Page 43 of Broken Prince
I watch as he works in the kitchen, chuckling at the thought of him wearing an apron as he cooks. He dishes up the bacon onto one plate, and eggs on another, and my mouth waters as I see the crispy goodness on the plates.
“What, no pancakes?” I ask with a grin. He narrows his eyes at me and I chuckle.
“I can make bacon and eggs, that’s about it,” he says with a laugh as he takes a seat next to me with his own cup of coffee. He hands me a plate, now fully loaded with bacon and eggs, and I look at him with a quirked brow.
“I think I can manage to plate my own food,” I say with a laugh, the smile on my face is honest. I can’t remember the last time I smiled just to smile, it’s so refreshing not having to force anything.
“Remember the deal?” he purrs, a smirk tipping the edge of his lips. I narrow my eyes, fighting a smirk of my own.
“Yeah, yeah, you’ve got this weekend,” I say with a smile. I fill up my fork with eggs and grab a slice of bacon, taking a huge bite, and then stuff it all into my mouth.
His eyes widen as I set to demolishing the contents of the plate, my brows scrunched into a frown as he eyes me. I swallow, grabbing my cup and take another drink. The uncomfortable feeling has me glaring now, and he just smiles. He leans forward, and my eyes are glued to his, and I gasp as the featherlight touch moves from the corner of my mouth. Kylo pulls his thumb away, eyes gleaming as he sucks on the pad of his digit.
My eyes stay glued to his as he pulls it away, and the heat in his gaze has me clenching my thighs together under the table. He smirks at me, and my head is pulled back as I frown. I gasp as he lifts me from my stool, dropping me into his lap so we’re facing each other, and my breathing becomes faster as I stare. He leans forward, his head dropping to my shoulder as he inhales, a feral sound rumbling in his chest. I pant as his teeth graze my lobe, biting my lip to hold back the moan.
“I want to bottle your scent and take it everywhere with me,” he purrs, and I shudder at the sound, the need to rub my legs together is strong, but I can’t.
“I haven’t had a shower yet,” I protest. How the fuck can he say something like this?
“Doesn’t matter to me, Shadow,” he says, his hands running down my back, and the feeling is like shots of electricity, even through the thin material. “It calms everything about me, even them.”
“Them?” I ask, my interest piqued. He pulls back, hands around my waist as he stares into my eyes. I can see the emotions at war within him and it makes my heart hurt for him. “You don’t have to hide anything from me,” I say.
“People run for the hills when they realize how dangerous I am, Shadow, and I’m not willing to lose you just yet,” he says, leaning his forehead against mine. “My mind and soul are a very dark place.”
I pull back, lifting his chin so he looks at me. “Nobody knows the darkness I live in, Kylo, trust me, it won’t scare me away.”
“Is that so?” he says, his brows furrowed as he tries to pull his chin from my hold. “Let’s see, shall we?”
My brows jump to my hairline at the nasty way he’s just spoken, I don’t move even as he tries to push me free from his lap. I wrap my hands around the back of his neck, playing with the hair at his nape. “Spit it out,” I say with a smirk. “I’m not afraid of the bogeyman.”
“You should be,” he says, his voice low. I lean forward to get a little closer, and his breathing comes quicker, a slight tremble in his arms. “I never had the upbringing that my brother was given, my life was literally hell,” he says, his gaze focused on nothing. “You know some of the way Brantley grew up?”
I nod my head, I’ve heard the rumors, and what people don’t know is that I broke into the admissions office and read his file. The stuff I read in there was enough to see him in a different light, he wasn’t just a scholarship student after that—well, not to me anyway.
“I found him huddled behind a dumpster in the pissing down rain when we were eight,” he says with a snarl. “His mom was high again and she beat him, so he ran.”
My chest caves in on itself at the image of him doing that. “I was out because the guy who I thought was my dad wanted me to go on a job with him.”
“I refused so he brayed me. I ran, the pain and anger I left at the shit hand I got dealt for my life was too hard for me to swallow, even then…” His voice breaks off. I push myself closer to comfort him, the anxiety is rolling off him in waves.
“It’s okay,” I say soothingly, “You don’t have to tell me.”
“I found him, frozen and drenched,” he snarls. “He didn’t even have a coat on.” My heart bleeds for the pair of them, and now I understand why he’s as protective over him as I saw that day with Warrick when he called him a faggot.
“The older we got, the harder our lives became, my family integrated me into the business, Brantley’s mom got worse when she realized he was gay,” he says nastily. “Not long after I got brought into the family business, the voices kicked in worse than ever before.”
“Voices?” I croak, my heart beating so fast it feels like it’s trying to burst free from my chest.
“Yeah, I’ve always heard them, like a voice that keeps me on the straight and narrow. But the worse things got, the more violent they became, and giving into them has saved my life more times than I can count,” he whispers, his chin on his chest. His hold on my waist has dropped and his arms are at his side.
“I’ve done a lot of things in my life I’m not proud of, Shadow,” he says.
“You survived,” I snarl. “You had to, clearly nobody else was going to do it so you saved yourself.” He lifts me from his lap, sitting me on the island. He pushes back and shoots to his feet, his hands running through his hair as he tugs on the ends.
“A friend of the family managed to help Brantley get emancipated when we were fifteen and I was so happy for him to be free of the bitch,” he admits angrily, his movements becoming more aggressive. “He did everything he could to prove he could survive on his own and he did.”
“Okay.” My heart is pounding as I wring my hands together because the tone of his voice has me on edge.