Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 140874 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 470(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140874 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 470(@300wpm)
The sight of that bottle in front of Emma made my spirits fall. If she was drinking, she wasn’t pregnant.
“I’m going over. You can circulate, if you want.” I grabbed the booze and glasses off the bar.
“Very good, I’ll be there in a moment.” Neil kissed my cheek, then took the bottle, unscrewed the top and took a giant swig off it. When he handed it back to me, he said, “What? It’s my birthday.”
“Okay, but you won’t want a hangover tomorrow, trust me.”
He tilted his head, silently demanding an explanation.
I grinned at him. “Because you won’t be any good for your birthday present.”
His open-mouthed pause indicated he knew exactly what kind of present he was getting, but if he thought we were just going to stay in the apartment and get nasty in our bedroom, he was in for the shock of his life.
When I walked away, I put a little swing in my hips. I knew he’d be watching.
I made my way to the booth and slid in beside Emma and Michael. “This is amazing!”
Emma beamed at me. “We did such a good job. I’m so pleased with us.”
Michael chuckled and kissed the top of her head.
“And I’m glad to see you decided to invite Michael after all.” I laughed, pouring some vodka into a shot glass. I held it up to clink against Michael’s.
“I have to say, ruining Mr. Elwood’s birthday was not my intent, but if my presence causes him some unhappiness…” Michael threw back his own shot, of some kind of pink liqueur in a bottle that looked like it should have held perfume.
I gasped and waved my hand at my mouth, then pushed the bottle of Reyka to the center of the table. “You all help yourselves. I think I’m going to get a glass of wine.”
“I’ll go with you! I want to get a Coke.” Emma slid out of the booth after me. We were a few feet from the table when she lowered her voice to as much of a conspiratorial tone as could be heard over the music. “I really just wanted to get out there and have a look around without Michael. He talks to everyone, it’s impossible to go two feet.”
“They do say we marry men who remind us of our fathers,” I said dryly, and Emma pulled an “ew” face.
The party was, without a doubt, the best one I’d ever been to. There was music and people were actually dancing. I’d never thrown a party where people had danced. It helped that the club’s sound system was excellent. And celebrities. I hadn’t been prepared for that. Emma bopped up to my side just as I caught a flash of ginger-hair above the other heads in the crowd.
“Is that…” I almost choked on my own tongue. “Is that Prince Harry?”
“Yeah, he’s crashing. He’s here with the son of one of dad’s lawyers.” She rolled her eyes and scanned the crowd. “Honestly, he could have at least asked. It isn’t as though he doesn’t know how to contact me.”
She spoke those words as though it were totally normal for Harry Mountbatten-Windsor to be able to get in touch with her at a moment’s notice.
Because we’d spent the entire first year of our relationship insulated from the rest of the world, I’d had no idea how many influential and famous people Neil counted among his friends. Rudy, of course, I knew from his work in fashion and costume design, but there were artists, singers, actors, socialites—basically the entire society section of any random copy of Vanity Fair one could find. I should have realized that owning a multimedia corporation would put him in contact with people from the entertainment and news industries, but it was a little disconcerting to see people I’d only seen in magazines walking around the party like normal folk.
In a social environment, Emma was surprisingly fun. I’d had plenty of enjoyable lunches and family functions with her, but she was always so uptight. I knew she found my silliness immature, and she would probably never be okay with the relationship between her dad and me, but we did get along quite well, most of the time. But tonight, she was like a person I’d never seen before. She even dragged me onto the dance floor and introduced me to some of her friends.
The first two hours passed quickly. I alternated between dancing and politely interacting with Neil’s guests, most of whom I didn’t know. There might have also been a bit of royalty stalking, now that I knew there was royalty to stalk. When Neil caught sight of me, he would wave me over or catch my hand, introduce me to this important person or that, and I would nod politely and try to appear more intelligent than I was intoxicated. I was standing at his side, playing the part of the obedient trophy girlfriend, when I noticed the rocks glass in his hand was empty.