Page 11 of My Dark Prince
“If the sky falls, I’ll hold it up for you.”
I didn’t know how, but I’d find a way. Surely, for her, I would.
“I’m not Da – Jason’s daughter.”
“You’re still Briar Rose Auer. Funny, and sweet, and perfect as they come.”
She shook her head, muttering to herself. “This is why he hates me. This is why they’re getting rid of me.”
“He doesn’t hate you,” I disagreed, even though he did, and I loathed him for it. “This is … good.”
I paused, fumbling to find the right words. By Briar Rose’s skeptic look, I knew I’d failed.
“Hehatesme.” A bitter chuckle found its way past her lips. “Momdidswap her steak with mine when she realized hers burned, but you want to know whatDaddid?”
No.
I had a feeling I’d come closer to first-degree murder if she told me. Still, I nodded for her to continue.
She pried her hands from mine and stood. “He cut off the good half of my burned steak and added it to his own plate, but not before telling me I ate too much for a girl.”
That motherfucker.
“Jason Auer is a scumbag. You don’t need him.”
In fact, she’d be better off without him. Dad hated that such a‘leech’owned property next to his, but we still returned to Lake Geneva when we knew the Auers would be here because I needed my Briar Rose fix, or I’d harass my parents until they caved.
“He’s my dad, Oliver.”
“What about Cooper? It’s good that you have a parent who actually adores you. I mean, he came to work here just so he could see you. That’s badass.”
She sniffed, looking down at her dress. Even in the dark, I could see the blood streaks across the pink satin from when she bit my hand.
“Oh.” She grabbed my palm and turned it to face her, unfurling it with delicate fingers. “I am so sorry.”
“No need to be.”
The bleeding had long stopped, and it didn’t matter anyway. I couldn’t feel a thing. In this moment, I realized I was truly and wholly fucked. Up until now, loving Briar Rose had been inconvenient, exasperating, nerve-wrecking, but overall exhilarating. It was, for the most part,fun.
Today, she’d introduced me to the dark side of love. A land where every burn she received lashed at my own skin like a whip, her losses became mine, and her aches weighed down my bones.
Her fingers twisted in the lapels of my dress shirt. “What am I going to do?”
“Run away with me.” I had no clue what dumb-ass, Romeo-Montague, ultra-delirious thought possessed me to suggest that, but as I said it, I realized I meant it. “We could go to the end of the world.”
It existed. Sagres Point in Portugal. Seb once told me he wanted to sail past it … right before he blasted through aworld rowing record and decided he was too good for the world and needed to conquer the universe instead.
Briar Rose arched a brow, giving me a be-for-real look. In the background, Sebastian snored through the entire thing. The fact that Philomena and Cooper hadn’t heard him could be considered the only remaining proof of God’s existence after such a brutal day.
“Sure. We can run away. Because endless pranks and weirdly timed kisses will keep us fed.” She tried to laugh, playing it cool as if my palm didn’t boast teeth marks deeper than the Earth’s core. “You heard what my parents said. They’re sending me to an all-girls Swiss school and moving to Argentina. They ignore me half the time and are downright cruel to me the other half, but they’ve never abandoned me before. I don’t want to be alone.” She choked out, “I’m scared.”
“You’ll fuckingthriveat that prep school, Briar Rose.” I latched onto her upper arms, unsure what inspired me to spew such bullshit. I’d never spent a day in a boarding school, not even a sleepaway camp. “We are going to talk on the phone every day and continue writing to each other. I’m going to be at your beck and call. Summer will come before you even know it. And at eighteen, you’ll be free from those assholes. Okay?”
She nodded, her throat bobbing with a swallow. Not good enough. I needed to hear her say it.
“Okay?” I repeated.
“Okay.”
