Ruthless Empire (Royal Elite 6)

Instead, I say, without facing him. “Because I hate you.”

“Silver…” he warns, seeming to rein in whatever emotions he could ever show.

“Just forget it, okay? I’ll figure it out.”

He grabs me by the chin and spins my head around. My eyes are filled with tears and it’s taking superhuman power for me to keep them at bay.

“We will figure it out. Both of us are responsible for that life.”

“Cole…” A tear slides down my cheek and he wipes it away with the pad of his thumb.

“You thought I would abandon you?”

“No, but I thought you would be against it.”

“It’s already happened. I can’t exactly be against it.”

I pull away from him. “So if it hadn’t happened, you would be?”

“No, but you would be.”

“What?”

“If it were up to me, you’d be fucking mine in front of the entire world, and yes, I would be planning to put a football team worth of babies inside you so you’d always be glued to my side. But you constantly think about your parents and your image and everyone else’s fucking opinion, so it’s you who won’t let anything happen. Not me.”

My lips tremble as I face away from him again.

Damn him.

He lifts me up just so he can bring me down soon after.

The attendant delivers the cup of water he requested. He takes it from her hand and thanks her.

I don’t miss the way she speaks in sultry words when she says to call her if he needs ‘anything’. I’m going to tell Lucien to fire her.

What? Flirting must be against her code of work ethics.

When Cole offers the glass to me, I refuse to drink.

“Drink it.”

“No.”

“Stop acting like a baby,” he says.

“Oh, wait. Is that because I have a freaking one inside me?” I mock. “No thanks to you.”

“Drop that attitude and drink the fucking water, Silver.”

“Or what? You’ll make me?”

He wraps a hand around my nape and pulls me closer. I gasp and he uses the chance to make me drink. When I close my mouth, he holds my nose, forcing me to breathe through the only other opening.

Cole doesn’t let me go until I finish the entire glass.

I wipe my mouth with the back of my hand, glaring at him. “You’re a brute.”

“And you hate me and you wish you’d never met me. I know the mantra.” He slides his gaze up and down my body, and I feel self-conscious at the intense way he’s watching me. “I’m also the one who put a baby in you.”