What Grows Dies Here

I blinked again.

Yasmin looked more concerned now, her sculpted brows pinched together.

Fuck.

My friends had heard every sordid detail of my sexual escapades of which I had many. I didn’t hesitate to share anything with them.

But something made me pause here. Something about Karson. About what he said last night.

“Once I do this, there will be no going back. You’ll be mine.”

Fuck.

I shook my head. “Oh, I was supposed to meet the prince at the airport this morning,” I fibbed. “We were going to meet his parents.”

Not a lie.

And I had entirely forgotten about it until this moment. There were numerous missed calls from him, which I had ignored in somewhat of a daze. To be completely honest, I’d completely forgotten about who he was and that I’d been dating him.

Karson made me forget about a prince.

A very villainous thing to do.

Yasmin relaxed her face into more of a knowing smile. The smile I was used to. The ‘isn’t my friend Wren adorably insane’ kind of smile. She was well used to my antics by now, the whirlwind of men, of impossible situations. She had been integral in getting me out of many situations thanks to her law degree and knowledge of international law.

“Did you forget, or did you put it out of your mind because you knew that meeting his parents was a sign of the kind of commitment you are definitely not ready for, even though becoming a princess will be the result of such a commitment?” she asked, sipping her drink.

I downed my drink as I typed a quick apology text to Tenzin, citing a family emergency. I didn’t have a conventional ‘job’, so I couldn’t use that as an excuse.

I hated myself for having such a one percenter fucking problem. Not for the first time, I stared at my high-powered attorney friend who had worked her ass off for years to get to where she was. Who helped people, who had a purpose. She was indescribably extraordinary and made me feel totally worthless in these moments.

Not because she tried to. No, none of my successful, girl boss friends ever judged me because I came from impossible amounts of money and had a trust fund that meant I never had to work a day in my life.

Judgement was not their style.

“I’m not against commitment,” I argued.

“And I’m not currently wearing bikini bottoms because I haven’t done laundry in two weeks,” Yasmin countered.

I grinned at her, tapping on my phone once more. “Well that, I can fix. I’ll just arrange for the best laundry service in the city to come to your place to pick it up tonight and have it back tomorrow, pressed and fresh.” I grinned at her. “I may not be freeing political protesters, but I can make sure you have on fresh panties,” I winked at her. “We’ll also go shopping after this. Retail therapy and day drinking go together like cheese and wine.”

Yasmin inspected me with that shrewd gaze of hers. “You look different. Seem different. Have you met another man? Is that why you flaked on the prince?”

It suddenly felt like there was a twenty-pound weight at the bottom of my stomach.

No way was I telling anyone about Karson. Not even Yasmin, who I’d known since college.

“The prince isn’t history, we’re just on a break,” I hedged.

She sipped her drink, scrutinizing me over the rim. “Okay, Ross,” she muttered. “But there is another man, isn’t there?”

I couldn’t avoid questioning from someone like Yasmin. Me dancing around the question would only make her more suspicious.

“No, counselor, there is not,” I replied smoothly. “We need to focus on getting you another man. Or at the very least, another pair of panties.”

And that’s where it started. That’s when I started lying to one of the most important people in my life.

That’s how I knew, no matter how hard I tried to fight it, Karson was never going to be just sex.