Page 76 of Wicked Prince

"Personal reasons," he answers, his eyes gleaming with deep satisfaction. He looks like a cat toying with his meal. At least one of us is enjoying this. "I'm thinking of transferring to Bainbridge, and Amelia has graciously volunteered to be my tour guide."

"How lovely," I say through my teeth. "What, were they about to run you out of Princeton?"

"Lorenzo!" Kayleigh scolds.

I ignore her, waiting for an answer.

Stefan chuckles like the coy little bitch he is. "Not quite yet. But with next year being my junior year, I thought a change of scenery might be nice, and so far, I'm more than impressed with what Bainbridge has to offer."

I'm not sure if his meaning is as obvious to the women at the table as it is to me, but my skin is crawling with revulsion.

"I'm sure you are," I say bitterly.

"Daddy says you're studying finance at Princeton?" Kayleigh asks, seemingly oblivious to the double-edged conversation going on right under her nose. I can tell from the way Amelia is looking between us both that it's not lost on her. Too bad she isn't quite as perceptive when it comes to matters of character.

Then again, I guess if she were, she wouldn't have given me a chance in the first place.

"Yes, and from what I understand, Bainbridge has a program similar enough that I'll be able to transfer in all my prerequisites," Stefan answers, taking a sip of his drink.

"How convenient," Kayleigh says.

"Yes," I agree. "Veryconvenient."

Stefan's lips quirk at one corner, but he's admittedly better at hiding his disdain than I am. "In the end, I guess it doesn't really matter, does it, Lorenzo? Our fates are charted out for us, and the degrees and everything else are all just superficial accoutrements."

"That's one way to look at it," I say. The waitress comes over to take our orders, and of course, Kayleigh gets a salad. I don't actually think I've seen her put anything a rabbit wouldn't eat into her mouth the entire time I've known her.

Amelia seems to have lost interest in her food altogether, and I can't really say I blame her.

"Well,I'mstudying public relations," Kayleigh announces. "And Lorenzo is majoring in business, his cynicism aside."

"Practical. And what about you, Amelia?" Stefan asks, turning to her. "I don't think I asked what you were majoring in before."

She seems surprised by the question, and Kayleigh just seems annoyed that the conversation isn't centering on her at the moment.

"I… haven't really chosen yet," Amelia answers.

"Well, there's plenty of time," Stefan says.

"Yeah," she says quietly, taking another sip of her water. "I guess there is.”

"So anyway, now that you're here," Kayleigh begins, "we have to plan a party or something. Family dinner is always dull, so that's hardly a proper welcome, and if you're left entirely to Amelia's mercy, I'm sure your tour is just going to be museums and libraries."

"That sounds quite nice, actually," Stefan muses, smiling at Amelia.

To make matters worse, she actually smiles back.

I'd like to punch out every last one of his pearly white teeth. Then he wouldn't be smirking. To be fair, the look he's giving her is really more predatory than smug.

"We should totally throw a party, though," Kayleigh insists. "You need to meet everyone if you're going to be coming to Bainbridge. I know plenty of people who are just dying to meet you," she says with a conspiratorial lilt in her voice.

It's all I can do not to roll my eyes.

"Sure," Stefan says in a tone that makes it clear he's just being polite. "Just let us know when and where."

Kayleigh looks awkwardly between him and Amelia and forces a smile as stiff as her mother's morning mojito. "Totally."

"I'm going to go… powder something," Amelia says suddenly, getting up from the table to leave. Stefan looks after her, but Kayleigh grabs his arm and leans in, chatting incessantly about the party she's already started planning. And he's too polite to tell her to shut the hell up, so there's finally a use for her gift of gab.

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