Page 57 of His Princess Brat
My second surprise, Azid, came out of Adofo’s stall where he must have been waiting for me, feeding my horse and even brushing him as the item in his hand declared.
“Well,” he quickly amended. “Not me, but Mazi. Still, he did it at my request.”
Startled as I was, I forgot to be mad. “But... why?”
“Because you wanted her, and I wanted to make you happy.”
That was when surprise gave way, and I once again remembered who had so thoroughly broken my heart. Wounded, I got angry again.
“I don’t want her.” Belatedly, I even snatched my hand back so I wasn’t touching her anymore.
He bowed his head, sliding his hands into his jeans’ back pockets. “She’s yours anyway.”
“Take her and choke.” I tried to go around him to get to my stallion.
Azid didn’t touch me, but he did follow. “Can we talk for just a minute?”
“No.” I tried to shut the stall door between us, but he opened it and came in anyway.
“Look—”
I turned on him. “No, you look! There’s nothing left to talk about. You said it all two nights ago when you said you didn’t want me, and then again last night when you made me think maybe you’d changed your mind only to crush me all over again!”
“Oh, baby, I wasn’t trying to—”
“Don’t call me that! You don’t get to call me anything like that. You don’t get to go around punching people for me, either!”
His expression darkened. “He deserved it.”
“So do you!”
“Sometimes, yeah, I probably—”
I punched him. Having never hit anyone or anything before, I did it so badly my knuckles didn’t even make contact. He jerked his head back in surprise, grabbing my wrist at the very last second.
Startlement melted into sternness. “Princess,” he warned.
I yanked to take back my hand, but he yanked harder, jerking me right into the hard comfortable length of him. His arm around my waist anchored me to him as easily as if it were a band of steel.
“Let me go.” My command came out far softer than I intended it to. It wavered too, making me so mad that I could have cried from that alone. The sadness inside me welled, however, becoming an even bigger excuse.
“I’m sorry,” Azid said, but I tried to push him away anyway.
Why did this man have to be all muscle? I barely budged him.
“Pita,” he said again, caressing my hair with his other hand. “I’m so sorry. I’m sorry I didn’t think things through. I’m sorry I hit that sanctimonious prick—”
“No, you’re not.”
“No, I’m not,” he gave in. “You’re right, it was the highlight of my night, but I’m sorry it affected you. Trust me, though, you can do so much better.”
I lost it. The tears I couldn’t fight back spilled free, pouring down my face as I tried to hit him again. “I tried to do better! You wouldn’t have me!”
“I didn’t want to ruin you!”
“Did you ever stop to think for one second about what I wanted?” Squirming wildly, I at last broke free. Or maybe he let me go. It was hard to tell, but a girl had to take her victories when and where she could.
Shoving past him, I marched out of the stall while Adofo was still trying to figure out if all this was going to end in carrots and before he could get nippy about it. Again, I tried to shut the door but Azid was right behind me.
