The question didn’t need to be asked. The messed-up sheets, half the stuff from his desk on the floor, and the overwhelming reek of sex told the story.
It was a good thing we sent Delilah off for ice and she told us to fuck off and call a maid instead. She didn’t need to see the state of this place.
Preston glared through narrowed eyes. Blood gushed from his nose, marking two harsh lines past his mouth reminding me of a marionette.
Not far off. If Belle’s got her hooks into him, then he’ll be dancing on her strings forever.
“How do you know her?” he spat. “She freaked when she saw you too.”
“Pretty sure she freaked when she saw your fiancée.” Carter’s voice was flat. “The question is how do you know her? You got up and ran off. Why?”
“She’s Cinderella.”
“She is?” I blurted. “The girl you wouldn’t shut up about for the last two years? The one who shut you down at the gallery?”
He nodded.
I threw myself down next to him, blown away. “I should’ve known,” I muttered. “A girl like that could only be Belle.”
“How do you know her?” His head swung to me, splattering blood on the carpet. “Tell me.”
I shrugged. “How do you think?”
His eyes flared. “Are you fucking serious? You slept with her?”
“Many, many times.”
I thought he’d give me a bloody nose to match.
“What? You’re mad?”
“Why would I be mad?” he scoffed. “I fucked her drunken hookups out of her head. We laughed about her forgetting the names of everyone who came before me.” His smirk was red with blood. “You couldn’t have left her with anything worth remembering.”
Preston Du Pont-Desai could be a right bastard and if anyone was going to get that side out of him, it would be Belle. Every man that met Belle Adler wanted to own her, worship her, be the one who doused the smoldering pain in her eyes. I understood his reaction to lash out better than anyone ever could.
But I was a right bastard too.
It’s what made us friends.
“She didn’t lose it at the sight of me because she forgot me, brother. She remembers every single minute of being mine, and that’s why you’re bleeding on the carpet and Belle is off running every minute of our dirty, screaming fucks through her head.”
The punch came too quick for me to block it.
His fist slammed into my jaw, snapping my head around, and dumping me on the floor. I spat out a mouthful of blood and let it ride. I deserved the hit. Like I said, no one knew the spell Belle put men under better than me.
“You’re quiet,” Preston spat at Carter. “Did you sleep with Belle too?”
“If I wanted to talk to you about Belle Adler, I would have,” he returned. “I don’t give a fuck about that girl or what you two did with her, and neither should you. Both of you get over it and forget about her. She’s not worth it.”
I loved the guy, but Carter Knight truly was an icy son of a bitch.
One who’s been keeping secrets. I was just as surprised to hear Belle say his name.
“I’m not forgetting her,” Preston said. “She didn’t give me a chance to explain. Once I get her to listen to me—”
“You’ll what?” Carter broke in. “Convince her to live happily ever after as your mistress? We’re going to the cove in three days, and at the end of summer, you’re putting a ring on Delilah’s finger. You know what will happen if you don’t.”
I smeared blood on my sleeve, wiping my mouth. “He’s right. You can’t chase this Cinderella from the ball. Forget about her.”
“You want me to forget her so you can move in,” he flung. “You’re not putting a ring on her damn finger either.”
Anger flared hot and quick. “You managed to fuck Belle without hearing her rant on marriage and relationships? I doubt it. Trust me, even if I wanted to marry her, Belle will have nothing to do with me. From the look she gave Carter, I’m betting it’s the same for him.”
Carter said nothing—which served as agreement.
“None of us are going after Belle,” I continued. “We forget about her, Preston. We’ve all got too much to lose.”
“Agreed,” Carter said.
Preston shoved off the couch, storming to the bathroom.
He can fight it now, but eventually he’ll accept it. Nothing good comes from falling in love with Belle Adler.
Chapter Three
“Belle, where on earth have you been?”
Mom shot out of her seat, abandoning her matcha tiramisu, and pulled me into a smothering hug. Proof enough that I scared both of them. The dame never rose from the table until the meal was finished, and why display affection in public when private worked just as well?
I buried my face in her neck, eyes stinging. What kind of fucking idiot was I falling for Preston Desai’s tricks?
A hand rested on my hair. “We checked the gardens and couldn’t find you,” said Dad. “Your phone was with us. We were worried sick, Belle. Please, no matter how mad you are with us, don’t put us through that again.”
My stomach twisted thinking of what must have gone through their minds. “I swear, Dad, I wasn’t trying to scare you. I... ran into someone outside and they offered to give me a tour of the mansion. I should have told you.”
Mom released me. “All that matters is you’re okay. Now, sit down and eat before they clear the last of the food away. You missed the entire meal.”
The last thing I cared about was green tiramisu. I let them steer me to my seat, trying and failing to push the last couple of hours from my mind.
It killed me that I hadn’t assumed from the beginning that Carter and Nathan would be here. But not as much as my idiocy in not remembering that boys like that always find each other. Swimming in the same circles. Feasting on the same prey.
I went to school with Carter up until junior high. Then he went to Blackburn Academy like most people in our community do. The school Nathan returned to after his summers in my part of the world, Bracknell. And the school where Preston Desai must have attended—where Carter and Nathan poured their tales of me into his ear, and Preston told them all about the girl from the gallery.
As pissed as I was at them, it didn’t compare to what I felt toward myself.
So much for being immune to his kind.
Preston spun some words, made me laugh a few times, and I was ass up on his desk in less than half an hour. I should’ve known that story about his cousin wasn’t true. No one in their right mind would share a secret like that with a stranger.
The three of them are probably upstairs right now, laughing in every position Preston had me in.
I clenched my jaw, fists shaking under the table. It wasn’t an option before, but now there was no question of me going to the cove. I’d spend the summer washing wrinkled old testicles before I suffered through three months stuck in a manor with them.
Carter and Nathan weren’t the first beautiful boys to hurt me, but I swore they’d be my last. They and their twisted friend, Preston, would not undo the excellent job I’d done over the years of cutting them completely out of my life.