Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 86768 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 434(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 86768 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 434(@200wpm)___ 347(@250wpm)___ 289(@300wpm)
Santos sweeps his fingertips along my spine, sending a shiver through me. He leans in like he’s kissing my cheek. “Don’t stray,” he whispers, the lips brushing my ear sending a thrill through me. He lingers, and I wonder if he feels it too, the strange connection between us.
“Who are they?” I ask in a whisper, knowing this is important.
His gaze darkens. “No one who matters,” he says, calm tone forced, and I know without a doubt that they do matter. They matter very much because I’ve never seen Santos Augustine have such a visceral reaction to anyone. I’ve never seen his hate personified in every cell, tensed in every muscle of his body.
“Santos?” I ask, reaching out for his hand when he steps away, catching the tips of his fingers.
He looks back at me, at the brief contact of our hands before I draw back. What am I doing?
Caius finishes doing whatever he’s doing on his phone and tucks it into his pocket. He all but ignores Ana when he nods in silent communication to Santos, and the two walk purposefully away.
“I wonder what that’s about,” Ana says, taking a flute of champagne off a passing waiter’s tray. I notice the family is leaving the room through a different door.
I cut my gaze to her. Does she think we’re going to be friends?
“Ladies,” Val says, gesturing for us to walk ahead of him toward the room where dinner will be served and speeches will be given. The tables are filling up, and Val finds ours at the front. If I recall, this is a ten-thousand-dollar-a-plate event.
Once we’re seated and Val retreats, Ana turns to me. “They’re cute, the brothers. I always thought you’d land him after what he did to Jason Cole.” She looks me over, then sips her drink. “He’s really into you for some reason, isn’t he?”
Was she always so good at the barely veiled insults? She pushes dark hair over her shoulder, and I realize what’s off with the new look. The hair, the makeup. She looks like me. No, that can’t be right. I still remember the Morticia Addams joke from years ago. “Watch yourself with Caius. You’re out of his league.”
She snorts.
I mean it as a warning to her, but of course she takes it the wrong way. “He’s dangerous, Ana.”
“Are you jealous?” she asks, arching a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. “You always were jealous.”
I open my mouth to respond but decide it’s not worth it. She’s not worth it. So I close it again.
“Who’s that family?” she asks after a minute. I follow her gaze to find the family from earlier being led to a table at the very front, to the tables that are reserved for the most generous donors. I’m grateful we’re at opposite ends of the room. Once they reach the table, the younger two of the four are seated while the older man and woman excuse themselves. The two left at the table turn their attention directly to me.
“Do you know them? They seem to know you.” Ana is still talking.
“Excuse me,” I say, standing, turning to find a bathroom to disappear into. But Val is at my side in an instant.
“Mrs. Augustine?” he asks, so respectfully. I should remind him how he handled me last night when he deposited me in my bedroom and locked the door.
“I need to use the ladies’ room,” I tell him, trying to shoulder past him. I don’t manage to, of course. But Ana stands and takes my wrist in a too tight grip.
“I’ll go with you. I know where it is,” she says, and Val follows us as she hurries toward an exit I hadn’t noticed. We reach a door marked Ladies, and she turns to Val. “Sorry, women only,” she tells him as she pushes the door open, and we slip inside.
She makes a motion like she’s wiping sweat off her forehead, her smile revealing the dimples on her cheeks. I wonder if she needed to throw me under the bus to get in with the it crowd in school. She always had the looks but lacked the confidence, always had an inferiority complex.
“He really does keep you under lock and key, doesn’t he? There’s something so sexy about such a possessive man.”
“Not really,” I start, but she shrugs.
“I need to wee,” she says, using the term we used when we were kids. She walks down the corridor toward another door. There are several. It’s not just a bathroom but a full lounge with separate rooms with sofas, private stalls, and a nursing mother’s room.
Hiding out in a toilet stall takes me back to high school prom, and I promised myself a long time ago I wasn’t doing that anymore. I walk into the next room, where there’s an empty attendant’s table with a sign on top that says she’ll return shortly. On the counter are various perfumes and other toiletries. I walk to the farthest end, setting my clutch down and taking my lipstick out just to have something to do. I wonder where Santos and Caius went, if their departure had to do with that family.