Claimed by the Crown Heir novel Chapter 10

Inside the hotel's fine dining restaurant.

Vanessa handed him the menu to order.

"Ladies first."

He was surprisingly a gentleman.

She casually picked out two light dishes, while Alistair added a few of the restaurant's signature plates.

It was only then that she suddenly realized something, looking at him with suspicion.

"Mr. Howard, do you know me?"

Otherwise, how did he know her last name was Grant?

She was certain she hadn't introduced herself yet.

Alistair sidestepped the question entirely, a faint smirk playing on his lips. "We know each other now, don't we?"

She didn't press the issue. They were just passing strangers, and once she left Savannah, they would never cross paths again anyway.

"Thank you again for today. I'll have your jacket dry-cleaned tonight and return it tomorrow."

Alistair simply smiled, saying nothing.

Parked outside the restaurant, Lucas hadn't actually left.

After finishing his aggressive phone calls, he looked up and spotted a man and a woman sitting right by the floor-to-ceiling windows. The man was the bastard who had interfered earlier, and the woman was Vanessa.

Bathed in the warm lighting, they looked like an impossibly perfect couple, chatting and laughing together with sickening ease.

Lucas's face turned to absolute ice. His dark eyes clouded over with a violent, suffocating jealousy that he couldn't even recognize.

How the hell did Vanessa know that guy?

Or had she been screwing him behind his back all along?

Was staying at this specific hotel not a coincidence either?

She was using his money to treat some random guy to dinner.

Well played, Vanessa!

Alistair acutely sensed the hostile stare. His sharp, predatory gaze flicked over to the window, locking straight onto Lucas's seething eyes inside the car.

He raised an eyebrow slightly, then calmly looked away.

"Hold still."

Vanessa froze mid-bite, looking up at him.

"What's wrong?"

Alistair leaned across the table, his thumb gently brushing the corner of her soft lips.

"You had some sauce there."

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