Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 129951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129951 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
I bit my lip in return.
“Thank goodness I brought my allergy pills,” Chelsea said, showing signs of being oblivious to everything, except what she wanted to be happening. “Though, for now, could I ask you to put it down?” she asked me.
I didn’t put her down.
Instead, I got up, and Snowball and I settled in the chair next to Prue.
“I suppose that’s better,” Chelsea sniffed. She then looked to Battle. “Are we dressing for dinner tonight?” She shifted her attention to Courtney. “It’s tradition here the first night anyone comes to call.”
“I know,” Courtney replied tersely. “I’ve been here before.”
“Repeatedly,” Temperance added.
“Oh!” Chelsea cried and turned to me. “Or…maybe not. Do you have a gown?”
“I have three of them,” I told her. “Forewarned for packing by my darling friend Prudence.”
“Are the other two better than the green one?” Battle asked.
“Depends,” I answered. “But they’re all awesome.” I smiled at Courtney. “Says me.”
She smiled back, and she was openly relieved that at least I was making it plain I didn’t think she was behind this lunacy.
“What I mean is, will they make me want to fuck you in them like the green one did?” Battle asked.
Chastity whisper-peeped.
Temperance smiled widely before taking a sip of martini.
Prudence didn’t quite swallow the nervous giggle she eventually swallowed.
Rally looked to his lap, but his shoulders were shaking.
Courtney turned her head toward her fiancé and further hid her face behind her drink, but I still saw her massive smile.
Chelsea looked like she was about to explode.
I glared at Battle.
Then I stood, handed Snowball to Prue and pointed at the duke.
“You, a word,” I demanded.
With that, I stormed out.
I ducked into the blue salon, and mercifully, not making more of a fool of me, within a few seconds, Battle followed.
It was my turn to get up in his face.
This I did.
“What the fuck?” I asked.
He closed the door he’d barely cleared before I confronted him and turned back to me.
“I didn’t make a secret of the fact I liked you in that dress,” he said, like it was the most natural thing in the world to say what he’d said in the other room in front of his friends…and his sisters.
“Listen, I don’t know what’s going on with that woman, but I want no part in it,” I declared.
“Allow me to educate you in English manners. Even if you have no idea someone is going to arrive at your door with luggage, you open your door for them and their luggage.”
“I’ll file that tidbit away for the never I’m going to need it.”
He let out a massive breath and shared, “Somehow, she found out. In other words, she knows you’re here.”
“Well, obviously, since I just got used in whatever game you’re playing.”
“It’s not my game, it’s hers. And I didn’t use you. I stated a truth.”
My head ticked to the side angrily. “No?”
“Again, Vivienne, she knows you’re here,” he stressed. “Did Prue or Chassie tell you who she is?”
“Your ex.”
“She was not at one with my decision to end us.”
“No shit?”
His lips twitched.
As hot as that was…
Oh no he didn’t.
This was not funny.
“Leave me out of it,” I ordered.
“Unfortunately, I’ve no choice. You’re in it.”
“So now you’re going to pretend something is happening with you and me so you can use me as your shield to keep your ex at bay?”
“I’m not pretending anything, Vivienne. I very seriously wanted to fuck you in that dress.”
I stared.
But my thighs quivered.
“Or, more accurately, fuck you after that dress hit my bedroom floor,” he amended. “Though, the way you looked in that dress, I might not have been able to wait that long.”
Ugh!
This man!
“So it’s back to games, is it?” I asked.
“I don’t play games.”
“Could have fooled me,” I shot back.
He dipped his face so close, the tip of his nose nearly brushed mine.
“Hear me, Vivi,” he whispered, and him using my nickname for the first time, coupled with him being so close I could smell his musky, woodsy cologne, regrettably at that juncture, all of that did a number on me. “I. Am. Not. Playing. Games.”
What the hell did that mean?
“Fitzgibbons will be back with your drink by now,” he said after he leaned away. “Shall we return?”
To hell with the fact he was my host.
“You’re kind of a dick,” I shared.
“You aren’t the first woman to say that to me.”
I fake gasped. “Color me shocked, Your Grace.”
And then I was against a wall.
And Battle was against me.
I struggled to breathe, from sheer shock at how he’d backed me to a wall, its swiftness and its ease, and damn him, also from his sexy proximity.
“What do you call me?” he asked silkily.
“Battle,” I whispered.
Because…
Seriously?
What would you do?
His eyes dropped to my mouth. “Precisely.”
Oh God.
What was happening?
“Now, shall we return?” he inquired.
“Leave me out of it,” I repeated.
“I’ll do my best.”