30
KENNEDY
Thayer was so good with people. He was natural, kind, and sensible. He never ceased to amaze me.
When I agreed to marry him, I wasn’t exactly thinking straight about the consequences. All I wanted was to help him secure his birthright.
Again, I was selfish. Maybe because I would do anything for the people I cared about even if, in the end, I’d be giving something—my life, my freedom, and my heart.
I put on something sexy. I didn’t know what Carlott was thinking, sending me lingeries when her brother filled the closets with complete wardrobes.
I sighed deeply one more time before I walked out of the door. I’d been planning since this morning after how he allowed me to walk in the seaside yesterday. The least I could do was to give him something in return.
I also did this for myself because since he teased me in the study, I’d been aching for him. I wanted to come, and he just took my toy. He was also right—nothing could satisfy me other than him.
I let go of a shaky breath as I stood in front of his door. “Here goes nothing.” I knocked.
“Thayer?” I bit my lip and waited. My heart pounded so hard as if this would be my first time. It was insane how he made me feel so nervous in anticipation and crazy with needs.
The door swung open. Now I could barely hear him calling my name. The pulse was pounding in my ear, so resounding. He was half-naked, only a towel securing around his narrow hips covering his delicious goodness.
My lips dried as I noticed his cock. His hard. Why is he hard?
“Your Highness, what’s taking you so long?” What the actual fuck? That was a voice of a woman coming from his room.
My gaze snapped to his face. His hair tousled. He didn’t seem to look guilty that I caught him with another woman. My heart continued to race—this time with so much rage. I pushed the door wide.
Gasping, I froze stiff as a corpse. There were naked women in his bed and didn’t even care covering their tits.
“Really? I thought—” I shrugged miserably and shook my head. “You’re an asshole. No. I’m stupid! I’m stupid that I believed we had something.” I turned around and marched away.
“Kennedy, wait!”
“Go enjoy your threesome!”
“This is not what you think it is!” I heard fast footsteps following me.
Before I could reach my room, I had my arm gripped by his strong hand.
“Hear me out, please?” There was a pain in his voice, but if he really cared about me, he shouldn’t have brought women into his room.
I faced him, pulling my arm from his grip. I looked directly into his eyes. “We haven’t even back together, yet you already replaced me by not only a woman but two. I started to think that you are worth giving a second chance. I had even told your family how kind and wonderful you are and that it was not hard to like you. But you did not take my words seriously. How do you think I could trust you if you keep on breaking it?” I looked away, afraid that he would see how he made me feel vulnerable around him.
“Kennedy.”
“Enough of this.” I shook my head. My eyes filled tears no matter how I tried to hold them back. “I can’t do this anymore.” I rushed to my room, slamming the door in his face.
He was still knocking, calling my name, and saying how he was sorry.
Fuck him, and his sorry.
***
I fell asleep upset. My chest squeezed tightly, knowing Thayer was still sleeping with someone else, even if I already committed to helping him save his title. How could he do this to me?
The faces of my parents appeared on the screen of the laptop. Thayer brought me one together with the wardrobes.
“Hey, honey. How are you?” My father waved his hand. They tried to fit together on the screen, making me laugh.
“Mom, Dad. You don’t have to kiss the camera, you know.”
“I know, but I want to see you up closed.”
I laughed even my heart was still bleeding. I tried compartmentalizing my emotions for the sake of my parents.
“Mom, Dad, I have something to tell you. I know it sounds rush, but I’m certain that this is what I wanna do.”
“What is it, honey?” Mom got her attention back from her phone to the laptop.
“I’m getting married.”
When I thought they would be shocked and asked me if I was pregnant, I was wrong. Or they would start by asking who was the guy and threw me another twenty thousand questions, but it never happened. They did not look sad either.
“Mom, Dad, did you hear me?”
“Congratulations! Yay!” Mom clasped her hands together, but I couldn’t see the shock and excitement either.
“I’m happy for you, honey.” His smile was genuine, though, but something was still off about this.
“You’re not happy that I’m getting married? Or you think this is insane?” I paused. Then it hit me hard. “Crap.” I covered my face with my hands. “You two don’t look so surprised. You didn’t even ask if I’m sure about my decisions. Last Christmas, when I told you that I’m dating someone, you both asked me twenty questions each. This time, I just dropped the shocking news, yet I heard nada! Just a ‘congratulations and yay,’” I mimicked my mother’s voice. "I should have known better."
“Honey, we’ve been waiting for your call since yesterday—”
I butted in. “Because you already knew.”
Dad nodded, and Mom shrugged. Then she giggled in front of the camera. “Tell me about him, honey. Is he really a prince?”
“Oh, boy.” I slumped to the chair, defeated.
“Alessia Hearst, your boss came to visit us with two black SUVs parked on the street. She came and zoomed with The Prince.”
I gasped. “Who? Prince who?”
“The father,” she seemed wasn’t sure.
“The Prince?” My eyes widened in shock. I shut my mouth close.
This was not what I expected. When I thought I was dropping the bomb on Prince Isodore, that I agreed to marry Thayer, I was the one get played. As always, they were two steps ahead of me.
“On behalf of The Prince and Prince Thayer, Alessia came her personally to ask for your hand in marriage. Why didn’t you tell us that you’re dating a prince? You also quit your job and are not in New York anymore.”
Sighing, I hugged my knee. “It’s a long story.”
“Well, we have all day, honey.”
“Hey, she’s getting married. She needs a beauty rest.” Dad looked at my mom. They seemed okay with this.
I wondered how Prince Isodore managed to convince them, considering my parents were protective of me even if I was a grown-up adult.
“What else did they say?”
“Wait, you have no idea they asked for our blessings?”
“No.” I felt guilty and relieved at the same time. “I thought I would just tell you myself.”
“You’re coming home to spend Christmas, right? And bring your prince with you.”
“Of course, I’ll be there, but I’m not sure if he’s gonna come with me. He might be busy during holidays, Dad.”
“It’s alright, but I’d love to see you, honey. How about we come and visit you?” Dad asked. I knew I couldn’t make excuses every time I would talk to them. One day, I had to video call with them with Thayer by my side.
“That’s actually a terrific idea.” My chest lightened up. Thank goodness, I didn’t have to convince them, and they took it lightly.
“And honey, there’s something we need to tell you.” Oh, boy. Why did I feel that I was not going to like this?
“Sure. What it is?”
They looked at each other before Dad cleared his throat. “They have a tradition of giving dowry to the bride, which included the family.”
“What?” I was too shocked to realize it was my own voice shouting. “What is it they gave you? You can’t take it, Mom, Dad. You have to return it to them. We’re not accepting a penny from him—from them. This is not how it works for us.”
“Honey, it’s too late.” Mom looked guilty.
“No, it’s not. We’re not yet married.”
“Honey, listen to me. This is their tradition. You can’t change it since you accepted his proposal—”
“Then why I am not wearing any ring?” I raised my hand to show them my ringless finger just to prove to them that they could return whatever Thayer’s father gave them.
“But you just said that you’re getting married.”
“It’s complicated.” My heart sunk.
“You’re not pregnant, are you?”
“No.” But we did sleep together unprotected.
“Well. He gave us a house.”
“A what? A house? No way.” I stared at the screen in disbelief. “I’m gonna talk to him. We’ll continue this later. Bye.” I shut the laptop close. My heart was pounding so hard as I swung the door opened only to be hit by it felt like a trunk—a hard, warm, and smelling good kind of trunk.
His strong arms securely wrapped around me in a possessive way, his hands on my back, and his breathing on my forehead.
“Darling.”
