“I’m in love with Royce.” It came from me with no hesitation, the raw truth.
He flinched as if I’d slapped him, and then a nasty expression painted his face. “I don’t believe you. You’re too smart to do something as stupid as fall in love. If you did, then you wouldn’t have done what we did in the maze.”
His words cut deep, flaying me alive. “You left me no choice. I had to save him.”
Macalister lifted his chin but peered down at me, judging me critically. “Then do it again. Come to my room tonight and submit to me. He can keep his seat, and I’ll show you how I’m a better version of him in every way.”
I glared at him with the darkest look in my arsenal. “Fucking no.”
He sighed loudly and with reluctance, about to play a card he didn’t want to. “I had Nigel schedule an appointment with a dermatologist for you. I’m told the process of removing a tattoo is far more painful than receiving one, and it will take several treatments.”
I froze in place, barely able to breathe. “No.”
“Don’t look at me like that.” His voice was so stern, I struggled not to cower. “I do not approve of the choice you made. If you want to keep it, you’ll have to earn it.”
My eyes filled with hot, angry tears as I looked around the room frantically for escape. “I’ll leave,” I blurted.
“Where would you go?” He wasn’t cruel when he asked it, but it stung, nonetheless. “Do you think he would give up everything he has for you? As you’ve done for him?”
One lone tear spilled out from under my mask.
No, Royce wouldn’t. He’d told me so the night of our first date.
Macalister softened into something slightly more human. “You know better. He’s not worth tears.” He took a hand off the shelf and cupped the side of my face. “It doesn’t have to be complicated. Say yes, and I will satisfy you in all the ways he can’t.”
The word no bowed on my lips. Not just to his offer, but to the way he was closing the space between us, his kiss threatening like low storm clouds coming in from the ocean.
But before I could issue the word, the library door creaked open.
In my struggle, the sides of my robe had come open under the sash, and I stood beneath Macalister with my bra and panties exposed. His hand was on my jaw and my lipstick smeared over his lips. I could claim it wasn’t what it looked like, but what person in their right mind would believe?
He took his time straightening away from me, not even a little bit embarrassed to have been caught.
Not even when it was by his own wife.
NINETEEN
ALICE STOOD IN HER BEAUTIFUL PEACOCK BLUE DRESS, frozen with one hand still on the doorknob. For an agonizing moment she didn’t move, as if a mechanism inside her had broken and all her systems ceased functioning.
But Macalister had said she couldn’t be broken, and she proved it when she snapped back to life. Her gaze turned to her husband, and her face went sour. “We don’t have time for this. Look what you did to her makeup.”
He swiped a palm over his mouth in an attempt to remove the red stain from his face. At the same time, I grabbed the sides of my robe with trembling hands and pulled it closed, overlapping the fabric as much as possible like it made any fucking difference now.
When Alice charged at me, I wanted to run, but she grabbed my wrist and pulled me toward the exit. “Come on. I can fix it, but we need to get you dressed if we’re going to stay on schedule.”
Her grip was unbearable as she led me toward my room. Not just emotionally, but physically too—her thumb dug deep into the pressure point just above my wrist. I didn’t complain. I was too busy trying to figure out what the fuck I was going to say to her.
Thankfully, we didn’t see Royce in the hallway. She got me into my room and sat me on the bed, acting like I was the victim and not her. I couldn’t stand it. The guilt, the wrong assumption, the hurt it must have caused her.
She was unbreakable, but I wasn’t, and my voice cracked on her name. “Alice.”
She emerged from my bathroom with a makeup removing wipe and dabbed at the edges of my lips. “This stuff was supposed to be color stay.”
I grabbed her wrists, getting her to stop. “Alice.”
She finally looked and really saw me, not just the problem of my makeup. Her tone was sad but plain. “It’s all right, and not that surprising, if I’m being honest. You talk to him the same way I do, and he’s always liked it when he’s challenged.” Her focus went back to the makeup, and she traced the edge of my lip with the wipe, creating a sharp, defined line. “And I’ve seen the way he watches you.”