Royce sighed. “I hope you are right about this, man. Anna won’t survive if it backfires.”
I closed my notebook, clearly not getting anything done today on the assignment. “Can I ask you a question?”
“Only if I can ask you one in return.”
I already knew what he was going to ask me. I could see it in his eyes. “You first.”
“Did you fuck her?”
Yep, I knew it was coming. “Yeah,” I answered. “I did.”
He nodded, swallowing. “What is your question?”
“Do you love her?” If Anna wasn’t willing to find out, I was. I knew that Arthur had cared for her deeply when they first hooked up, but I also knew that he had gone a bit crazy trying to keep her as well. I didn’t think his feelings were true love, though if he was like me, there was no way you couldn’t have feelings for Anna.
But Royce, he was acting far different than I would have thought around the lost princess. And the looks he gave her, that she returned, were not something I could imagine myself doing with her. What Anna and I had experienced was fun. I wanted to be around her for the sake of having her put some light in my fucking life. I saw her as someone I cared for, not necessarily loved.
Not like Royce did.
He stared at me for a long time. “What kind of fucking question is that?”
I shrugged, tucking my notebook in my bag. “I just thought you would want to say it aloud to someone if you aren’t going to with her.”
“You’re a fucking asshole.”
“Maybe, but I know where I stand with Anna,” I answered, shouldering the bag. “Do you, Royce?”
His eyes glittered with rage. “You might have fucked her, but it doesn’t mean shit.”
I turned to him, a knowing smile on my face. “Just admit it, fucker. You are in love with her.”
“I don’t love anyone.”
I snorted. “Yeah, and I have a perfect family name.” It was the mantra that people like us lived all our lives. If we loved someone, then they would use it against us. My father had used it against my mother and me, destroying our family in the end and making me pick up the weight of what he had done the moment I stepped out of this academy.
Some of the fight left Royce and he shoved a hand through his hair. “Fuck, man, she drives me completely crazy. She’s on my fucking mind day and night and I can’t sleep.”
Yeah, he was in love. Poor bastard. I walked over and slung my arm around his shoulders. “What you need is some good German liquor and a joint or two to calm your ass down.”
He chuckled. “Maybe. Do you think I should tell her?”
He and I, we weren’t friends, but at this moment, I felt like we were close to becoming that way. “I wouldn’t tell Arthur, that is for fucking sure.”
“No, I won’t,” he said, his eyes bleak. “What the hell am I going to do?”
“You are going to come with me,” I decided, steering him toward the exit doors. “Jo is watching Anna. Arthur is God knows where. It’s time for you to get shitfaced, man.”
I just hated to be in his shoes come morning.
Chapter 12
Anna
I grabbed my bag and followed the rest of the students out of the classroom, looking at my watch as I did so. I had twenty minutes before my next class, and I was dying to get some sort of caffeine in my body. The next round of exams had started to wear on my sleeping habits, keeping me up half the night in a frenzy of studying just to be half ready for the next day.
Turning down the hallway toward the freshman commons area, I nodded to a few people as I passed by. The academy was still in shock over Johanna’s near-death experience, one that she and I discussed every night in our room. Everything had gone great, more than perfect, and Johanna’s father had nearly gone apeshit over what had happened.
I had felt a twinge of guilt over his reaction, but Johanna had brushed it off, stating that it was about time her father saw her as more than just another arranged marriage.
She still had to report to the nurse each day, but it seemed that Johanna hadn’t suffered any ill effects.
Isauros, on the other hand, now that was a story and a half.
I reached the commons area, the sweet smell of the espresso machine in full force, with a bunch of bleary-eyed royal freshmen clustered together. It seemed like I wasn’t the only one that was suffering from this crazy schedule.
I made my cup and after doctoring the dark liquid, I walked out, not bothering to engage in any conversation. After all, I really didn’t have time.
The other interesting thing that had happened since Johanna’s ‘accident’ was that she had more visitors than we had ever had the entire time I had been here.
Even more so than I had when Arthur and I were an item. I had watched an endless stream of royals come to see Johanna, mostly curious to know how she had survived and how Max’s lips had tasted against hers.
I secretly smiled at that. I knew exactly how his lips felt. Max had been a thrill that I hadn’t expected and now I had labeled myself a slut for sleeping with each king.
Internally, of course.
The funny thing was, I really didn’t care. I had gone from a shy virgin to having three sexual partners in less than a year, all with different ways of having sex.
Glorious, wonderful sex at that.
“Miss Komita.”
Surprised, I turned to find Isauros’ assistant motioning me over. My heart immediately went to my throat as I forced my feet to walk over, wondering if I had been found out. The thought hadn’t been far from my mind since that day. While we had pulled off the stunt ingeniously, it wasn’t ironclad.
Knowing Isauros, she could find a way to sniff us out, and I was starting to wonder if my time was up.
Holding myself together, I closed the distance between us. “Yes, ma’am?”
She thrust a folded piece of paper at me. “This will be due by the end of the week.”
I took the paper. “What is it?”
“It’s not my concern,” she sniffed, peering down at me. “Make certain you provide the correct amount.”
She then walked away, her heels clicking on the floor. I opened the paper and nearly had a heart attack in the process.
That bitch.
More than pissed now, I shoved the paper in my bag and headed to my next class, wanting to march to her office and demand for Isauros to leave me the hell alone.
She was asking for tuition, tuition that I couldn’t afford even if I sold everything I had and got like twenty jobs in the process.