Page 38 of The Desert Prince's Jewel
“Get dressed. Right now,” Ranbir says, his mood swings throwing me for a loop as I rush.
When we come back together, he’s human, shining like a superstar in formal black clothing, and I’m barely surviving, wearing rags in comparison.
“Jaideep Singh is my cousin from a disgraced clan who holds a grudge. He wasn’t on my radar. I didn’t even know he was in America. But I… Why didn’t I know he was here? That it was him? That’s logical. How many Jaideeps would you know, Mateo?” he asks, but I don’t know how to answer.
Until I do, “I think he’s a wizard or something. I think he cursed me! Look at my wrist! Sometimes this mark is white, sometimes gray. Anyway, I think he may have been using Cy to get to me or something. I don’t know, but doesn’t it seem strange I drink some bomb ass tea at his new boyfriend’s place, and suddenly I can’t remember shit? Ranbir? Ranbir? Earth to Ranbir?”
He just stares, unblinking and probably unseeing. I snap in his face to wake him up, and he snatches my wrist, holding it and kissing it, his eyes flaring into huge pupils.
“You can see it?” he asks.
Man, he’s distractible tonight.
“Yes, I can see the curse mark! I think Cy broke it somehow. Anyway, he texted me to come see him, and I think Jaideep’s trying to ambush me,” I say, but he says nothing for a while.
The Ranbir beams at me, the creepy smile, all fangs, “I see. Don’t worry. You’re not cursed but resourceful. I wanted us to go on a date tonight. But it seems we have a date with destiny instead. Let us go.”
“A d-date?” I say as he starts dragging me out of the room.
“Y, es, but tonight we are decoy and dagger. You draw him out, and I end the miserable little worm’s life. To think a Singh isbehind the theft of the stone,” he mutters like that should make sense to me at all.
“Um, do you think he’s part of the conspiracy with my folks, too, or what?” I ask as we make a beeline for Rohan and Kunal’s room; everything is a blur.
Ranbir pauses in the hallway in front of their door, “Perhaps. Perhaps not. He was young when the Singhs were cast out. But if so, he is even more despicable. Your parents paid with their lives while that brat and his den simply transitioned into celebrities among the other commoners.”
I nod, not liking what I’m hearing, but happy to finally maybe find out the truth.
“You can see it, right?” Ranbir repeats, brushing his thumb against my wrist as he knocks on the door, my pulse throbbing under his thumb.
“Yes?” I say, voice tilting up in question as a white viper coils around my wrist. I should be creeped out by Jaideep’s freaky spell. But I’m not. The snake’s beady eyes are a source of comfort.
Only think of me, my mate, Mateo.
My mate. He called me my mate. I’ve read enough mate bond romance to know what that means. I blink rapidly, understanding dawning. My eyes whip to his lips, then Ranbir’s huge eyes, pupils large, his body swaying. Bobbing, even.
“Umm…” I say, confused, happy, scared, and too many emotions simultaneously.
“I’m glad you can see it. I’m glad you’ve opened your heart to me,” he says, and I gasp.
“I didn’t say I was in love with you! Okay, in a moment of weakness, ss I thought… Um… Never mind. Forget it!” I whisper-shout, my mind overloaded with the knowledge that this frenemies-to-lovers thing instantly got a lot more serious.
He perks up at that, leans down, and tastes my lips with his tongue, something I’m beginning to understand as an affectionate gesture by the number of times I’ve caught Rohan fawning over Kunal with his tongue, not quite kissing each time. Not exactly a kiss. But I’ll take it. I don’t know if I can survive another one.
Ranbir tugs my knuckle to his lips as Rohan calls out, they’re coming. I can’t help but laugh because they probably are in the middle of cumming right now.
“Good. Enough chit chat, Mateo, my mate. We have a traitor to capture and kill, partner.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
MATEO
He kissed me. He wants me. He’s my mate. He’s a naga prince and I’m his mate and he kissed me, and he wants me bad. Ranbir, kissed me!
As I nibble on my bottom lip, those words drum through my head like a mantra, clinging to the cushion of a luxury sports car rental as we peel down the street towards Tartarus. My skin crawls at the thought of seeing Jiadeep again, and also discovering the truth.
How did I get tangled up in Ranbir’s tail, let alone an international criminal art ring co-led by his cousin, apparently? I have no idea, but he might kill us before we get there.
“Slow down!” I squeak as we barely make a yellow light before it flashes red. “Jaideep isn’t going to disappear. He’s setting me up, remember?"
