Page 124 of Scarred Crown

He gathers me close, and I can’t help sinking into him, soft and pliable as though he could do anything to me, and I’d let him. My body is betraying me, but I don’t have the will to stop myself. It feels so good to be close to him again.

We don’t talk, we just dance. One song bleeds into another, and he doesn’t move away, and neither do I. No discussion. We just—don’t. Dancing with him inspires a riot of emotions, a weird sense of calm along with this incredible recognition of his body. Every tiny movement shoots awareness through me, and the air around us is thick with tension. I want to murder him for destroying our friendship, and I want him to kiss me again. And then again, and again, and again.

I’ve almost worked up the courage to say something to him, to try one last time to draw us back together when Dru stumbles over.

“You said you didn’t know him that well.” Her voice is shrill and accusing at my shoulder.

With a sigh, I step back, and for the briefest moment, Nick’s fingers tighten before he releases me.

“She told you we don’t know each other?” Prince Nicholas arches his eyebrows in my direction. “We know each other very well, actually.” He turns to my roommate. “And you are?”

“Dru,” she purrs and sidles up next to him. She glances around before pulling a flask out of her purse. “Drink?”

He eyes her with amusement before taking the flask and tipping it back.

It’s quite possible the very act of him drinking Dru’s flask is causing her to have a spontaneous orgasm. The expression on her face would be priceless if Nick’s subtle flirting wasn’t putting another crack in my heart.

The two of them fall into a flirty conversation, and all the warmth that had flooded my consciousness while Nick and I danced evaporates.

This is who we are now. The realization stings. For a minute there, I half-convinced myself of something different.

When the crush of rowdy boys Prince Nicholas arrived with swirls around us, we head back to the dorms as a big group. Dru and the prince share the flask and talk in exaggerated movements ahead of me.

“Yes!” Dru practically shouts. She’s got her drunk voice out. “She said she knew Prince Alexander but not you. I didn’t believe her. Prince Alexander comes to visit her in our dorm, and she doesn’t know you? Unlikely.”

A rock of realization drops into the pit of my stomach, but he doesn’t turn around to look for me, to verify Dru’s statement. She’s never believed me that Alex and I aren’t hooking up. Everyone on our floor discussed Alex’s appearance for weeks. I can only imagine how the gossip circulated around campus.

As I listen to her go on and on to the prince, I realize our tentative roommate friendship is over. I can’t forgive this outright betrayal. She’s twisting things she knows nothing about.

He takes a longer drink from the flask and then grins at her. Maybe he doesn’t care that I said I know Alex better? Old Nick would have, but I don’t know this guy walking ahead of me, whoever he is. Maybe our crumbled friendship is a blip in his life, a speedbump in an otherwise smooth road. It’s been a crater in mine.

I’m tempted to run ahead to catch up with them and explain myself. What do I say? At this point, I do know Alex better than I know Nick. Telling Nick why I said those things to Dru isn’t a simple explanation, and it’s definitely not one I’m confident he’d follow when he’s clearly decided to go beyond the buzzed he seemed to be when he stepped in between me and Cam to stumbling drunk.

Behind me, Prince Nicholas’s friends are taking bets on whether Nick sleeps with Dru. It’s entirely possible my head will leave my shoulders, spin around, and screw back on sideways if that happens. I’m headed back to the dorms with them right now. Dru wouldn’t, would she?

I slow my pace as the realization seeps in that I’ll probably end up in the hallway listening to them fuck while his security guards pretend to be busy on their phones or manning the external doors or something equally useful.

Sure enough, when I get back to our dorm room, Dru has stuck the Do Not Disturb door hanger she stole from the hotel her parents stayed at when they dropped her off.

“Excuse me, Miss,” a guard calls from down the hall. He starts walking in my direction. They must be double-checking the area. “I’ll have to ask you—oh, hey Julia. What are you doing here?”

“That’s my room.” I point to the door in front of me.

“You were the girl Prince Nicholas almost got in a fight over at the bar?” Rocky, the guard, looks me over.

“If that’s what that was.” Almost got in a fight over seems like a stretch.

“But he came back with your…”

“Roommate, yeah. He’s such a stellar guy, isn’t he?” I roll my eyes and turn on my heel. Maybe the common space is empty.

But it’s not. Too many drunk, horny people on my floor tonight. All the usual hideouts are taken.

I head back to my room and sink to the floor across from my doorway.

“Happen a lot?” Rocky asks from his spot a little way down the hall.

“Yeah, actually,” I admit. Dru enjoys sex with a variety of partners. It’s not my thing, but I’ve never judged her before. I’m definitely judging her tonight. “How about you?” I raise my eyebrows and give him a knowing look.