Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 49562 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 248(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 49562 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 248(@200wpm)___ 198(@250wpm)___ 165(@300wpm)
“Put that shit out.” His father swatted the smoke away in a huff. “I’ve told you a million times not to smoke those in my office.”
“Sorry.” Lucca shrugged, clearly not sorry at all, and took one last puff before he leaned forward to put it out in his father’s ashtray.
“Nuh-uh.” Dante’s tanned hand covered the crystal glass, stopping him. Sliding it closer to him, his father reminded him of a day that would be far, far into the future. “You can put your shit sticks out in this when I’m no longer the head of this family …”
* * *
“Son …”
Every hair on Lucca’s body stood on end, knowing the day he had been waiting for had finally come.
“It’s time.”
TEN
A NEW ERA
Making an annotation to her notes, Chloe refused to become distracted by Adalyn typing in, How much longer? on her computer. With Adalyn’s screen a centimeter away from hers, it would be hard to pretend she didn’t see Adalyn’s question.
Chloe pointed to the clock at the top right of the screen to remind her. Ten minutes.
Sassily, her friend deleted her earlier message to type, Killlll meeee.
She returned her attention to the professor, trying her best to ignore the sigh of irritation coming from directly beside her.
Typing in more notes, she somehow was able to become engrossed in the lecture even with the distraction.
The big wooden podium that sat in the front of the room kept the professor mostly there during his lectures, but every now and then, he’d walk toward the rows of students observing him, like he was doing now.
“Make sure you complete the questions 1, 5, and 6 in the review section at the end of the chapter. I expect the homework assignment to be completed by class tomorrow.” Dismissing the class, he went back to the podium stand to shuffle through his notes.
A finally free Adalyn took no time to complain, “I thought I was going to die of starvation before he would shut up.”
Closing her computer to put it in her backpack, Chloe glanced at her like she was crazy. “We had McDonald’s before class.”
“Which was nothing!”
What the frick is she talking about?
“You had a two egg McMuffins and two hashbrowns.”
“Yeah, but they forgot my hotcakes, remember?” she politely reminded her.
Heaving her backpack over her shoulder, Chloe had no flipping idea how her friend stayed so small. If she ate like her, she’d be on My 600lb Life. “You’re going to have a heart attack before you’re thirty.”
As they walked out of their row of seats, Adalyn grabbed her arm when she would have walked to where the professor was talking to several of the students then gave her a hard side eye. “What are you doing?”
She glanced down at the arm that was now entwined with hers. The Chloe before Lucca would have jumped out of her grasp, but the Chloe now didn’t attempt to shrug out of it. Even though it did tend to still feel weird to be touched by anyone but Lucca, she knew her friend didn’t mean any harm by it, and with how loving her girlfriend group was, Chloe was beginning to get used to it.
“I-I was just going to ask him a question.”
Adalyn held on to her tightly and walked her toward the door. “I’ll help you figure it out after lunch.”
Chloe’s eyes rolled heavenward as she tried not to laugh. “And what chapter are we on?”
“Okay, Elle will be able to help. Satisfied?” Adalyn groaned at having to fully drag her closer to the door. “Now, can we go eat?”
Knowing she was never going to win a battle against Adalyn’s stomach, nor anything else against her, for that matter, she meekly gave in. Elle had a later class of Professor Miller’s; she could ask her to find out the answer then.
When they left the building, Chloe noticed her three bodyguards take up strategic spots around them as they walked.
“Don’t forget to do his assignment,” she warned, knowing Adalyn was notorious for forgetting. “He takes off ten points if it isn’t in before class.”
“Kill me,” Adalyn groaned, bringing life to her earlier sentiment. “I don’t know why I decided to take his class, anyway.”
“Because you need Political Science to grad—”
“No, that’s not it,” Adalyn shushed her, trying to think. Then her expression cleared. “I remember. It was because I saw Professor Miller during registration and wondered if he spelled his name d-a-d-d-y.”
One thing was for sure when she was with Adalyn—she never knew what the hell would come out of her friend’s mouth next.
“You took his class because you think he’s cute?”
Adalyn’s mouth practically fell to floor, appalled. “Are you not listening? There is nothing cute about Professor Miller. He’s gorgeous.”
“Does Angel know you think Professor Miller is gorgeous?”
“No … and you’re not going to let it slip to Elle, either.”