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That didn’t look like it had been the answer he was looking for. He set his jaw again and nodded shortly.
“Barriers,” he scoffed, picking up a bottle of whiskey and pulling out the stopper.
I frowned, not sure what he was doing. “Valen–”
He kicked his head behind me. “If you’ll excuse me, princess, there’s a Magdalen over there begging for a taste of my cock.”
What?
Given our situation, it wasn’t him being with someone else that I objected to. I didn’t have that right and I tried not to be jealous. It was the fact that he’d said it in such a way that his only intent could have been to hurt me.
“What?” I spat and he turned a truly spiteful grin on me.
My heart wasn’t the only thing in me that sunk as his eyes went cold.
He looked me up and down like I didn’t impress him, then shrugged as he took a swig. “What?”
“You…” I breathed out heavily. “What?”
He gave me a humoured huff. “What’s wrong, princess?” he asked snidely. “You forget there are people in this world who don’t live to please and congratulate you?”
I was torn between feeling upset at his behaviour and just plain angry. “You’re the one who told me you weren’t a choice, Valen. You’re the one who told me to marry him.”
Valen’s face was blank. Bored. “I don’t give a fuck what you do. You’re not my problem.”
Anger won out. “Fuck you, Valen.” I started to leave, then turned back to him. “Like your life isn’t yours, my life isn’t mine. I… You know what I would have chosen.” I turned on my heel and stormed inside, needing a moment to myself before I risked falling apart entirely.
But Valen wasn’t done with me yet. He and his bottle followed me inside, boxing me against the wall in a darkened section of corridor. My run in with Kane flooded me but, as angry as I was with Valen just then, I didn’t feel in danger with him, and I stamped down the fear.
“How much does it kill you?” he asked, his lips turned in a malicious smirk.
“What?” I breathed, not liking where this was going.
“Wanting quite possibly the only person in the entire world you can never have?”
How dare he turn my words back on me! And now? After everything? With such scorn and hate in his voice, in his eyes. Well, two could play at that game.
“Do not test me, Valk,” I warned him, feeling the full force of the courage and power that flowed through my words.
If he was actually going to go through with this, then he had to know that was the end of it. For real this time.
“What are you going to do, princess?” he asked, begging me to try my worth against the mighty tame wolf, against the strongest avenging Angel of God. “I have the power. Not you. Every step we’ve taken, I’ve had you right where I wanted you. Now I’m done. I’ve had my fun with the little princess, and I’ll move on.”
A part of me threatened to crumple at his feet and never get back up again, but I refused to give him the satisfaction.
“I mean that little, do I?” I asked him, daring him to tell me it was true.
“You mean nothing to me other than an obligation as Apollo’s princess. And now I don’t have to pretend you’re any more than that.”
“Pretend?”
He ran his nose over my face as he whispered, “You were just some fun, Harlow. A joke to see if I could corrupt the princess. You did challenge me to do it, after all. What we had? Meant nothing to me. I just wanted to see if I could break the future goddess.” There was such vicious glee in his voice that I found it hard to believe the tiny little voice in my head that said he had to be lying.
“What?” My voice was a broken rustle of leaves along the street in autumn.
He shrugged, still up in my space. “Consider it insurance for the next time I’m getting my arse kicked for him,” he said simply. “I’ll know I had his goddess first.”
He pushed off the wall behind me and made to leave. My hand shot out and grabbed his wrist. He turned back to me, and I was sure I wasn’t imagining the sizzle of sexual tension that wrapped around us. It wouldn’t have been the first time that hating him had made me want him nigh uncontrollably.
