The Princess (Filthy Trilogy 2)

“Yes,” I whisper. “What do they mean to you, Eric?”

“I haven’t figured out the first one,” Eric replies to Grayson. “But this one, the one Harper was handed at the hospital. This one is personal.”

“Explain,” Grayson presses and I hold my breath, waiting for what comes next, my stomach in knots.

“It translates to a saying we had in the SEALs. If you ain’t cheating, you ain’t trying. It means to win, you have to break the rules.”

Grayson’s silent for several beats and I imagine him studying Eric, before he says, “And you think that means someone knows what rules you were going to break with Kingston.”

“Don’t you?” Eric challenges. “It’s a fucking threat. They want me to do something for them, pay them off in some way, or they’ll tell Harper.”

“Then you tell Harper. That’s why I came here. You have to tell her.”

“Tell her I betrayed her? Tell her I lied to her? Hell no. That’s not happening.”

“We both know it’s not that simple. Explain it to her but tell her. Before someone else tells her.”

Not because he loves me, I think. Not because he trusts me. Because someone else might tell me. Because someone else knows. This reasoning guts me more than the secret, the lie, that is obviously between me and Eric.

“She’ll walk away,” Eric bites out, his voice low, rough, guttural, “and I can’t, I cannot, let her walk away.”

And I can’t breathe.

I can’t breathe and my heart is beating so fast that I feel like I’m going to pass out. The voices go silent, or my heartbeat blasts over them, I don’t know which. I don’t even remember the moment that I exit the bedroom. I don’t remember the walk down the stairs. I’m just standing at the office door. I open it and Eric and Grayson turn to me.

“I was upstairs. I heard you talking. I wasn’t trying to, but—” I turn to Eric. “Tell me. Tell me everything. Is nothing between us real? Is this all a lie? Why can’t you afford to let me walk away, Eric? What is this really all about?”

THE END…FOR NOW