But she still hadn’t seen him. Everything was beginning to feel...
Well, it was all beginning to feel far too real.
When she had gone back to her room after they’d made love, her body had ached. Been sore and tender in places she had never been overly conscious of.
And her heart had burned. The sting of his rejection, of pain that she hadn’t anticipated.
And she couldn’t decide exactly what manner of pain it was.
That he had still been willing to give her to his brother, that he didn’t seem to care what she wanted.
That he didn’t seem to want her in the way that she wanted him, because if he did then the idea of her being with another man would...
Well, it was unthinkable to her, and on some level she wished it were unthinkable to him.
That he didn’t care that she wanted her freedom, because didn’t the beast always let the beauty go?
But maybe this was the real lesson.
Because how many times had her female friends been distraught over one-night stands that had ended with silence? How often had they been certain that there was some sort of connection only to discover it was all inside of them? Violet had been certain that what was passing between herself and Javier had been magical. That it had been real, and that it had been real for both of them.
But that had been a virgin’s folly. She was certain of that now.
And she was trapped here. Trapped.
For the first time, she knew that she needed to call home.
But not her father. Not her mother.
Instead, she took her phone out and dialed her sister, Minerva.
“Violet,” Minerva said as soon as she answered. “Where are you?”
“Monte Blanco,” she said, looking out her bedroom window at the mountains below.
Even the view had lost some of its magic. But then it was difficult to enjoy the view when you were finally coming to accept that you were in fact in prison.
“Why?”
It wasn’t any surprise to her that her bookish younger sister had heard of the country.
“Well. It’s a long story. But it involves Dad making a marriage bargain for me. With a king that I still haven’t met.”
“I’m sorry, what?”
“I’m serious. I got kidnapped by a prince.”
“I... What is your life like?” she asked incredulously.
“Currently or in general?”
“I just don’t know very many people who can say they’ve been kidnapped by a prince. At least not with such flat affect.”
“Well, I have been. And it isn’t a joke. Anyway. You lied and told the world that you had our brother’s billionaire best friend’s baby.”
“Sure,” Minerva said. “But Dante never kidnapped me.”
“He did take you off to his private island.”