Total pages in book: 105
Estimated words: 103124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 516(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 344(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 516(@200wpm)___ 412(@250wpm)___ 344(@300wpm)
Yeah, yeah, I have one just as big.
But at least I have the big fucking balls to back it.
His gaze finds Bella, and immediately, my insides tense. Not just because he once had the honor of knowing her intimately but because he’s an asshole who should never have been given the privilege.
When I began watching her in London, I witnessed his bad behavior too many times. The way he would talk down to her as if she were a child. The way he would dismiss the things she said as if they were unimportant or unintelligent.
In order of his priorities, she came second to his desire for adulation from his blue blood peers.
He’s old money. Was born with a name and title.
Has a big-as-fuck house on land to the north.
But he’s stone-cold broke and can’t afford the upkeep.
He’s also painfully unaware of how much of a dick he is. He had no idea who he had on his arm and how fucking amazing she was.
Stalking them, I couldn’t hear a lot of what was said, but his body language told me exactly what I needed to know.
Simon, the Earl of Ego, was toxic for Bella.
One day, I observed them inside a coffee shop together. I saw him hand her a folded piece of paper and cross his legs as he watched her read it. Across the room, I observed them—watched as her brows pulled in and her expression filled with hurt.
I didn’t know it at the time, but in her hand was a list of things he wanted her to change about herself.
When I saw her emotional reaction, I was overcome with a surprising need to wipe the floor with his face.
And if it hadn’t been imperative that my reconnaissance remain undetected, I might have done that, just for taking away her sunshine and making it rain.
At the time, I told myself it had nothing to do with her and everything to do with me not tolerating assholes.
But now I can see I was lying.
Now I can see, my need to protect her never left me. No matter how hard I tried to hate her.
Luckily for him, she dumped him after reading the list. She tore it up and threw it at him in the crowded coffee shop, so I no longer needed to worry about the asshole.
Beside me, Bella stiffens, and I know she’s seen him too.
“What the hell is he doing here?” she mutters.
She tries to move in the opposite direction, but I stop her by taking her by the elbow. “If you don’t face him now, a part of you will always hurt because of him.”
“What are you saying?”
“I’m saying it’s time to take back that part of your heart that still hurts because of his cruelty.”
She looks up at me, horrified. “I’m not speaking to that jerk.”
I gaze at her beautiful face and run my knuckles across the smooth planes of her cheek.
I hate that the little shit attempted to diminish her shine by putting her down. He never saw her as an equal. Never saw her as the queen she is.
To move forward, she needs to put all those little moments of his nit-picking into a hypothetical paperback and set it on fire, so his memory drifts into the dark recesses of her mind and makes room for better memories.
“No, I don’t mean speak to him. But let him see you and what he fucking lost.”
She looks up at me, and without a word, I place my lips against hers. At first, I think she’s going to pull her face away, but instead, her lips part, and we kiss slowly. A tender kiss. To let her know that she has nothing to fear and no reason to slip into the crowd unnoticed.
It catches Simon’s attention, as it should. Let him know that the woman who wasn’t good enough for him is more than perfect for Don De Kysa.
Our eyes meet across the room, and he sees it as an invitation to introduce himself. He moves through the crowd, looking smug and confident, with the air of someone who thinks they’re important and influential.
He thinks he belongs in this room full of powerful people. But he’s wrong. He’s not even a blip on the radar.
Beside me, Bella’s soft curves tense, and I feel her begin to panic, and it pisses me off how the mere presence of this bozo can strip her of her confidence.
It makes me want to shake Simon by the ankles over the balcony before I drop him to the concrete below.
Instead, I thread my fingers through hers. She steals a glance at me, and I wink at her, which makes her smile and then relax a little.
When Simon reaches us, he attempts to greet Bella with a kiss, but I step between them.