The Wild Mustang & The Dancing Fairy: A Gorgeous Villain Prequel Novella by Saffron Kent (ereader for textbooks .txt) 📗

Reed sighs then. “Look, I just wanted to piss him off, all right. He was gonna score. I had to do something. It was the championship game. My last chance to win.”

“Your last chance to win.”

“Yeah, I just wanted to win.” He bends down slightly. “But if it makes you feel any better, I only won by two goals. Your brother was a worthy opponent. You should tell him that tonight. Tell him I said that. Tell him Reed said that he’s good. A real pain in my ass with how good he is. But you know, the best man won. Tell him to not cry too much in his pillow.”

There’s a pain in my chest. A massive, gigantic pain, but I power through.

I power through because this isn’t real, right?

This isn’t him.

This isn’t how he behaves.

He’s never this drunk. He’s never this… cruel.

He’s had plenty of opportunities to be cruel.

He’s had plenty of opportunities to be a player, a heartbreaker, to be all those things that they call him, but he’s never taken them.

No, this isn’t him.

He’s never broken a promise to me and I refuse to believe that he did now.

Even though I saw it with my own eyes. Even though I saw it in my brothers’ eyes, both Conrad’s and Ledger’s.

“What are you doing?” I burst out, desperately. “Why are you acting this way?

He thinks about it for a second. “I’m not acting.”

“You promised,” I remind him. “You made that pact with Ledger, remember? The pact that you were so crazy about. You promised you wouldn’t tell. You promised you wouldn’t use me against Ledger. You promised me that the first time I danced for you. You had tons of opportunities to do that but you never did and –”

“Right. I lied.”

“What?”

He drinks from his bottle again. “I lied. I made it all up.”

“You lied.”

“Yeah. I kinda do that.” He shrugs again. “One of my many bad habits but I try to love myself for who I am. I think self-acceptance is a very intriguing concept. It basically –”

I grab his t-shirt in my fists and snap, “Stop.”

Finally, I think I’ve jerked him awake.

Finally, I think he’s seeing me, hearing me.

So I tell him, “This isn’t you. This isn’t how you behave. I know it. I know. People are wrong about you. They think you’re selfish and you’re a jerk and you’re bad. But you’re not. You love your sister. You take care of her. You take care of me. You’re not cruel. You’re not. You protected me, Roman. Last night. I thought about it.”

I nod and fist his t-shirt even tighter. “I did. I thought about why you didn’t… have sex with me. It didn’t occur to me until after you dropped me off at the school parking lot. You were protecting me, weren’t you? You wanted to protect my innocence. That’s why you told me to hold on to my dress. That’s why you didn’t even ask me to take care of you. You didn’t and –”

Reed grabs onto my fists on his t-shirt and the muscles in his stomach contract as he growls, “This is starting to really piss me off now. I was having a good day, all right? I won. Yeah, I also got beaten up for it by your wonderful brother, who packs a really mean punch by the way. But it’s fine. I don’t care. I’m the champion. I’ve been waiting for this day ever since your brother stole the title last season. So yeah, I was having a brilliant fucking day and I would really like to get back to it. So I’m going to make this really easy for you.

“These past few weeks have been good. Fun. I mean, I still don’t like twirling but I can see why dudes do it. And I’m not sure if I’m going to be walking into that cupcake store again. It’s too pink for me. But I have to say that it’s been interesting. Given the fact that the only reason it all started was because you’re the Thorn Princess. But you’re really fucking ruining it right now.”

“What did you just s-say?”

“Look, it was a clear-cut way to mess with him. It’s not as if I was thinking about it. It’s not as if I was plotting ways to seduce my rival’s little sister. But then you walked into my party looking all sweet and innocent. I tried to stay away, trust me. I even made that stupid fucking pact. But then you were so interested in me. I mean, why wouldn’t you be? Every girl is, but I would have had to be stupid not to take it. I would have to be too stupid not to take you. Especially when it was too easy to reel you in. Too easy to take for you a ride, make you do things. You practically stood on the edge of a cliff for me. All I had to was give you a push. All I had to do was make you fall.”

All he had to do was give me a push.

He’s right.

I stood on the edge for him. My arms wide open, wearing a white dress.

And all he had to do was nudge me a little.

All he had to do was make me fall.

“You did all this so you could mess with Ledger,” I whisper as numbness spreads through my veins.

His jaw clenches. “I did all this for soccer.”

“So you could beat him.”

“So I could beat him.”

I repeat his words from a long time ago. “Because winning is everything.”

“Yeah.” His eyes flick back and forth between mine. “Besides, I showed you a good time, didn’t I? So no hard feelings.”

“No hard feelings.”

“In fact, you should be thanking me.”

I dig my fists into his torso. “I should be thanking you.”

“Yes. For the fact that I made sure there was minimal damage.”

“What minimal damage?”

Reed lowers his voice then, staring at me with flashing eyes. “I didn’t fuck you, did I? I could’ve. But I