Semua Bab Puck Me, One More Time: Bab 131 - Bab 140

Prince Ken's POVI pulled whatever composure I had left and looked at him directly while he still had hold of my wrist."Steph is the future princess." I said it firmly, the way I said things when I needed them to land as final rather than debatable. "She is the one I have to marry." I pulled my arm back and when he didn't move, I nudged him with my shoulder … hard enough to mean it. And with that, he shifted and the grip released as he stepped back.I turned away from him.The rose petals were still on the ground in their deliberate shape. All of it arranged for a moment that had not gone the way it was arranged for."Have to marry?"His voice came from behind me …although not loud as it all felt just present. And there was something in the tone that was different from the usual Liam delivery. Not the provocation, not the dry amusement. It was more like something quieter."Do you want to marry her?" he pressed. "Do you love her?"I turned back to face him."I am the prince," I said,

Author's POVThe party was over. The candles had been put out, the petals swept, and the guests were all gone.But the garden was still very much present in the minds of two people who were now on opposite sides of the city, lying in their respective beds, staring at their respective ceilings, thinking about the same thing from entirely different angles.Liam lay on his back with one arm behind his head and the other resting across his chest, looking at the ceiling of his room with the specific expression of someone who had done something they hadn't planned to do and was now doing the mental accounting of it.‘I kissed the prince.’He said it in his head once. Then again, because it all seemed like the first time, it didn't fully land.‘And I liked it.’That was the part that was not resolving itself neatly. He could have handled the first part … because one can tag it that accidental things happen, situations get complicated, he had navigated complicated issues before. But the secon

Prince Ken's POVThe school grounds were quieter on this side of the building — the administrative wing backed onto the lower sports fields, and at this hour the corridors were mostly empty. Which was, I suspected, part of why I had suggested this particular route for the tour. As it has less audience and at the same time, it has more space to have a real conversation.Prince Zane of Windermere moved the way royal visitors moved when they were trying not to look like they were assessing everything … which was to say, they were assessing everything. He had arrived with a smaller entourage than expected, which either meant he was making a point about informality or he simply didn't need the numbers. I hadn't decided which yet, anyway."So, Prince Zane," I said, keeping the pace even and the tone light, "what do you think of my proposal?"He walked beside me with his hands clasped loosely behind his back, which could be related to the posture of someone in no particular hurry and with no

Liam's POVI watched Mr Eric's hand drop the paper onto the desk in a casual motion, like it was nothing and then, in the same breath, he reached forward and grabbed the student.She screamed. It was small and involuntary as the sound that came out when something happened before your body had finished processing that it was happening."Oh … Mr. Eric." Her voice was shaking. "Please, let me go." Her hands were already trembling at her sides, and she was looking at him with the specific expression of someone who had walked into a room expecting one thing and had found something entirely different.But then, Mr. Eric held on.He looked at her with a calm that was worse than anger … more like the settled, unbothered calm of someone who had done this before and had not faced consequences for it. He reached up with his free hand and moved the hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear with a slowness that made my stomach turn."You want your scholarship, don't you?" Mr Eric said, and his

Liam's POV"See?" Mr. Eric's voice cut through everything else in the corridor. He pointed at me with the specific gesture of someone who had decided they had won and was now presenting the evidence. "Liam Carson is lying."The crowd picked it up immediately at that moment."Dragging an innocent girl into his own mess just to save himself." A voice from somewhere in the cluster … not directed at anyone specifically, just released into the air for everyone to absorb.I kept my eyes off the crowd in that minute. Besides, there was nothing useful in the crowd right now … no evidence, no witness willing to stand up for me and there was no version of the story that was going to be built from student commentary in a school corridor.I looked at the Dean. "I am not lying." I said it directly and clearly, without heat in it because heat would only make me look like what they already wanted to make me. "You have to believe me."And then my gaze moved in the exact way it kept moving…the way it