My Dark Prince (Dark Prince Road, #3)

by Parker S. Huntington

I used to live in the shadows, pressed between the crowded pages of somebody else’s tale like a wilting rose. Until he pulled me out of the suffocating paper, showering me with light until I blossomed into the person he knew I could be. Oliver von Bismarck. My best friend. My secret crush. My first love… And these days? My bitter sworn enemy. Ollie might have forgotten me, but I remember the scars he left behind. They say the best revenge is to not be like your enemy. I grew up to be kind, reliable, and responsible. All the things he lacked. Thanks to him, I’m no longer a rose. I’m a thorn.

God forbid they caused mayhem without him, never mind that Zachary Sun had a permanent stick lodged up his ass and Romeo Costa couldn’t find Fun on a map with a GPS, a compass, and Dora the Explorer on speed dial.

“Ollie, what am I going to do? It feels like the sky is falling.” “If the sky falls, I’ll hold it up for you.”

“I am always going to be here for you.” I tipped up her chin, my eyes boring into hers. “Not just for the summers, Cuddlebug. If you need me to transfer schools and come live here in Switzerland, I’ll do it. I’ll do anything for you. There’s no mountain too high, no ocean too deep, no planet too far for me to reach you. This is my oath to you. You will always have me. You will never, ever lose me.”

And in that kiss, she sealed my fate. I could never love another. Briar Rose was it for me.

My heart was all the way across the pond, in Europe, with a girl I hadn’t seen since I was nineteen.

They were what I’d run away from for fifteen years and counting. Briar Rose. My Briar Rose.

“That I’m yours. Completely. Unconditionally. Tragically. I will take your hate over anyone else’s love. Your anger over anyone else’s compassion. Your tears over anyone else’s smiles. A moment with you over anyone else’s forever. You’re the one.”

“A man’s shadow is designed to hide a woman’s light. It seeks to contain what it cannot control.”

“Promise?” I looped mine around hers and shook. “Promise.” “It feels like the sky is falling.” “If the sky falls, I’ll hold it up for you.”

The prospect posed a possibility I couldn’t stomach. That once upon a time, I abandoned my morals for a man. A man who saved me as a child, but a man, nonetheless. I didn’t remember much about myself, but I knew, without a doubt, that I loathed husbands who ordered their wives around without any regard for their wishes.

PERIOD

Because earlier, before the lake that reminded me of the one we’d fallen in love at, I’d finally remembered my ugly past. Fifteen years ago, Oliver von Bismarck abandoned me.

But that was before I heard it. The unmistakable grinding sound of meat getting chopped. Something got stuck in the heavy-duty motor. The boat stalled. I lurched forward as it lost speed, gliding through the water with its remaining momentum. I ran to the transom, peering over the edge. Oh, fuck. Red. So much red.

Shit

The way he took my virginity and ditched me. That walk of shame down the cobbled Parisian road, mostly naked, with just a thin hotel robe strapped around my shoulders.

You told him to leave

Jason and Philomena Auer. Philomena stood up first. “Well, hello, daughter dearest.”

Oh HELL NAW

“Did you ever manage to pay back all the people who sued you?” The question came from Felix, who still wore his frown as he sliced the bloody filet mignon on his plate.

GAHDAMN!!! 🤣🤣🤣

Romeo Costa: YOU NEED A FUCKING WIFE AND I NEED A FUCKING YACHT, OKAY?

🤣🤣🤣🤣