Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 77551 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77551 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 388(@200wpm)___ 310(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
He rises. “Now you can go back to the city. Or maybe one of the others will have you. You and Sebastian seemed tight the first night.”
“How can you say that?” I stand and let the sheet fall from me. I walk toward him, naked, my pulse racing. “Please. I’m not one to beg, but please don’t do this. I do love you, River. It makes no sense at all for me, but I do. Give me a chance.”
He sighs. “If only you’d leveled with me at first. Then maybe something could happen.”
A ray of hope shines over me. “So you do have feelings for me then. This isn’t one-sided.”
“Of course it isn’t one-sided, Emily. You’re intelligent, beautiful, and strong as the Montana winter wind. But you’re also deceitful, and I—”
His abrupt stop confuses me. “You what?” I ask.
He says nothing. Simply stares at the wall for a few moments. Does he truly think I’m deceitful? I suppose I am, but I’m also in love with the bloke. I should have told him after the first night we spent together. After all, he only came to me because he was angry about something that happened during his date with Misty, and I was all too happy to oblige him.
I wait.
Because I’m not leaving without a fight. I pick up the sheet and wrap it back around me. I don’t want him to think I’m trying to seduce him, because I’m truly not. He thinks I have the strength of a winter wind? He has no idea. I’ve fought hard for everything I’ve ever gotten, even in the face of nepotism and a bloody blackmailer.
I wait.
I wait.
And I wait.
Until finally he turns back toward me.
His anger seems to have dissipated a bit, and it’s replaced with something I can’t quite read.
Something is troubling him. I am, of course. But it’s something else as well.
“I’ll get you the money, Emily, but once you get your designs back—or should I say if you get your designs back, because the dickhead may simply ask for more money—I want you to call the police.”
I nod. “All right.”
“And there’s something else...” He sighs.
“What?”
“I’m sorry that I said you were deceitful.”
This time my eyebrows nearly fly off my forehead. “You are?”
“Yes. You did keep something from me. You came here under false pretenses—”
“Not false pretenses,” I interrupt. “Just additional reasons.”
He stares at me, and his shoulders quiver. Just a bit, but I notice. His lips tremble a bit as well. Is he wanting to smile?
He clears his throat. “I feel like I’m a pot calling the kettle black,” he says, “because I’ve been holding something in for so long. Keeping it from Brett, Seb, and Alex. And Emily, I don’t think I can take it much longer.”
EPISODE 152
EVANGELINE'S RAMPAGE
Brett
After I finish my phone call with Sienna, I leave the study where the landline is only to nearly run into Evangeline. Her skin is still as pale as it was last night when she fainted, but her goth black hair is brushed to a silky shine. She’s racing down the hallway, and I grab her before we collide.
“Whoa! Easy. Slow down. You need to take care of yourself.”
“This whole event.” She shakes her head. “It’s turned into something out of my worst nightmare!”
“Things haven’t gone exactly as planned,” I agree, “but it’ll all be okay. The guys and I are here for you. We won’t let anyone harm you.”
She blinks, and then she stares at me. “What did Misty tell you?” she grits out.
“That her father is also the father of the child you’re carrying. Is that not true?”
“Damn her.” Evangeline leans against the wall and she shakes her head again. “She shouldn’t have told you that.”
“We kind of forced it out of her, Evangeline.”
She lets out a huff. “Trust me. Misty doesn’t do anything she doesn’t want to do. If she told you, she had a reason—a calculated reason.”
Misty is manipulative, for sure, but I can’t deny I have a soft spot for her because of her link to Jake. But she and I aren’t right together. Even she agrees after last night. She’ll probably resume her pursuit of River, but he’s not at all interested in her.
“She says her birth mother is—”
Evangeline waves a hand to stop me. “I know all about that. I haven’t checked it out, but I have no reason to believe it’s not true.”
I don’t reply at first. I don’t reply, because I personally believe Misty’s story. She looks enough like Jake that I know she’s telling the truth.
“So that’s why she wanted to be here,” I finally say.
“Yeah. And she told me she’d tell her father about my pregnancy if I didn’t let her come to this event. She especially wanted to meet River. I’m not sure why.”
“She told us it’s because he still lives in the town where we grew up.”