Cross coughs, hiding a laugh, and Maddox shrugs his shoulders as he sits, chewing his food. I cut my pancake up one more time, and he lets me eat it, making sure to watch me the entire time.
“We are going out for the day,” Maddox claims.
“No,” I answer, putting my fork down. “What makes you think I want to go anywhere with you?”
“What makes you think you have a choice?” he counters right back and slides off his seat. “Hector, make us lunch to go with whatever Riona likes and my usual.” He turns his eyes back to me. “Be downstairs in twenty minutes.”
“Have you heard of saying please?” I call out, even though he has used his vampire speed to leave and is likely too far away to hear me. Rolling my eyes, I turn back to my pancakes and eat them, feeling Cross staring at me from across the room.
“What is it?” I ask him, turning around on my seat. Cross has a notebook in his hands, and he is writing in it, but his eyes swiftly turn up to me.
He smiles, but it’s a tense smile at best. “Nothing for you to worry about. Perhaps you should get down to Maddox. He isn’t a patient man.”
“I think everyone on The Onyx knows that,” I point out, sliding off my seat. Hector pushes a picnic basket over to me, and I pick it up. “Thank you for breakfast and this. See you both later.”
“Have fun, madame,” Hector calls to me as I leave the room. Hearing Cross walk across to Hector, I pause by the door for a second, out of sight.
“Do you think she can be trusted?” Cross asks.
Hector instantly replies. “The only part of that girl I don’t trust is Maddox’s obsession with her and how clueless she is.”
“I doubt it is more than lust. Once it plays out, he will forget about her,” Cross replies. “The sooner the better for what we have planned.”
What the hell are they planning? And why does it have anything to do with me?
Hearing Cross move across the room, I quickly run down the corridor, something in the basket making a noise as I run, no doubt giving me away. Knowing I need to watch my back in this place, I make a mental note to dig for information on Cross and Hector, and what they could be planning. I’m not sure how I’m going to do that, but I will figure it out like everything else. Maddox is waiting outside the castle, next to a horse and carriage this time. He gives me one of those terrifying but sexy as sin smiles as he opens the door to the carriage and waves me in. I shove the basket into his chest, ignoring his outstretched hand, and climb into the carriage, sitting on one side. Maddox chuckles as he climbs in after me and places the basket on one side before sitting right next to me, his whole body pressed into my side.
The carriage takes off a few minutes after a man shuts the door, and I rest back, watching out the window at the red snow trickling down the mountain.
“Can vampires feel the cold?” I question. “I know you feel hot to touch, but do you feel that?”
“We feel everything humans do,” he answers. “Cold, hot, pleasure, and everything you can think of.”
He purrs the word pleasure.
I roll my eyes and cross my arms, which only makes me brush against him further. “What did my boring as fuck brother do with you the entire week?”
My lips twitch. “Nothing much other than saving my brother’s best friend and earning my respect.”
“Reign is always the saviour, and I am the snake,” he replies, and for a second I want to tell him he doesn’t have to be the bad guy all of the time. He could change. But then I think better of it, remembering vividly all those I’ve seen him kill. “This Arlo, is he your friend or your brother’s?”
“Both. We all grew up together,” I tell him. “And if you kill him, I will find a way to kill you.”
He looks down at me, a dangerous glint in his eye. “Don’t say things like that, my violent little human. You make it sound like a challenge. And I love a challenge.”
“Just don’t, Maddox,” I warn him.
“I find it amusing how you think you have power over me,” he replies with a cool laugh, and he looks away. My cheeks burn as I glare out the window at the mountain like it is the reason Maddox is such a dick. Of course, it isn’t, and I rest my head back as the carriage takes us down the mountain and through the forest. We stop suddenly, and Maddox kicks the door open, climbing out with the basket and offering me his hand once again. I laugh, pushing his hand away and jumping out on my own. My black jeans and light pink T-shirt do little against the cold of the air, and I almost wish I had the red cloak Maddox gave me.
“This way,” he instructs, pointing at a bunch of bushes and trees in the distance.
“Where are we?” I question as I walk alongside him. I don’t see where else I could go at this point.
“I found this place when I was a kid. I used to run through the forests a lot to escape my father and brother,” he tells me, his voice void of emotion. “I don’t know why, but I wanted to show you this place.”
“Like a date?” I question.
He gives me a malicious grin. “Ah, you’ve seen through my master plan. Now I have you all alone. All mine.”
I don’t respond to that as we get to the bushes and he climbs through. I follow, a few sticks and leaves sticking to my hair and scratching my skin, until we come out on a small beach. The sound of the waves must’ve been hidden by the thick trees surrounding the beach, as I never heard it. I would never have guessed this was here.
Thick waves brush against the nearly white sand, and it’s warm, oddly so when it was cold a second ago.
“How is it warm here?” I ask.
“This island was created by magic. This place is always warm, and the sea is as well, up to a point,” he explains to me, but his eyes stay on my face, watching me so intently. “Can you see why I like it here?”
“Do you bring every girl you’ve wanted here? I can see how it would charm them,” I counter. “But not me. A beach won’t make me forget who you are.”
He brushes off my comment. “No one knows of this place but you and me. Oh, and I guess the driver I compel, but he forgets everything I say after an hour.”
I meet his gaze, feeling the truth in his words. “I have nothing to swim in.”
His eyes burn with something else, a desire I’ve seen more than once there. “I like to swim without clothes. You are welcome to do the same.”
“No, thank you,” I mutter, walking onto the beach and away from the very, very tempting prince. I eye lots of seashells as I walk along, and I lean down, picking up a curved one before sitting down. Maddox sits next to me, leaning back on his hands and looking up at the sun. His golden skin looks almost luminous under the light, and it’s stunning, but another sharp reminder of who he is. “Reign told me about your mother and father, and the orbs. He told me about the children, and you must know they talked to me.”
“I do not like that my brother took you to them. They could have killed you, and it was reckless of him,” Maddox replies. “You are human, and he forgets it.”
“I’m sorry about your parents, Maddox,” I say, getting to my point. “And I might be human, but I am never safe on this island. I won’t stay locked in a room.”