The Crown Jewels by Honey Palomino Read Free Book Online Page A

a mess back then. If I had stuck around, I would have only broken your heart.”
    “Right,” I agreed sarcastically. “As if you didn’t do that anyway.”
    “Okay, fair enough. I did it the best way I knew how. By taking myself out of your life.”
    “Fuck you, Will,” I said, turning away from him once again. There, I’d said it . Exactly what I’d been wanting to say since I woke up the day that he had disappeared from my life. I wanted to punch him, too, but I was pretty sure I’d end up locked away in chains in a dark dungeon for the rest of my life if I punched a member of the Royal Family.
    Waves of electricity shot through my body as he came up behind me and put his arms around me.
    “Jewels, I’m sorry, I didn’t know what else to do,” he whispered, his breath tickling my ear. I twisted out of his embrace, trying to catch my breath. Every time he touched me it was like a blow to the gut. “But it was fun while it lasted, wasn’t it? Tell me you didn’t think about me over the years? Replay those nights we spent together in your head?”
    “Shut up! Just leave me alone, okay?” I lowered my eyes, refusing to look at him again. I couldn’t let him see how much he hurt me, or how much he still turned me on. I’d been foolish to even say anything now, but I couldn’t help myself. He was right. What was in the past was in the past. It was time to move on. Time to focus on my father’s happiness.
    Will and I were over a long time ago, and seeing him now didn’t change that one bit, and it never would.
    It was time to accept that. And I could do that, as long as I didn’t have to look at him too long. Because every time I looked at him, sparks shot right through my heart.
    “Just go, please,” I asked again. I heard him sigh, and then watched his feet disappear from my room. He whistled, and Willy jumped up, following him out the door. When the door closed behind them, I fell on the bed, my mind and body completely at odds, wrestling with every emotion under the sun.
    I refused to even acknowledge my heart.

CHAPTER SIX
    WILL
     
    The door closed, and I tried to push away the feelings of guilt that were washing over me. Despite the pain in her eyes, I knew I had done the right thing.
    On the way to my room, I thought about our past. I’d never intended for things to turn out the way they did. I only meant for it to be a fling. And that’s how it started out. But a month later, I’d taken Jewel’s virginity and so much more.
    But what a month it had been , I thought. After convincing her to tutor me and then to go out with me once, I found I enjoyed it rather immensely. She was smart as a whip, and was able to hold a conversation with me about much more than what the other girls could. Jewels could talk about history, geography, politics…it seemed there was no subject she wasn’t an expert on, and after a few weeks, she was arousing not only my cock, but my mind, too.
    We were having so much fun together; I didn’t even miss the other women. We’d spend our evenings talking late into the night, and fuck until the sun came up. It was wonderful. And then everything went horribly wrong. I did my best to fix it, to make things easier for her, as much as I was able to. And I left because it was for her own good. I didn’t want to, but I did.
    By the sound of her voice, and the steely look of anger in her eyes every time she looked at me, she still hadn’t forgiven me.
    I’d be an asshole if I said I blamed her.
    And sure, it was weird that our parents were getting married. But I wasn’t about to pretend I didn’t still want her. That I didn’t still have feelings for her. That I didn’t want to rip that sexy red dress off of her last night and take her right there on the table in front of God and everyone. Why should I lie about my feelings?
    I wasn’t in the habit of pretending to be someone I wasn’t, so why start now? She was just going to have to get used to the fact that we were