Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 138003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 690(@200wpm)___ 552(@250wpm)___ 460(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 138003 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 690(@200wpm)___ 552(@250wpm)___ 460(@300wpm)
“Earlier, he said you always get what you want. How does he know that?”
“How do you know that?” I ask, turning to her with a smirk.
“Dream on,” she mutters. But she doesn’t let up. “Why did he say that?”
“That wasn’t what he said,” I murmur, twitching back my sleeve to glance down at my watch.
“Got somewhere you need to be?”
I make a noncommittal noise as she rakes her fingertips up the back of my head. God. The sensation makes me want to purr, maybe place my head on her shoulder and curl into her.
As it happens, I do have somewhere I should be, but another hour won’t make much difference. I’d called ahead and explained I’d be home later than expected, and she was, thankfully, not too disappointed. Angel that she is.
Flit!
“Watch it,” I warn in response to Lavender flicking my hair, narrowly missing my ear. Which I guess was her point.
“Just making sure your ears still work.”
“Do that again, and I’ll drag you over my knee to see if your tonsils work.”
“Ha.” The sound is pure derision.
“Don’t think I won’t.”
“Don’t think I won’t stab you in your sleep,” she murmurs, continuing to sift her fingers through my hair. It’s as though she’s discovered for herself what it does to me. “I can cut it for you if you want.”
“Thank you, but I have a stylist appointment next week.” I pause before adding, “And I don’t have a death wish.”
She grins like I knew she would. I almost join her.
“Tod goes to a barber.”
“Yes, that shows,” I mutter, my almost smile cut short at the mention of his name. Again.
“I thought men went to a barber and women visited a stylist.”
I sigh heavily and fold my arms across my chest. “I’m not sure you see the good in him. I think you’re just determined to irritate me.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“That wide-eyed, innocent look does work for you, princess.”
“It’s this house,” she says. “It makes us all regress.” She sighs. “So are you going to tell me why he said that?”
“Tod?”
“Brin,” she says, tightening her fingers in my hair.
Pleasure prickles along my scalp, shimmying its way down my spine. I bite back a low groan.
“Something to the effect that I don’t always get what I want.” My voice is low and rough, thanks to the pleasure-pain paradox. New kink unlocked? I close my eyes as her warm palm slides down the back of my neck, massaging there.
“Maybe he doesn’t know you as well as he thinks.”
That didn’t sound like a compliment.
“He doesn’t know me at all.” I turn to look at her. She is so fucking lovely. And such a monumental pain in my ass.
“Except he said something weird in the kitchen as well.”
I’d hoped she would’ve missed that, though I was glad he’d caught himself before spilling his guts all over Polly’s parquet floor.
“If you want to know what he meant, you’ll have to ask him.”
And what an uncomfortable conversation that would be. I wouldn’t mind listening in.
“You don’t think I will?”
She won’t get an answer from me, and it’s unlikely she’ll get one from him. I guess her curiosity isn’t something I’ve given much thought to before. A pattern seems to be forming, and the before oversights are now apparent. I hadn’t thought of Lavender as a person, I guess. She was more of a means to an end. But even if I had considered her, I couldn’t have prepared for the woman she is.
“That’s it!” she says, like eureka! “He said he thought you were engaged. To someone else, obviously.”
“I was. It ended. Obviously.”
“Why?”
“Why do these things end? Because they’re not viable in the first place.”
“That’s not an answer.”
“It ended for reasons that don’t concern you.”
“Wait. Do you make a habit of this? Forcing women to marry you?”
“Yes, because I’m that kind of masochist,” I drawl.
“If you’re lying to me…” I hear the warning in her soft tone, feel it in the tightening of her grip.
I drop my chin, swallowing back a moan because that feels so fucking good.
The truth is, I hadn’t considered Lavender in any of the planning. Why would I? She was someone I’d met only very briefly. If she’d said yes to a date, things might be very different. I might’ve appealed to her better nature and slowed down my assault.
I push the thoughts away. There’s nothing for it now but to wait to see how things play out.
“Like I said, you’ll have to speak to him.”
Like a dog with a bone, she’s not ready to give up. But as she opens her mouth to reply, it’s as far as she gets.
“Here we are!” Polly waltzes into the room, carrying a dish of something fragrant between her oven-gloved hands. “Pudding!”
Primrose follows, silently passing out delicate porcelain bowls.
“It smells delicious.” Cardamom, delicate spices, and pistachios. She sets the dish on the table.