lie so she could go back to dreaming about a future with him.

He was still fucking smiling.

“Did you try the ring on?”

“What? No! That’s…weird and creepy. Why would I do something like that?”

His mouth twisted in a wry smile and he sighed. “Oh well. I always wondered if it would have fit. After seven years I almost had my answer.”

She blinked at him, and couldn’t quite remember how to close her mouth.

“I’m not sure why you left me the last time, Riley, but I don’t even care anymore. Give me another chance and you won’t be sorry.”

“That ring was for me?”

>

“From when you were at Julliard. Why do you think I was working so many hours?”

“I thought you were seeing someone else.”

He braced his hand against the door, then stalked into the house. She backed away from the ferocity in his gaze, but he kept following until a wall stopped her. With another man maybe she’d be afraid, but all this was doing was making her heart beat faster and her lower belly clench with arousal.

He didn’t kiss her even though he was almost close enough to. She could tell he was being careful to give her room to slide away from him if she wanted to, but with him looming over her in that delicious way he had, she had no interest in going anywhere.

“You really thought I’d deliberately ruin the best thing in my life?”

“I – thought you’d found someone you liked better, and couldn’t bring yourself to tell me.”

He barked a laugh, blinked, looked at the ceiling, then back at her, as though he couldn’t believe what an idiot she was.

“And I thought you’d found someone who could give you a pretty life.”

“I thought our life was pretty but then you stopped calling and you were always at work. I was so far away, and stressed out all the time from my classes, and my roommate told me you had to be screwing around. I didn’t want to believe it, but then…I did.” Shame and grief flooded her.

“Fuck, Leelee,” he said, looking sad and lowering his forehead to hers. “Why didn’t you just ask me?”

“I…sort of did, but you were being all mysterious and evasive.”

“I didn’t want to tell you about the ring until it was paid for and I could propose for real. Four more payments, then I had to save for a plane ticket. But then…you were gone.”

“Oh my god,” she whispered. “I kept picturing you kissing some other girl and it made me crazy.”

“No.” He laughed in what sounded like self-derision. “I stayed faithful to you for like a year after that, hoping you’d change your mind.”

“Oh.” Tears welled in her eyes, making them prickle. She raised a hand to his cheek and stroked the rough stubble there. He leaned into it like a cat. “And you kept the ring because I’m an idiot and I never deserved you in the first place.”

“Don’t say that. You know you were always too good for me.”