Cruel Legacy (Cruel 3)

I wasn’t the same person I’d been when we had sex in that hotel suite at The Plaza. I wasn’t the same person who had turned him away because I wasn’t ready for a relationship. I was someone…something else entirely.

I didn’t know where that left me.

Let alone us.

But I dared to find out.

I had to.

My eyes skimmed the crowd as I sipped my glass of champagne. My dress drew looks like a moth to a flame. People whispering behind their hands. I was sure they were explaining who I was. The risk I’d taken in showing up tonight. And I just tilted my chin up and let them look, let them talk. With luck, it’d get back to the people I wanted it to. It would snowball from there.

I smiled viciously at the thought of Katherine’s face when she found out that I was back in the city. But that wasn’t here or now.

I couldn’t predict how Katherine would react. But I was making my own way now. No longer waiting with the ball in her court.

Right now, I needed to focus on Penn.

My phone buzzed, and I glanced down at the message that had come in from him.

Fuck.

I laughed despite myself.

Yes, that’s the idea.

What are you wearing?

That’s cheating.

Any hints?

I took another sip and tried to reel in the giddy feeling at the center of my chest. Penn was dangerous in every way to my heart. But I figured I should give him something.

I flipped to the camera and took a picture of the crown necklace dangling at my throat. The crown that he had given me a year ago. The crown that I’d thrown at his feet when I found out about the goddamn bet. The crown that he’d returned to me when he decided to pursue me again.

Even though my heart still skipped when I was near him, I’d been certain that I’d never go back to him. Never allow myself to fall into his trap again. And yet, here I was, in his necklace. Maybe I’d catch him in my trap this time.

I approve.

The pad of my finger traced his comment before I returned the phone to my clutch. He’d find me. I was sure of it. Not that I intended to make it easy for him.

I went looking for him in hopes of drawing out our game and the anticipation. But I found Jane first.

Jane Devney was a force of nature. Shoulder-length ash-blonde hair and hazel eyes with a small stature that might make you overlook her. But she had stepped into the Upper East Side and claimed it as her own. She’d opened Trinity with sheer willpower and the enormity of her connections.

Tonight she looked stunning in a rose-gold dress as she clutched on to the arm of Court Kensington. Penn’s brother looked so much like him that it was sometimes jarring. While they were similar in looks, they were opposites in personality. Even if he wasn’t as bad as Penn had always made him out to be…or at least to me.

I evaded Jane. I wasn’t ready to see her yet. Or to hear her excitement at me being back and how she was right that it had all blown over. When I was certain that it hadn’t.

I escaped into a crowd of people and came out on the other side to find Penn standing there with none other than Harmony Cunningham, the daughter of the designer whose dress I wore currently.

My smile disappeared. I knew that Penn and Harmony had history. He’d used her to make Katherine jealous—or so Lewis had said. Right now, I didn’t know what to think of them. She was standing awfully close with her hand on his arm. Not that he looked pleased by it.

I hated the jealousy that settled in my stomach. It was an emotion I wanted to snuff out.

I retrieved my phone, snapped a picture of them standing together, and sent it to Penn with one line attached.

Wrong girl.

Then I creeped deeper into the crowd, keeping my eye on him as Harmony left his side and he checked the message. I reveled in the smile that lit up his features. He looked as sexy and alluring as James Bond. Dark hair artfully styled, blue eyes wide and bold, tuxedo crisp and tailored to his incredible build. But it went beyond that. To the casual confidence that had been bred into him. From living in this world with its expectations and scandal and silver spoons.

He was an enigma. It was what had drawn me to him in the first place. The Manhattan royalty playboy who wanted a different life. Who was so much more than what he portrayed to the world. The morality that he so fiercely tried to cultivate. The duality of his character that strove against his upbringing for a better life.