This Round I'm Yours (6 page)

“We were practicing. PRACTICING!”

“I don’t believe you,” he snarled. “You’re just lying. To me. To yourself. You love me, you love ME!”

“No,” she screamed back. “I don’t and I—”

“You will love me, Lacey baby. You will. You know why? Because if you don’t, I’m going to show this to everyone. I’m going to ruin all your chances of your dream ever coming true.”

Lace remembered the first time he had shown it to her like it had just happened a moment ago. The feel of her blood turning cold inside her veins, of the ground disappearing under her feet, of the sense of betrayal choking her, making her unable to breathe.

When she remembered, it hurt. And it made her hurt. Not Grant. But herself. She hated herself for always thinking she was so smart but in the end, she had been more of an idiot than anyone could have ever imagined.

“Enough with the B.S. What do you want, Grant?”

“You. Always you.”

And she knew, in a way, he meant it.

“I’m sorry. You can’t have me.”

“It’s not over between us.” He spoke like he hadn’t heard a thing she said. She had always thought this was a cute part of him, one that was effective when blocking out yells from the rival team’s fans. But now, she saw it for what it was – his psychotic side, only showing him the world the way he wanted it to be.

“I gave you time, you know.” His voice was indulgent, as if he were speaking to a runaway pet. “I wanted you to realize on your own that you’re mine. Always been mine. But…it’s taking you too long, so I thought I’d give you a reminder.”

Standing up, he laid a hundred dollar bill on the table. “I hate to leave you first, Lacey baby, but I thought you’d appreciate seeing this on your own.” He pulled out an envelope and laid it on the table as well.

As Grant walked away, she slowly took the envelope. Opening it, she saw a set of photos, all of it from the video he had taken when she had borrowed his shower.

Over his shoulder, Grant said, “You can frame them if you like.”

Bad Moves

Lace arrived at the airport lounge thirty minutes ahead of time. Even at seven in the morning, the lounge was a busy place, and there was even a long line leading to the shower stalls.

All seats were occupied, every inch of available space already taken by sleeping bags laid out on the floor.

No good place to wait, all in all, which meant her airport pass from Slade meant nothing.

“Lace?”

Turning around, she saw that it was the European prince Silver had been in such a great hurry to take her away from. “Gabriel.” The memory made her smile. Silver had told her he had been extremely jealous that time.

In a t-shirt and jeans, Gabriel was dressed far too casually for his standing. According to the royal family’s P.R. guy, the prince was on an “indefinite leave” to provide the necessary time for “personal persuits”. According to rumors, it was basically the prince sowing his wild oats before his arranged marriage.

“Are you flying out, too?” Gabriel asked.
 

“No. I’m just waiting for Silver. He’s due to arrive about twenty minutes from now. You?”

“I am set to leave as soon as my perpetually late cousin makes it here. Would you like to join me at the jet while we both wait?”

“Does it have ESPN?” she asked seriously.

“Of course.”

“Lead the way,” she said brightly.

His royal guards materialized the moment they exited the lounge, the men clearing the way as they headed towards the hangar. “I bet you do this all the time to impress the girls,” she joked.

He snorted. “No. Only to those whose brothers have their own jets, too.”

She nodded in understanding. “Great way to filter gold-diggers, although it does leave you with rather few choices.”

The prince’s jet was as fancy as she expected, but instead of bearing the royal crest of his country, it had on a Dutch company’s logo. Her eyebrow raised. “You borrowed this or something?”

He shook his head. “De Koningh side of the family.”

Climbing inside, she found the interior ruggedly masculine, the décor a mixture of leather and stainless steel.

“What do you want to drink?”

“Just water please.”

She expected Gabriel to issue an order, but his attendants, after bowing in his presence, left immediately, prompting Lace to ask in a tone filled with wonder, “You like doing things independently, don’t you?” He was completely unlike her brother, Slade, who never did anything for himself as much as he could help it.

Gabriel only shrugged, but since he was the one serving them drinks himself, he had already answered the question.

“Make yourself at home, by the way.” His voice was dry, but his eyes gleamed with amusement with the way Lace was already making herself comfortable in one of the couches.

“Oops. Sorry.” But she was grinning when she said it.

After offering her bottled water, Gabriel took a seat across her. “So…you’re still with Silver?”

Lace made a face. “You make it sound like that’s a miracle.”

“It is,” Gabriel agreed. “I never pictured him to be the patient type.”

“Umm, excuse me?”

“You rather made a cake of yourself that night,” he said with malicious sweetness.

She said honestly, “You’re so different from what the papers say about you.”

He laughed.

The sound startled her, and Lace suddenly realized it was her first time to see the prince laugh.

“I apologize. It just struck me that I had actually let my guard down with you.” An odd smile played on his lips. “Probably because…you’re the first girl I know I’m a hundred percent sure I won’t need to play the prince for.”

“Because—” Lace had to ask, even if she was already pretty sure she’d end up being insulted.

“Because I don’t see you as a girl, I suppose.”

She knew it.

“I mean no offense,” the prince said seriously. “I only mean, that night, it was obvious to me how much you loved Silver March. Since I won’t ever find a way to tempt you into my bed, why bother keeping up the act?”

“Err…” Lace didn’t know what to say. “Thanks for being honest with me, I guess?”

“It’s my pleasure.”

Pfft.
The prince had actually taken her seriously.

“So, you and Silver? Everything going smoothly?”

She only hesitated a second before blurting out gloomily, “I’m doomed.” She leaned back against the couch, throwing a hand over her eyes. With KC and Aria, she felt she had to keep up an act, too.

But with the prince, who felt more like her confessor than anything, Lace felt herself opening up. “I have a problem…”

“And?”

“But I didn’t want Silver to know, so I ended up lying.”

“Why don’t you want to tell him?”

She rolled her eyes. “Because it will make me weak. Duh.”

Gabriel snorted. “You mean you’re too proud.”

“God, you remind me so much of how an asshole Silver is. No wonder you’re friends.”

“Actually, it’s his older brother Steel I’m friends with.” The prince was about to say something else when the intercom buzzed. Answering it, he spoke in Dutch, nodding at whatever the person on the other end was saying.

When he was done, Gabriel said, “Silver’s jet has arrived.”

****

The sound from the runway was deafening, but somehow her heartbeat felt noisier. It was embarrassing, the way excitement made her skin prickle at the mere thought of seeing Silver again.

When the plane touched down and the stairs were in place, her heart pounded harder against her chest. By the time the door slowly opened and the security team started to file out, Lace was itching to run towards the jet. Only the thought that it would be such a
cliché
stopped her.

And then Silver appeared —

Too. Irritatingly. Perfect.

Not only because he was physically imposing, but more because she loved him, helplessly and desperately.

He was dressed almost entirely in black, the only color in his business attire the white silk handkerchief peeking out of his breast pocket. His handsome face was unusually severe as he spoke on his phone. Whoever was on the other end, Lace was willing to bet the person was about pissing in fear now.
 

When he was done with the call, he turned to the group of men behind him, saying something that had everyone laughing.

Her chest hurt. That was
her
Silver all right, ruthless one moment, charismatic the next.
 

Silver’s head suddenly towards her, his gaze swinging unerringly to her like some kind of instinct had told him she was there. Even so, a bemused expression flitted over his face, as if a part of Silver couldn’t believe she really was there.

He started walking towards her, and when his security team started to follow him, Silver lifted one hand up, holding them off without taking his gaze off Lace.

They fell back immediately, and even she was impressed at how attuned his men were to his commands.

When he reached her, she didn’t beat around the bush, saying gruffly, “I thought I’d surprise you for a change.”

“If you really wanted to surprise me,” Silver drawled, “you should’ve come running and thrown yourself at me—”

Lace said immediately, “I’m going home.”

A silvery laugh, just before Silver captured her wrist from behind, whirling her around.
 

Both of them were smiling when they faced each other again.

“
Wyndham
.” His voice was a low, seductive caress.

Her toes curled, her voice breathless as she said, “
March
.”
 

His head bent while she lifted hers. They kissed, starting with a tender, sweet brush of lips. A moment later, Silver tugged her towards him, and Lace’s body slammed against his. Her laughter was swallowed by his deepening kiss, her tongue eagerly mating with his.

When he lifted his head, Lace found herself hugging him tightly, unwilling to be separate from him. Fighting the urge to cry, she thought,
I really, really missed you. I’m so scared I’m going to be the next YouPorn sensation. Please, please, please tell me you’re not going to leave me if that happens.

Over her head, Silver suddenly said, “That’s Gabriel’s jet, isn’t it?”
 

When Silver gently set her away, she didn’t have the courage to stop him, didn’t have the courage to keep clinging to him even if she wanted to.

When she realized he was still looking at Gabriel’s jet, “He’s still there,” she offered.

He frowned.

“I hung out there a bit,” she explained, “while waiting for you.”

“Really?”

She was probably imagining the cool note in his voice
, Lace decided. “Umm, shall we go?” Her phone rang then, and the ringtone had her freezing. It was the tone she had assigned to Grant.

Silver asked in an icily pleasant voice, “Aren’t you going to answer that?”
 

“It’s just…Gabriel.” She said the first name that popped into her head and could have killed herself after. Oh God, why couldn’t her mind have thought of Aria? KC? Mariah Carey? Anyone with boobs – no, wait, if that was so, KC wouldn’t have counted. Oh God, lying was so driving her crazy.

When the ringing stopped, Silver murmured, “I thought it was Penny.”

Lace blinked. “Who?”

“The one you met with?”

Oh. God. Would somebody gag her now?

She said weakly, “Yeah, well, that’s not possible. He’s already at, umm, Karygstan?”

“Do you mean Kazakhstan or Krygyzstan?”

“Umm, the second one?” She would never be able to repeat either one perfectly even if her life depended on it.