Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 48412 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 242(@200wpm)___ 194(@250wpm)___ 161(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 48412 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 242(@200wpm)___ 194(@250wpm)___ 161(@300wpm)
“Besides social climbing way above your station?” He shrugs. “Not really. It’s actually rather impressive, the way you’ve managed to bag the biggest fish in the pond. Congratulations. You must be incredible in the sack.”
I recoil and cast my eyes down to the ground, knowing, as a woman alone with a hostile man, it’s never a good idea to engage. But I could really use one of those panic buttons right about now because that’s how I feel. Panicked.
“Imagine…” Calder drawls, shaking his head. “Your whole relationship with Tripp started as a bet.”
I jerk my chin up, the chill in the air beginning to permeate my bones. “What?”
He hits the emergency stop button on the elevator, grinding the car to a halt, and my blood starts to feel icy and sluggish.
Calder laughs. “I knew he wouldn’t tell you.”
“Tell me what?” I ask, my voice sounding far away.
He turns to face me, propping a shoulder against the wall of the elevator. “We bet Tripp that if he pursued you, you would be digging for gold by the end of the week.” He looks pointedly once again at my earrings, and all I can think is, Thank God I didn’t wear the necklace, as he taps his chin. “If you really think about it, he lost the bet. Or did you buy those earrings yourself?”
His raucous laughter turns my stomach.
He can’t be telling the truth, right?
Tripp wouldn’t make a bet like that. Would he?
If you really think about it, he lost the bet.
If you really think about it, he lost the bet.
That statement is ricocheting around the inside of my skull.
It’s true, isn’t it? How long did it take me to cave in and start accepting Tripp’s gifts and gestures? Three days?
“I…I…It’s not like that.”
“It’s not?” Calder tilts his head. “I’d bet my summer house in Amalfi that you’ll be attending Yale in the fall. Am I wrong?”
Tears flood my eyes.
Oh God. Did I inadvertently use my fiancé?
Have I proven myself an opportunist?
Does Tripp believe this terrible thing about me, deep down?
“H-he just asked them to review the application again…”
“Aw. Sure, sweetie. I’m sure Yale wasn’t simply terrified of losing their biggest donor.” He smacks the emergency button again, and the elevator lurches into movement, but my stomach remains trapped between floors. I’m numb. I’m freezing. I’m ashamed.
“Anyway, don’t feel too bad,” Calder says before exiting the elevator. “I’m sure you’ll more than earn it on your knees and back.”
With that accusation ringing in my ears, I sprint off the elevator, down the hallway, through the staff locker room and out the back door.
Fifteen minutes have passed.
It’s too long.
I stand in front of the door of my room, clawing at my throat, sure I’m suffocating.
It shouldn’t take longer than five minutes to give notice. Three minutes to ride the elevator up to the top floor. Vida should be here by now.
Not for the first time, I call her phone, but it goes to voicemail.
She still hasn’t responded to my thirteen text messages.
What the fuck is going on?
Raking a frantic hand through my hair, I pace to the balcony and step out, hoping a deep breath of coastal air will stop me from ripping this resort down to the studs. I need to figure out how to live with this obsession with Vida without becoming destructive. Or is that impossible?
I’m pondering the answer to that when I see her running on the beach.
Running away. In the direction of her house.
She turns her head briefly to look back at the resort, and her expression is nothing short of stricken. Devastated. And just like that, my rapidly firing heart is in my mouth, my intestines feeling as though they’re being pulverized between grinding gears.
“VIDA!”
She continues to run, and I bellow in denial.
That’s when I see Calder swagger out the back door of the resort. The employee door where I asked Vida to go out with me. What the hell is he doing there?
Did…Did something happen between him and Vida?
Did he…
The bet.
The bet.
She knows about it.
That certainty floods me with a sour sickness that almost drops me to the floor. Somehow, I find the willpower to stay on my feet and run, no other option but to reach her. To make her understand my intentions when I made that stupid fucking bet. And once I do that, once I’ve made her understand and she’s back in my arms, I’m going to murder Calder.
I mean that literally.
His days on this earth are numbered.
I will kill him for hurting my angel like this. For trying to come between Vida and me.
I don’t bother with the elevator. I take the stairs in giant lunges and sprint into the lobby, barreling out the back door onto the beach. She’s only a small speck in the distance, but I’m fast, and I’ve never run harder in my life. My lungs are on fire by the time I catch up to her, though I still manage to roar her name. When she still doesn’t stop running, I sweep her up off the sand into my arms, my heart breaking when she fights to get free.