Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 77295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77295 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 258(@300wpm)
“Are you going to tell me what we’re doing here?”
“Are you going to stop kissing my staff?” he said as he rounded on me.
“French people kiss each other on the cheek all the time—”
“Not the staff.”
I brushed him off by taking a drink of my champagne.
“I have a dinner party this evening.”
“I feel like that’s all you ever do. Go to parties.”
He tipped his head back and downed the entire contents before he set the glass on a random table.
“What time do we leave?” I felt like a married couple that only stayed together for the kids. Every time we were alone in a room together, it was unbearable. All the resentment. All the anger. It was palpable tension.
He turned back to me. “There is no we.”
“You’re going alone?”
“I’m bringing someone else.” He wore that pissed-off look as he turned around and walked off.
Someone else?
He entered his bedchambers and closed the door, leaving me to think about the last thing he’d said.
Alone in my bedroom, I thought over what he had just told me.
He was bringing someone.
Like a date?
Would she wear his diamonds?
Had I been replaced?
Were we no longer monogamous?
When loud voices carried into my bedroom, I realized he had company. I poked my head out of my bedroom and looked through the glass windows to the balcony outside. Cauldron sat there with a few guys, the beautiful sunset lighting up the sky behind him. They all smoked cigars—and a beautiful woman sat on his knee.
There were no words.
The rage I felt…indescribable.
Before I knew what I was doing, I was in the drawing room and heading onto the balcony. One of the guys said something funny, and they all laughed, even the woman on Cauldron’s knee. “What the fuck is this shit?”
The laughter immediately ceased, and the guys darted their eyes to me, their cigars sitting in their mouths as the smoke rose to the sky. They were all in sports coats and shiny shoes. The brunette sitting on Cauldron looked visibly uncomfortable, glancing at him as if waiting for direction.
Cauldron took another puff on his cigar and watched me coldly, not the least bit flustered by my outburst.
“I asked you a question, asshole.” I didn’t give a damn about the audience witnessing my meltdown. It was just Cauldron and me as far as I was concerned.
He slowly released the smoke from his nostrils like a pissed-off bull then set the cigar aside. “Excuse me.” The woman left his lap and took his vacated seat, and he righted his sports coat as he walked toward me, taking his time like there was no rush. After a cold stare, he walked right past me into the drawing room.
I followed him inside. “Who is she?”
He slowly turned around and looked at me, visibly indifferent to my distress. “The woman I’m taking this evening.”
“And who is she?”
“One of my regulars.”
My hand flew out like a viper and struck him across the face.
Before my palm could reach his cheek, he grabbed my wrist and twisted it down. “You can’t get away with that shit anymore.” He twisted me hard, twisted me enough to make it hurt before he let me go. “What does it matter if I take her? Last time I took you, you stormed off and made a fool out of me. You stood there and insulted me up and down, forgetting that I’m the one and only reason Grave doesn’t have you in his grasp. You’ve become entitled and unappreciative, forgetting everything I’ve done for you.”
“Oh, trust me, I haven’t forgotten everything.”
His nostrils flared slightly.
My gaze remained steady.
“What do you want from me?” His voice dropped several octaves, as if other people were in the room listening. “You’ve made it very clear you hate me, so why would you want to accompany me anywhere?”
My eyes shifted back and forth, at a loss for an explanation.
“No one wants diamonds worn by an unhappy woman.”
“That’s all it is?” I asked quietly. “She’s just a model?”
His dark eyes pierced mine.
“I demanded your fidelity, and you—”
“That’s what you think?” he said coldly. “That I’m fucking her?”
“What else am I supposed to—”
“If that bothers you, then maybe you don’t hate me as much as you think.”
“It’s about staying clean—”
“Then we can wear protection. You want to do that?”
I felt his invisible palm strike me across the face. “Do you want to do that?”
He stared in silence, his heated gaze so angry it was volcanic. “Let’s cut the shit. You stormed onto that balcony because you lost your goddamn mind at the sight of that woman on my lap. Jealous. Possessive. Angry. Don’t pretend the idea of me sleeping around doesn’t make you sick to your stomach.”
“Then don’t pretend you want to be with someone else—”
“You’re the one who said you despised me.” He stepped closer to me, getting in my face. “You’re the one demanding I kill Grave as quickly as possible so you can leave. Vanna wouldn’t be here right now if you didn’t play games.”