Total pages in book: 24
Estimated words: 22950 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 115(@200wpm)___ 92(@250wpm)___ 77(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 22950 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 115(@200wpm)___ 92(@250wpm)___ 77(@300wpm)
So when I come out of the bathroom with a warm washcloth and she’s gone, leaving nothing behind but the droplets of virgin blood on the couch cushions, my bellow is loud enough to crack the glass in my mother’s front window.
“Ophelia!”
I stomp to the front of the apartment just in time to see her peel out of the parking space below and denial surges inside me like a fucking tidal wave. What did I do to send her running?
I don’t know.
I don’t know, but she will be found. Immediately.
Once that happens, she’s never leaving my sight again.
CHAPTER THREE
Ophelia
Two days later and I’m still not steady on my feet.
I like to pretend it’s just my equilibrium that’s off, instead of my whole existence. As if I don’t see Ezra’s smile every time I blink or feel his touch every time I move. How can I miss someone I only knew for an hour tops? Our acquaintance might have been even shorter than an hour, but I blacked out during my very first orgasm, so details are sketchy.
Side note: orgasms are the business.
That said, I’m restless and itchy and irritable, partly because that second orgasm never happened. So close. Sooooo so unbelievably close. But I’m mainly restless because I’m worried I made a mistake leaving Ezra without saying goodbye. I didn’t have a choice, though. Right?
I plop down on the antique chaise lounge overlooking the Hudson River, shoulders slumped. This stupid empty feeling in my chest only seems to get worse, no matter how many times I remind myself why I made a run for it. Ezra called me his. He made me his. But I didn’t want to experience the pain of him changing his mind when he finds out I’m not only a spoiled little rich girl, but that I employ his mother. We’re from two different worlds. He wants the daring girl who has an affair with a stranger at the drop of a hat, not the brat with a pampered lifestyle who’s never done anything of her own free will.
Across the room, my phone beeps with an incoming message and fear clogs my throat.
Not again.
I stand slowly, shifting on the balls of my feet. Not wanting to see the new text message, but knowing I have no choice, I cross the room and pick up my cell.
Tomorrow night at 6pm. Don’t forget.
Another one comes in a moment later.
Remember, it’s just our little secret. We all have secrets, don’t we, Ophelia? Especially your father. We don’t want anyone to find out about that, do we?
A small sound leaves my mouth and I drop the phone like it’s on fire.
I might be a spoiled rich girl, but I’m not the Ivy League-bound scholar my father has presented me as. I’m a fraud. Even with all the advantages, I couldn’t get into the best schools on my own merit, so my father had to bribe a facilitator. I wasn’t even supposed to know about the secret payment he made, but I overheard him speaking to the man he hired one night over the phone. There’s only one other person who knows about the bribe.
My father’s business partner, Wagner.
In exchange for his silence, he’s asking for one little thing.
Me.
Hindsight is twenty-twenty and I’m starting to think a small part of the reason I gave myself to Ezra is because I couldn’t stand the idea of Wagner being my first. Not when I could have passion and possession like Ezra was offering.
One more day until Wagner uses blackmail to get his hands on me, like I suspect he’s wanted to do for a long time—and there’s nothing I can do to stop it. If I don’t take my clothes off for my father’s business partner, he could ruin us. Send my father to prison, make my future evaporate like a bubble. We could lose everything.
Ezra’s words come to me out of thin air.
I will fucking murder anyone who looks at my princess.
Exhilaration rushes along my nerve endings and I close my eyes, wishing the big, scary beast of a man was standing in front of me. He would help me solve the problem of Wagner…until he found out I lied to him. Represented myself to be something I’m not. Then Ezra would probably want nothing to do with me. He’d think I’m silly and spoiled and frivolous, just like everyone else. Even though I attended high school with a lot of rich kids, I was the richest of all and most of them never spoke to me. None expect my friend, Sienna.
I haven’t told Sienna about Wagner’s blackmail, because I know what she’ll do. She’ll run to her stepbrother and beg him to intervene. He would, of course, because he’s wrapped around Sienna’s little finger—especially now that they’re married.
Chewing my lip, I look down at my phone, knowing I should call Sienna.