Her heart wasn’t just pounding now, it was hurting, straining. Jacks said she’d die if she didn’t kiss the prince by the end of the party, and although it wasn’t quite over, Evangeline knew this meeting was. Apollo’s posture was shifting; he was about to dismiss her. Soon he would turn and walk away without another word. If she was going to kiss him, this was her final chance.
Evangeline lifted her eyes, seeking his lips, but somehow her gaze drifted over Apollo’s broad shoulder to Jacks. He leaned against the balcony rail flicking a silver coin with his long fingers.
The corner of his lips twitched ever so slightly, and he continued flipping the coin as he silently mouthed: Will she kiss him? Will she die? Will she kiss him? Will she die?
Evangeline would die eventually, but it would not be tonight.
She focused her gaze on Apollo. Spots danced around the edges of her vision, turning the prince into a blur of dread. “I’m sorry.”
She reached up to cup his cheek, rose on the tips of her toes, and brought her lips to his.
Apollo didn’t move.
Evangeline’s heart skipped. This wasn’t working. Apollo was going to pull away and call down the guards, who would surely shoot her or arrest her or drag her from the party by her hair. But instead of shoving her off, Apollo’s lips pressed against hers, as if this were how he frequently finished conversations with his female guests, and it wasn’t surprising in the least that Evangeline had wanted a goodbye kiss.
His warm hand went to her hip, pulling her close as his tongue slid inside her mouth, stroking hers as if giving her a goodbye gift.
Her cheeks heated at the thought that Jacks was watching the embrace, but she didn’t pull away. Apollo’s technique was better than Luc’s, who was always a little too eager. And yet everything about the way Apollo touched her felt more practiced than passionate.
Fleetingly, she wondered if he’d had painters capture the way he kissed, if that’s why everything felt a little like a performance.
His fingers gently squeezed her backside, digging in just enough to make her feel a jolt of surprise. “Goodbye, Miss Fox,” he murmured against her mouth. “I liked this more than I expected.” He started to pull away, but then his grip around her hip tightened.
And he was kissing her again. His lips greedily slanted over hers as his other hand slid into her hair, destroying the curls Jacks had already mussed as Apollo plundered her mouth. He tasted like lust, and night, and something lost that should have stayed that way.
Evangeline’s heart became a drum, beating harder and faster as he pressed in closer. There were layers of clothing between them, but she could feel the heat coming off him. More heat than she’d ever felt with Luc. It was almost too hot, too hungry. Apollo burned like a fire that consumed instead of warmed. And yet there must have been a part of her that wanted to be scorched, or at the very least singed.
She wrapped both hands around his neck.
Apollo’s mouth left her lips and dropped to her throat, trailing kiss after kiss down to her—
A cold hand clamped on her shoulder and wrenched her free of the prince’s grasp. “I think it’s time we go.”
Jacks pulled her toward the balcony stairs with supernatural swiftness. One moment, Apollo was all Evangeline could feel, and then she was tucked underneath Jacks’s hard arm, pressed close to his cool side as he ushered her toward the steps.
“Keep moving,” he commanded. His eyes had changed from soulless ice to the sharpest blue. “Don’t look back.”
But of course she had to look back. She had to see what she’d done.
Apollo remained rooted in place—thankfully, he was still very much alive—but he didn’t look quite right. He stood in the middle of the suite, intently tracing his lips with his finger. Tracing and tracing as if the act could reveal to him what had just happened, why his control had slipped with a girl whom he’d thought to turn away.
Evangeline wondered the same thing.
Apollo caught her eyes. There were still embers of heat in his gaze, but she couldn’t tell if it looked like passion or anger.
“Jacks, what did you do?” she whispered.
“It’s not what I did, Little Fox. It’s what you’ve done. And tomorrow night, you get to do even more.”
15
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The Daily Rumor
（continued from page 1）
Evangeline Fox has lived up to her reputation as a wild card!
While most of the ladies present at last night’s dinner were preening for Prince Apollo, Evangeline Fox was seen wrapped in a wicked embrace with one of the prince’s close friends.