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)
“You could have asked that,” Rally pointed out.
I fiddled with my cards.
“I’m sorry about your mum, Vivi,” Tempie said quietly.
“It’s okay,” I lied and looked up from my cards.
Tempie was watching me.
Rally was scowling at his cards.
But Battle was studying Chelsea.
“It’s your call, Battle,” Chelsea prompted him.
“What was your point?” Battle repeated Rally’s question.
“As I said—” she began.
“You lied,” he interrupted her.
“I’m just curious,” Chelsea retorted with gathering heat. “She’s spending time with people I care about, and we know practically nothing about her.”
“And you feel it’s your job to vet guests in my home?” Battle queried.
“You all are ripe to be taken advantage of, Battle,” she insulted me not quite to my face, but in very close proximity.
I clenched my teeth.
Tempie tapped the sides of her cards to the table, unmistakably expending effort to keep her mouth shut and allow Battle to field that one.
“Did I hear her right?” I heard Prue demand from the seating area.
“Your father manages hedge funds,” Battle stated. “But he studied at Cambridge, as did his father, and his grandfather, and he bought his first flat in Chelsea with his trust fund. You’re named after that flat. You do nothing. You live off his money. You do it very well. But you’ve never accomplished anything in your life.”
She looked stricken. “Battle—”
“So let’s get back to your point about asking what Vivienne’s family does,” Battle demanded.
“It was a simple question,” she returned.
“Since I haven’t done it before, let’s not pretend I’ll fall for your bullshit.”
Now she appeared affronted. “I hardly think—”
Battle sat back, flinging his arm around the back of his chair, but he didn’t take his attention from Chelsea.
Oh boy.
My eyes flew to Tempie.
She looked gleeful.
Shit.
“Let’s get things perfectly straight,” Battle suggested. “You are not better than Vivienne because your father worked hard so you don’t have to do anything. In fact, it’s the opposite. Even if Vivienne was still working as a research librarian, her pedigree is more impressive than yours. The fact she’s published seven books, the last two bestsellers, is an extraordinary accomplishment. You are not going to encourage me to turn my eye to you by pointing out Vivienne works for a living, that her family does, even if they did something where they struggled, or something you thought was beneath you, or me. You are not like me either, Chelsea. I work for a living too.”
“Though, you don’t have to,” she mumbled.
“Do you think this house would run on The Fund alone?” he asked.
Wait.
That was the second time one of the Talyns mentioned “The Fund.”
“Christ, you have no fucking idea,” Battle went on. “And that’s one of your problems.”
Chelsea threw her cards on the table and made a big mistake.
Huge.
She asked, “Oh yes, Battle? Please illuminate me, since I honestly do not understand why you cast me aside. What are all my problems?”
Battle didn’t disappoint.
Boy, didn’t he.
“You live in a fantasy world fueled by being spoiled senseless your entire life,” he started. “Like using people you care about to find a way to pitch up here, embarrassing them, and putting my family in an awkward position, because you’ve somehow convinced yourself you can win me over. You can’t. I’ve shared that. You’re vain. You’re entitled. You’re a snob. You’ve been painfully overindulged and criminally pampered. And you’re shit in bed.”
Oh boy!
I sucked my lips between my teeth and my gaze flew to Prue.
She was pulling a stretched lips Yikes! face.
Chastity’s eyes were as wide as saucers.
But Courtney looked (almost) as gleeful as Tempie.
“It’s entirely unattractive you don’t know how hard people have to work to pay a fucking gas bill,” Battle went on. “And if I had to suffer through your amateur attempts at sucking me off one more time, I’d have considered putting a gun to my head. The problem with that is, I know you have a lot of practice at the act, you’re just so fucking self-involved, you don’t realize the man you’re blowing is the person who’s supposed to feel something.”
“I cannot believe you just said that to me,” she whispered.
“Three months ago, I told you we weren’t going to work,” Battle reminded her. “We’d been seeing each other for only three months by the time that happened. There were no promises. We didn’t move in together. We hadn’t even talked future, because that was never a consideration for me.”
He swung an arm across the table and continued talking.
“But here you are. And you just popped into my box at the symphony but stayed the entire intermission. And three times, you just happened to be at Mangano’s during the weekly lunch I take with mates. We do this so we can catch up, but not with exes who I don’t want to see. You crashed Alfie and Lulu’s house party. Like you did here, they weren’t prepared to host you, so their staff was running around sorting a room for you while you drank a martini and complained about the rude sales associate you ran into at Pucci.”