Total pages in book: 148
Estimated words: 142939 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 715(@200wpm)___ 572(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142939 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 715(@200wpm)___ 572(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
“Add their holdings to our holdings,” I finish for him.
“Precisely.”
Ire rises in my gut. Antonio should be protecting her, not sizing up who would bring money to the family. Then again, this is what Carina chose. She wanted these pricks fawning over her and making offers.
I grind my teeth.
“You all right?” he asks.
“Yes,” I snap.
He purses his lips. “You’ve been off. What’s going on with you?”
“Nothing.” I squeeze my glass tightly as Falco leans in and whispers something to my Carina.
Antonio sighs. “And I thought it was hard to get information from Butcher. You’re turning out to be worse than him.”
Butcher snorts from where he’s clearly been listening.
Antonio steps forward, his voice booming over the room. “Everyone sit. Dinner is ready.”
Carina walks around the table, sashaying past me and teasing me with her scent as she heads for the seat to Antonio’s left.
I follow her, stepping in front of the line of hungry boys who want nothing more than a taste of the most decadent dish in this room–one that just so happens to belong to me.
“Here.” I pull her chair out for her.
She shoots me a deadly look over her shoulder as she sits and I scoot her chair forward.
I take the seat beside her.
Falco lowers himself into the chair directly across from her, and the other hopefuls grumble about the distance between them and their prize.
Once we’re seated, I slide my hand up her thigh and grip.
She jumps slightly, then cuts her gaze to me.
I squeeze a little harder, leaving my fingerprints on her tender flesh, then gently rub away the pressure.
“If you intend to skip college, are your plans to travel?” Falco asks.
She turns to him, a smile perched on her delicate lips. “I’d love to travel.”
“My family has villas all over Italy.” He smiles, showing off what must’ve been years of braces. “And we also enjoy several other properties all over the world. Anywhere you’d like to go.”
I slide my fingers higher along her thigh as the servers set out the first course.
“We just bought an estate in the French countryside.” The boy beside him pipes up. “Do you like France?”
“I …” She shrugs. “I don’t know. I’ve never been. But I’ve always dreamed of visiting Versailles.”
“I’ll take you–” at least three of the boys say at once.
She gives a teasing smile, her cheeks going pink. “How could a girl refuse an offer from such handsome men?”
I dig my fingers into her thigh again, and that’s when I realize she intends to torture me the entire night. Tit for tat. She’s getting back at me for the powder room.
But what my little brat doesn’t seem to understand is that I keep score–and for every bit of this charade she makes me endure, I’m going to take it out on her round, luscious ass.
12
CARINA
I’ve made a grave mistake. I'm in way over my head here. At boarding school, there were only girls. Without boys, we didn’t have distractions. Besides, who wants a boy? I know I didn’t. Not when I’ve grown up in the world I have. An average boy would never have cut it or held my interest. I would have run circles around them.
So I was never pissed or thought I was sent to an all-girls school to keep my chastity intact. It was not only a way to keep me safe, but I think my brother hoped that my classmates would gloss over the family I come from. He forgets it’s my world too, and I don’t have any plans to leave it.
I’ll forever be grateful for the school. It’s where I met my best friends. We were thick as thieves from the movement we came together. We would always talk about what we were going to do when we got out into the world. Especially when the subject of dating came up. That was the one topic where I was clearly out of my element.
I’m still out of my element in this room full of guys. I could handle the attention of one or two of them, but they’re all staring at me like I’m going to be their dinner. At times they’re tripping over each other to get into conversation with me. I can barely keep up with what each of them is saying. Especially with Gilly’s hand on my thigh. All these men for my picking, and he’s all I can think about it.
With Gilly, it’s the damn chase. I hate that. I don’t want to love a man I have to chase. Though I’m not sure if it counts as chasing if he’s dragging me into the bathroom. His cum is still inside of me. I couldn’t bring myself to wipe it off. I rather enjoy having his mark on me.
“You should have a destination wedding,” Angelica says. “Give us all a reason to get away.”