My Dark Prince: An Enemies-to-Lovers Romance (Dark Prince Road)

Sebastian.

Beautiful, golden Sebastian.

He didn’t look like himself anymore.

His body remained seemingly unscathed – strong, broad, lean, and muscular. Bronzed like a god.

It was his face. It looked like a vicious animal had tried to tear it to shreds and almost succeeded. The jagged wounds had healed thick and lifted. Angry, red streaks clawed from his right jaw up to his cheekbone.

A crater blinked back at me from where a chunk of his left cheek used to sit. He’d busted part of his upper lip, too, and what was once an elegant nose now dipped with his missing cheek.

And on top of all this, Sebastian was frowning, too.

My kneejerk reaction was to keel over and vomit. Not because of his appearance. Well, yes. Because of his appearance. But not because it disgusted me. But because it disgusted him. He couldn’t live with himself, and the thought saddened me.

I forced my shaky hand to reach up and trace the deep frown furrowing his brows. He hissed at the touch, drawing away instinctively, obviously shocked by the touch. I didn’t relent. A beat passed before he leaned back in, closing his eyes to savor the human touch.

A lone tear tumbled from his right eye down his cheek. I choked back on a cry.

His mouth tugged sideways in a grimace. “Not so handsome anymore, am I?”

Oh, no. I wondered if he’d heard me at dinner last night, raving to the girls about his beauty. I’d compared him to a deity.

“The eye patch is super sexy.” I shrugged, smoothing away the persistent wrinkle on his forehead. “I’ve always been Team Captain Hook.”

“Hook was the villain.”

“Villains are just misunderstood heroes.”

“Yes. Well.” A snarl touched his face. “I am perfectly understood. Understandably bitter, that is.”

The dogs wagged their tales and circled us, sensing the profundity of the moment.

“We’ve been sharing this house for so many years, and I never got to see you like this?” I croaked out.

He licked his busted upper lip. “Hmm,” came his noncommittal reply.

“When did it happen?”

“Fifteen years ago.”

Fifteen years ago.

He was now in his thirties. He’d spent half his life in the confinements of these walls, away from civilization.

I cupped his face. “And you sit here all day on your own?”

All I got was a small nod.

Oh, Seb.

He still boasted that same gorgeous tan. He must’ve spent hours every day glued to the window, peering out as the world move on without him.

“It’s better that way.” He must’ve sensed my doubt, because he rushed to explain. “Every time my mother sees me, she begins to cry uncontrollably. My father vomited the first time he saw my face after the accident. Oliver is the only one who can stand to look at me, and even he does it because he doesn’t have a choice.”

What did he mean by that? Why didn’t Ollie have a choice? So many questions raced through my brain, but so did relief.

Guilt surged inside me. I couldn’t help but sag my shoulders at the knowledge that Oliver must have kept this secret for his brother. Not because he didn’t love or trust me.

“I’m sorry for rehashing this, but … what happened to you, Seb?”

He clasped my wrist, bringing my hands down from his face. I had a feeling it was hard for him, rejecting the only human touch he’d had in a while.

“Now’s not the time. I can’t believe I showed you my face. Jesus.” He tore away from me, pacing the spacious room, shaking his head in disbelief. “You can’t tell Oliver.”

“Why?”

Wouldn’t Oliver be happy that I’d managed to reach out to Seb? Talk to him? They were brothers, for god’s sake.

“He’s going to get all cheesy about me showing you my face and sign me up for this year’s Met Gala.”

“I’ll tell him it took me months to bring you to do it,” I promised.

Sebastian shook his head. “He also won’t be happy we’re talking. He’ll be afraid I’ll screw it up for him. Now that you’re his, he is never letting you go.”

“Now that I’m his?” I dusted the place with my finger, running it on the edge of the bedframe. “What do you mean?”

How long had our first break up lasted?

“Shit.” Seb chuckled. “I meant, now that you are discharged and recovered from your injury.”

“That’s not what you meant.” I gave him a look.

He pierced me with a gaze of his own. “I’m not your boyfriend, Briar. You can’t strongarm me into talking.”

Another migraine drilled its way into my brain. With it, came a memory.

Of me, outside this very mansion, standing at the gate, shaking it desperately. It was pouring rain. I was young. Angry. Hungry.

My clothes clung to my body like leeches. Sobs tore out of my mouth as I sank to my knees.

Mud caked my shins. I shivered from the cold, begging for Oliver to open the gates.

He didn’t.

I knew that he was home, but he didn’t.

Why had he been so cruel? So horrible to me? What had I done?

Seb frowned, sizing me up. “You doing okay?”

I hadn’t even realized that I’d begun clutching my head, hyperventilating. This was a memory, not a nightmare. Something tangible that had happened in the past. The scent of wet metal seared in my nostrils, the cold from my soggy clothes deep in my bones.

“Did Oliver kick me out of the house at some point?”

Seb’s face couldn’t hold an expression other than a scowl, but it seemed to smooth over in surprise. “What do you mean?”

I pointed at the door. “I just had a flashback of me outside these gates, begging to be let in.”

Sebastian’s gaze darkened. “This is Oliver’s story to tell.”

“But I—”

“Boundaries,” he cut me off. “Respect them, or next time, I won’t let you in.”

My eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets. “Bold of you to assume I’d want your company.”

“Considering Ollie is my main intellectual competition, and he is always a fart away from a poop joke, I think it is safe to say you’ll be visiting here often.”

I was desperate for the truth, but I also didn’t want to make this moment about me when Sebastian seemed to be having his own breakthrough. I had to delay my revelation.

“So …” I hopped on his dresser, forcing him – and myself – to look at his face. To get used to it. “What do you do here all day?”

“Workout. Cook. Row.” He shrugged, glancing at everything other than me. “I’m doing remote studies at whatever online program that’ll take me. I’m on my fourth degree now.”

“Holy shit. What are you studying?”

“Business management at Cambridge and Northwestern, psychology at Johns Hopkins, and right now, cyber security at Georgia Tech.”

“You’ve always been so smart.”

“Intelligence means jack shit if you don’t know how to use it.”

“And Oliver is your only companion?”

Sebastian scratched his left cheek, or whatever was left of it. “Pretty much. Though there are entire days we don’t see each other. Contrary to general belief, he does work. Quite hard, too. Other days, I’m not in the mood to be social. We see each other about one or two times a week.”

Sebastian was basically a hermit. This man had once been the most sought-after teenager in the whole Western world. He’d dated actual princesses. He was a Junior Olympic rower. He even did a TED talk.

“What do people say about your disappearance?” I remembered the bullshit story about backpacking, but surely, no one bought it. “They must be asking questions.”

“They think I went to live in India. To meditate after a mental breakdown.” A bitter chuckle rattled his chest. “Highly effective lie. Believable, too. Think about it. After years of pressure from being a competitive athlete and a gifted student, I decided I wanted out of the rat race. So, I escaped to paradise. Radhanagar Beach.”

“But you’re the most competitive person in the world.”

“No one knows that but family.” He shrugged. “It’s not like I need to work or prove myself to anyone. Every now and again, someone will say they spotted me in an ashram somewhere remote. It adds to the allure, really.”

“And your parents?”

“Know I’m here. Too scared to look at me, though.”

“That can’t be right,” I protested. “They adore you.”

“They visit sometimes, and we talk through the door,” he admitted, soft. “I don’t allow them to see me. It makes them distraught.”

“Your dad, too?”

“Especially Felix.” He grimaced. “The old man is in deep depression.”

Now it all made sense. Why Oliver took over. Why he secretly carried the entire von Bismarck family on his shoulders.

Seb worked his jaw back and forth. “Dad never fully recovered from my accident, even though he wasn’t there. I think it drove him past his breaking point that I was ruined. Tarnished. Beyond repair.” He gestured to his face. “It’s not hard to see myself through their eyes. Broken. Soiled. No good.”

“No way this is how they see you.” A zing of anger flashed through me. “They can’t—”

The rest of the sentence died in my throat the minute I heard a feminine voice call out from the balcony outside.

“Briar? Yoo-hoo. It’s your best friend in the whole entire world. Where are you?”

Sebastian and I exchanged alarmed looks.

Seb grabbed me by the upper arms, walking me back from his room. “You have to leave right now. She can’t come here.”noveldrama

I stumbled backwards. “But we haven’t finished talking.”

The dogs followed me outside, Geezer with his skateboard.

“Speak for yourself. I’ve been done with this conversation for thirty minutes now.”

“I’ve only been here for fifteen minutes.”

“Correct.” Sebastian started to shut the door in my face. “Draw your own conclusions.”

I pushed my foot between the door and the frame a second before he slammed it. “Wait.”

“What?”

“I’m coming to hang out with you tomorrow. We’ll do this puzzle together.” I gestured to his family room area. “My doctor says puzzles are good for my brain.”

“I don’t need company.” He ground his teeth together. They were still nice teeth. Big and white and straight.

“Well, I do,” I chirped, refusing to give up on him. “I’m desperate for it.”

Dallas’s voice boomed louder now, her search beginning inside the home.

Seb narrowed his eyes. “No.”

“Yes.”

“Briar? Are you upstairs?” Dallas sing-songed in the background, her voice alarmingly close.

I squared my shoulders, refusing to budge.

Sebastian took in my raised brow, a clear challenge. “Fine.” His teeth clanked as he locked his jaw, moving it from side to side. “Come tomorrow.”

“Thank you.” I reached out and planted a feathery kiss on his right cheek. “We’ll have fun.”

“Highly doubt it.”

I shouted behind me, already running down the corridor with the pups. “Yes, we will.”

“Bring the dogs,” he muttered.

And just like that, my heart cracked open, and a little sunshine poured in.