Total pages in book: 87
Estimated words: 81767 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 409(@200wpm)___ 327(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81767 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 409(@200wpm)___ 327(@250wpm)___ 273(@300wpm)
I’m not complaining. Not only do I have Braken as my future husband to look forward to, but I also get the package deal of Merrick and Soren.
I’d call this a happily ever after, for sure.
And I won’t turn down a party, especially when Braken, Merrick, and Soren look the way they do on the other side of the room.
Their dark suits are tailored and dripping in wealth, fitting perfectly against their strong bodies. Their hands sport several rings, flashing in the light when they hold their drinks up toward me.
They’re watching me.
Always watching me.
There’s a knowing smirk on each of their chiseled faces as they sip their whiskey. I’m sure they’re thinking the same thing as me. All I want to do is rip them from this party, pull them down to some hallway, and have each of them fuck me so the whole party can hear.
Yes, we are here to celebrate Braken and me, but there is a secret in this room. A secret only the four of us know.
Braken and me equal Merrick and Soren, too.
“Ugh, can you stop?”
I turn to my sisters. Jescie is wearing a low-cut green velvet dress that hugs her curves in all the right ways. Her long chestnut brown hair is pulled into a perfectly styled and curled ponytail, her neck and ears dripping with silver chains. She’s always been the artsy one of us, and that goes for fashion, too. She’s also the one who looks just like Mama, all the way down to the glare she gives me from behind her champagne flute.
“What?” I ask innocently.
“Leave the room if you want to shoot a porno,” Sable complains. She stands next to Jescie at our little table, much more modest in her short-sleeved, red-lace gown. When she lifts her arms to take a drink, she reveals a new scar on the inside of her arm from where hot oil must have jumped from the pan when she cooked.
“But where’s the fun in that?” I joke and lift my glass in a toast.
“It’s like Mason never even left,” Jescie murmurs good-naturedly. “We’re all smiling.”
Just a month ago, a comment like that would have stabbed my heart or made me cry. But now it only fills me with a sad warmth. Now that his death has been avenged, I’m able to mourn him in my own way.
“We should make our rounds,” I say with a sigh. “Papa will be mad if we don’t.”
“We’re definitely not going toward Braken. I’ve had enough of Fiora undressing him with her eyes,” Sable teases.
I laugh and sip my drink. If they only knew that it wasn’t just Braken I was undressing. My sisters would die if they knew my plans for tonight. Or who I planned on doing tonight. I’m only making my way through the crowd to get this party over faster and get their dicks back inside me.
“We could always head over toward Papa.” There’s a wicked smile on Sable’s face when she leans over the table and drops her voice. “He’s been talking to Braken’s father nearly the entire night, and it looks intense.”
Jescie raises her perfectly waved brows. “So?”
“Aren’t you curious what they’re talking about? He never tells us anything!”
“This is why you got sent to the convent.” I nudge Sable back with two fingers to her forehead. “Always getting in trouble.”
“It was a private Catholic girl’s school, idiot,” she returns. “Only like half my grade went on to become nuns, okay?”
Both Jescie and I snort, but as much as Sable is just in it for the gossip, she has a point. Papa and Silvano Frost have been in talks near the open bar for almost the entire night. There’s plenty to discuss. Marco’s involvement, my kidnapping, the future of our family union. And no matter how useful this marriage is, I know that doesn’t extend to me. We’re all commodities for his whims, used however he sees fit. We won’t get information any other way unless I can pry it out of Braken later.
“You ladies need to find an escape hatch,” I urge, tapping my fingers on the table before straightening up. “I’m sure Papa will try to marry both of you off soon enough.”
“We all can’t run off to Heathens Hollow,” Jescie argues.
Sable grabs her half-drunk champagne. “Or maybe we can. It seems to have ended well for our sister.”
We engage in small talk a little bit longer, and the entire time I feel three sets of eyes on me. I don’t have to look over to them to know they are watching my every move. Even though, like me, Braken is working the room, I know I’m not far from his thoughts and his grip if he needs to reach me in an instant.
When my sisters get pulled away to other guests, I head off to make my final rounds. I greet people, thank them for coming, and accept their congratulations with a smile. The people here are all on our side, or at least they are to our faces. They wouldn’t dare show up in front of two powerful families and start something tonight. But that doesn’t mean much. Marco’s deception proved that.