Page 75 of Cruel King

Why should she be? I told her I wanted to keep it.

“Yes,” I say with a smile that takes every ounce of my energy to force. “I wonder if he’d be happy that I have something like that with his girlfriend.”

Calling Theo her boyfriend was hard, but calling her his girlfriend makes my mouth taste like I’ve been eating ashes. The two of them make me sick with their happy romance constantly on display no matter where I go in this house.

My fucking house.

Ava’s expression turns dark, and she looks away as she answers, “Your brother isn’t like you. I doubt he’d care.”

“No, he’s not. I’d more than care if another man had a picture of the woman I’m crazy about. Theo, though, is all about being a good time, isn’t he? He couldn’t be bothered to be unhappy, even if he saw that sketch. That’s the difference between us.”

When she turns back to face me, I see hurt in her eyes, just like I always find whenever I speak to her. “There’s nothing wrong with being happy and fun like Theo is. You might want to try it sometime. You might be surprised at how good it feels.”

Nothing wrong with being happy and fun like my brother. She has no idea how many times throughout my life I’ve wished I could be like Theo. He’s never had anyone breathing down his back, watching to make sure he did exactly as they expected and eager to let him know when he failed. He’s been allowed to be whatever he wanted to be for every day of his life.

“I’m sure. Tell me, Ava. Does he know we were together before you two started dating?”

I watch as the hurt in her eyes morphs into utter terror, even as she shrugs off my question and casually answers, “That’s ancient history. It means nothing to us.”

Us? Which us? Ava and me? Or Theo and her? Because it fucking damn well means something to me.

Before she can say another word, I pull her to me and kiss her hard. Fully expecting her to pull away, I move quickly, sliding my tongue inside her mouth as years of missing her threaten to consume me.

But she never pulls away. She kisses me back, her tongue sliding over mine and making me want her more than I thought possible after all this time I’ve spent trying to hate her. Her hands don’t push against me to make me leave her alone. No, she’s as willing as I am as we stand here kissing in broad daylight.

I step back and grin. “Yeah. Ancient history. Keep lying to yourself, Ava.”

Flustered, she shakes her head, but her denial is half-hearted, at best. Pure happiness fills every inch of me as I realize she still cares about me after all this time apart and after all I’ve done to make her never want to speak to me again.

I watch her scurry away, looking back right before she reaches the house. I never let myself believe Ava cared at all, and once I began being so cruel to her, I was sure I’d chased her away for good.

Now I know I was wrong.

Pressing my lips together, I revel in the memory of her kissing me. For the first time since I came back to this place, I know what I want to do.

Win Ava back.

CHAPTERTWENTY-NINE

Theo

For weeks,I’ve watched as Ava becomes more and more upset about having to deal with my older brother. I can’t fathom what his problem is, although to be honest, I don’t care. So what if he doesn’t get to be the sole executor of our father’s estate? Who fucking gives a damn about that kind of thing? Doesn’t Matthias have more important things to do with his time? He’s the CEO of King Industries now. You’d think he’d have his hands full dealing with that and would appreciate not having to handle all the details of my father’s will all on his own.

Yesterday, when she came back from running down to her house in the afternoon, she looked like she wanted to cry. She refused to say it was because of him, but who else on this entire estate makes her feel that way?

I’ve had enough of my brother’s being an asshole. When I see him today, I intend on making it clear to him that whatever his problem with Ava is, he needs to get the fuck over it and immediately. I won’t let this vendetta against her go on any longer.

Until then, I plan to enjoy my day.

Marius stands at the end of the pool table surveying the balls still left on the table after his break. “Not bad. I’m a little out of practice, but it’s all starting to come back to me.”

A little out of practice for my younger brother means he isn’t running the table for every game. He still beats everyone he goes up against. When we were younger, I was sure he must be cheating to constantly win no matter who he was playing against. Kellen and I even spent hours one afternoon checking out every inch of the table because we suspected he had something rigged.

We found nothing. We had to accept Marius is just a damn good pool player. Not that he ever keeps that a secret. My brother is nothing if not proud of his abilities, as proven by how he likes to gloat after winning every time.

“You’ve beaten me like twenty times in the past week. Not bad?” I ask as I chalk up my pool cue.

He looks over at me and smirks. “Theo, no offense, but you suck at this. You always have. You and Kellen are two of the worst pool players I’ve ever met. Ronan isn’t very good either, but he doesn’t have as much practice as you two, so he has an excuse. The only worthy opponent in this house is Matthias, who I bet is still able to give me a run for my money even though he doesn’t play much anymore.”