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“I can fight my own battles, thank you. I don’t need your help.”
“But it felt pretty good to see their jaws all drop, didn’t it?” His winning grin briefly distracts me into forgetting how angry I am. I laugh, then remember the reason we’re in the bathroom.
“Maybe. But it wasn’t your place. You don’t know any of these people. You don’t even know me.” I can feel my cheeks and ears getting hot. “You think because you’re Prince Charming you can step in and make it all okay for everyone? That may be how it works… over there… but not here.”
His posture looks relaxed, even though I still have him pinned up against the wall, and there’s a gleam in his eye. As much as I wish he didn’t step on that hornet’s nest out there, I’m glad he did for one reason, and one reason only. It’s intoxicating to be this close to him again.
I can smell his woodsy scent, and I get a charge from the air between my body and his. If I were still out in the diner, getting piled on by those jerks, I wouldn’t be luxuriating in the physical proximity of one of the hottest men I’ve ever seen.
My hot boyfriend, apparently.
“You just weren’t standing up for yourself, Bella. I was raised to believe in duty and to use my authority to help others when I can. And I didn’t like seeing them walk all over you. So, I did what I could to stomp on them just a little bit.”
A rush goes through my stomach, thinking of him wanting to defend me. Like he’s my protector. And then I see his smug handsome prince face, and I get upset all over again at the audacity.
“Look, I appreciate what you were trying to do. I wasn’t letting them walk all over me, though. I have to live with these people. You don’t. They’re idiots, but this isn’t the way to deal with people like that,” I say through gritted teeth.
“What is then?” He says that softly, not accusingly.
If I knew, I wouldn’t still be putting up with their shit after so many years. I can see in his eyes that he doesn’t see any sense in their bullying, either.
There’s something else I see in his eyes. The same rising feeling of desire that’s taking hold of me in this restroom. But now’s not the moment.
“Look, there’s a reason I take their bullshit. It’s for Lily. I go along to get along, as they say. I never really fit in here. But they all go to church with us, and Lily has always pushed me to be social. So when I spend time with these people, it makes her happy. I don’t need them reporting back to her that I’m unfriendly...”
“But they’re the unfriendly ones! Not you.”
“I know that, Alex. Of course, I know that. They’re terrible. And maybe one day I’ll get my comeuppance. But today is not that day.”
“Why not?” Again with that hundred-watt smile. “I still maintain that what I did was right. And I thought it went over swimmingly.”
“Lying is the right thing?” I ask him in a low voice, choked with rage. I’m glaring at him, but his expression doesn’t crack. “You don’t like the way someone’s treating your friend – if we’re even that – so you lie and say you’re my boyfriend there to save me? I can save myself.”
Before I know it, he grabs me by the waist and pins me to the other wall in the little restroom. His eyes are fixed on mine, intense and unshakeable.
My heart races as his hands slide around me, and his eyes move from mine and drift lower. They drink me in like a vampire hitting a vein.
I let out a faint gasp, and I see a tiny smirk in the corners of his eyes. He enjoys the effect he has on me.
I try to push him away, but he’s too strong. His hands are around my hips, and I’m half-grateful that I’m not strong enough for him to budge. He lifts my chin with his hand to get my attention.
“Look, Isabella. I wasn’t lying.”
I look at him like he’s crazy.
“I mean, not about the being-in-a-relationship part. That part, I’ll admit, was… hyperbole.”
“Ha! Hyperbole.”
“Good, I got you to smile. But, no, Isabella. I mean when I said that you’re stunning. Your curly hair after you’ve been outside all day, your freckles when you laugh, your beautiful mahogany skin… None of that was a lie at all. And that’s just the start when it comes to what I admire about you.”
I’m almost tempted to believe him, but I also know he wants something from me. Who is he to come into my life and decide he knows what’s better for me than I do?
“Besides, how often do you get the opportunity to one-up a bunch of judgmental snobs with the help of a royal prince? Could be fun.”
But still, how dare he decide to unilaterally make that decision on my behalf? Who does he think he is? My cheeks heat up as the blood all rushes to my head.
Without quite realizing what I’m doing, my foot’s already swiftly descending onto his, feeling the soft resistance of his foot on the bottom of my sole.
