My Cynical Prince: Opposites Attract Romance (The Instalove Series) Read online

  Table of Contents

  My Cynical Prince (The Instalove Series)

  About the Book

  My Cynical Prince

  Prologue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Epilogue

  Author's Note

  My Controlling Sheikh

  My Insatiable Sheikh

  My Arabian King

  A Dangerous and | Possessive Love

  Note: This was previously published as HIS FAIR LADY.

  Themes: instalove, over the top, royal romance, billionaire romance, first love romance

  I know he's going to think I'm crazy at first, but there's just no getting around it. I am the girl of his dreams, and he's destined to make me his princess.

  Cynical workaholic Julian, Prince of Ethereal, has finally made it to the island of St. Roch, where I've been waiting for him for years.

  I thought all I'd need to do is convince him that I'm not crazy, and we'd live happily ever after.

  But I was wrong.

  As our time on the island grows preciously short, Prince Julian isn't showing any signs of changing his mind. His heart might be mine...but another woman shall still be his princess.

  About the Book

  She took another deep calming breath. “I read minds.”

  He threw his hands up in surrender. “You have got to be fucking joking. Do you really think I’m the kind of guy who’d fall for that kind of B.S.?”

  “But I’m not lying!” An idea occurred to her, a way to convince him that she was indeed telling him the truth about everything, and she said rashly, “Give me a try. Think of something – anything – and I’ll be able to guess your thoughts.” It was a risky gamble, but she was betting on their connection not to fail her. They were destined to be together. Surely it would be easier to read his mind than any of the others?

  Julian’s gaze narrowed. “Fine.” Yellow daisies.

  “You’re thinking of...yellow...flowers?”

  Julian absolutely refused to let himself feel stunned. Just a lucky guess, he told himself as he tried to come up with another random thought. Red velvet cake.

  “A dessert, something that’s...” Cass had a hard time remembering the name of the cake she saw in Julian’s mind since she didn’t have much of a sweet tooth. “Umm, raspberry? Strawberry? Just something red on top.”

  Julian’s heartbeat was starting to race. Impossible. This was impossible. If he accepted her words as truth – that she could truly read minds – then did it mean that they were destined to marry?

  No.

  One truth did not automatically lead to another truth. Maybe it was something genetic or some kind of weird brain chemistry that allowed her to interpret brain patterns. Her ability to read minds did not mean she also had the ability to see the future. Telepathy, Julian could probably find it in himself to accept. But clairvoyance?

  No.

  “Do you b-believe me now?”

  He said slowly, “I need one more test.”

  Cass’ heart nearly burst with hope. “Anything.”

  Julian focused on an image.

  An embarrassed gasp broke out of Cass.

  The prince was thinking of her naked in his arms...

  Fucking her on his bed—-

  Fucking her against the wall—-

  Fucking her right here, straddling his lap as she took his cock into her—-

  She gasped again, mentally shutting the door on the stream of images his mind blasted to her. “That’s wicked!”

  My Cynical Prince

  By Marian Tee

  Previously published as His Fair Lady

  Copyright 2020 by Streak Digital Publishing

  All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  All characters appearing in this work are fictitious.

  Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  Prologue

  Cass

  My first taste of darkness had me gagging. It was too oppressive. I couldn’t make sense of it, this darkness. It was a word I knew, a concept I understood, but it was also not normal for a strange blind girl like me. Nothing was dark in my world, but now I was drowning in it.

  So, so dark.

  Why was it dark?

  I tried to make sense of my surroundings without moving. Not that I could, with my hands bound tightly behind my back. I was lying down on something old and hard. It was not the carpeted floor of my bedroom, not the marbled tiles of the living room, and definitely not the soft grassy lawn of our yard.

  Unfamiliar sounds whispered hints to my ears.

  Swoosh, swoosh...

  Creak...

  The sound of water lapping underneath wooden planks.

  Wherever I was now, it was not home.

  Murmur of voices. One, two, three...four...

  Was that all of them? I couldn’t tell. All I knew was that the people around me were not Mom or Dad. They were not people I could trust. They were...bad.

  Thud...creak...thud...creak...

  Heavy footsteps heading towards me, the darkness becoming more suffocating—-

  “Are you awake?”

  No! I almost cried it out, almost allowed myself to be baited.

  The words came from the darkness.

  The darkness was alive. It had spoken. And now I knew.

  Oh God. Now I knew why it was so dark. The darkness was all...him, and it made me wish I was really blind like the others.

  But I wasn’t, and because I was not, because my eyes worked differently, like soldiers with infrared glasses, like canines with heat vision, I saw.

  I saw the darkness. I saw him. And I saw death.

  In my world, man-made objects were outlined, and everything else, like the sun, the sky, the ocean, and the earth, blended in a great blank white landscape. Every creature whose heart beat was a fiery orange. Or at least it used to be until Mr. Darkness.

  Mr. Darkness was so twisted inside his soul had swallowed every bit of light inside him, drowning all shades of orange with black – empty, hollow, evil black.

  “You’d like to pretend you’re still sleeping?” Mr. Darkness’ voice was cultured and filled with cold amusement, each syllable that dropped from the darkness ripping my world apart.

  You’d like to pretend you’re still sleeping?

  Rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip, rip.

  My world was black, dead, and lacerated into pieces by the time he finished speaking.

  But we both knew he wasn’t finished with me.

  “Is this how you want to play it?”

  My world continued to rip apart with each word he spoke. It was a struggle not to answer, not to squeeze my eyes tightly shut to ward him off. It took everything not to move and reveal just how terrified I was of his darkness – God, he made my world so, so dark.

  His eyes remained on me, something I sensed like insects crawling all over my skin.

  “How about we play make believe?”

  He almost tricked me into shaking my head and betraying I was awake. I would never want to play with him. Never ever. If I played and he said ‘game over’, it wouldn’t just b
e the game ending. It would mean I’d stop breathing, too.

  “You’re the sleeping princess and I’m the prince who’d wake you up with a kiss.” This time, his voice was no longer a playful taunt. This time, it was laced with bitterness, the words loaded with meaning I didn’t really want to understand. Mr. Darkness’ words told me that there was a person he hated, and he was taking out that hatred on me.

  God, oh God, please make this darkness end.

  “Do you want a kiss?”

  I didn’t react.

  “No? Then what about this? If you don’t speak in the next three seconds, I’ll kill you.”

  Oh God, oh God—-

  “Three...”

  What do I do?

  “Two...”

  Was this a trick?

  “On—-”

  “Where are my parents?” I opened my eyes as I spoke, never feeling so thankful that I was blind.

  Mr. Darkness laughed, the sound as chillingly musical as his voice. “Where do you think?”

  I SCREAMED.

  “Clairvoyant” was the first word I learned to spell when I was three years old, drawing the letters with my fingers when Mom placed me in a sandbox to play with other kids. I only needed to touch someone to see the good things that could happen to them. Sometimes, the images were vivid and clear. Other times, the images were hazy.

  But when bad things happened—-

  Everything would become painfully sharp, each scene in high-definition 3D. To the point that I could feel the splatter of blood on my face as Mr. Darkness sank his knife in my father’s back and severed his spine.

  God, I hated it when I saw the bad things people could do. It made me wish I was really truly blind.

  (My mother’s corpse draped the stairs, all mangled limbs and dead eyes dilated.)

  (My father next to it, face ashen as he stared at my bedroom door.)

  (Mr. Darkness had stabbed him five times.)

  (Mr. Darkness wanted to stab him 661 more times.)

  (My father shouting at me, “Wake up, baby! Run!”)

  (But I hadn’t woken up, and now Mr. Darkness had me.)

  “You killed them!” I struggled against my bindings. I wanted to kill Mr. Darkness before he killed me. I didn’t care what happened to me after that. He killed my parents. Oh God, he killed them.

  Dad, my strong, loving dad—-

  Mom, my beautiful sweet mom—-

  I screamed and screamed and screamed.

  Mr. Darkness laughed and laughed and laughed.

  It was a childish sound, like laughter belonging to a baby born wrong.

  I sensed him turning his back on me, a little bit of white light peeking into my world against his infinite blackness. He was talking to the other four, bragging to them about my “beautiful eyes”.

  God, oh God, I had played right into his hands.

  He had heard about me, but wasn’t really sure that I could see things. Now, he knew and he would never let me go.

  Darkness surrounded me again, just a second before he kicked me in the ribs. It was Mr. Darkness’ way of playing. As the pain struck me, I saw—-

  (A teenage girl, naked, chained in the basement.)

  (Her body was like a tiger, only this time the stripes were red and violet, kisses made by a whip.)

  She was his toy.

  And I was next.

  Mr. Darkness was looking at me again.

  God, please God, please save me.

  Mr. Darkness had crouched down on one knee. “I’m going to need you to show me things. And you will do it if you don’t want to end up like your parents.” Mr. Darkness was smiling as he spoke, as if he relished the thought. The smile was a tangible sensation, making me feel like buzzing bees had started to gather around my body, covering every inch of flesh.

  “You don’t want to end up like them, don’t you?”

  I whispered, “No.” It was a lie, but my instincts told me I needed to keep Mr. Darkness thinking that I was going to be a very good toy.

  Mr. Darkness turned his back on me again. Slowly, light started to filter into my world as Mr. Darkness walked away and talked to the others.

  “If you ask her the right question, she can tell us when we can kill him——”

  “How do we know she’ll tell us the right thing?”

  Riiiiiiing...

  Mr. Darkness cursed. The word became a heavy black cloud that threatened to smash me against the wooden planks.

  “Prince Julian.” Mr. Darkness had answered the call, his voice deviously light and carefree.

  Prince Julian.

  Prince Julian.

  Prince Julian.

  Just saying the name was enough to make the darkness go away.

  Prince Julian.

  Tall. Longish dark hair. A beautiful face, hard and perfect, proud and strong.

  I wanted to weep. Just looking at him made me want to hope.

  Prince Julian—-

  Was looking at me.

  My body became rigid with shock. This had never happened to me before. When I saw, the people I saw didn’t see me back. But somehow, this Prince Julian was different.

  Prince Julian saw me, his dark eyes fierce and possessive as they rested on my face.

  “You must escape them.”

  And now he was talking to me, his voice commanding and fearless.

  I almost shook my head but didn’t, afraid that if I did, Mr. Darkness would see it.

  “Don’t be afraid. I will protect you.”

  I wanted to laugh and cry. Those words were so easy for him to say. He was not the one bound and blind, alone in the world—-

  “You are not alone. I’m here. I’m yours. And I will protect you – if you let me. If you trust me.” Prince Julian looked at me in the eyes. “Do you trust me?”

  Crazily enough, I did.

  I whispered, as softly as I could, “Yes.”

  Triumph, tender and powerful at the same time, glittered in his eyes. Prince Julian cared very much to know that I trusted him.

  “Very good, sweetheart.” His voice was softer now. “I need you to trust me because what I’m about to ask you to do will take a lot of courage.”

  I didn’t speak, waiting tensely for his next words. Behind me, Mr. Darkness was still talking on the phone, distracted by the Prince Julian of the real world.

  “You’ll need to roll towards the end.”

  The end? The end of what?

  “They will shoot you. One of the bullets will hit you—-”

  As Prince Julian spoke the words, it was almost as if I could already feel the impact of the bullet bursting through my body, destroying flesh and bone. I wanted to scream at the pain of it.

  “—-but you mustn’t stop rolling. You need to roll yourself to the end as fast as you can.”

  I didn’t think I could do it. If this didn’t work and Mr. Darkness realized I was trying to escape him, he would be mad. So mad. What he did to the other girl, to his previous toy, would be nothing compared to what he’d do to me—-

  “If you trust me, sweetheart, then you need to do exactly as I say.”

  I trusted him. But I was scared. Couldn’t he understand that what he was asking—-

  Mr. Darkness was saying goodbye on the phone—-

  “Do it NOW.”

  I rolled.

  The others realized what I was doing as I rolled my body for the fifth time, not knowing where I was heading. All I knew was that I had to roll my way till the end.

  Mr. Darkness cursed. The others shouted. And then they started shooting.

  Bang. Bang. Bang!

  But I didn’t stop rolling, not even when one of the bullets wheezed into my side. Pain exploded. Blood gushed. But I kept rolling.

  Splash.

  I fell into the water.

  Ragged edges of wooden planks making up the boardwalk came into contact with the bindings that held me as I fell. They cut through the rope and slashed my arms as my body dropped into the water.


  “Swim!”

  My arms broke free from the ropes and I swam underwater, the same time a sailboat’s flashing lights beamed over me, its captain making sure it was about to dock at the right place. The lights fell on Mr. Darkness, and the others hid their guns.

  “Swim faster. A fisherman will rescue you, but he won’t be in the water for long.”

  I swam. I swam and swam and just when my lungs were about to burst, I bumped into something hard, which later I’d learn was the fisherman’s oar.

  I surfaced, gasping for breath. “Help!”

  “God almighty!” The fisherman, strong despite his years, hurriedly hauled me into his boat, and I landed in an awkward tangle of arms and legs onto the floor.

  As he helped me to a sitting position, he gasped, and I knew he had seen my eyes. “You’re blind!”

  I wanted to thank him for saving me, but all I could do was weep.

  Mom. Dad. Mr. Darkness.

  There seemed to be no end to the tears.

  The fisherman gave me his old coat, placing it over my shoulders. It smelled of fish, but it was warm and safe and I couldn’t remember feeling anything as beautiful against my skin. I wanted to thank him, but I couldn’t. The only thing I could do was cry.

  “You’re safe now, milady. You’re safe now.”

  Was I really? Was I? Mr. Darkness would hunt me down. Of that I was sure. If he found me, he would kill me.

  “Trust me, sweetheart. I will keep you safe.”

  Prince Julian walked towards me in my mind. He kissed me on the forehead. I could have sworn I felt it, his lips touching my skin, even though common sense told me it was just the wind teasing my senses.

  I looked up at him. What do I do now?

  “Wait for me.”

  Where? What if Mr. Darkness finds me first?

  “Ask the fisherman to take you to the island of St. Roch. You will be safe there.

  You promise you’ll come for me?

  “I will not be able to rest if I don’t. So wait for me.”

  My eyelids started to droop in exhaustion. Prince Julian started to waver in my mind, and I mentally cried out. No. Don’t leave me.

  “Trust me. I will always be with you in your dreams. Do not be afraid. Wait for me.”

  Please, please don’t leave me—-

  “Wait for me in St. Roch, Cass. I will come for you.”