Hunting Royalty

19. Rejection and Reunions

Clara storms into my bedroom. "Bitch!" She gabs my hair and pulls me around. "You're the one who stole Nate from me!" she screeches at me. When I finally get a look at her I'm stunned. This is the worst I've ever seen her. Her dress is wrinkled; she's not wearing any jewelry and more than a few pieces of her hair are out of place. The most telling sign is the bags under her bloodshot eyes. She is a complete mess.

"Ow! Tone down the crazy." I tuck my hair back behind my ear and take a cautionary step back putting myself out of range of any more attacks.

"Crazy!" she screeches, "I'll show you crazy!" She grabs a book of a table and throws it at me. I mutter a shield and the book bounces off it and falls to the floor. She shrieks when it doesn't make contact and hurtles a candlestick at me only for the same thing to happen.

"Nate makes his own decisions; you should throw things at him," I try to reason as she unsuccessfully throws more objects at me.

"You boyfriend stealing whore! I can't believe you tried to talk the king into letting you marry him." She waves her hands around as she yells.

My temper skyrockets at the insult, I've had enough. I laugh cruelly, "It was more like him trying to talk me into marrying Nate. News flash, you can't afford to marry Nate, you're broke and the king wants and heiress!" I yell back. Crap, I wasn't meant to say that, she just makes me so mad.

"You're lying, the king would never prefer a slut like you over a lady like me," she sneers back. I see her angry facade start to crack as she scrutinizes my face looking for any hint that I'm lying. The truth settles over her and her face crumples into despair and hopelessness.

"I'm sorry, I think you should go now." She leaves with much less bluster than she blew in with.

I collapse onto my bed. I've made a complete mess of things, I let my emotions get the best of me. What am I doing with my life? I don't even recognize myself, literally. 

This is for Vee, she is why I'm doing this, when it is over I can go back to my old life. I can't let anyone else become a victim of these horrible people.

I wallow until Nate comes in through the painting. I've half been expecting him, I guessed Clara would go straight to Nate and tell him what I said, twisting it to make me the villain.

"Let me guess, Clara stopped by?" I decide to face it head on.

"Yeah, how did you know?" he seems wary.

"We just had a massive fight, I figured she would run straight to you. What did she say?" I'm oddly nervous like I'm afraid of something.

"She told me that you're bribing my father to...favor you...and me." he struggles over the last part. He steps closer to me and looks into my eyes beseechingly. "Is it true?"

"No. Your father saw how we looked at each other, he wanted to know what assets I would bring to a union, like I said, he was impressed," I confess quietly. I try to read his face but he keeps it purposely blank, maybe I don't want to know what he's thinking.

"I've been wanting to talk to you about us." He slowly steps closer.  I feel the tension building between us, he's trapped me in his blue eyes.  When he's only a foot away I drop my gaze and stare at his chest instead. 

He lifts my chin with a finger. "I like you. I want to be with you." His eyes bore into mine searching for a reaction.

My heart drums faster, his nearness and touch is overwhelming me. He cups my face in his palms, barely a breath separates our lips. I know exactly what is going to happen next and yet I can't pull away. I want him.