Page 127 of My Dark Prince
Why not, though? It was free room and board, and I got to help a childhood friend. Pissing off Oliver wasn’t the main goal, but I considered it a welcome bonus.
Sebastian opened his arms. “Any of the seventeen guestrooms available.”
I held a finger up. “Well, okay, but I do have some ground rules.”
The driver lost his patience. He rounded the car, opened the trunk, and tossed my suitcases out with an angry huff. I couldn’t blame him. I planned on leaving a fat tip on the app.
Seb wiggled his keys to get my attention. “Lay it on me.”
“I want us to have one meal together every day. You need to get used to being with people all the time.”
Seb recoiled, gagging. “Don’t be clingy.”
“No promises.” I held up a second finger. “Rule number two, I want you to occasionally get out of the wing during the daytime.”
“Hard no.”
“It doesn’t have to be out of the house,” I clarified, knowing this was a one-off. That Sebastian had no interest in opening up to the world, at least not yet. “You need the sun on your skin. You need to breathe in flowers in bloom. It will be good for you.”
He snorted. “I’m not going to change, Briar. I’d just like a little company for a few weeks. That’s all.”
“Sure.” I nodded, knowing it would piss him off.
“I mean it.”
“So do I.”
“You always were annoying.”
He stomped toward my suitcases, hurling them with frightening ease. With one in each hand, he breezed toward his trunk. Sometime between his master class in weightlifting and my coming to terms with my foolish decision to have a staycation at my arch nemesis’s mansion, the Uber driver disappeared in a blur of profanity.
“You were always a condescending prick,” I offered, making my way to the passenger seat.
We both slid into the car. Seb fired up the engine. As soon as he sat down, I could see it. The tremor moving through every inch of his body. He shook all over. It must’ve taken all his willpower to leave the house.
“Which part is the worst?” I asked as he popped a U-turn, returning to the path we’d come from. “The fear of being seen or starting over?”
Plenty of actors came onto set burdened by shame of their bodies. Actors who’d lost a lot of weight that left them with excess skin. Actresses with large birthmarks, cellulite, and C-section scars. The truth was, no one’s body was perfect. Even my clients, the most gorgeous people on Planet Earth,still struggled with insecurities. But if I’d learned anything from my job worth learning, it was this – a diamond still shines with cracks.
“Shamefully, the former.” Seb sniffed behind his mask, and I knew he wanted to take it off, just as I knew he wouldn’t dare to. It didn’t matter that no one drove on this road at one in the morning. He didn’t even want the darkness to witness his scars. “Don’t get me wrong. Starting over would be exhausting. Going from complete solitude to peopling wouldn’t be fun, but I can handle it. What I can’t handle is the looks. The disgust. The pity.”
He quieted, cruising up Dark Prince Road.
Just when I thought he’d dropped the conversation, he added, “I spent the first half of my life looking like a demigod. The prospect of walking this earth looking like a monster terrifies me.”
Stop using that word.
It never failed to stab my heart.
“A monster?” I snorted. “You’re no monster, Sebastian. You survived something incredibly traumatic, though I still don’t know what it is. I hope one day you’ll tell me.”
“I hope one day I will, too.”
We spent the rest of the drive in silence.
Both of us in conversation with the real monsters.
The ones in our heads.
