The Once and Future Prince / Pretend Mistress, Bona Fide Boss: The Once and Future Prince

He sat up again, his eyes spitting emerald fire. “And I’m ashamed that I didn’t. I’m even more ashamed that I saw the error of my ways only when I had no choice anymore. But now that I have the choice again, I’m making up for being a party to such a backward practice. I’m daring them to really let the best man win.”

“I do believe that’s who they believe you are.”

“I’m only the best man because I’ll be more acceptable to the masses, who’ve been indoctrinated to accept only the old laws.”

“Isn’t that a huge factor to consider? Don’t you factor in popularity and acceptability when assigning your CEOs?”

“If I ever take the crown, it would be to move Castaldini to the point where laws that no longer suit the times are phased out. I would start by seeing to it that the people come to decide who’s best for Castaldini without ticking off a list of criteria topped by an outdated, demeaning and just plain prejudiced birth requirement.”

She gaped at him as everything he’d said slotted in place. And she exclaimed, “You’re a social reformer and a modernizer!”

“You say this with the same revulsion you’d say ‘a womanizer. ’”

“It’s not revulsion. It’s realization. I’m shocked. I was led to believe you were revolutionary, but not in that sense.”

“In what sense, then?”

“In the establishment-destroying, eco-depleting sense.”

“And you believed that?”

“Why not? You’re ruthless in your takeovers and your enterprises are sprouting mega-size urban developments.”

“So? My conquests are prospering. Go check with my longest-term ones and ask if they’d change a thing. As for developments, I build those where it suits the social and ecological climate, and after careful consideration of all ramifications. I don’t go around haphazardly overdeveloping land and exhausting resources.”

She somehow believed every word, no need to check. She should have let it rest, but she found herself adding, “And why should your being a womanizer revolt me? It’s none of my business.”

One formidable eyebrow shot up. “Really? Interesting.” Then both eyebrows dipped into an ominous line. “And I’m not.”

“Not what?”

“A womanizer. I have too many handicaps to be one.”

“Handicaps?”

“Fastidiousness, wariness, allergies to pointless pursuits…”

“Don’t men consider physical gratification the point?”

“Do you always go around dispensing general condescension on all men, or am I just blessed? And then, you’re counter-asserting that women don’t consider physical gratification of importance? The old paradigm that women want emotion while men want sex?”

“That paradigm has stood the test of time and the approval of the majority. That’s not to say it applies to everyone.”

“It sure doesn’t apply to me. And physical gratification comes with a womanful of traits, whims, demands and trouble.”

“In other words, it comes attached to a sentient being.” His eyes remained steady, as if he was trying to read her mind. She let out a shaky breath. “Phew. The one way to avoid such nuisances is to…rent a companion. And I can’t see you doing that.”

His eyes turned lethal. “You always had perfect sight.”

“Then how do you find any women who fulfill your criteria of being a non-imposition? And you think Castaldinians are unreasonable?”

“My criteria aren’t affecting present and future generations, I can make them as unreasonable as I like. I don’t need to make concessions, either, since feminine wiles no longer work on me.”

“You mean they once did?”

“Oh, yes, all the way.”

Her heart did its best to explode from her ribs.

He’d—he’d been…in love? All the way? Before or after her? And he was telling her all this…why? Warning her off while pulling her in? Was that what her tormentor was trying to do to her?

Suddenly he sat forward, thrust a hand into her hair. He let a thick lock sift through his fingers before he groaned, “Not that it doesn’t suit you, it does, even more than your natural hair color did, but what made you dye your hair black?”

Leandro groaned again. He’d swerved from the vulnerabilities he was exposing, groped for the diversion of something that gnawed at his curiosity. And she looked as if he’d slapped her.

“Don’t you mean why did I stop dyeing my hair blond?”

He gaped at her. “You’re a natural brunette?”

“You didn’t realize that? But then it stands to reason.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“You knew nothing about me, apparently.”

“I knew plenty about you. I bet I know everything.”

“You’re talking in the biblical sense? How original of you.”

“I mean in every sense.”

“Yeah? Okay, let’s test this knowledge. Or are you going to plead memory holes due to the time lapse?”

“I have the memory of an entire herd of elephants.”

“And the comparative rampage damage potential.”

He harrumphed. “I never rampage.”

“Of course not. You’re too organized and premeditated for that. I should have said ‘incursion.’ That is your MO, whether it’s on a personal or a global level.”

“By definition, an incursion is hated, resisted. I remember nothing but…approval, encouragement. On a personal level.”

“You have that effect on the people you take over—the super power of Stockholm syndrome. It took me a year and a half to realize what you did to me.”

He went totally still. “What did I do to you?”

She looked at him as if he’d once strangled her cat and didn’t remember it. She finally shook her head, let out a rough chuckle. “You didn’t even realize I dyed my hair.”

“And that made me…insensitive? Negligent? The hair on your head looked so natural with your tan. Thanks to your grooming habits, there was none anywhere else to give me a clue. What else did I allegedly do to you?”

She shook her head again. “You exist in a universe starring you, don’t you? Other people are the bit players who exist just so you can bounce your lines off them.”

“Why are you saying that when you know it wasn’t true…then?”

“Listen, I’m not criticizing you or laying blame…”

“No? You have a strange way of not doing that. The way you tell it, I was an egocentric, exploitative bastard. Come to think of it, I do remember a comment you hurled at me on your way out of my life. About my so-called self-absorption. Is that how you rationalize the way you ended things between us?”

“‘Things’ would have ended between us sooner rather than later, and you know it. I did us both a favor—”

“Why don’t you speak for yourself?”

“Fine, I did myself a favor by not sticking around to experience the deterioration of ‘things’ before their inevitably nasty end.”

He stared into the twin storms of her eyes.

Was this her admission that there’d never been more than self-interest behind her actions? Or was it self-preservation? Her words could be interpreted that way. Had his rage at the time made her fear he’d take his bitterness out on her?

What was he thinking? Why was he debating this yet again? He’d admitted there was no way to find out the truth for sure. And what did it even matter? That was then. This was now.

He was taking now. And when the end came this time, he wouldn’t spend eight more years agonizing over the reasons why. The whys would be of his own orchestration. And his own timing.

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