Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 75592 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75592 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Naturally, I banded with my parents to make sure that didn’t happen. Sylvie is a Mardraggon, not a Blackburn. I aligned with my parents’ efforts to do everything we could to turn Sylvie against Ethan. For me, it wasn’t about the winery. I didn’t care at all what happened to it because I was more focused on our bourbon empire, which is the real moneymaker.
But as a Mardraggon, I hated the Blackburns. The long-standing divide would never be bridged and I would keep Sylvie on our side.
While my father was apparently plotting the murder of his granddaughter, I just wanted to keep her bonded to me. I could not stomach the thought of Sylvie becoming a Blackburn nor could I envision her spending any time with them. If she developed ties to that family that meant I would have to deal with them, and I didn’t want them in my life.
Most of all, I did not want Kat there. In truth, that was a huge driving factor in my zeal to keep Sylvie separated from the Blackburns. I could not foresee a life where our families barbecued together because one precocious child closed the gap. That was a dream I once had a long time ago, but it died. It was mostly my fault when it crashed and burned, and I never planned to put myself into that position again.
But I’m in the thick of it now.
Sylvie is a Blackburn, and she has nothing of the Mardraggons in her other than her mother’s DNA. She is nothing like her grandparents and I see very little of me within her because I can be ruthless in pursuit of what I want. But now I have to play nice because I hold no leverage with Ethan Blackburn and if I want Sylvie in my life, that means I have to accept the Blackburns to some extent. Frustrating beyond measure, that means Kat is back in my life now too.
She is the biggest complicating factor I face. She is what’s causing me the most stress right now because no matter how snide our exchanges are or how deep our bitter feelings run, I am still drawn to the woman.
I still want her.
And apparently, I still care for her because when she fell off that horse yesterday, my heart stopped cold in my chest. The fall was brutal and I was afraid she was dead. I took off running across the barn without thought as to how it might look. Luckily, Kat was knocked too silly to understand the meaning behind my actions and Trey was too conceited in the hatred between us all that he didn’t even pay attention.
It was a potent reminder that Kat Blackburn still has power over me and if I allow myself to succumb to it, I’ll slide down an incredibly slippery slope. I know this because it happened once before. We were young, dumb and foolish, but we were crazy about each other.
I rapped my knuckles softly on the door to Kat’s dorm room, looking left and right to make sure nobody saw me. It was close to midnight and her roommate was staying over at her boyfriend’s house. While this was a coed dorm, I could’ve gotten in serious trouble for being on the female floor at this time of night. But this wasn’t the first time I’d been here nor would it be my last. Nothing would keep me away from Kat.
She swung open the door and before I could even level a smile her way, her hands gripped my T-shirt and she dragged me inside. I’m not sure who closed the door, but all that mattered was that her mouth was on mine and my hands were on her. We fumbled our way through hot kisses and tearing off each other’s clothes. We fell onto her bed and I whispered dirty things in her ear.
Our tutoring relationship didn’t last long. An impromptu casual dinner turned into a few beers turned into a few kisses and that turned into a firestorm between us. Kat and I always burned hot together, a relationship born from hate but then evolved through secrecy. It was complicated and exciting and I always felt like I was drowning in her presence. I sunk into her body that night, feeling more at home than I ever had anywhere in my life. And after we both found the height of pleasure in her narrow bed, we lay naked in each other’s arms, talking about the future.
Christmas was coming up and both of us were going home for nearly three weeks. We had no clue what that would look like because no one knew we were seeing each other. Sequestered away at the University of Kentucky and being careful not to be seen in public, since I had other family members and friends enrolled, we kept the truth hidden.