Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 130414 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 652(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130414 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 652(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
Unlike Zach, I didn’t possess a single nerve in my whole body. Not to mention integrity, a concept I found as mythical as mermaids. I did atrocious things and still slept like a baby at night. Zach, on the other hand, was genuinely decent. It didn’t matter much, since he found ninety-nine percent of the population hard to stomach due to lack of sufficient intelligence.
“So.” Zach didn’t lift his eyes from the screen. “Think you’ll develop a conscience and let the poor girl loose?”
I swung my feet to the floor and planted my elbows on my knees, digging my palms into my eye sockets. “No.”
“Why not?”
A million reasons existed, but only one mattered. “Because she was Madison’s, and he deserves nothing good in his life.”
“So, she is good.”
“Did I say good? I meant insufferable.”
“High praise.”
“Insufferable is praise, as far as she’s concerned. The woman could drive a monk to murder.”
“Interesting.” He did not find that interesting. He did not find anything that wasn’t money, technology, and art even remotely stimulating. “I’ve yet to hear you so passionate about a woman, one way or the other, since Mo—”
“Do not speak her name. At any rate, Dublin and I will be married on paper only.”
Was I telling this to Zach or myself?
“Dublin, huh?” He ripped his gaze from the screen only to deliver a pitiful look. “Don’t underestimate the power of paper. Money’s made of that shit.”
“Twenty-five percent linen. Seventy-five percent cotton,” I corrected. Not that he didn’t know.
“Checks, then. What do you know about her?”
Not much. After yesterday, my curiosity wasn’t piqued, to say the least. Seducing her had been easier than taking candy from a baby. Ironically, taking candy from her was something I didn’t think was possible without losing an arm.
“She’s beautiful, unhinged, and would rather eat her own eyeballs than marry me.”
Zach saluted me with his electrolyte water. “I’ll make popcorn.”
“Don’t be so smug. You’re next in line.”
“But the line is long.” He clicked away on his mouse, already drifting from the conversation to his work. “And I’m very good at stalling.”
Chapter Five
Romeo
The day progressed like a night terror. At an excruciating pace. Zach fielded back-to-back conference calls for his impending hostile takeover. Oliver busied himself riding racehorses and getting oral—possibly at the same time.
Meanwhile, I wolfed down chicken breasts and Brussel sprouts, washed the bitter aftertaste with Chicory coffee, and stocked up on gum, demanding Mastika brand from the concierge. When I could no longer delay the inevitable, I left the hotel to purchase a ring for the bane of my existence.
It was of great importance that Dallas wore an engagement ring at least three times the size of the one her ex-fiancé had gifted her. This had nothing to do with her and everything to do with ensuring that Madison wanted to stab his own pupils whenever she flashed it in public. And if it proved too heavy for her delicate fingers, she would have to manage. It wasn’t as if she ever put them to use and actually worked. I’d heard the whispers. My future wife was exceedingly, notoriously, incomparably lazy.
As the store manager rang up the two-million-dollar statement ring on my limitless card, along with the hefty insurance that accompanied it, my phone buzzed with an incoming call. Mother. I pressed accept, but did not grace her with actual words.
“Well?” Romeo Costa Sr. demanded, instead. “How is it going?”
Leave it to my father to not know what half the Internet had already made memes about. It was unfortunate, if not downright gauche, that I had become a social media sensation for ruining a young woman’s honor at a debutante ball. In fact, much to the appreciation of the DOD, I’d made it thirty-one years without a single blemish. I’d given Dallas Townsend my first scandal ; she’d given me her future. It did not seem like an equitable exchange and marked the first time in my adult life that I’d ended up on the losing side of, well, anything. All over a girl who would sprint into a stranger’s white van if it meant she could get her hands on a piece of candy.
“Chapel Falls is lovely.” I snatched the turquoise bag from the sales associate’s fingers, strolling out to the sidewalk. “How’re y’all doing?”
“Romeo, my goodness.” A distinct horrified tone vaulted forward, seizing the call. No doubt my mother clutched her signature pearls as she spoke. “I didn’t send you to Sidwell Friends, MIT, and Harvard, so you’d pick up horrid Southern lingo.”
“You also didn’t send me to Sidwell Friends, MIT, and Harvard for me to be a mere CFO at your husband’s company, yet here we are.” We all knew I deserved the COO position, which the other bane of my existence, Bruce Edwards, currently occupied.
My father ignored my dig. “Did you find a bride? Remember, Romeo—no bride, no company.”