Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 79938 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79938 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
She got to work.
It was, in short, awful.
Jonah hadn’t caught the mess in time and part of it had dried. When the door swung open behind her, Meg was cursing up a storm and scrubbing with the mop at what looked like melted cotton candy and corn. Never eating either of those things again. She didn’t even realize she was no longer alone until a masculine chuckle rolled through the bathroom.
She jumped and swung the mop around, nearly braining… Meg froze. This was it. She’d finally lost what was left of her mind, because transitioning into an exhaustion-fueled hallucination was the only explanation for him being here. She blinked and blinked again. He didn’t disappear. “Theo?”
Theodore Fitzcharles III, former Crown Prince of Thalania, propped the door open with a leather shoe that was no doubt designer and gave her a pained grin. “Hey, princess.”
She looked from him to the half-cleaned vomit to the mop in her hand. For one second, Meg seriously considered whacking him with it just to rumple him a little. Even when he had her pinned to a couch and was fucking her within an inch of her life, Theo never ceased to look perfectly put together. The man was downright pretty, though he was too masculine for that adjective. His face was all sharp angles and full lips and blue eyes that held stories she could only guess at. Tonight, he wore a plain white T-shirt that looked like it might have been ironed at some point, and a pair of jeans that probably cost more than Meg’s monthly rent. She couldn’t even hold it against him, because it was so purely Theo.
No, she couldn’t hold that against him.
But she could hold the fact that he’d been MIA for three fucking months against him.
She considered the mop in her hands again, but ultimately decided going after him with it would just prove how angry she was. Meg dunked it into the dirty water and went back to cleaning. “Didn’t expect to see you again.”
“Do you normally leave your number when you don’t expect to see someone again?”
He had her there, but she’d never admit it. She’d left her number when she still thought the night had passed with two strangers whose only real sin was being so rich it blew her mind. It was only when she snuck down the hall that she’d learned the truth. Theo was the exiled prince of Thalania. An exiled prince came with more baggage than she had, and that was saying something.
But she hadn’t gone back for her number.
She still wasn’t sure why.
Her excuse of not wanting to face them in the light of the morning didn’t hold up to three months of absence. Meg scrubbed harder at the mess on the floor. “If it was an invitation—and it wasn’t—then it was one to call me. Not stalk me to my place of business and show up after hours when I’m alone and defenseless.”
He laughed. The bastard laughed. “Defenseless, Meg? Never. If there’s anyone defenseless in this scenario, it’s me.”
The words proved what she’d already suspected—he wasn’t going to be any more honest with her now than he had on that night three months ago. If he’d told her who he really was in the club, she might still have gone home with them, but at least she would have done it with eyes wide open. But he hadn’t been honest—neither of them had. She opened her mouth to tell him to get lost, but that wasn’t what came out. “Where’s Galen?”
Theo shrugged. “He had a few errands to attend to.”
Another suspicion proved correct. “He doesn’t know you’re here, does he?” Theo might play to his own set of rules, but Galen had one priority: Theo. He’d made it very clear that he had no intention of continuing anything with Meg. It was the one comfort she’d had. She and Galen outvoted Theo.
At least they had until he showed up here without his shadow in tow.
Theo gave another of those shrugs that meant nothing at all. “Contrary to what you seem to believe, we’re not attached at the hip.”
“Could have fooled me.” She waited, but he seemed content to lean against the doorframe and watch her, so Meg gave a shrug of her own and got back to work. Ultimately, his presence there changed nothing. The second she walked out of that apartment three months ago, she’d decided to leave everything—everyone—in it behind. “We’re closed.”
“Meg.”
She didn’t want to look at him. That way lay dragons. He was too attractive, too magnetic, and he knew it. But she couldn’t resist him murmuring her name in that tone of voice. She just didn’t have it in her. Meg sighed and met his gaze. “It’s been three months, Theo. You said you’d be gone a couple weeks, tops. Even if I was interested, and that’s a big if at this point, the opportunity has passed.”