Total pages in book: 102
Estimated words: 96600 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 96600 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 483(@200wpm)___ 386(@250wpm)___ 322(@300wpm)
“Ha ha.” she said with a roll of her eyes. Sucking down the rest of her drink through its straw, she set the glass neatly on the ground beside one of the hedge walls. “Don’t give me hints. Let me see if I can find my way through.”
“No hints,” I promised. “Unless we’re hopelessly lost and we’re going to miss the rest of the party.”
“I wouldn’t mind missing the rest of the party,” she said, and waited for me to finish my drink and abandon my glass before heading inside.
“I’ve heard you can solve any maze by going left,” she said confidently, striding off in the wrong direction.
“I’ve heard that too.” I let her pull me along as we navigated the first two turns, then backtracked out of the dead end.
“I’m just getting warmed up,” she promised.
“I have every confidence in you.” I knew the maze like I knew Charlotte’s fucking epic body, so I knew exactly where we were headed. And it was the perfect place to fool around.
“Ooh, it’s curvy,” she exclaimed as the straight corridor we were in took a sharp left and redirected us in the direction we’d come from.
“Is it a hint to tell you what this looks like from the top?” I asked, following her through the spiral that made up one leaf of a lucky clover.
“Yes, so don’t.” She marched determinedly onward, to the center of the clover. Here, there was a small, diamond-shaped courtyard with four benches and a small pedestal fountain. “Your family is into the water features.”
“My great-grandfather wanted this place to look like Versailles. Not sure how this maze fits into it, but we don’t have a Petit Trianon either.” I stopped at one of the benches. “I need to take a rest.”
“Oh, right. Leg. I forgot.” She winced. “Sorry, does it bother you when I bring that up?”
“Not as much as it bothers me to have a ruined leg.” I stifled a groan as I sank onto the hard stone. “At least you’re willing to acknowledge it. Everyone else kind of…”
“Dances around it?” Her face scrunched up. “That wasn’t meant to be a pun.”
“I’m sure I can still dance.” I hadn’t tried, but I was pretty sure I could. “And I didn’t get a chance to dance with you at Scott’s wedding. Tonight, you’re going to be all mine.”
“Wait, there’s dancing?” She blanched.
“After dinner.” Maybe the timing wasn’t her concern. “Don’t freak out. Nobody is going to ask you to enter a tango competition.”
“This is all so new. And weird.” She sat beside me, her gaze fixed on the fountain. “Am I embarrassing you? If I’m doing anything to embarrass you, you have to tell me. It’s the law.”
“I’m not sure it is, but no, you haven’t done anything to embarrass me. Why are you even worried about that, anyway?”
“Maybe because I’m kind of what’s commonly called a ‘fish out of water’ here.” She made air quotes around the phrase. “For example, I didn’t know I wasn’t supposed to wear florals to a garden party.”
“I’ve never heard that rule before.”
“I’m not sure it applies to you,” she said wryly.
“My sister probably made it up.” All of our stupid rules were made up. But I doubted that would help Charlotte. I’d grown up in “society,” so I was allowed to reject the conformity. Charlotte wanted to make a good impression, so she had to walk a fine line.
I put my arm around her shoulders. “I know this is a weird, totally nonsensical way of living. And I know it’s hard on outsiders. Nobody wants to let anyone in. So, I appreciate that you’re willing to try. For me.”
“I’m certainly not doing it for me,” she said, nudging the pea gravel at our feet with the tip of her strappy sandal.
“You get some benefits,” I reminded her.
“The free designer clothes?” She asked.
“I was talking about the incredible sex.”
“I’m not getting that benefit today,” she grumbled.
“That’s not true.” I put my hand on her knee and inched her skirt up enough for her to get the point.
“You said—”
“I said you weren’t allowed to come,” I reminded her. “I never said we weren’t going to have sex.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
(Charlotte)
Matt’s hand on my knee practically burned me.
Not as bad as the fucking ginger had.
“You think I’m going to be able to have sex with you without having an orgasm?” I laughed and moved to stand.
He caught me around the waist and pulled me back to his side. “You’re going to have to learn to control yourself.”
“It’s involuntary reaction to stimulus,” I argued. “You can’t turn it off.”
“You can learn to.” He gave me a quick kiss. “Maybe we need to think up a new word, so you can let me know when to stop. Something other than ‘mercy,’ so there’s no confusion.”
“Hmm, what about ‘diamond’?” I suggest. It won’t be confusing in context, and it very much fits with our theme. “Like the butt plug?”