Total pages in book: 64
Estimated words: 63862 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 63862 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 319(@200wpm)___ 255(@250wpm)___ 213(@300wpm)
I’d been so focused on making him see I didn’t fit in his world that I hadn’t considered this possibly being genuinely hurtful.
“What makes you think you don’t fit in here?” he asked.
“We are from different worlds.”
“Are we? Because I fit in pretty well with your family. And it seems like you got on well with Mitch and Marg.”
“Mitch and Marg, maybe. But not everyone else here.”
“I’ll let you in on a little secret, sweetheart,” he said, pulling me a little closer. “No one fits in here. Everyone pretends they do. But no one does. It’s all an elaborate play.”
“You fit in.”
“I was taught how to play my part from the cradle.”
Okay.
That was kind of sad.
“I also want to stress that this,” he said, glancing around, “is not my world.”
“It’s part of it.”
“An extremely small part of it. I don’t care if these people like you or not. Most of them don’t even like themselves.”
“So this was a waste of a trip,” I grumbled, sipping the rest of my champagne.
Harrison plucked the empty flute from my fingers and placed it on the nearest table.
“Why does it have to be a waste? The food is surprisingly good at this event.”
“A bacon-wrapped scallop doesn’t sound awful.”
With that, he led me around, plucking food off of trays until I was no longer starving.
We were stopped no fewer than a dozen times. It seemed the news of our ‘marriage’ had gotten around. And everyone wanted to talk to the woman who snagged one of the country’s most eligible bachelors. No kidding. More than one person actually used that term.
Harrison remained effortlessly charming.
I only got more and more convinced that I was right after all.
Because with each interaction, I got insights into his world. There were endless discussions about international summer camps, college, and private clubs. Yes, plural.
Social clubs, gentlemen’s clubs, country clubs, yacht clubs, polo clubs. Yes, polo.
Then there were the philanthropy ones.
Museum boards, foundations, patron societies, historical preservation societies.
I mean, the guy even slipped into French at one point. In casual conversation.
“You okay?” Harrison asked when another group walked away from us.
“I think I need some air.”
I didn’t wait for him to answer, just broke away and made my way out of the event room.
The air immediately felt thinner in the front hallway, with its ultra-high ceilings and lack of a crowd.
My heels clicked across the floor as I made my way toward the front doors.
This had been a mistake.
All I did was convince myself more and more that I didn’t belong with Harrison while he remained completely unaware of that fact.
But it had never been clearer to me that I needed to end this marriage.
“Layna,” Harrison called, making me tilt my head up at the sky and sigh.
Of course he had to be the good guy and come to check on me.
My heart begged me to flee.
But there was no way I was outpacing him in the ice pick heels on my feet.
So I just let him rush up to me.
“Let me drive you back to… wherever you are heading.”
His hand went to the small of my back. The other arm raised to gesture toward a SUV.
He was going to make a big deal out of it, so I went ahead and just agreed.
The inside of this SUV was a little more upgraded than the one he had me use, with two separate TV screens and a barrier between the front and back seats.
He gave the hotel name to the driver before sliding the partition closed for privacy.
“I don’t want to talk,” I grumbled as I watched it slide closed.
“Good,” Harrison said, his hand teasing up the slit on my thigh. “I don’t want to talk either.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
“Could barely think straight all night when your legs kept peeking out of this dress,” he murmured in my ear as his fingers drifted up, up, up.
He leaned in, his warm breath tickling my neck, his lips not quite making contact, but making me ache for it all the more.
“And this neckline,” he said as his hand shifted away from my leg just as he almost met the apex and drifted up to tease up the bare skin between my breasts instead.
A shiver racked my system.
I knew I needed to tell him to stop, to push him away.
But my mouth was too busy letting out a soft moan as his fingers found my nipple through the dress. And my hands were too occupied by grabbing his arm as he teased me.
His head shifted, his lips pressing into my neck, and I knew there was no stopping this.
I reached for his wrist, pressing it back down my body, then between my thighs.
“Is this what you want?” he asked, fingers sliding exactly where I needed them. “Tell me where,” he said, already knowing, already there.
I bit my lip to hold back a moan as his finger worked my clit through my panties until I was rocking, until I was whimpering.